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Notes on More’s Utopia #4

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By: A.B. Timothy

Discourses of Raphael Hythloday, Of the Best State of a Commonwealth (Cont. again, and again)

We continue reading the introduction on the sixth page of my copy, beginning with the words, “I do not know whether it be worth while to tell what followed, for it was very ridiculous;”

In this paragraph, we meet the Fool, who is playing the part of the jester and is doing a mediocre job at it. When one of the men at dinner, for you will remember this scene, being one of Hythloday at dinner with a Cardinal and his house in Britain, makes note that Hythloday had taken care of the thieves, and the Cardinal had taken care of the vagabonds, and now there was but the poor to deal with.

The Fool pipes up and says that he can take care of the poor. He has dealt with them so much that they know not to waste their time begging him for alms anymore. The Fool suggests that the poor men be sent to Benedictine Monasteries to be made Lay-brothers and the women nuns. This suggestion upsets a Friar, who contests the idea, calling the Fool all kinds of names and insulting him with several insults from Scripture. The Cardinal shuts the whole thing down and calls out the Friar for not being prudent. The Friar quotes Solomon and says that he was just “Answering a fool according to his folly.” The Cardinal dismisses everyone for the evening after this exchange is done.

We’ve ended that discourse now and are back with Hythloday and More in the present. Hythloday explains that the fact that the courtiers of the Cardinal only applauded what the Cardinal liked in jest is the reason he won’t be a king’s counsel. More argues in the next paragraph that the opposite is true, and that this is the exact reason he should become counsel to a prince, however much he despises the courts of princes. More brings to mind Plato’s argument in favor of the Philosopher-king and says that kings need philosophers by their side to achieve this state and be the best ruler they can be for the people. Hythloday pushes back and says that the kings will not heed the wisdom of the philosophers in his court, and the only way to do what Plato was talking about is for the kings themselves to become philosophers. Plato himself found this to be true of Dionysius.

I believe this section is More explaining radical criminal justice reform, but couching it by speaking through a surrogate fictional character. To further distance himself from these radical thoughts, he tells the readers, ‘Hey guys, I’m right there with you, this guy should totally be a counsel or something, but he won’t listen to me, crazy, right?” I don’t know if More actually liked the idea of sending the poor to the Monasteries, but that would be an interesting thing to see.

The next motion in the conversation is Hythloday talking about the advice he might give to a king. The King of France has so many decisions to make about different lands that he wishes to subjugate and add to his empire. One wise advisor would give one form of advice that would involve conquering a piece of land, another would give advice about playing the long game of diplomacy, and another would give advice regarding a wholly different approach that would still increase the King’s power because more power is ultimately what the king wants. Hythloday, on the other hand, would argue that the king would abandon his expansionist ideals and focus on building up the stability and prosperity of lands already under his control. To support this idea Hythloday brings up a totally real country that was next to the also totally real Utopia, whose king conquered another country and was advised to give up the second country because the people of both countries would not prosper under, nor would they want to live under a divided king and have, as he puts it, “a groom that should be in common between him and another.” The king took the advice and gave the other country to his brother and went about making his own country prosperous, and it worked! But Hythloday asks More if he honestly thinks that this idea would be taken well in a king’s court.

This section contradicts the idea that Utopia, as a whole work, is proto-communist. For communism, you see, is globalist, and this section is inherently anti-globalist. This is a very isolationist idea.

Conclusion

I ended my reading this night, on page 37 of the text. I believe I should be able to finish the discourse section in two more note-taking sessions. If this intrigues you and you feel inspired to go read some old literature, consider subscribing to my WordPress so you get emails whenever I post a new part of this series or any other I am currently working on. Or sign up for my Newsletter to get updates every week on Saturday.

Notes on More’s Utopia #3

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By: A.B. Timothy

Discourses of Raphael Hythloday, Of the Best State of a Commonwealth (Cont. again)

We continue reading the introduction on the sixth page of my copy, beginning with the words, “While I was talking this, the Counsellor, who was present, had prepared an answer…”

In this section, the Counsellor is about to speak up to debate Hythloday, but the Cardinal speaks him down, saying that they can debate if they have time to meet up tomorrow, as there is not enough time to have that debate today. Instead, the Cardinal asks, essentially, “What should we do then? If we lessen the punishment of criminals and stop killing thieves, then that will only embolden them to commit more crimes, right? If death already doesn’t stop them, wouldn’t things get worse if we loosen up?”

Hythloday responds by disagreeing. He doesn’t think that taking someone’s life from them for something as petty as money is working. This is because it treats all crimes the same as the Stoics may wish to do. But the reality, Hythloday argues, is that if people realize the punishment for theft is the same as murder, they would rather kill the person they are stealing from than leave them alive after the theft to testify against them. The same principle that Hythloday argues should restrain the death penalty for them, that being money is not worth the same as a human life, would work in reverse here to save the lives of those persons who have been killed during a robbery. If the thief fears not for their lives, they are more likely to leave the person alive and take their money only.

