Health as the Greatest Pleasure

   The Utopians’ ideas about pleasure intrigue me.  “To be sure, they believe happiness is found, not in every kind of pleasure, but only in good and honest pleasure. Virtue itself, they say, draws our nature to this kind of pleasure, as to supreme good.” (pg. 561)  These lines caught my attention mainly because I was curious by what standard they determined what was “good and honest” and what wasn’t.  When we’re caught up in any kind of pleasure, we’re inclined to think it’s pretty great.  I find it hard to believe that Utopians could possibly be so rational all the time.

            I was hard pressed to uncover their standard for “good and honest” pleasure, but at the end of the “Social Relations” section, I found this: “…For they are somewhat inclined to think that no kind of pleasure is forbidden, provided harm does not come of it.” (pg. 556)  This makes sense to me, but still, sometimes we discover only in retrospect that one of our seemingly innocent pleasures has caused some unforeseen trouble.  If I was a Utopian, I think I might be slightly paranoid of having fun because I might risk public scorn by accidentally do something wrong.

            In spite of these qualms, I completely agree with the Utopians in their understanding of health as “the greatest of bodily pleasures.” (pg. 565)  Before reading “Utopia” I always valued my health very highly, but I never thought of health as a pleasure before.  More describes it this way: “The second kind of bodily pleasure they describe as nothing but the calm and harmonious state of the body, its state of health when undisturbed by any disorder.” (pg. 565) 

This is such a simple concept, with which I think anyone would be inclined to agree, but our materialistic, consumerist society keeps us so busy hopping from one physical stimulus to the next that we eventually forget the foundation of all our enjoyment in this life.  In our quest for tastes, sights, smells and touches we often neglect the very vessel (our bodies) which allows us to experience anything at all. 

As an illustration, I reference my recent trip to New York City.  On my first day out exploring downtown Manhattan, I spent hours looking at shops, tasting all sorts of food, inhaling all sorts of smells both lovely and foul and buying way too many things that I never knew I needed before I saw them.  I can honestly say I got a lot of pleasure out of the experience, but afterwards my mind felt disoriented, my feet were sore and my stomach ached from too many rich foods.  I had to spend the rest of the day recovering on the couch.  Unlike the Utopians, I neglected the supreme pleasure of bodily health and harmony for scattered sensual pleasures.  To one extent or another, we’ve all done similar things and, according to Utopian logic, squandered one ultimate pleasure for a few minutes of passing sensation.

I’ve been so much more appreciative of my health ever since I read this section of “Utopia”.  Not only is taking our health for granted potentially dangerous to that health, but it also makes us miss out on enjoying the wonderful and perfect way our bodies work and allow us to experience the simple things in the world around us.  We too often wreck ourselves on quests for bigger and better and more when we already have sources of perfect pleasure literally right under our noses and at our finger tips.

Creative Engagement - Utopian Art Gallery

   I've been reading the current discussion going on about the potential for More's "Utopia" to be translated into a play and I'm inclined to think it's possible, but not at all probable.  However, I started thinking about other mediums which would be more condusive to depicting "Utopia".  This lead me to discovering a whole slew of art (paintings and scupture especially) that are entitled "Utopia" or have obvious references to "Utopia".  It's really interesting to see the variety of art that stems from this one concept.  Some are colorful and optomistic while others are extremely macabre and weird.  And,of course, there's everything in between as well.  Every artist has THEIR ideal world. 
   I've posted a few of the pieces that most intrigued me below.  They're not at all famous, but the point is that someone is trying to show us their idea of what "Utopia" is or should be.  My commentary is just my personal interpretation.  I have a lot of fun figuring out what art means.  The stranger and more avant-garde the better, really.  I'd like to invite you to have some fun doing the same.  Do a little searching and add your own discoveries either directly here, or perhaps post the art to your blog and then post a link below this post.  Hopefully, we'll end up with a "utopian art gallery" of sorts highlighting as many incarnations of the concept as possible. 



"Utopia" by Barbara Mendes

   This painting, like Mendes' other work is vibrant and full of life sprouting from practically every crevice.  Behind the main woman in the front, the rectangular gardens remind me of the tidy gardens of the Utopian's in More's book.  I get the impression that Mendes' idea of a utopia would be full of beauty, art and a symbiotic relationship between humans and nature.  Also, since the only figures I see here are women, she would probably wan't women to be in charge (most graciously and wisely) of just about everything.

"Communist Utopia" by Tom Hornung

    Definitely dark!  This painting puts me in mind of the book "Nineteen Eighty-Four" by George Orwel. The artist lived for years under a communist regime in what used to be Czechoslovakia and admits on his blog that this influences much of his art.  A "communist utopia" requires everyone to submit to the will of the state "for the greater good" but this requires that the eyes of the government be everywhere and in everyone's business. Suspicion runs rampant (all the eyeballs) and the individual (the lone figure) is cruely suppressed.



"In the Grave of Intergalactic Utopia" by Basim Magdy

    I'm sure you all can find lots of other meanings for this one.  It's modern art and pretty out there, but still, I think, more thought provoking than it is purely strange.  I've always found it interesting that some people are so excited at the possibility of the human race leaving earth, living on other planets and populating the universe.  They don't realise that we're just going to take all of our problems and vices with us.  I think this is at least part of what this peice is trying to say.  For example, if we're tied to our TVs here, we'll probably do the same if we lived on Mars.  What do you think of the cage and the dogfood bowl?  Is this saying we'll become like animals compared to the alien life forms we meet...?




"Utopia" by Gregor Ziolkowski

    This one is a bit harder for me to interpret, but I think that the artist is trying to say that the concept of utopia is just a kind of flimsy poster that we put up to cover over the reality of the world as it is.  The girl in the painting looks ragged and distraught.  She sits in the rubble of the stone wall and looks up at what she thought was the blue sky and finds it torn apart.  Yes, the wall (society?) might be crumbling, but the birds (natural order of the universe?) still find a way to break through the facade and continue on with there existence.  Can you think of a different interpretation?
 

Letter: My First Trip to New York City