Book finished: Erewhon by Samuel Butler
31/10/2016
By Butler/Trubner and Co (Erewhon) [Public domain],
via Wikimedia Commons |
I have seen references to this book all my life, and thought I should have a go at it. I wasn't disappointed, as I found it quite thought-provoking.
The book is written as though an account by a British colonial of his attempt to explore the back-country where he is living, in an attempt to discover commercially exploitable land or resources. The colony is unspecified, but it is well known that Butler "emigrated in September 1859, on the ship Roman Emperor to New Zealand. Butler went there like many early British settlers of privileged origins, to put as much distance as possible between himself and his family. He wrote of his arrival and life as a sheep farmer on Mesopotamia Station in A First Year in Canterbury Settlement (1863), and made a handsome profit when he sold his farm, but the chief achievement of his time there was the drafts and source material for much of his masterpiece Erewhon." (Wikipedia) As a New Zealander, I recognised the descriptions from the early sections of the novel as being typical of the South Island and its ranges. I also likely heard more about this book at school than the averge British child; I got the impression his book was mentioned more because of its NZ connection, than because of its subject, which I never learned of at the time! These early sections read like a typical exploration and adventure tale, but are merely a device to enable Butler to place his narrator in the land he arrives at, which is the Erewhon of the title. Like the word itself, Erewhon is a strangely reversed land, where disease and sickness are punishable crimes, while criminal acts are treated as regrettable lapses the perpetrator must be cured of. All machinery above only the simplest in complexity has been banned, and the protagonist comes under suspicion and is nearly imprisoned for having a watch in his possession. Butler's descriptions of Erewhonian society and culture give him opportunities both to satirise aspects of contemporary Victorian attitudes, and to speculate on various ideas regarding vegetarianism, religion, evolution, consciousness, and machine intelligence. I have seen that some reviewers prefer the adventure aspect, finding the speculation tedious, but I felt the contrary, and found his discussions fascinating and thought-provoking. There were times I could easily tell he was satirising, but time has obscured some of the aspects of Victorian life under fire. Nevertheless, I still found his reversals of various ideas a good stimulus to thought about why society is arranged as it is, and whether other arrangements might be just as valid. His descriptions of the arguments the Erewhonians put forward to justify their customs sounded just like the type of convoluted self-justificatory thinking my generation rebelled against in the Sixties. |
Butler devotes several chapters to "quoting" large chunks of text from an Erewonian history, "The Book of the Machines", and it is here I felt he was at his best. He argues the case for the possibility that in time, machines could evolve to be more intelligent and more powerful than humans, who could be reduced to the status of mere attendants and providers of nutrition to their mechanical masters. These ideas form the basis of the Erewhonian's decision to ban machines.
I had not expected to encounter these ideas in a book written at a time when steam engines were the pinnacle of human invention, and Darwin's concept of Evolution was still percolating through public perception. It has been thought that Butler is satirising Darwin's ideas, but Butler himself, in his Preface to the Second Edition, says "I regret that reviewers have in some cases been inclined to treat the chapters on Machines as an attempt to reduce Mr. Darwin’s theory to an absurdity. Nothing could be further from my intention, and few things would be more distasteful to me than any attempt to laugh at Mr. Darwin; ..."
Interested readers will find plenty of discussion of this book with a little searching; it seems he has not been forgotten, and is still considered a significant author.
I had not expected to encounter these ideas in a book written at a time when steam engines were the pinnacle of human invention, and Darwin's concept of Evolution was still percolating through public perception. It has been thought that Butler is satirising Darwin's ideas, but Butler himself, in his Preface to the Second Edition, says "I regret that reviewers have in some cases been inclined to treat the chapters on Machines as an attempt to reduce Mr. Darwin’s theory to an absurdity. Nothing could be further from my intention, and few things would be more distasteful to me than any attempt to laugh at Mr. Darwin; ..."
Interested readers will find plenty of discussion of this book with a little searching; it seems he has not been forgotten, and is still considered a significant author.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in ideas,
not so much to those looking for an old-time adventure tale.
Read as an e-book downloaded for free from Project Gutenberg, on my Kobo Touch e-reader.
not so much to those looking for an old-time adventure tale.
Read as an e-book downloaded for free from Project Gutenberg, on my Kobo Touch e-reader.