Islandia (novel)

Islandia is a classic utopian fiction novel by American author and legal scholar Austin Tappan Wright, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. It was published posthumously in 1942 by Farrar & Rinehart, eleven years after Wright's death in 1931.

Background and Publication

Wright wrote the novel as a lifelong hobby, beginning its conception as a boy. The original manuscript was vast—containing close to 600,000 words—and was edited posthumously by author/editor Mark Saxton, who reduced it by about a third with the advice and consent of Wright's wife and daughter. The complete, unpublished Islandia papers are held in the Houghton Library at Harvard University. A 61-page introduction by Basil Davenport accompanied the original 1942 edition.

Setting

The novel is set in the real world of the early 20th century, in a remote fictional nation called Islandia, located "at the tip of the Karain semi-continent" near "the unexplored wastes of Antarctica in the Southern Hemisphere." Islandia is a pre-industrial, agrarian society that deliberately limits foreign influence. Its citizens enforce "the Hundred Law," restricting access to the country to only one hundred visitors at a time. Wright may have drawn inspiration from the historical isolation policies of Siam (starting in 1688) and Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate.

Plot

The protagonist and narrator, John Lang, graduates from Harvard University in 1905. While an undergraduate, he befriends an Islandian student named Dorn and learns the Islandian language. After graduation, his uncle—a prominent businessman—arranges his appointment as American consul to Islandia, with the tacit mission of advancing American trade interests.

Lang gradually becomes immersed in Islandian culture. He falls in love with Dorn's sister, Dorna, but she does not reciprocate and instead accepts a marriage proposal from the King. As the novel progresses, the people of Islandia reject demands from the Great Powers for unrestricted trade and immigration, choosing to maintain their isolation. Lang sympathizes with the Islandians, disappointing American business interests. Near the end, he is granted Islandian citizenship as a reward for heroism during an attack by a neighboring group. He later marries an American friend who joins him in Islandia and is also granted citizenship.

Themes and Cultural Features

Islandian culture is characterized by several distinctive features:

• Progressive social values, including the rehabilitation of prostitutes into respectable society, a love of nature, and rural lifestyles.
• Universal participation in useful work, including farming, even among the upper classes.
• Limited technological adoption: Islandians reject most modern Western technology (e.g., railroads) but selectively use some inventions they deem worthwhile, such as modern rifles and sewing machines.
• Four distinct words for love:
  • alia: love of place, family land, and lineage (similar to heimat)
  • amia: love of friends (similar to philia)
  • ania: desire for marriage and commitment (similar to storge)
  • apia: sexual attraction (similar to eros)

The novel's philosophy has been described as "enlightened Hedonism."

Sequels

Three additional books were written by Mark Saxton (the editor of the original novel), all published with the permission of Wright's estate:

• The Islar, Islandia Today - A Narrative of Lang III (1969) — set in the then-present day, concerning a coup attempt while Islandia debates joining the United Nations.
• The Two Kingdoms (1979) — a prequel set in the 14th century, about the only female ruler in Islandian history.
• Havoc in Islandia (1982) — a prequel set in the 12th century, about the Roman Catholic Church's attempt to overthrow the Islandian government.

An additional sequel, Islandia Revisited (1983) by Richard N. Farmer, is set in Islandia in 1944.

Cultural Influence

The novel is mentioned in Hamlet's Mill as a modern instance of myth. Ursula K. Le Guin referenced Islandian kinds of love in her novel Always Coming Home. The novel was a significant influence on the writing of Anne McCaffrey, who read and reread it in her youth.

Bibliographic Information