This blog is in the process of transforming... from a journal of travel across the country into a journal of travel across the landscape of film. And, the theme remains, Tripping over Utopia, as there are few places in the twenty-first century where ideas can be boundlessly explored and actions can be ideal without restrictions.
Originally:
The purpose of this trip was to begin gathering and processing ideas for my master's thesis that I began in the fall of 2007. As my mom and I traveled across the mid-western United States, my hope for this trip was to discover a sense of the landscape and environment that became the receptacle for several optimistic realizations of/attempts at Utopia. The term or name for such a paradise on earth, as coined by London lawyer Thomas More in 1516 in his text Utopia, can be translated as a derivation of the Greek ou (not) and topos (place), yet the word also is somewhat of a pun in that the "U" might refer to the Greek eu (good) as well. Thus, Utopia could be literally translated as "no place" that might also imply a "good place." As none of these experimental colonies of nineteenth-century America remain extant, perhaps this is a most appropriate term for their current or even destined state. Their idealistic aspirations, however, cannot be easily discarded as irrelevant.
Today concludes my mom's and my trip through utopias with a quick tour through American Revolutionary history before heading to the airport (and what has become a very, very long adventure). Beyond our expectations, our final touring escapade in Philadelphia was surprisingly befitting to our journey. I had never thought about the foundation of the United States in such terms, but after focusing so closely on idealistic landscapes/societies for the past several weeks, I couldn't help but think about the aspirations of the Revolutionaries as being anything but similar. In that little room of Independence Hall, there were hopes for a better life not unlike Cabet or Owen or Rapp or even Mother Ann Lee...more humane, more inspired, a society closer to what might be considered perfect. Although from an economic standpoint, the Utopian Socialists and the early American Revolutionaries remain fundamentally very different, the dream for the perfect community pervaded both and inspired action similarly. Trying not to sound trite or corny, it inspires me as well.
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