Erewhon, as a satire and/or essay, is interesting and has some thought provoking ideas. Erewhon as a novel has a fairly thin but still interesting plot line in an intriguing environment. Unfortunately, meshing the two of these together makes for a difficult book to swallow at times.

I enjoyed the thought provoking elements of the satire that Butler presents. He turns the world upside down in order to have us explore just how "civilized" we truly are. He maintains the same basic structure...that a society should have a government with laws that people can be punished for, education to help them in society, religion to help with their conscience. However, he turns all of these "normal" conventions on their heads to get us to think not about the conventions themselves, but about the way we approach them.

For example, instead of being punished for what we crimes (theft, murder, etc.), the people of Erewhon are punished if they fall physically ill...sometimes being imprisoned or even sentenced to death. And conversely, if a person finds himself in the throes of robbery or some other 'crime', he is instead consoled and properly treated for the recovery of this behavior and looked on with sympathy from friends and family. In this satirical move, Butler asks us to examine our treatment of criminals. The Erewhonians provide rehabilitation for liars, thieves and murderers while simply shutting away those who commit "crimes" of physical illness. While we profess to offer rehabilitation for our criminals, what good does it do to stick them in an 8x8 box for years and then throw them out on the street with a black mark on their "permanent record?" Which system is better for helping with crime? As to illness, the Erewhonian treatment of illness is definitely ludicrous, but to a small degree it has logic in that it quarantines the truly ill and it also cuts down on people feigning illness or complaining over small headaches. In Erewhon, there is truly very little illness and no 'calling in sick', or making an excuse of "I've got a headache."

Butler also satirizes religious devotion (he alludes to religion in terms of the different types of money in the kingdom...the "religious" type having no earthly value yet being esteemed as of great personal worth...and yet citizens of Erewhon barely go through the motions with the 'religious' currency and have a completely different value system for each type of currency).

His lengthiest satirical discourse is with regards to the idea of consciousness. He takes it to the absurd (at least for his day) by suggesting a world in which machines would become self-aware and potentially overthrow mankind as the dominant race (a la Terminator or others). We're not there yet, but I think Butler would have a coronary if he saw how today's technology compared of that ~120 years ago. While the discussion on consciousness has some holes, it's also intriguing, especially when looking at the advancements of the last hundred years. He makes some good arguments and it's interesting to transition those arguments into the natural world and look at the advancements of mankind as a race or of other animals out there. The rise of consciousness or self-awareness is a very interesting topic. I'd be interested to read more of his thoughts since in the book he basically opens the can of worms and sets it on a shelf.

So in terms of the satire, Butler brings forth some interesting ideas.

In terms of the plot, it's a fairly basic adventure novel of the nineteenth century...a man in a distant British colony seeks fame and fortune through exploration and hopefully finding either a place to gain more wealth or to find savages to convert to Christianity or both. The first 50-100 pages contain standard Victorian descriptions of the landscapes and the travels. While poetic and pretty, they did drag on and I wanted to skip beyond them. As our narrator finally gets closer to Erewhon, his travels actually have some drama unfold. Once he finally arrives at the city, he's initially thrown into prison and has some moderate adventure.

The "adventures" he has in the country of Erewhon are very lightweight in terms of adventure. The level of excitement is pretty bland since it is often broken up by dozens of pages of satirical essay exploring strange elements of Erewhonian culture. Again, this is moderately typical of 19th century literature, but I was hoping for a bit more in terms of action within Erewhon itself. The "story" of the book could probably take ~1/3 of the pages (with probably a third of those devoted to description of the countryside and his initial travels) with the remaining 2/3 being devoted to thoughtful discourse on the various absurdities of society.

All in all, this was an interesting and thought provoking book...but I would've preferred the abridged version and/or simply reading the "essays" as essays rather than having them interjected into an adventure novel.

***
2 1/2 stars

Erewhon, like Butler's other (magnificient and far more effective) novel The Way of All Flesh, is rife with social satire. The optimistic and devout explorer trots out all kinds of European imperialist platitudes and, as with most satirical characters, is almost totally one-dimensional. Most other characters- noble savages, squaws, and other racist or bigoted archetypes, are fodder for the author's wit more than flesh and blood. This would be fine if the satire were as proficient as, say, Voltaire's, but it is not.

As others have mentioned, the "justice" system in Erewhon whereby the sick are punished and criminals rehabilitated to health is the main punchline. In a short story this concept would have been brilliant but the length of the book grinds the joke into the ground well before the narrative draws to a close. It's a joke with a punchline that doesn't justify the extravagant buildup.

