From Nowhere: Utopian and Dystopian Visions of our - Chris J. Young

his fear for the world when technology moves faster than human ethical control. Like Frankenstein before
it, and films like Blade Runner and Battlestar Galactica after it, Čapek’s R.U.R. shows the dire consequences
humans may face if they continue to dabble in the creation of a sub-race. However, R.U.R. raises an
interesting question: can the human soul and emotions be replicated?
53. Aldous Huxley. Island. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1962.
Published in 1962 shortly before his death, Island was Aldous Huxley’s final novel. Though
remembered for his dystopias Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited, Huxley’s final work
depicts a utopia. The novel centres around Will Farnaby, who deliberately shipwrecks his boat on
the forbidden South Sea island of Pala, where he learns the story of this would-be perfect utopian
society. The Palanese chose to remain secluded from the modern world, shunning industrialization
and consumerism. Reflecting Huxley’s interest in Buddhism, mysticism, and experimentation with
hallucinogenic drugs, the Palanese believe in neither religion nor dogma, but strive for a higher
awareness of earthly life and the life of the senses. To this end they use a drug called the ‘mokshamedicine,’
to gain a glimpse of the world as it looks to someone who has been liberated from the
bondage of the ego and modern society. it is through this realization, this spiritual insight, that they
find their own perfect society, their own utopia.
54. Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–). The Left Hand of Darkness. New York: Ace
Publishing, 1969.
Le Guin’s numerous utopias are among some of the most important additions to the genre in the
second half of the twentieth century. in her writings, she always attempts to portray the unsettled
situation of present-day humanity in the light of a possible, alternative future. Her earliest work,
The Left Hand of Darkness, explored gender roles through the portrayal of a planet inhabited
by hermaphrodites. The Gethen have no sex and therefore no dual conception of gender. Male
dominance, female dependency or childrearing, sexual tension, and physiological differences do
not exist among the people, who have no experience of war and, consequently, no word for it. Le
Guin’s utopia brought gender to the forefront and raised the issue as to whether utopia was possible
in a world where gender inequality exists. This first paperback edition has an illustrated cover
designed by the artist Alex Ebel, with a stylized depiction of the artists Leo and Diane Dillon, who
collaborated together on all of their artwork until Leo’s death in 1979.
68 Case Eight: Beyond our World