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Utopias: Not for Us

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Submitted By lewis52
Words 977
Pages 4
William Saffold
Professor Caine
Writing 106
Utopia/Dystopia
20 February 2012

It’s Not Worth It

It is not difficult to see what it takes to have a Utopian Society. George Saunders’s world in “The Semplica-Girl Dairies” was in no way a Utopia. There was nothing but chaos from beginning to end and in all facets. However much the characters in the story tried to make everything perfect it never seemed to really work. Contrarily Forster’s “The Machine Stops” began as a Utopia and fell apart. After reading both stories, and looking at specific examples from “The Machine Stops”, I have come to the conclusion that in order to reach a true utopian society it is more important for everyone to be nourished and content with what they have rather than give everyone the opportunity to make themselves better. However, I believe that pursuing a utopia would be destructive to humanity. It would eradicate everything we know as beauty in our world. Forster grew up in this environment of working to better yourself. He was born around the beginning of the industrial revolution when trains and automobiles were blossoming. I would presume that this is when, as an intellectual, he foresaw humanity being consumed in technology. With his story he was trying to show us that relying on technology and not doing enough for ourselves can be disastrous. However, I do believe that he created a utopia. This was a typical room in Forster’s tunnels. “Imagine, if you can, a small room, hexagonal in shape, like the cell of a bee. It is lighted neither by window nor by lamp, yet it is filled with a soft radiance. There are no apertures for ventilation, yet the air is fresh. There are no musical instruments, and yet, at the moment that my meditation opens, this room is throbbing with melodious sounds. An armchair is in the center, by its side a reading-desk — that is all the

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