Thomas more ütopyasının daha etkileyici ve eşitlikçi olduğu inkar edilemez

1/10 Only men would call this utopic because it’s patriarchal, misogynistic as hell (since ‘women are the common property of the community’) and the punishment for homosexuality is execution. The community/world-building for the City of the Sun made no sense by the way. It’s irrational and inconsistent, men are so stupid regardless of the era.

Kadın-erkek eşitliği varmış gibi davranıp alakası olmayınca bir ayrı rahatsız edici oluyor. Yazarın yaşadığı zamanın ve o zamanda erkek olmasının sonucu olduğunu bilsem de sinirden güldüğüm yerler oldu. Hele “kadın iki erkekle yattıktan sonra hala hamile kalmamışsa toplumda erdemsiz görülür” durumu beni şok etti. Bunu “ütopik” ve olması hayal edilen güzel bir ülkeyle tasfiye etmesi de büyük hayal kırıklığıydı. Erkeklerin ana karakter, kadınlarınsa yalnızca yan rol olarak yansıtıldığı başka bir kitap…

There are definitely more interesting philosophical works from the 17th century out there.

I read this after seeing it mentioned in Utopia for Realists by Rutger Bregman, and thought it would be an interesting read. While it certainly was fascinating, I did not like how the book was written - sort of as a discussion between 2 people, similar to Plato's works but without real conversation happening; just 1 person (the ship captain) doing 98% of the talking and the other saying "tell me more!" or "but what about their military?" etc. Though this is a utopian, the dystopian novels I've read (1984, We, etc) are blended into an engaging story; this book, without a real story, makes it pretty bland.

If anything, it's an interesting portal to what a 1600-era Italian philosopher might dream a perfect world would look like. It's also worthwhile examining the author's life for better context of this book.

I find the line between utopian and dystopian super interesting too - many ideas Campanella thought up here are actually identical to some of the ideas Orwell, Zamyatin and Huxley have in their dystopians as sufferages. Certainly those three had a 300-ish year advantage of historical knowledge and exploration over Campanella, and I'm sure perspective plays a large role in it (imagine if 1984 was written from the perspective of Big Brother or even O'Brien - I wonder if the reader could be deceived of the world Winston suffers?).

Regardless, this book gives many great topics to exercise thoughts on that really get the mind flowing, so I do give it points for that (albeit mostly disagreeable ideas at that).

Yet to read Thomas More's Utopia, but I am a little cautious it will slip into the same shoes as outlined above.

Dandik bir Hristiyanlık güzellemesi... Yapay bir ütopik dünya, inandırıcılıktan uzak. Cidden çok başarısız bir fikirler yumağı. Vatikan'ın emriyle falan yazılmış olabilir. Thomas More'un Ütopya'sından fazlasıyla etkilenmiş ayrıca.