A UTOPIA WITH MOBILE PHONES
‘ONE WOULD HAVE TO TAKE A LOT OF COCAINE TO MAKE THIS SITUATION
MOSZKOWSKI, Alexander [and H.J. STENNING (trans.).]
The Isles of Wisdom.
London, George Routledge & sons, 1924.
8vo, pp. vi, 322; edges of some leaves lightly damaged, otherwise in an excellent condition; in original blue publishers’ cloth, gilt lettering, corners bumped, head and foot of spine worn; Paddington public libraries stamps to centre of title page recto and verso.
First English edition of Alexander Moszkowski’s dystopian satire. Moszkowski imagines a visit to a series of South-East Asian islands which each subscribe unreservedly to a philosophical school of thought. These utopias are absurd: people’s notions of philosophical purity prevent them from appreciating life’s variety, and even emotions, like love, which are non-philosophically useful. Contradictions ensue: on the Platonic island the young read Homer and Hesiod to learn classical languages whilst being ‘taught to despise the deeds of which the poets tell’ as unproductive. Utopias therefore eliminate the inefficiencies and experiences which make life enjoyable, thus, ‘nine-tenths of all philosophy whatsoever is sheer nonsense’.
The work reflects the intellectual climate of the 1920s. Moszkowski was crucial in popularising the Theory of General Relativity through a 1920 biography of his friend Albert Einstein. Here he introduces an island of relativity, in which registers of births and deaths are not kept because these ‘presuppose time determinations, which had been recognized as insubstantial’. The climate of invention also finds mobile phones on the ‘mechanized island’ of Sarragalla. Moszkowski explicitly attacks contemporary Europe through his satire. The allied blockade of Germany during the war, which caused malnourishment and suffering, is directly compared to the state-enforced abortion of children conceived by elderly parents on the Platonic island.
