Insert Clever Utopia Title Here

Right off the bat, Thomas More gave me a kind of annoying vibe. His letter to Peter Giles had quite a few humblebrags and he's super shady about Raphael. Literally (used in the literal sense not the figurative one) within the first paragraph he's saying that Raphael is "hurried and impromptu" in his way of speaking, as well as speaking with "careless simplicity".

Thomas also talks for like a paragraph about how he's so busy doing so many things for other people, if Raphael had not been so simple, and were his job more difficult than just transcribing Raphael's story, he would not have been able to finish. Okay Thomas, we get it. That being said, he clearly respects Giles' opinion; on page 24, he's telling of how he questioned his children's tutor on something but if Giles concurred More was comfortable changing his opinion on the matter, a seemingly big step for such a pompous guy. (I'm not sure if this is actually how More feels or if he's projecting a character?) 

I also respect the fact that More asks Giles to contact Raphael and make sure that nothing is wrong or forgotten. It seems that while More is arrogant and condescending, he also really cares about the work he's putting out into the world which is a great quality to have. 

actual video of Thomas More

Another thing: oh my god this title. "Utopia: The Best State of a Commonwealth, The Discourse of the Extraordinary Character, Raphael Hythlodaeus, as Reported by the Renowned Figure, Thomas More, Citizen and Sheriff of the Famous City of Great Britain, London" [sic]. That's all I have to say about that. 

Book 1 didn't really pull me in. This introductory letter grabbed me more than Raphael's monologue did. However, from what I gathered, Raphael thought that being in service to kings was no better than being a slave to them and would rather not be involved. He has some great one-liners which would make for nice sound-bites. 

Examples: 

• "Almost all princes prefer to occupy themselves in the pursuits of war rather than in the honorable activities of peace" (32)
• "It is only natural for everyone to like his own brainchild the best: the crow is delighted with his chick, the ape pleased with his cub" (33) 
• "...it is never safer to follow a wicked purpose than to repent it" (42)

So, it is safe to say that Raphael goes against the grain, and as many others have pointed out in their blogs this week, that he dislikes the "sheeple" in society. 

I wikipedia'd More and found out that, "More insisted upon giving his daughters the same classical education as his son, a highly unusual attitude at the time." That's irrelevant to this blog post but I think it's awesome. So maybe he's not so annoying after all.