Sub-Coelum
Encyclopedia
Sub-Coelum: A Sky-Built Human World is an 1893
utopian fiction
written by Addison Peale Russell
. The book is one volume in the large body of utopian, dystopian, and speculative literature that characterized the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
and similar writers. While some skeptics of utopianism responded with dystopian satires and parodies, others, like Russell, answered with speculative fictions of their own that defended more conservative values. (Pfaelzer places John Macnie's The Diothas
and John Jacob Astor IV
's A Journey in Other Worlds
in the same category.) Sub-Coelum has been called "a protest against the materialistic and socialistic tendencies of the times."
or a meditation on society and human affairs. The book is divided into 146 short chapters; most are a page or two in length. The style is sometimes elaborate and eloquently descriptive:
It can also be pithy and aphoristic: "Sarcasm was not often indulged, and only then between close friends." At some points the prose rises to a pitch of ecstasy or delirium:
Some critics complained about the book; a Yale
reviewer noted its "vagueness and indefiniteness...." Russell's imagined land has been grouped with "Altruria
, Equitania...or even Meccania
" (the fantasy countries of William Dean Howells
, Walter O. Henry, and Owen Gregory respectively).
On the positive side, material and mechanical progress continue; the workday is shortened, and extremes of wealth and poverty are leveled out. Even racism
is overcome. Surprisingly for the era of Jim Crow
and anti-miscegenation laws
, Russell appears to endorse inter-racial marriage: "Race prejudices gradually gave way, and bigotries. Fibres intermingled and blood interfused. Distinctions were obliterated by intermarriage."
As with race, so with gender: Russell's moralizing and idealizing tendency produces an unexpected result. "Men, many of them, changed places with women, and became essentially domestic. Household duties, in a great degree, had passed into their hands. They discovered a fondness for them, as to the other sex they became distasteful." "As far as possible woman was emancipated from menial duties." The country's doctors are women.
Russell consistently contrasts the past of Sub-Coelum, when things were less good, with the happier present. In the past, the nation may have had inferior clergy, and corrupt lawyers, and vain and foolish social customs — but moral reformation has brought about improvement. In this way, Russell contrasts actual aspects of American culture in his age, with his vision of how things should be.
In Russell's imaginary country, "The vices, in a great measure, had been eliminated, or had died out." This includes alcohol abuse and tobacco, gambling and prize fighting. "Increase of common sense and practical wisdom was a marked result of the new life." Yet (with the vagueness cited by the Yale critic) Russell never explains how this renovation in human nature comes about.
The book is full of animals. In addition to the squirrels and monkeys, Russell includes passages on bees, butterflies, dogs, horses, orangutans, snakes, insects, and microscopic life. A ten-page chapter, the book's longest, extols the amazing qualities of rats.
1893 in literature
The year 1893 in literature involved some significant new books.-Events:*André Gide begins his travels in North Africa.*Jerome K. Jerome founds the magazine To-Day.-New books:*Byron A...
utopian fiction
Utopian and dystopian fiction
The utopia and its offshoot, the dystopia, are genres of literature that explore social and political structures. Utopian fiction is the creation of an ideal world, or utopia, as the setting for a novel. Dystopian fiction is the opposite: creation of a nightmare world, or dystopia...
written by Addison Peale Russell
Addison Peale Russell
Addison Peale Russell was an American author of the later nineteenth century. He is remembered mainly for his Sub-Coelum — "his best book...a Utopian protest against materialistic socialism."...
. The book is one volume in the large body of utopian, dystopian, and speculative literature that characterized the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Genre
Scholar of the genre Jean Pfaelzer has described Sub-Coelum as a "conservative utopia," a book written in reaction to the multiple radical implications of the utopian fiction of Edward BellamyEdward Bellamy
Edward Bellamy was an American author and socialist, most famous for his utopian novel, Looking Backward, set in the year 2000. He was a very influential writer during the Gilded Age of United States history.-Early life:...
and similar writers. While some skeptics of utopianism responded with dystopian satires and parodies, others, like Russell, answered with speculative fictions of their own that defended more conservative values. (Pfaelzer places John Macnie's The Diothas
The Diothas
The Diothas; or, A Far Look Ahead is a 1883 utopian novel written by John Macnie and published using the pseudonym "Ismar Thiusen". The Diothas has been called "perhaps the second most important American nineteenth-century ideal society" after Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward .-Synopsis:The novel...
and John Jacob Astor IV
John Jacob Astor IV
John Jacob Astor IV was an American businessman, real estate builder, investor, inventor, writer, lieutenant colonel in the Spanish-American War and a member of the prominent Astor family...
's A Journey in Other Worlds
A Journey in Other Worlds
A Journey in Other Worlds: A Romance of the Future is a science fiction novel by John Jacob Astor IV, published in 1894.The book offers a fictional account of life in the year 2088...
in the same category.) Sub-Coelum has been called "a protest against the materialistic and socialistic tendencies of the times."
Form
Sub-Coelum has been termed a novel, for want of a better classification — though it is that unusual type of novel that has no plot or characters. It might more accurately be called a fantasyFantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
or a meditation on society and human affairs. The book is divided into 146 short chapters; most are a page or two in length. The style is sometimes elaborate and eloquently descriptive:
- "Every flying and creeping thing had its enthusiasts and exponents. Ephemera, infusoria, animalculae, were classified and individualized, without limit. Microbes, bacilli, were pets of the imagination. Children, even, seemed familiar with the monsters of the microscope, and talked of them as glibly as of their playthings and the chemical elements."
