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Peder Digre Professor K. Donnelly GEN ST 160 A - Empire, Literature, and the Map of the Modern World 5 September 2009 Orderliness and Humanism: An Expos of The Lettered City and Utopia The Lettered City by ngel Rama and Utopia by Thomas More are two works written

centuries apart with striking similarities, but also fundamental differences. These differences come from the point of view that each author possessed: Rama looking back at the Spanish Empire and More looking to the future of the English Empire. Everyone has a different idea of a model society and that is clearly seen by comparing these two works. The ideal of the city as the embodiment of social order corresponded to a moment

in the development of Western civilization as a whole, but only the lands of the new continent afforded a propitious place for the dream of the ordered city to become a reality. (Rama 1) The idea of a city embodying social order in the New World is a common factor of The Lettered City and Utopia. However, the authors visions of what this city would look like are quite different. First of all, the type of society stressed in The Lettered City was an urban society, while More created an agrarian one. The urban society was created so that the distribution of urban space would reproduce and conZirm the desired social order. (Rama 5) More created the agrarian society as to stress work and self-sufZiciency as opposed to the idleness that often accompanies city life. Since both of these societies were founded in the New World, the indigenous people must be taken into account. Whereas Rama insinuates the Spanish isolated the natives, the Utopians extended invitations for the natives to join their society. Social class was a big aspect in The Ordered City for the

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Spaniards, but the Utopians didnt practice the idea of social classes. One could argue that a social class was present with the existence of the magistrates and prince, in theory, however, they were also viewed as equals to the other members of society. Hierarchy was a big part of keeping order in The Lettered City. Each city was divided into hierarchical sections and the cities within the Empire were also divided into hierarchical structures. The cities were set up in such a way in The Lettered City because where such orders are given from the outset, orderly results will follow without undue cost and effort, and in other places order will never be achieved. (Rama 4) The result of such hierarchy is an incohesive system of cities that was nonexistent in Mores Utopia because hierarchy was not present in Utopia. Every city was equal in virtually every way. In fact, the Utopians took strides to make cities equal such as redistributing people and food supplies when necessary. The only exception was the city of Amaurote where the council house was. (More 65) No one whos familiar with Utopia will doubt the orderliness of it, however More achieved order in a different way than forcing it upon the people. Utopia was founded by people who believed in order and ventured for their city to become the pinnacle of order. Order became imbedded in the culture and almost came instinctively to the future Utopians. The city described in The Lettered City was a tool to assist in spreading the Catholic faith. People who lived there had to conform to the one, true faith. In Utopia, people were free to practice the religion they chose as long as it didnt upset the religious practices of others. In fact, the church in the town was very nondenominational; it was this way in part because the Utopians didnt follow the practice of erecting and glorifying idols. One of the most important items of similarity between The Lettered City and Utopia was the ideal of literacy. More went even as far to educate everyone, including women, which was a very

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provocative proposition for the time period. Rama says the Conquistadors supported literacy because In Latin America, the written word became the only binding one -- in contradistinction to the spoken word, which belonged to the realm of things precarious and uncertain. (Rama 6) Also, In order to achieve their civilizing mission, the cities founded by the Spanish and the Portugese had to dominate and impose certain norms on their savage surroundings. The Zirst of these norms was an education centered on literacy... (Rama 11) Although both of these societies were based on order, the underlying reasons for

doing so were quite different. In The Lettered City, the city became the organizing system for the newly acquired merchandise. In Utopia, the city was based very much on the humanist thoughts of Thomas More; equality and relative freedom to the time were fundamental pieces of his vision. Looking at these works through the political scope, Mores Utopia is a good example of early classical Liberalism, while The Lettered City is a strong representation of classical Conservatism. Utopia is a good example of Liberalism because it represents individual freedom to a extent and the promotion of rights as long as these ideals beneZit the society as a whole. It is no surprise that The Lettered City represents classical Conservatism because the Catholic Church (the most Conservative force of the time stressing tradition and maintenance of the status quo) saw the New World as tabula rasa and supported the creation of these cities. The Spanish Crown supported the basic strategy of divide and conquer when

applied to the New World. This was very effective, but not a very humanistic approach as stressed by More. Instead of telling people who were not born into the Spanish society what to believe and how to behave, More sought freedoms for people as long as they

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corresponded to the greater good. As pointed out by Rama when referring to Spanish plans for cities in America, These visions rarely escaped the pitfall of rationalized futures, the fatal principle of mechanical regularity that Thomas More exempliZied and gloriZied in his own Utopia of 1516: He who knows one of the cities will know them all, so exactly alike are they, except where the nature of the ground prevents. (Rama 8) ngel Rama and Thomas More both describe in their own way how Europeans

dreamt of the tabula rasa that was America. For both authors, America was a place to rid Europe of the organic cities that plagued Europes desire for order in favor of the ordered cities that could be made in America. Overall, although these two ordered societies are similar, the underlying reasons for describing and in the case of The Lettered City creating these cities were fundamentally different. The Spaniards sought a society that was easy to control, while More dreamt of a place where reason reigned supreme and humans could exist as they were meant to be and not forced to be.

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Works Cited More, Thomas. Utopia. Trans. Ralph Robinson. New York: Barnes and Noble Classics, 2005.

Rama, ngel. The Lettered City. 1984.