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"New Atlantis & The City of the Sun" by Francis Bacon & Tomasso Campanella

book review by Riley Burnham 11/22/2022

somethin' new & different for sure

two books in one volume (emblazoned w/ a large sun on the front), these works came from their respective authors in the 1620s

Bacon's was my fav, as it encounters Atlantis from the perspective of a ship's captain; along w/ his (150) men; of which some are allowed into the city

Atlantis is treated as a secluded island, w/ utopian aspects from medicine to food, political structure, etc. -- i had the feeling/suspicion that there's hint of truth between the lines -- that i suppose is to be determined

the stories & technologies given via Atlantis here are quite the treat -- Bacon's short book is a joy & worth pondering

the second book, Campanella's "City of the Sun" took a bit for me to get into [given it's like 30 pages, hahaha], although by the end i found some grace in it

a complaint that irks at me in these utopian books is the requisite authoritarian state they both hinge on

​​​​​​​if people want to be cogs in a machine, then sure, a totalitarian "utopia" is the way to go, where daily & yearly life is essentially dictated [get outta here]

reality of course bares that we each are self-driven, fitting into communities of varying sort & culture, w/ the modern ideals being challenged constantly -- a symbiosis

i appreciate the utopian vision as a "remedy" for empires [City of the Sun mentions pitfalls of Rome, for instance], although ordaining life like a military force seems maddeningly soul-crushing