It can also be pithy and aphoristic: "Sarcasm was not often indulged, and only then between close friends." At some points the prose rises to a pitch of ecstasy or delirium:
- "Light and heat were obtained almost entirely from water....Exalting tonics and enrapturing odors were diffused through the atmosphere at pleasure. Talent expended itself in producing essences and tinctures and stimulants of paradisaic delicacy to be so employed. On great occasions the light produced rivaled that of the sun. The whole atmosphere seemed to be aflame. The effect was magical. The smallest thing was made visible, and all things were beautified in appearance. Men appeared more manly and women more lovely."
Some critics complained about the book; a Yale
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
reviewer noted its "vagueness and indefiniteness...." Russell's imagined land has been grouped with "Altruria
A Traveler from Altruria
A Traveler from Altruria is a Utopian novel by William Dean Howells. It was first published in installments in The Cosmopolitan between November 1892 and October 1893, and eventually in book form by Harper & Brothers in 1894...
, Equitania...or even Meccania
Meccania
Meccania: the Super-State is a dystopian novel first published in 1918. It is noteworthy as "A remarkable forecast of the origin and development of totalitarianism...."...
" (the fantasy countries of William Dean Howells
William Dean Howells
William Dean Howells was an American realist author and literary critic. Nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters", he was particularly known for his tenure as editor of the Atlantic Monthly as well as his own writings, including the Christmas story "Christmas Every Day" and the novel The Rise of...
, Walter O. Henry, and Owen Gregory respectively).
Moral matters
Pfaelzer calls Sub-Coelum "an early behaviorist utopia...." There is much "individuality" in Russell's projected social order, but little privacy; the people are close observers of each other. Artists who offend are jailed. Russell places a high value on sexual restraint. "Purity, of all things, was most jealously guarded. The incorrigibly impure were locked up forever. Men and women, as to that, were treated alike by the police and by the courts." To obtain a marriage license, a couple must answer a long series of questions, under oath.On the positive side, material and mechanical progress continue; the workday is shortened, and extremes of wealth and poverty are leveled out. Even racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
is overcome. Surprisingly for the era of Jim Crow
Jim Crow laws
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans...
and anti-miscegenation laws
Anti-miscegenation laws
Anti-miscegenation laws, also known as miscegenation laws, were laws that enforced racial segregation at the level of marriage and intimate relationships by criminalizing interracial marriage and sometimes also sex between members of different races...
, Russell appears to endorse inter-racial marriage: "Race prejudices gradually gave way, and bigotries. Fibres intermingled and blood interfused. Distinctions were obliterated by intermarriage."
As with race, so with gender: Russell's moralizing and idealizing tendency produces an unexpected result. "Men, many of them, changed places with women, and became essentially domestic. Household duties, in a great degree, had passed into their hands. They discovered a fondness for them, as to the other sex they became distasteful." "As far as possible woman was emancipated from menial duties." The country's doctors are women.
Russell consistently contrasts the past of Sub-Coelum, when things were less good, with the happier present. In the past, the nation may have had inferior clergy, and corrupt lawyers, and vain and foolish social customs — but moral reformation has brought about improvement. In this way, Russell contrasts actual aspects of American culture in his age, with his vision of how things should be.
In Russell's imaginary country, "The vices, in a great measure, had been eliminated, or had died out." This includes alcohol abuse and tobacco, gambling and prize fighting. "Increase of common sense and practical wisdom was a marked result of the new life." Yet (with the vagueness cited by the Yale critic) Russell never explains how this renovation in human nature comes about.
Eccentricities
Russell also loads his fantasia with a fair share of oddities. The people of Sub-Coelum slaughter their chickens humanely, with guillotines. They keep "intelligent monkeys," along with monkey hospitals and monkey temples. They add trees and shrubs to the native forests, "to give greater variety." Squirrels are domesticated. Cemeteries are the most beautiful places in the sky-built land, and birds are lured into nesting on the graves. Snoring, whistling, and bell-ringing have been banished from society. The Sub-Coelumites have exceptionally good teeth; they train their pigs to eat in moderation.The book is full of animals. In addition to the squirrels and monkeys, Russell includes passages on bees, butterflies, dogs, horses, orangutans, snakes, insects, and microscopic life. A ten-page chapter, the book's longest, extols the amazing qualities of rats.
See also
- ArqtiqArqtiqArqtiq: A Story of the Marvels at the North Pole is a feminist utopian adventure novel, published in 1899 by its author, Anna Adolph. The book was one element in the major wave of utopian and dystopian fiction that marked the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.-Genre:Arqtiq participates...
- The MilltillionaireThe MilltillionaireThe Milltillionaire, or Age of Bardization is a work of utopian fiction written by Albert Waldo Howard, and published under the pseudonym "M. Auberré Hovorré." The book was one element in the major wave of utopian and dystopian literature that characterized the final decades of the nineteenth...
- The Scarlet EmpireThe Scarlet EmpireThe Scarlet Empire is a dystopian novel written by David MacLean Parry, a political satire first published in 1906. The book was one item in the major wave of utopian and dystopian literature that characterized the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.-Plot summary:John Walker is a young...
- The World a Department StoreThe World a Department StoreThe World a Department Store: A Story of Life Under a Coöperative System is a utopian novel written by Bradford C. Peck, and published by him in 1900. The book was one entrant in the wave of utopian and dystopian writing that occurred in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries...