Articles liés à Utopia U.
Synopsis
The best one-sentence summary of the novel is this: Political correctness is negating the Enlightenment. The first chapter, "The Way We Were" takes place thousands of years ago with a tribe of pigs. The pigs emphasize the differences between them and other animals. This chapter also alludes to Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" but some animals stay in the cave rather than be led out; their influence is apparent in the last chapter. The second chapter, "The Age of Sail" mostly takes place on a slave ship. The captain, a pig, makes friends with one of the slaves, a horse. Together they found Utopia University, basing it on Truth, Justice, and Charity. The third chapter, "The Politically Incorrect Utopia University" presents the ideal university. This university has as its goal developing thinking skills in its students; it does not teach them what to think, but how to think. One of the characters in this chapter is Mark Twain. The fourth chapter, "The Politically Correct Utopia University" is the opposite of the third chapter and is, unfortunately, a good deal closer to present institutions of higher learning. It does not teach students how to think, but what to think. The last chapter, "The Way We Are" mirrors the first chapter in a graduation ceremony. Those animals that stayed in Plato's cave play a prominent but indirect role through the guest speaker. This speaker proves that black is white and white is black.
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À propos de l'auteur
Butcher, baker, candlestick maker, Keyes was not. Former infantry with the 2/505th Parachute Infantry Battalion, Keyes was. He later switched to intelligence and saw combat in Panama during Just Cause. After his Army service, he taught English at the undergraduate and graduate levels at several colleges and universities. Keyes admits to being fond of libraries, especially the one that lists his novel as nonfiction. Utopia U. despite having animal but not human characters, is real, he states (and some readers agree) and thus belongs in the nonfiction section. Utopia U. is his third published book. Many of his recent essays have been published in The Vocabula Review, a journal about nonfiction writing. This journal published one of his essays, "Course Outlines and the English Language" twice, once initially and later in this journal's best-in-ten-years' issue. One essay in another journal, International Testing and Evaluation Association, was and maybe still is required reading at a USMC testing activity.
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