The essay analyses the interplay of death drive and heterotopian garden space in H. G. Wells' "The Country of the Blind".
In the essay, the author shows how the juxtaposition of Edenic/non-Edenic and utopian/non-utopian emplacements in the heterotopical garden space of the blind creates an ambiguity in which the protagonist Nunez finds himself unable both to mirror this ambiguity in himself and to live out his death drive fantasies on others.
H. G. Wells' short story "The Country of the Blind" acts as a prime example onto which to transfer the ambivalent understanding of heterotopian studies. In this story from 1904, the reader is presented an interplay between the protagonist Nunez clinging to his death drive fantasies and the semi-mythical place of the country of the blind.
Heterotopian studies are concerned with the "space outside" as opposed to the "internal space", Michel Foucault determines before he provides his audience with a headstrong analysis of the heterotopic (177). Having put aside internal space for his lecture, Foucault does not return to this claim in order to give an explanation for his differentiation. This is curious insofar as one considers the internal space as the realm of fantasy. Assuming that Foucault's concept of heterotopia is to be taken as an approach not to real world sites, such as a garden, a cemetery or a brothel, but rather to their "fictional representations" (Knight 142), the heterotopic seems to predominantly play a role in spaces of imagination, as for example in literary spaces. Foucault himself adds to this idea and contrasts his first distinction between the internal and external by declaring the ship as "the heterotopia par excellence" and by that "the greatest reservoir of imagination" (185). Taking into consideration this grasp of the heterotopic as concerned with both the "mythical and real" (179), with the realm of imagination and the "space in which we are living" (177), H. G. Wells' short story "The Country of the Blind" acts as a prime example onto which to transfer this ambivalent understanding of heterotopian studies. In this story from 1904, the reader is presented an interplay between the protagonist Nunez clinging to his death drive fantasies and the semi-mythical place of the country of the blind. In this essay, I will show how the juxtaposition of Edenic/non-Edenic and utopian/non-utopian emplacements in the heterotopical garden space of the blind creates an ambiguity in which the protagonist Nunez finds himself unable both to mirror this ambiguity in himself and to live out his death drive fantasies on others. Ultimately, this inability leads Nunez to his self-destruction.
Two critics proclaim in their analyses that Wells' short story is deliberately designed as a utopic story. In a short article, Terry W. Thompson states that "The Country of the Blind" displays multiple intertextual references to Plato's "fabled land of Atlantis" ("An Atlantis Allusion" 62). Thompson especially mentions visual similarities between Atlantis and "this alpine Arcadia", such as the valley's circular layout, the wall encircling the village of the blind, their "intricate irrigation system", as well as the "concentric inner" design of the village (63). This concentric layout is similarly visualised in a wood engraving by Clifford Webb (719). Furthermore, Thompson hints at the allusion that both the sightless settlers in Wells' short story and Plato's Atlanteans founded their civilisations "upon logic and beauty" and live in harmony "with nature and each other" ("An Atlantis Allusion" 64). In other terms, the cut-off valley in the mountains of Ecuador in Wells' story is portrayed as a utopic garden (63). In accordance to this reading of Wells' short story, Richard Toby Widdicombe defines "The Country of the Blind" amongst others as a utopian tale (94). In contrast to Thompson's focus on visual and ideological similarities between Atlantis and the valley of the blind, Widdicombe emphasises the text's "impossibility of textual resolution" as opposed to an alleged "monovalence" (93). Widdicombe also does not provide an explanation in his article why he considers "The Country of the Blind" utopian.
