Nov 27– From Utopia by Sir Thomas Moore (1516) translated by Ralph Robinson
Summary: There's an island where everyone is an idiot.
Commentary: Utopia always read like a satire of satire to me. The Utopians hate everything for no real reason, but Moore is also sort of trying to criticize the then present English society (and not doing a particularly good job of it). It contains several examples of the dumbest part of all utopian stories (as would be expected since it coined the term), no one is allowed to like or dislike anything. Jewelry, clothing quality, social honors, hunting, food and drink. Everything other than boring, hyper-logical, super-stoicism is bad.
It reminds me of the famous (possibly apocryphal, since I've never seen the actual interview) story about an interviewer who asked Gene Rodenberry why Picard was bald in the 24th century. Rodenberry said that no one would care. Apparently in his perfect future 500 years from now, no one is allowed to have an aesthetic preference for hair. Utopias are dumb.
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