Dear Reader,

To begin, I want to review the book I read this quarter.  Lost Horizon by James Hilton was a delightful read for a few reasons.  On the surface, Hilton writes about an interesting topic, paradise, and has constant action that keeps the reader on his toes.  Although english teachers preach again and again that “good literature is not about the plot!”, an intriguing plot often helps engage readers with the text (Romano).  I found this true as each of Hilton’s characters interact with paradise and the pursuit of happiness uniquely.  This resulted in a thought-provoking and enjoyable novel on a deeper level as well.  

As I narrowed down my topics for my expository essay I knew I wanted to vaguely write about happiness and its role in paradise.  I think as I began writing my essay, I kept opening new revenues of discussion.  Unfortunately, I think this showed as I feel as if I wrote a scattered essay.  However, although it may have been scattered, writing the essay made me think about the book a lot more.  This allowed me to organically come to conclusions about the author’s purpose that I tried to implement into my other genres.  For example, I picked up on the disparity between how others view Conway, and how he views himself.  This spurred my final genre and allowed me to explore his character further.  As I placed myself in his shoes, Hilton’s purpose clarified a great deal and this allowed me to achieve a greater understanding of the text.

This leads me into the next genre I want to talk about: limericks.  After offering the idea to a good friend and watching that friend easily surpass me in skill and quality, I was determined to make a few acceptable poems.  Although they, like the essay, are slightly scattered I tried to unite them with a central theme.  I think my main goal was to illuminate a few different ways in which complacency is a negative force although I think that may have been hard to see at times.  

My other two genres, the poem and the quality piece, came a lot more naturally than I first expected.  For the quality piece I chose ‘Content’ because it is the root of the danger of complacency.  With this genre, I felt that after some point, I had to stop writing.  I decided to delete a good portion of what I had already written as I tried to make my point more concise and focused.  This was a good strategy not only for reducing clutter, but I think it strengthened my central idea about complacency for the project as a whole.  I decided to write the poem from the perspective of a couple going through a divorce.  Although I do not have experience with this situation, I wanted to address an issue that I fear is becoming more apparent in modern society.  The internet was an amazing creation, but it produces an endless amount of engagements.  I am beginning to see a connection more with a computer screen and less human interaction.  I am afraid the value of honest human interaction is rapidly depleting and although I do not directly talk about technology in my piece, it was my inspiration for writing it.  I have gone on a technology-free camping trip in a remote place on the Canadian border two times over the last four years.  Each time I come back to Evanston, I promise myself I’ll try to connect with people and nature more and technology less.  I think this played a huge role in my opinions on technology and letting life pass by as well.

The golden thread that I attempted to connect each genre was the phrase “good enough”.  Through writing about contentment and happiness, I realized how dangerous this phrase is.  I’ve heard it used negatively before in sports, but I thought it would be interesting if I applied it to life in general.  One of the most frightening thoughts I had while in the writing process for this project is the idea of being forgotten.  I saw that this idea and phrase are closely linked because once someone is content with themselves, they stop engaging in life around them.

Overall, I enjoyed this project more than I first expected.  Yet I did have to stay up a little later than I wanted to during the final week of my high school career to finish it.

Obituaries/Final Goodbyes

Chang

The man known to all as Father Perrault has left us today.  Wisdom beyond his centuries, Perrault could inspire with a single nod.  No man will ever leave such a legacy.  He came to Shangri-La as a lost traveller, a man with nothing and close to death.  The residents of Blue Moon welcomed him into their homes, displaying the hospitality that we have tried to retain so many years after.  I met Perrault as a young man myself.  I came to Shangri-La in a very similar way.  I have always felt a certain connection with him but I also realize that I flatter myself with this comparison.  Perrault is everything one would aspire to be: loyal, honest, proactive, respectful, wise, humble, and he will continue to influence society with the way in which he lived.  The afterlife receives a man who will certainly improve their society, whatever form it may be in.

Conway

Dad, although I only knew you for a few weeks, I felt although you have been by my side my entire life.  I understood, immediately, that this was home.  Perhaps I had desired a more energetic life before the war, but the death, the despair, the inhumane suffering reduced my ambition to mere nothingness.  You understood this.  I am tired of modern society.  I am tired of the title veteran; I am tired of what a title carries.  I am tired of everyone thinking they know me, while I don’t even know me.  I ramble, but what I’m trying to say is Shangri-La is the only place I felt comfortable to exist; no expectations, no obligations, just living life.  I wish I could’ve stayed longer, and...I don’t know exactly why I left.  My friends needed me, I’m sorry.

