{"id":149,"date":"2014-09-17T18:27:19","date_gmt":"2014-09-17T22:27:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/?page_id=149"},"modified":"2014-11-12T18:42:51","modified_gmt":"2014-11-12T22:42:51","slug":"criticisms","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/news-from-nowhere\/criticisms\/","title":{"rendered":"Criticisms"},"content":{"rendered":"

-Three Articles and Our Criticisms-
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

I<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cNews from Nowhere <\/em>and William Morris\u2019s \u201cAesthetics of Unreflectiveness: Pleasurable Habits<\/em>\u201d
\nArticle by Jayne Hildebrand<\/p>\n

\u201cNews from Nowhere <\/em>and William Morris\u2019s \u201cAesthetics of Unreflectiveness: Pleasurable Habits<\/em>\u201d by Jayne Hildebrand described Morris\u2019s Utopia as relying on habit, which to many Victorian thinkers was the enemy of economic and political progress, as well as evolutionary advancement. Hildebrand suggested Morris knowingly and controversially portrayed habit as the primary source of pleasure and stability for the inhabitants of his imagined Utopia. He was in opposition to J. S. Mill who defined custom as the \u201cunceasing antagonism to that disposition to aim at something better than customary which is called\u2026the spirit of liberty or that of progress or improvement (pg. 7).\u201d The \u201cEconomic Man,\u201d a rationally thinking self- interested individual, was believed to be the foundation of a successful capitalist society, and capitalism was seen by the elites and the majority of Victorian England as the best economic model. Psychologists of the time believed habit or instinct threatened \u201crational self \u2013 determination,\u201d and anthropologists believed evolution was weeding out instinctive behavior for more advantageous rational action. In his novel William Morris imagined a socialist society much happier than the world he lived in, a world that embraced habit as a unifying force and saw competition as savage.<\/p>\n

Hildebrand explains that Morris perceived habit and customs as fluid, changing with the needs of a society. Morris viewed habit as a product of the collective and the individual that was only understood through experience. Hammond told the narrator that he would struggle to describe the nature of what we do here. \u201cIt is only by habituating himself to Utopian life through non-discursive immersion by \u2018giving himself over\u2026 to the utopian world\u2019 \u2013 that Guest can begin to discover \u2018what we do. (pg.14)\u2019\u201d In Morris\u2019s Utopia Hildebrand argues that the characters experience their body and their surroundings in a richer manner than the Victorians, a manner that would be unconceivable simply through explanation to an outsider like the narrator. They do not experience a distinction between man and nature. They are excited by the \u201cmundane,\u201d rejoicing in all their daily activities and finding repetitive and physically demanding work to be one of the world\u2019s great pleasures. Whereas the capitalist in Victorian England sought to make laborers into machines with efficiency as their chief goal, the people of Utopian England made pleasure the chief concern of labor. Since work for the characters was pleasurable and sought after, competition was not a necessary motivator. Habit, Morris argues, does not cause stagnation or boredom, it instead fosters pleasurable work.<\/p>\n

In response to the psychological belief that habit was a threat to individual freedom Morris imagined the work produced by the people of Utopian England as aesthetically beautiful and greatly varied. \u00a0\u201cAlexander Bain\u2026 describes the tendency to form habits as an expansion rather than a loss of productive capacity, claiming that habit-forming natures are \u2018distinguished by plasticity or the power of acquisition\u2019 that applies with particular force to the development of aesthetic tastes. (pg. 15)\u201c In the world of the novel individuality of opinion is reduced, but with this political and social strife are almost nonexistent.<\/p>\n

Hildebrand\u2019s argument that Morris\u2019s intent was to argue in opposition to the \u201cEconomic Man\u201d by presenting a controversial alternative is highly plausible. In \u201cNews from Nowhere\u201d Morris addresses the fears Victorian society had concerning socialism. He responds to \u201cconcerns about historical regress, economic stagnation, and aesthetic and psychological conformity (pg.4).\u201d Morris triumphs habit, living life unreflectingly, which for many critics of his work is cause to question whether \u201cNews from Nowhere\u201d is actually a dystopia.<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

