CURRENT LITERATURE.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 May 1923, Page 4

CURRENT LITERATURE.

V MR 11. WELLS AND UTOPIA. 1 Mr 11. CL Wells has always been loni.l of depicting an ideal State, or, , at any rate, a State in which, altiioiign it may not appeal Ln everyone’s imagination, reason and science have reached their highest development. 1 This was the subject of ‘'The Sleeper Awake,” ‘’The World Set Free,’’ “Anticipations,” "Xew Worlds for | Old,” and several other hooks, lie has returned to it again in “.Men Like I Gods.” Mis latest Utopia is not situ--1 ated in some distant planet, nor does it come into being in the remote future. It exists contemporaneously and side by side with our own civilisation by virtue of some overlapping kink in space, some extra dimension which an Einstein might imagine but not define. Tin* human race has no suspicion that it is there, hut the Utopians have long been aware that- there is such a place ns the earth, and two n( their investigators have succeeded in making actual contact with it at the price of their own lives. Their achievement enables Hie Utopians to! translate to Utopia certain “Earth-I ling-,," tiio occupants of several motor ears on a stretch of road near Windsor Castle. Those are a very mixed assortment. It is quite easy to identify the originals ot some of them. There is. for instance, Mr Rupert Catskill, Secretary of State for War, pugnacious, bellicose, ready for any adventurous enterprise and careless of the cost. I here is M.r Cecil Burleigh, suave, sceptic-al. and subtle. There is Father Amerton, who scourges the sins of the smart set. Apart- from these, there are Lady Stella, a patrician society leader: Mr Barnstaple, a Liberal journalist: Lord Barralongn, a typical profiteer: Hunker, an American revue king and his protegee : and besides a group of private secretaries, chauffeurs, valets,,and so forth. When the Earthlings manage to grasp the fact that they are in another sphere, they are surprised to note that the Utopians talk to them in English. They are still more surprised when the Utopians tell them that they do not talk English or any other language. Thoughts are transmitted as soon as they are formulated without the intervention of the spoken word. There is nothing inherently improbable in this. It is common experience that- when people are in close sympathy and Intimacy they ‘"‘know what' tho other is

thinking”—to use the colloquial phrase. Blit it is hard to believo that the minds of the gross Earthlingswere so attuned to those of the Utopians that they could interpret in English the unuttered thoughts of the latter. However, in this fashion they learn something of the history of Utopia. hi the bad old days there had been an '‘age of confusion” similar to that which wc are passing through now. A world war had been followed by civil wars, famines, industrial depression, disease. Very gradually the Utopians extricated themselves from this morass and evolved a better or-

der, in which everyone works busily at occupations of bis own choice, and from which poverty, hatred, and ugliness of every kind have been banished. lip to this point all lias gone well. Hut Lord Barralouga. driving his ear furiously on l topia’s magnificent roads, kills a pedestrian. This does not make them popular, but worse is still to follow. They are all "carliers.” The germs do them no harm ; in. the course of generations they have become proof against all save the more virulent bugs. Hut the Utopians have long since stamped out disease, and in consequence have lost their powers of resistance. Soon Utopia begins to cough and sneeze, to run a temperature, and to complain oi pains and headaches. The infection is promptly traced to its source; the Earthlings are hurried away on aeroplanes to he segregated on a rock pinnacle in the midst of a desert until prophylactic measures can be taken. On (,)iu: ran line Crag tie' adventurous Mr Catskill has his great idea. He is im stranger in forlorn hones; here is a chance for lihe party. The rock is apparently impregnable, and is well furnished with supplies. Jo t them hold out against the Utopians. They cull seize as hostages the two “liaison officers” who periadii ally visit them. Who knows but that in the end the Earthlings may even conquer l topia ? The plan commends itself to the rest and defences are organised. Air Barnstaple alone protests. Tie declares that, the proposal is monstrous, ami warns the intended hostages betimes. For this lie would have been executed if |;c had not contrived to escape from .'.luaranliiie Crag alter a venturesome climb. He is soon to learn bow I utile Air Cal skill’s design was. Utopian engineers girdle this pinnacle with electric cables, and the whole of it with its tenants is blown to space in a stupendous discharge. When Mr Barnstaple recovers from his shock his examination of Utopian 'manners and customs, discovering ever fresh perfections. During his sojourn there a twofold conviction is borne in upon him. I’irslly. the Utopians have realised, in fit"t, the most daring dreams of speculative philosophers. Secondly. there is nothing supernatural about Utopia. There is absolutely nothing which man cannot, equally achieve if lie has the. heart and the will to make the at-

