UTOPIA/DYSTOPIA
CLASS PLAN – EREWHON UNIT
DAY 1 - Monday
INTRODUCE
SATIRE – SATIRE the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices. Satire usually has a very definite target that may be a person or group of people, an idea or attitude, an institution or a social practice. In any case the target is held up to a ridicule that is often quite merciless, and sometimes very angry; ideally in the hope of shaming it into reform. A very common, almost defining feature of satire is a strong vein of irony or sarcasm, in fact satirical writing or drama very often professes to approve values that are the diametric opposite of what the writer actually wishes to promote
“A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift
• How and why does Swift manage to bring his readers to see that they can imagine even cannibalism as a "rational" alternative to other things?
• What could be his agenda?
DAY 2 - Tuesday
discuss “A Modest Proposal”
• Swift proposed that poor Irish families sell their children to be eaten, thereby earning income for the family.
• Written as an attack on the indifference of landlords to the state of their tenants and the political economists with their calculations on the schemes to raise income, the essay contains scathing comments about the state of the poor and their landlords.
• shock value - first portion of the essay describes the plight of starving beggars in Ireland,; reader is unprepared for the surprise of Swift’s solution when he states, “A young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragout.”
INTRODUCE EREWHON
• published anonymously in 1872
• name of a country, supposedly discovered by the protagonist.
• Butler meant the title to be read as the word Nowhere backwards, even though the letters "h" and "w" are transposed. It is likely that he did this to protect himself from accusations of being unpatriotic
• Erewhon is a satire of Victorian society.
o Victorian era of the United Kingdom marked the height of the British industrial revolution and the apex of the British Empire
o period of Queen Victoria's rule between 1837 and 1901
WEB HUNT
- give out cards
- computers and research
DAY 3
symbols activity:
3 columns:
center: 5 objects that represent a value – then pass it on
left: 5 values that object represents – then pass it on
right: 5 other values it could represent (and to whom)
continue WEB HUNT
DAY 4
VICTORIAN JEOPARDY!!!!
DAY 5
list Erewhonian institutions – and their possible purpose
discuss values and morals – the Erewhonians’ and ours
What is beauty? How to we value it? How do we detect it?
Fibbonacci Sequence and the Golden Ratio
Fibonacci numbers
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987, 1597, 2584, …
Fibonacci numbers have an interesting property. When you divide one number in the sequence by the number before it, you obtain numbers very close to one another. In fact, this number is fixed after the 13th in the series. This number is known as the "golden ratio."
GOLDEN RATIO = 1.618
233 / 144 = 1.618
377 / 233 = 1.618
610 / 377 = 1.618
987 / 610 = 1.618
1597 / 987 = 1.618
2584 / 1597 = 1.618
The Golden Ratio in the Human Face
There are several golden ratios in the human face. Do not pick up a ruler and try to measure people's faces, however, because this refers to the "ideal human face" determined by scientists and artists.
For example, the total width of the two front teeth in the upper jaw over their height gives a golden ratio. The width of the first tooth from the centre to the second tooth also yields a golden ratio. These are the ideal proportions that a dentist may consider. Some other golden ratios in the human face are:
Length of face / width of face,
Distance between the lips and where the eyebrows meet / length of nose,
Length of face / distance between tip of jaw and where the eyebrows meet,
Length of mouth / width of nose,
Width of nose / distance between nostrils,
Distance between pupils / distance between eyebrows.
SYMMETRY
Symmetry is attractive to the human eye
Today, this symmetry has been scientifically proven to be inherently attractive to the human eye. It has been defined not with proportions, but rather with similarity between the left and right sides of the face Thus, the Greeks were only partially correct.
By applying the stringent conditions of the scientific method, researchers now believe symmetry is the answer the Greeks were looking for.
Babies spend more time staring at pictures of symmetric individuals than they do at photos of asymmetric ones. Moreover, when several faces are averaged to create a composite -- thus covering up the asymmetries that any one individual may have -- a panel of judges deemed the composite more attractive than the individual pictures.
Symmetry also is sexy. In a study by biology professor Thornhill and University of New Mexico psychology professor Steven Gangestad, hundreds of college-age women and men were measured (including their ears, feet, ankles, hands and elbows). Questionnaires revealed that men who were more symmetrical started having sex three to four years earlier and had more sex partners than their asymmetrical counterparts
Scientists say that the preference for symmetry is a highly evolved trait seen in many different animals. Female swallows, for example, prefer males with longer and more symmetric tails, while female zebra finches mate with males with symmetrically colored leg bands.
The rationale behind symmetry preference in both humans and animals is that symmetric individuals have a higher mate-value; scientists believe that this symmetry is equated with a strong immune system. Thus, beauty is indicative of more robust genes, improving the likelihood that an individual's offspring will survive. This evolutionary theory is supported by research showing that standards of attractiveness are similar across cultures.
Beauty and choosing a mate
Psychological research suggests that people generally choose mates with a similar level of attractiveness. The evolutionary theory is that by mating with someone who has similar genes, one's own genes are conserved. Moreover, a person's demeanor and personality also influences how others perceive his or her beauty
The halo effect
In society, attractive people tend to be more intelligent, better adjusted, and more popular. This is described as the halo effect - due to the perfection associated with angels. Research shows attractive people also have more occupational success and more dating experience than their unattractive counterparts. One theory behind this halo effect is that it is accurate -- attractive people are indeed more successful.