Next to Thompson's and Widdicombe's classification that Wells' "The Country of the Blind" is inherently a utopian text, a general definition of 'utopia' yields certain characteristics of the non-space that are consistent with some of the short story's passages. According to the Metzler Lexikon Literatur, a 'Utopie' functions as an ideally designed state or community, where unhappiness, physical or mental afflictions, and social injustice are transformed through social, political, economic, and cultural reforms or revolutions into the common good for everyone (Schweikle et al. 795). Moreover, in utopic spaces, contingency and unpredictability are eliminated as far as possible (ib.). Some of these characteristics work in line with the community of the blind in the mountains. Early in the text, the narrator provides the information that the blind "met and settled social and economic problems that arose" (Wells 324). Since the text does not explicitly mention possible forms of social injustice occurring in the community of the blind, the previous reforms appear to have resolved social problems to the extent that neither reforms nor revolutions are needed anymore. In addition, apart from the omnipresent yet unacknowledged ailment of sightlessness, physical or mental afflictions do not play a significant role in the lives of the blind. The villagers speak only once of a physical disease that affects the mental state of one of its inhabitants when the blind doctor claims that Nunez' "brain is affected" by his "diseased" eyes (342). Still, the villagers acknowledge the threat of bodily deterioration in the guise of diseases and injuries for there is an appointed doctor who knows to some extent of complex procedures such as a "surgical operation" to remove the eyes of a patient (343). As a result, neither bodily affliction nor the need for reforms or revolutions are remarkably present in the text's portrayal of the blind community in the Ecuadorian Andes, which could lead to the assumption – especially in connection with Thompson's and Widdicombe's notes on the text – that "The Country of the Blind" is a utopian short story.
However, although the blind community appears to be harmonious both within itself as well as embedded within the valley similar to Plato's Atlantean community, several indications that destabilise this utopian image emerge after Nunez' arrival in the valley. Firstly, the villagers appear to have established a well-working technique in order to deal with unpredictabilites. After numerous attempts to convince the villagers of his genetic superiority through vision, Nunez finds himself resorting "to force" (Wells 336). While waiting for his pursuers after his quasi-violent escape, Nunez beholds how some male villagers have taken up arms ("carrying spades and sticks") and how they are looking for the renegade outsider in a peculiar manner: "They advanced slowly, speaking frequently to one another, and ever and again the whole cordon would halt and sniff the air and listen" (Wells 337). This search-technique eventually proves rather successful since they reach Nunez within a short period of time (ib.). Considering that there was a time when the valley had not yet reached its supposedly utopian state, the early villagers probably had to concern themselves with various kinds of unpredictable incidents, which in turn called for efficient problem-solving methods such as the advancing line during Nunez' escape. Since the villagers still know how to efficiently employ this particular method, one might assume that even in the alleged utopian valley that Nunez has found the blind people still have to regularly deal with unpredictable events. However, unpredictabilities should have been eliminated in the utopian community to the point where one would assume that the villagers would react rather surprised than well-prepared to Nunez' renegade action.
In addition to this indication of unpredictable incidents occurring in the valley of the blind, ubiquitous happiness has not been reached within the community as of Nunez' arrival. The miserable fate of Medina-saroté stands out among the general content of the blind villagers. Shunned by the community for her bodily deficits, such as her "long eyelashes", "strong voice" and "clear-cut face", she leads a lonely life with "no lover" but with her father (Wells 340). Apparently, the notion of beauty of the body has not died out within the valley community. As a result, probably not only Medina-saroté but also other women with "grave disfigurement[s]" (ib.) are considered unworthy of a lover. Hence, the misery of Medina presents itself in contrast to the utopian nature of the country of the blind as does the village's preparedness for unpredictabilites.
A third notion that hinders a purely utopian reading of Wells' short story are the male villager's aggressions against the proposal that Nunez may marry Medina-saroté. Although Nunez has become "a citizen of the Country of the Blind" (Wells 340), the rest of the village maintains the concept of a two-class society in which Nunez finds himself on the lower end of social status: "They held him as a being apart, an idiot, incompetent thing below the permissible level of a man" (341). The idea that Nunez might marry Medina-saroté, although herself being unwanted by all male citizens, and thus corrupt the blind race evokes anger in the young men (341–342). This anger ultimately fuels an unprovoked violent action against the mountaineer in that a young man starts to insult and hit Nunez (342). At other times, some villagers display similar feelings of anger or hostility against the foreign man from Bogota. Pedro, one of the first three blind people to meet Nunez, becomes "hostile" after Nunez tries to redeem himself in front of the other villagers by asking Pedro some questions on his earlier whereabouts (336). Similar to the young man starting to fight with Nunez, Pedro's hostility does not appear as being provoked by an aggressive action from Nunez. In contrast to this, Nunez angers some blind citizens when he enters the room where the village's elders reside. Falling down in the "room as black as pitch", he enters a "one-sided fight" and stays on the floor (331). It becomes evident that aggressions or aggressive feelings such as anger are no new or forgotten concepts for the blind people in the Andes. They both react to seemingly aggressive actions, e.g. Nunez falling on them, as well as behave aggressively when no provocative element is present, i.e. when they hear of Nunez' proposal to Medina-saroté. If unhappiness were transformed in this allegedly utopian society, one would assume that unprovoked aggressions should not occur in the way they do in Wells' short story.
