A Blog on McConnell Center Life

Looking Backward (1888). . . wow what a piece of political propaganda it is. Bellamy’s book has almost no literary merit, by which I mean that the plot is almost non-existent and the character development doesn’t exist at all. The people are all one-dimensional props to deliver Bellamy’s politics and economic vision. That said, there are interesting things to wrestle with in the book and it was very important when it was written in the late 19th century. Indeed, it inspired a number of utopian communities and no small number of socialist reformers, I am told. Bellamy’s character falls asleep in the late 19th century and wakes up in the year 2000 (his mechanism may be the silliest part of the book). The world has been transformed beyond recognition in the intervening century. Wars have been abolished. Poverty has been cured. People are healthy and happy everywhere. There is no crime. There is not selfish buying and selling of goods but everyone has a debit card from the governme...

I might have named this novel "The Man of Notting Hill" or "Don Wayne," both harkening back to Miquel de Cervantes' great novel "Don Quixote." It seems to me both are better names than Napoleon of Notting Hill, which was chosen by the publisher, not the author. The author, G.K. Chesterton, originally suggested "The Lion of Notting Hill" or "The King and the Madman." Both of those fit very well and are much better than using Napoleon's name as this book is not about conquest and empire at all. Rather, it is about love of one's own place, smallness, and adhering to warm old ways in the face of cold material progress. If it is about empire at all, it is a warning against it. The connection with Don Quixote hit me this morning as I was rousing myself from bed. In Adam Wayne, the defender of Notting Hill and of a chivalrous code, we have the old Don from Lamancha. He was a man from somewhere, not just anywhere. He was a m...