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Literary notes about utopia (AI summary)

In literature, the term utopia functions as a multifaceted symbol—at once an alluring ideal and a subject of ironic critique. Authors invoke utopia to denote a far-off, exalted vision of society, as seen when it is described as a longed-for time and place ([1]), or even as a mythic figure embodying the pinnacle of human progress ([2]). At times, its language is employed humorously or satirically, suggesting that even the way we speak might echo the imagined perfection of a utopian realm ([3]). Other writers caution that such idealized models, whether conceived as political blueprints or personal dreams, can remain as intangible and elusive as a hidden paradise ([4], [5]). Ultimately, literary utopias oscillate between being a beacon of hope for transformative social orders and a reminder of the chimerical nature of absolute perfection ([6]).
  1. What title shall we give that far-away time, that longed-for Utopia?
    — from Unicorns by James Huneker
  2. This ideal itself, however, has often been expressed in some mythical figure or Utopia.
    — from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana
  3. Methinks I understand him, said Pantagruel; for either it is the language of my country of Utopia, or sounds very like it.
    — from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais
  4. And ‘the secret has perished’ with him; to this day the place of Utopia remains unknown.
    — from The Republic of Plato by Plato
  5. One of the principal reasons why I have dwelt at this length upon Owen is that he is a splendid representative of the great Utopia builders.
    — from The Common Sense of SocialismA Series of Letters Addressed to Jonathan Edwards, of Pittsburg by John Spargo
  6. It cannot be solved, even ideally, in a Utopia.
    — from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

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