Beatrice the Sixteenth

This isn’t the first time I’ve heard of this book, but I am absolutely shocked that nobody has posted it online in any of the usual places given its Wikipedia entry. I had hoped that External Links would point me to a copy.

Apparently, according to WorldCat, I’d have to travel overseas to other libraries to read it. And it was published in 1909, so presumably its copyright has long since expired. If travel ever resumes, I think I’ll make vacation plans to visit one of these libraries and scan the book myself...

Regarding sources for Wikipedia on Dr Thomas Baty, one of the longest freely published accounts I found online is at http://www.ilajapan.org/doc/baty_e.pdf - relevant as Baty spent much of his life in Japan.

It’s interesting to me how a modern critique by Taylor argues that the novel’s setting is not a real utopia. I took a philosophy course on utopias and dystopias. Through all of the readings my biggest takeaway is that the distinction between a utopia and a dystopia is your point of view within the setting.

That is to say, utopias achieve social harmony by excluding dissidents. The process of exclusion varies widely, of course. In the past the means were crude: slavery, war, closed borders. More modern “solutions” might include drugs, eugenics, or genetic engineering, or simply pretending the problem doesn’t exist.

And what is the problem, anyway? It’s that people disagree, in fundamental ways, how the world should be run. These disagreements are presently held in check by a delicate balance of power and complex political processes. But utopian authors don’t want that. They want to simplify society and sweep away the complexities and ugliness of the real world. I have yet to see anyone succeed at doing that without some process of exclusion.

I just wonder how significant getting kicked in the head by a camel is to the whole scenario.