In the next paragraph, Hythloday answers the question, “What more convenient way of punishment can be found?” He goes on to describe a people he encountered during his travels in Persia. They are a content people with set borders that are not rich but are not poor, and don’t have to worry about invasion due to their geography and a tribute they pay to the Persian King every year. They are called the “Polylerits.” This name, should the reader understand the Greek roots, will tell the reader that this is a fictional people used as a prop by More to describe a political idea. Hythloday explains that these people, instead of killing their thieves, enslave them. This slavery is not what we today think of when we think of slvaes, rather this slavery is more of a Civil Service paid by the criminal to atone for their crimes. A thief must pay retribution to the victim of their crime, and if they can’t pay it, they are put to work by the state to earn the money that goes to the person they wronged. Giving one of these slaves anything is fine, so long as you don’t give them money. Giving them money, weapons, or aiding them in their escape is punishable by death. Escape itself is also punishable by death. To encourage the slaves to behave, they entice them to tell on slaves who have escaped or are planning to, by offering anyone who gives them information either money, if they are a free man, or liberty, if they are a slave.

The slaves are also forbidden from speaking with slaves from other counties in the state. This prevents a wide conspiracy towards rebellion. The Punishment for discovery being death, and the reward for betrayal being freedom, helps maintain this system. There are also several that are set at liberty every year because of good behavior on their part. The Counsellor says that this could never happen in England, as it would be too much of a risk and require too much upheaval. Then the Cardinal speaks up and says they could try it on a smaller scale, where a prince could condemn a thief to death and then forgo their punishment while keeping them in this “slave” state to test the idea. If it helped reform the criminal, then all the better; if not, they could just kill him. The cardinal also says this could be a good way to deal with some of the vagabonds on the streets, too, which many voices at the table agree with.

Interstingly Hythloday points out that the table seemed to disagree when the slavery concept was only in regard to criminals, but as soon as the Cardinal threw vagabonds in the mix, they all jumped on board.

Conclusion

I ended my reading on page 29 of the story as a whole. Slowly but surely, I will have the whole of this book notated here on my blog. It will be interesting to see if I get the chance to turn these notes into some kind of essay during my college career, but we will have to wait and see. If this intrigues you and you feel inspired to go read some old literature, consider subscribing to my WordPress so you get emails whenever I post a new part of this series or any other I am currently working on. Or sign up for my Newsletter to get updates every week on Saturday.

Love in Literature: Philautia

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According to Wikipedia, there are 6 words for love in the Greek language. Each of them deserves to be looked at as we, that being western authors, often find our perceptions of love colored by the different categories outlined by these six words.

Part 5: Philautia

This kind of love is discussed very rarely, from what I can tell, in modern fiction. Usually modern fiction is all about the hero versus the world and the loves that come from that, i.e. Agape, Eros, or Philia. However, just like the very scarcely discussed “Storge” we looked at yesterday, Philautia is a vital component of love.

“GET ON WITH IT.” I here you crying, alright, I will. Philautia is self-love. Mental health is a parallel you could draw to modern fiction. Much fiction today has their characters struggle with their mental health but it is rarely viewed as a form of love. Vin in Mistborn, is an example of a modern character who struggles with her self-image and mental health. Over the course of the series this is a roadblock, but it is also an eventual moment of triumph for the character. In the Bible we are taught that too much love of the self is a bad thing. In fact any love of the flesh is sin, according to the Bible, however we are also reminded that we are children of the Father who creates us with dignity, love, and respect, and it’s through Him we can learn to love the right parts of ourselves.

How does your character struggle with mental health, do they? Or is that part of their character? Maybe your character is so well put together mentally their mission in life is to help others figure out how to love themselves. Lets talk about it in the comments below or mention me with a post over on X @ABTimothyAuthor

Expanding to the Real World

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Writing is a hobby full of solitude; I think many of us enjoy that about it. If all you want is a creative outlet for your explosively creative brain, then a solo hobby may be all it ever needs to be for you. For those of us who wish it to be something more, however, we will need to expand our reach to the real world. We go to conventions, we go to local bookstores, and we go to coffee shops. We go to where the audience is. Sometimes you can skate by with just improving your online presence, keeping yourself mostly anonymous and letting others find you, but, like bards of old, some of us want others to hear our tales so we go and find them and tell them.

How do you find people? Well, I’ve already given some examples. But here are some more ways.

Network

Go to writing-focused panels at the next convention you go to. Look into your local library’s schedule; oftentimes, they will already have local writers’ guilds or some kind of networking event for local authors. My library is having a meet & write for us local authors this Saturday, it’s helmed by a local author who wanted to network and build a community.

You could look into local bookstore/coffeeshop hybrids; sometimes they will have an event where you can go and do a read-aloud of your story. This is a great place to get feedback and to meet other brave authors.

Outreach

Go to local volunteering events and have a stack of business cards with you. If somebody asks who you are and what you do, give them a business card and tell them to check out your WordPress or Substack!

Volunteer to give talks at a local high school; this could be a huge winner if your book is YA or youth-focused. Don’t just talk about your book, though; talk about your writing process, pick an element that you think you are good at, and write a 5-10 minute PowerPoint presentation on the subject. I did mine on character creation! It was a blast, and I got to network with all of the English teachers at that school.

You could even host your own panel about that very same PowerPoint topic at your next local Convention!

Any other ideas?

What about you? What have you done to get yourself out there? Have you printed business cards? Have you looked into local events and shops that might be willing to host you? Let me know below!