While focusing on possible interrelations between unhappiness, violent actions and culture in a society deemed to be utopian, one is inclined to consult psychoanalytical theory in order to reach a deeper understanding thereof. Sigmund Freud stated in his book Das Unbehagen in der Kultur that human misery derives from three main sources: the human body, the outside world, and the social relations between human beings (43). Furthermore, according to Freud, culture appears as a process in the service of Eros, which is working against mankind's aggression drive, the descendant of the destructive drive (85). The interplay between aggression drive and culture is still observable in the community of the blind in Wells' short story. On the one hand aggression in the form of exclusion can lead to unhappiness for the unattractive Medina-saroté whereas on the other hand aggression is enacted against the proposed marital merging – a manifestation of Eros – of Medina-saroté and Nunez, further amplifying their mutual misery. In addition to this, the blind society condones these aggressive tendencies against their citizens since the perpetrators are not punished for their behaviour by the community in both cases. In a utopian society however, one would expect either that Eros has already won the battle against Thanatos and thus no occurrences of the aggressive drive should be visible any longer or that at least the blind community condemns and works against the natural aggressive tendencies of its population.
After establishing that a utopic reading of Wells' "The Country of the Blind" can at times become problematic, a heterotopian reading might prove to yield better results of understanding the inner spatial and psychological workings of the short story. According to Kelvin Knight, the concept of heterotopia "remains notoriously ill-defined" albeit that it continually acts as a "source of inspiration for geographers, architects and literary critics alike" (141). Knight strives to give a unified definition of heterotopia and states that Foucault's intention behind this concept was not to provide a "tool for the study of real material sites" but rather of the "fictional representations of these semi-mythical places" (142). Thus, a heterotopian reading of the valley of the blind may be deemed feasible as long as the valley represents a semi-mythical place that Foucault mentions, such as "the mirror, the garden, the library, the prison and so on" (155). As was mentioned above, Thompson considers Wells' "The Country of the Blind" referring to Plato's Atlantis and thus representing a utopic garden. Although the alleged utopian nature has been shown to be problematic, the concept of the valley as a garden space works in accordance with other critical readings of Wells' short story.
A possible reading of the valley of the blind as a paradisal garden shines through Boulton's survey of Terence Hawkes thoughts on Shakespeare's The Tempest. Here, Boulton quotes Hawkes who "outlines one particular historical moment which shaped the European psyche in its perceptions of an earthly paradise", i.e. the seventeenth century colonisation of the New World (5). According to Hawkes, this colonisation included the idea "of the New World as another Eden, replete with an infinity of good things, […] a place of redemption, of everybody's second chance" (qtd. in Boulton 4–5). The infinity of good things as well as a suggested absence of bad things in the country of the blind becomes apparent as soon as the narrator of Wells' short story describes the near-Atlantic layout of the valley for "life was very easy in that snow-rimmed basin […] with neither thorns nor briars, with no evil insects nor any beast save the gentle breed of llamas" (Wells 324). Furthermore, the valley's intricate irrigation system and abundance of precious metals, suggested by the inexpert lying of the settler with the "bar of native silver" (323), add to the image of a paradisal garden of the blind waiting to be colonised. The idea that the valley of the blind represents a space where one can find redemption or a second chance, mirrors the origin story of the blind community since the early settlers were "a family or so of Peruvian half-breeds fleeing from the lust and tyranny of an evil Spanish ruler" (322). The valley was thus their second chance of living in peace and harmony. Thompson supplements this idea of a garden of the blind by comparing the short story's protagonist Nunez to "one of the most ruthless and ambitious of the Spanish Conquistadors" – Vasco Núñez de Balboa ("Channeling Balboa" 218). Taking this interpretation into account, Nunez becomes the "destructive and reckless" conquistador (qtd. in Thompson, "Channeling Balboa" 227) invading the paradisal garden of the blind in the New World.
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- Christian Schulz (Autor), 2018, The Interplay of Death Drive and Heterotopian Garden Space in "The Country of the Blind" by H. G. Wells, Múnich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/703378
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