An alternative explanation for attractive people achieving more in life is that we automatically categorize others before having an opportunity to evaluate their personalities, based on cultural stereotypes which say attractive people must be intrinsically good, and ugly people must be inherently bad. But Elliot Aronson, a social psychologist at Stanford University, believes self-fulfilling prophecies - in which a person't confident self-perception, further perpetuated by healthy feedback from others - may play a role in success as well. Aronson suggests, based on the self-fulfilling prophecy that people who feel they are attractive - though not necessarily rated as such - are just as successful as their counterparts who are judged to be good-looking
introduce “moral map”
DAY 6
discuss Musical Banks as churches:
Butler skewers the church, by redrawing it as a sort of bank. It's an odd bank, though. Everyone feels they should do business there, but very few do except so they can be seen doing it. It has its own currency, but a currency that can't buy anything and that even its own cashiers treat casually. The Erewhonians all hold it to be the most wonderful of institutions, but hold it in complete disregard in their day to day activities - does this sound at all familiar?
Explain how musical banks work.
When the narrator saw Zulora and the other women taking money out of the musical bank, he said that they handed the cashier a piece of paper that looked like a check, but that the cashier didn’t really look at too closely. He then grabbed an indefinite amount of metal coins out of a machine and handed it back to them. Neither the women nor the cashier seemed to really pay any attention to the amount of coins given. They dropped a few of them into a charity box and put the rest in their purses. However, before they left, they gave the rest of the coins back to a verger who probably put them back in the machine. The musical part was that in the bank, there was a row of men singing. The narrator explained that if one wants to be considered respectable in Erewhon, than they should have some sort of balance in a musical bank, although the amount kept has no real commercial value.
What is this a metaphor for (in Victorian England)?
I think that the musical banks are a metaphor for the church in England during the Victorian era. Much of the description of the banks sounded like that of a church, with the large, lofty inside and stained glass windows. Also, the boys singing were like the choir of the church. The operation of the musical bank relates to how the people of England always had to give money to the church, and although the money would go to the people, it would always end up back in the hands of the church. Mrs. Nosnibor described the banks in ways that also made reference to how people felt about the church in England. The bank was described as something that people go to so that they will be seen as respectable members of society, but that nobody really has any practical need for. In fact, the Erewhonians sometimes made fun of the banks secretly, but had they been caught, would have denied and said that they held great respect for this most important institution. The Erewhonians also seemed to be unable to speak openly and freely in front of the cashiers, as others had done with the priests of the English church. So, much of the descriptions of the musical banks of Erewhon mirrored the churches of Victorian England.
begin Lost Horizon
DAY 7
Lost Horizon
Lost Horizon is a 1937 film directed by Frank Capra starring Ronald Colman, Jane Wyatt and Sam Jaffe. It tells the story of a group of travelers who find a utopian society in the Himalaya mountains. The film is based upon the James Hilton novel of the same name and was adapted by Sidney Buchman (uncredited) and Robert Riskin. The Streamline Moderne sets were designed by Stephen Goosson.
Shangri-la, an idyllic valley sheltered from the cold. The contented inhabitants are led by the mysterious High Lama (Jaffe).
Initially anxious to return to "civilization", most of the newcomers grow to love the place, including academic Alexander Lovett (Edward Everett Horton), swindler Henry Barnard (Thomas Mitchell), and terminally ill Gloria Stone (Isabel Jewell), who miraculously seems to be recovering. High-ranking British diplomat Robert Conway (Colman) is also enchanted, particularly when he meets Sondra (Wyatt), who has grown up in Shangri-la. However, Conway's younger brother George (John Howard) and Maria (Margo), another beautiful woman they find there, are determined to leave.
Conway eventually learns that his arrival was no accident. He was brought there by the High Lama to take his place. The founder of Shangri-la claims to be hundreds of years old, preserved, like the other residents, by the magical properties of the paradise he has created, but is finally dying and needs someone wise and knowledgeable in the ways of the modern world to keep it safe.
George refuses to believe the Lama's fantastic story and is backed up by Maria. Torn between love and loyalty, Conway reluctantly gives in to his brother and they leave, taking Maria with them. After several days of gruelling travel, she becomes exhausted and falls face down in the snow. When they turn her over, they discover that she has died...of extreme old age. Her departure from Shangri-la had restored Maria to her true age. Horrified, George loses his sanity and jumps to his death.
Conway continues on and eventually meets up with a search party sent to find him, though the ordeal has caused him to lose his memory of Shangri-la. On the voyage back to England, he remembers everything; he tells his story and then jumps ship. The searchers track him back to the Himalayas, but are unable to follow him any further. In the final scene, Conway returns to Shangri-la, to the waiting Sondra.
DAY 8 and 9
continue/finish Lost Horizon
Discuss:
QUESTION:
1. Is each social change just an attempt to create a more utopian existence?
2. Is “utopia” a concept that changes over time?
3. Therefore, can a utopia be maintained?
