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

55. Erewhon, or, Over the Range.
only to be blindfolded and led to the mysterious and hidden metropolis of Erewhon. There he learns
about the culture, governmental structure, and laws of the city.
That in that country if a man falls into ill health, or catches any disorder, or fails
bodily in any way before he is seventy years old, he is tried before a jury of his
countrymen, and if convicted is held up to public scorn and is sentenced more or less
severely as the case may be.
Higgs later attends the trial of a man who is accused of having consumption, found guilty, and
sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour. While this line of logic does not make sense to
western conceptions of jurisprudence, Butler’s satire highlights how many aspects of our penal
system make no more sense than the Erewhonian punishment of illness.
70 A Dark Place