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Pegasus, v. 2, issue 1, Summer 1943
Page 22
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PEGASUS man [human] nature undergoes a drastic metamorphosis. However, the advantage of authors living in the present is that they can imagine anything they wish to exist in the future. "Utopia Island", "Men Like Gods", "Brave New World", and the most appealing of them all, "Seeker of Tomorrow" -- all these feature places of perfection, but as Wells demonstrated in "Things to Come", the granting of ease, comfort and security through mechanical means cannot alone bring about a Utopia. No matter how much some individuals have, they can never be happy unless they possess their neighbor's portion, also. And it is the nature of a certain type of mind that it cannot rest content unless it controls, unless is possesses power. The fact that this type of person does exist tends to make Utopias pretty shaky prepositions. Human beings desire perfection from the bottom of their hearts, but when they obtain it they never have the vaguest idea of what to do with it. A most discouraging state of affairs. This, then, this human instability if a factor which must inevitably make the dream of a paradise a dream only, never to be realized. For even if it could be achieved it could not suit all individuals. The designing of a heaven for all the people who have lived through ages, is a job that must lead any omnipotent being to quit in disgust and get a job on the WPA. Think of combining the riotous barbarits Valhalla of the old Germans, and the sensuous houriis-haunted heaven of the Mohammedans with the peaceful everlasting Sunday that is heaven to nice old ladies. The contrast between the paradise conceptions of the sickly, fretful Linton and the bubblingly energetic Catharins in Bronte's "Wuthering Heights" is useful in this respect: "One time, however, we were near quarrelling. He said the pleasant manner of spending a hot July day was lying from morning till evening on a bank of heath in the middle of the moors, with the bees humming dreamily about among the bloom, and the larks singing high up overhead, and the blue sky and bright sun shimmering steadily and cloudlessly. That was his most perfect idea of heaven's happiness; mine was rocking in a rustling green tree, with a west wind blowing, and bright white clouds flitting rapidly above; and not only larks, but throstles and blackbirds, and linnets and cuckoos pouring out music on every side, and the moors seen at a distance, broken into cool dusky dells; but close by, great swells of long grass undulating in waves to the breeze; and woods and sounding water, and the whole world awake and wild with joy. He wanted to lie in an ecstasy of peace; I wanted all to sparkle and dance in a glorious jubilee. I said his heaven would be only half alive; and he said mine would be drunk; I said I should fall asleep in his; and he said he could not breathe in mine, and began to grow very snappish. At last we agreed to try both, as soon as the right weather came; and then we kissed each other and were friends." Thus, a paradise for all the world's people, must be a paradise for
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PEGASUS man [human] nature undergoes a drastic metamorphosis. However, the advantage of authors living in the present is that they can imagine anything they wish to exist in the future. "Utopia Island", "Men Like Gods", "Brave New World", and the most appealing of them all, "Seeker of Tomorrow" -- all these feature places of perfection, but as Wells demonstrated in "Things to Come", the granting of ease, comfort and security through mechanical means cannot alone bring about a Utopia. No matter how much some individuals have, they can never be happy unless they possess their neighbor's portion, also. And it is the nature of a certain type of mind that it cannot rest content unless it controls, unless is possesses power. The fact that this type of person does exist tends to make Utopias pretty shaky prepositions. Human beings desire perfection from the bottom of their hearts, but when they obtain it they never have the vaguest idea of what to do with it. A most discouraging state of affairs. This, then, this human instability if a factor which must inevitably make the dream of a paradise a dream only, never to be realized. For even if it could be achieved it could not suit all individuals. The designing of a heaven for all the people who have lived through ages, is a job that must lead any omnipotent being to quit in disgust and get a job on the WPA. Think of combining the riotous barbarits Valhalla of the old Germans, and the sensuous houriis-haunted heaven of the Mohammedans with the peaceful everlasting Sunday that is heaven to nice old ladies. The contrast between the paradise conceptions of the sickly, fretful Linton and the bubblingly energetic Catharins in Bronte's "Wuthering Heights" is useful in this respect: "One time, however, we were near quarrelling. He said the pleasant manner of spending a hot July day was lying from morning till evening on a bank of heath in the middle of the moors, with the bees humming dreamily about among the bloom, and the larks singing high up overhead, and the blue sky and bright sun shimmering steadily and cloudlessly. That was his most perfect idea of heaven's happiness; mine was rocking in a rustling green tree, with a west wind blowing, and bright white clouds flitting rapidly above; and not only larks, but throstles and blackbirds, and linnets and cuckoos pouring out music on every side, and the moors seen at a distance, broken into cool dusky dells; but close by, great swells of long grass undulating in waves to the breeze; and woods and sounding water, and the whole world awake and wild with joy. He wanted to lie in an ecstasy of peace; I wanted all to sparkle and dance in a glorious jubilee. I said his heaven would be only half alive; and he said mine would be drunk; I said I should fall asleep in his; and he said he could not breathe in mine, and began to grow very snappish. At last we agreed to try both, as soon as the right weather came; and then we kissed each other and were friends." Thus, a paradise for all the world's people, must be a paradise for
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