A. How is your Utopia a reaction to the utopia that you read about in your independent novel?
I read the book, Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy. This book was actually more of an opposite of my utopia, named Risker Island. It encouraged safety and peace whereas Risker Island accepts danger as a form of excitement. This actually helped a lot but also made it very challenging at the same time. I had to use a situation in Looking Backward, seeing how it worked successfully and make it the opposite yet so that it still allowed Risker Island to stay alive as a utopia with its theme of danger. For example, their system for having the same salary for all its citizens seemed to create equality amongst all the citizens but it wasn’t "dangerous" enough for Risker Island. Therefore, I used that idea but made it the opposite, where the salary ranges from each citizen to citizen of Risker Island. Still I didn't make it so that every citizen has a different salary which would be the complete opposite but instead, I made it so that each citizen is responsible for how much of a salary they get. If the citizen decides to work hard and accomplish all the goals that they have in mind then they would probably be more successful, getting a greater salary while those that don't try hard and are too lazy to do their work will do worse in life, getting a smaller salary. Another example would be the shopping and the distributing system in Looking Backward. To avoid shopping to be too time consuming, they made it so that mainly all the same clothes were sold to the citizens. After they ordered it, it would be sent to them in their distributive system. On Risker Island I tried to encourage individualism and I thought that clothes was one of the ways to express oneself. This is why there are many different clothes sold to the citizens of Risker Island. They also get their clothes as soon as they purchase it so that if one wants a certain garment then they should hurry before it is sold out. This kind of system isn't as reassuring as the shopping system in Looking Backward. Instead there is a slight amount of competition.  
B. What historical precedents (or from other works of fiction) have influenced your Utopian ideas? The series of Harry Potter has influenced my utopia as well especially my education system. From how at Hogwarts as a student gains more experience and knowledge in their education about magic they are expected to handle harder situations, I have revolved my education system around that thought. The education system on Risker Island teaches students to protect, survive and fight for the first six years of their education life. Instead of having my entire education based on one thing like Hogwarts teaching only magic, the education system on Risker Island teaches both protection, survival, and fighting along with just regular schooling that can give one an occupation in the world. I decided upon this because I realized that in order for a society to run, there needs to be many systems having to do with health, shelter, food, etc. that needs to be run by humans. Yet to fit in with Risker Island's motto of accepting danger rather than avoiding it, the six years of protection, survival, and fighting definitely encourages this. It prepares one for the dangerous world once they have no other protection other than themselves. During these six years, one is also expected to deal with harder situations with each year of learning. To test the students, they are put in situations where they have to deal with it with their protection, survival, and fighting skills.
After some careful consideration and thought, I came up to the solution that the society that I live in now is also filled with danger. There isn't really any place where there is absolutely no danger. For example, just driving in a car to work which might be an everyday kind of occurrence is filled with danger. Any car can run into you, costing you your life. It doesn't necessarily even have to be your fault. A drunk driver can just run into you in your car or when you are walking on the streets. Another example would be just sitting inside a building. Billions of people are doing this each and every day. A comet can blast from outer space into earth at your building. Not only are those in that building dead, but everyone on earth no matter where they are would lose their lives. Overall, realizing these points from the society that I am living in now gave me many ideas to creating a society based on danger, making it sound easy since danger is so easily found in the time and generation I am living in. |
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