II<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Anarchism and Utopia: William Morris\u2019s News from Nowhere<\/em>”
\nArticle by Michael Holzman<\/p>\n

Michael Holzman argues that the novel is more than an escapist utopian fantasy, but also a political act during that time. Holzman reminds the reader that Morris\u2019 novel was originally a collection of newspaper articles. Towards the beginning of the novel, it touches on a debate about Anarchism throughout the Socialist League, which eventually led to its demise. Morris carries on this debate through the use of his novel. Readers of that time were able to recognize that Morris\u2019 opinions were quite obviously showing through the novel and at one point it alludes that he may even be the character old Hammond. The novel\u2019s two main objectives were to explain what kind of society is best, and how we can go about creating one. Holzman argues that this is simply Morris\u2019s critique of Anarchism. The article also points out that Hammond\u2019s recall of the economic collapse in 1952 due to union demands for nationalization happens a century after Morris writes this novel. The conclusion is that News From Nowhere<\/em> is a response to Blackwell\u2019s question of how to achieve a socialist society.<\/p>\n

I agree with this article and that this novel was a last ditch effort for Morris to get his socialist desires out to the public and plant the seed of how it can be accomplished and what it should ideally look like. Since some of the novel\u2019s predictions came true a century later, I wondered if this was a coincidence or if readers were inspired by Morris\u2019s words and took action. Holzman makes a very appealing argument that the novel was more for political reasons than for entertainment, also because this novel is hard to be classified in the Science Fiction genre.<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

III<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018O Me! O Me! How I Love the Earth\u2019: William Morris\u2019s News from Nowhere<\/em> and the Birth of Sustainable Society\u201d
\nArticle by Martin Delveaux<\/p>\n

In his article, \u201c\u2018O Me! O Me! How I Love the Earth\u2019: William Morris\u2019s News from Nowhere and the Birth of Sustainable Society,\u201d Martin Delveaux argues \u201cthat Morris, by stressing the need for a decentralized and polycentric country and by showing how co-operation, as opposed to competition, can form a symbiosis between the members of the society, effectively linked the local with the global.\u201d Delveaux goes into detail about how Nowhere is all around a socially just, economically viable, and environmentally sustainable social order.<\/p>\n

First, Delveaux discusses Nowhere and how Morris, in the text, relates it back to the \u2018Back to Nature\u2019 and \u2018Back to the Land\u2019 movements from the 1880s and 1890s. Basically, the argument being made is that Nowhere\u2019s cross-fertilization of town and country, ecocentric attitudes, and collaboration with nature are only possible because of the abolishment of class monopoly. With no bourgeoisie to influence the urbanized areas (which would then exploit the surrounding, rural habitations), there is no suppression of livelihood based on class or privilege. Successfully integrated (town with country), the people now view their attitudes toward nature as the same as their attitudes toward themselves, instead of succumbing to the influences of the attitudes of upper classes.<\/p>\n

Another of Delveaux\u2019s main arguments is for Nowhere as a \u201cBioregional Utopia,\u201d meaning that it does not distort the earth to meet human demands. The \u201cNowhereians\u201d live by a philosophy of \u201csaving the whole by saving the parts,\u201d (the whole being the world, and the parts being humans and nature). Their market also has a good deal to do with this utopian opportunity. With their labor being carried out along the Marxist principle of from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs<\/em>, there is no over-exploitation of resources or overabundance of market. These factors, as well as others, are how Delveaux argues Nowhere as an overall utopian social order.<\/p>\n

The article is well-cited and well-argued, commenting on the obvious realities of Morris\u2019 work in News from Nowhere<\/em>, as well as his other publications and lectures prior to the novel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

-Three Articles and Our Criticisms- I \u201cNews from Nowhere and William Morris\u2019s \u201cAesthetics of Unreflectiveness: Pleasurable Habits\u201d Article by Jayne Hildebrand \u201cNews from Nowhere and William Morris\u2019s \u201cAesthetics of Unreflectiveness: Pleasurable Habits\u201d by Jayne Hildebrand described Morris\u2019s Utopia as relying on habit, which to many Victorian thinkers was the enemy of economic and political progress, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2418,"featured_media":108,"parent":104,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-149","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2418"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":433,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/149\/revisions\/433"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}