Originally published in 1872 and now billed as the "second great satire of the nineteenth century," Erewhon is a critique of Victorian society. In it, a British man comes across a never-before discovered society (which he is convinced is the lost tribes of Israel).

Erewhon has no plot to speak of. Here is its pattern: Butler gives us a bizarre scenario that seemingly makes no sense, takes us through it, and finally explains its parallel to Victorian life. Then this repeats. This is the whole book, book-ended by forty pages of setup (most of which is unnecessary) and a convenient and tidy ending. As such, the reader may feel like he is reading a work on nonsense philosophy rather than a work of fiction.

This is not to say that there is nothing worthwhile here. Occasionally, there are flashes of brilliance, and there are some thought-provoking elements. Erewhonians, for example, treat the sick like criminals and treat criminals like they have diseases. In a modern-day version, perhaps, those who have self-inflicted poor health, like some of the obese and diabetic, would be considered criminal.

On the whole, working through the philosophical meanderings of Butler's scenarios is tedious. It certainly does not help that many aspects of Victorian society are now foreign to us. Erewhon hasn't held up. Stick with Swift.

NOT RECOMMENDED

I bought this book expecting strait social satire. It turns out that the first five chapters are more of an adventure story through a jungle, and are really quite boring. If I could re-edit the book today I would cut them out. When we finally enter Erewhon, the story and the satire pick up, and the read is much more pleasant. Then, unexpectedly, about two-thirds of the way into the book, it becomes a very interesting science fiction tale of why the Erewhonians abandoned technology for fear that the machines would evolve into intelligent, conscious, thinking machines able to reproduce and replace man at the top of the evelutionary ladder! I was pleasantly surprised by this because science fiction is my favorite genre, and in all my reading I've never heard of this concept being thought of more than 130 years ago!

If you can get through the first five chapters, I recommend this book.

A novel similar in concept to "Gulliver's Travels", this novel leads us to the unexplored country, for Europeans anyway, of Erewhon. Through the eyes of the unnamed English protagonist, Erewhon serves as a satire to the Victorian society in existence when this book was penned. Erewhon delivers harsh criticisms of certain valued institutions, yet it lacks the pertinence and timelessness of a truly great novel.

Granted, "Erewhon" was written in the 1870s, at the height of Victorian society in England. The protagonist wanders into the undiscovered country of Erewhon, which at first glance seems to be a utopia. However, the true nature of Erewhon is revealed, where a set of perverse and absurd laws govern the citizens and keep then in a static state of existence. Illnesses are crimes, whereas "moral" sins (such as embezzlement) are treated sympathetically as a sickness. Although they had been technologically advanced, all "modern" (think steam engines) machinery has been outlawed lest the machines will evolve and eventually rule the world, a la "The Matrix."

Butler leads the reader into an alternate vision of reality in his land of Erewhon. The Church of England and religion in general are ridiculed by the Erewhonians beliefs, or lack of, in their own deities. The idea of imperialism and colonization for the benefits of the natives is rendered absurd, as the protagonist dreams of enslaving the Erewhonians to a "religious" sugar plantation owner for their own good (at least, I hope Butler was not serious). The aristocracy and treatment of the poor are indirectly ridiculed in the Erewhonian emphasis on aesthetics and wealth above all else. Vegetarians are satirized in a prophet's misguided treatise on how animals are similar to people. The anti-machinists and anti-progress activists are dealt a blow in the rambling, non-sensical diatribe on the diabolical humanization of machines. In addition, higher education is criticized as a bastion of singular thought where original ideas are discouraged and pompous professors profess to know everything (some things never change).

Unfortunately, many of the criticisms are too obsolete for the modern reader. A central parody, the "Musical Banks", refers to an outdated process of money-changing in the English church, a reference sure to allude most readers (I needed to research it myself to see what the #@*&! Butler was alluding to). The idea that the Erewhonians are the "lost tribes" of Israel also seems to repute logic, as this country is presumably in New Zealand. The last third of the book, save the conclusion, contains a lengthy treatise on the anti-machine movement, followed by another on animals, and then plants. The anti-machine essay, in particular, is convoluted, contrived, and seems to never end, a sleep inducer if there ever was one.

"Erewhon" certainly would have been provocative and controversial in the era it was written. However, it has lost some potency over time. Yet, if you can gloss over the "Book of Machines" chapters, then "Erewhon" provides a delightful and
light-hearted look into the window of the Victorian mindset and one author's attempt to bring awareness of the ills of his society.