tempt. Eventually .Mr Barnstaple is reti’Miish’ietl to earth, resolved to do his bit towards such a consummation. That is the moral of the story. '.Viet' kind of a piece, then, is this Utopia? There I- Lit!- of the fantastic, little of t'ne sort of thing that i» such works as "Tim Time Machine” end tlm like makes us led that we are 'ending of ciiothc universe, inhabited by beings constituted quite di/ier-

enily from humans. Mechanical i liven l ion has advanced, but not extravagantly so. ('.immuiii(".lioiis have improved, but rennle still employ our

own m-ihods of locomotion and power, save that wasteful and t'iiiP’vdmiiig coal is no longer used. Broadcasting am! wireless telephony arc uni versa I conveniences. Politicians have lierome obsolete—tile one survivor is in a mental hospital. Immense progress lias been mad.' in the control of nature. Bests have been eliminated, bin before .sentcuto is pronounced on any noxious form of life it is given a fair trial. Bureaux 1 '

n-.-fiiivli impure whether li may not. a tier all, serve a beuelicont purpose. Sonic insects. for example, are destructive at one stage of their career, Imi later become beautiful, or are iv-ee«.sarv lor t!ie t’ertilisation of dower- ••.here, again, are the indispens Me IrreplaeeitMe food of pleasant, ami d.-irahle creature-. Utopia's scientists, after weighing the pros and (• ns, pass judgment accordingly. lint lie greatest ehiinge of all is in the human mind. Education has accomplished miracles. Everyone works, not because he must, but from a sense ol

civic duty. Public opinion would condemn . him if ho did not. Moreover, he enjoys working, for lie selects his own job. Are we to understand that there are t.u disagreeable tasks in Utopia? Has ill drudgery been abolished ?

Mr M. G. Wells implies that it has. ■Still, even in this Elysium, there are tilings which jar upon Earthling tie stiuets, or, shall we call them prejudices! We are told that the Utopians set great store liy individual liberty. Privacy is cherished. Yet there is a great deal of regimentation; everyone is ticketed and labelled; a check is kept upon his movements; his whereabouts at any given moment is know;:. Again, as might be expected, free love is llte rule, ’i he Utopians do not stay in an association which lias i eased to <.lia.ni. That is all very well, but suppose that one party wishes to separate, and the other to remain together? Are the iociings oi inc latter not to be considered ? We are told that parents see very little m their oilspring up to the age ol‘ nine or ten ; the care of children is left largely t-j nurses and teachers. "After that time the parents become more ol a lactcr m the youngster’s life.” But is that possible? Will it not be too lute! During these plastic years will not the child’s chief affections have been irrevocably given to his nurses ami teachers? Will not the parent have to he content thereafter always to play second fiddle? . Moreover, there is u more general objection to Mr Wells’s ideal state. The criticism i<tlore(l by Mr (at-kiil, although the Utopians marie little of it. seems to hit tin; nail on the head. Earth has its misery and suffering, but it has uls i .Is joys and its exaltations. But in ! i-ipui there are contrasts, no surprises; o', rylhing is a monotone, biiikant, no doubt, but still a monoting. In Midi circumstances, pace Mi W ells, must not life lose some of rts savour. As Andrea, del Sarto, in Browning’s poem, said of his art:— Ah, Hut a man’s reach must exceed his grasp Hr what’s a heaven for? All is silvergrey Placid and perfect with my art ; the worse! Fo, too with life. But in Utopia there is nothing to strive for, nothing left to win. 'Does not that spell deterioration? According to nature’s law, man must cither go forward or backward ; he cannot remain station-