Lo-Tsen

Let me begin, Father Perrault, by saying you will be missed.  Although I only had the opportunity to meet you twice, they have affected me more than I could ever have imagined.  I have the utmost amount of respect for you, sadly, I cannot say the same for your lamasery.  Living in Shangri-La most of my life, I have come to feel tired of the tiredness.  I long for love, lust, and a little more than laziness.  Of course we have books that describe love -- its emotional state, how it affects decision making -- but I am a young 134.  I am done learning for learning’s sake, I want to live!  Shangri-La seems like a nice retirement home, but I’m passing up all my golden years here.  I need to leave, explore, run out the door, I’m not wanted here anymore.  I’m no longer content being happy enough.  Be at peace in your afterlife, and please forgive me for leaving, Father.

Limericks:

There once was a perfect society,

the citizens had little anxiety

they lived in sweet peace

no need for police;

a community blind with propriety.

There once was a man from St. Louis

His actions were utterly clueless

he had a dream

ran out of steam

he realized his life was quite fruitless.

There once was a man from Shang-La

he lived with his wife in great awe

they had a small baby,

they never said maybe

Soon there were 12 of them, waah

Extended Limericks:

There once was a man who was happy enough

He couldn’t deny that his true love was stuff

he was quite depressed

--society still progressed

he then realized his life was a terrible bluff.

There once was an inspired young man

Who thought of an extravagant plan,

he never would worry,

he needn't not scurry,

He was a part of the Ku Klux Klan.

 The Art of Divorcing

You said you were happy You said you were happy

I was happy--enough

at least I thought so… at least for a while

until uncomfortable thoughts

moved to silent tension,

--afraid to disrupt the peace

Remember when we used to have fun? Remember when we used to have fun?

the question ‘am i happy?’ never had to be                          asked.

we would spend time together,

two lovers lost in languid love

forging a future,

not reminiscing on the past...

I felt this coming I never saw this coming

at Christmas with your parents.

was it even ever love?

it felt more like an efficient relationship;

we both knew it wouldn’t last… right?

I think

It’s time to give up ‘It’s time to give up’

you said

in a voice hardly sprinkled with despair.

how

Can’t this be easy for you? Can this be easy for you?

the charade is up

we can split the money.

Let’s just move on Let’s just move on

I’m done trying

You’ve made your point

I’m moving out

Lets be clear,

I’m the one leaving you. I’m the one leaving you.

Content

Content has not made a purchase in years.  His house looks nearly the same as it did when he bought it 35 years ago.  He rarely rearranges the furniture, but when he does, he is happy enough with his decision.  

Content lives with Happiness, but they don’t always get along.  Like the time Happiness went out and bought a puppy with her friend Impulse.  Impulse is too loud, too messy, and too unpredictable for Content’s liking.  Content is often left to clean up the mess Happiness and Impulse leave behind.  

Content enjoys Happiness’ company enough but hates when she invites Ambition over.  It’s always a huge ordeal and they get sentimental and start talking about their futures and their pasts.  Content doesn’t like huge ordeals.  Nor does he like when they whip out the photo album, or start planning events for next week.  

Besides Happiness, Content’s best friend is Satisfaction.  They’ve been best friends ever since Happiness introduced them online.  They live in different states so they’ve never met in person, but they are both okay with that; they don’t mind too much.

Content is a man of routine, evidenced by his 8:30 alarm every morning and his 6:30 supper.  He has eaten at the same restaurant every Sunday night for the last 10 years.  Sometimes he wonders if there are better places to eat... but quickly rationalizes that the food is good enough and that he is happy enough here, so why risk it?  

The Modern Paradox: An Unwanted Paradise

People have dedicated their lives seeking earthly paradises, yet in James Hilton’s Lost Horizon, four characters are kidnapped to a serene lamasery hidden in the Tibetan mountains.  Hugh Conway, Charles Mallinson, Henry Barnard, and Roberta Brinklow are forever linked when an evacuation flight from Baskul turns off course.  However, Hilton presents an intriguing complex as the characters resist their new surroundings.  Hilton illuminates the irony behind an unwanted paradise, but also ridicules the concept of paradise.  Upon entering Shangri-La, there is a general haze of confusion surrounding the society as Conway suspects that their food “might have contained some herb or drug” to relieve unease (Hilton, 70).  As the novel continues, the Shangri-La society dissipates the apprehension as each character ceaselessly “felt a soothing comfort of mind and body” (71).  The citizens of the lamasery were able to attain ‘paradise’ but only after making many sacrifices.

Paradise, as defined by dictionary.com, means “a state of supreme happiness; bliss”.  Therefore, a paradise is a community where each individual achieves a state of supreme happiness.  Economic systems have evolved in hopes to attain this state, yet every system has a unique approach.  The two extremes of distributing wealth, socialism and free market capitalism, succeed in different aspects.  As Cedric Muhammad states, “capitalism is not a political system, but an economic one” whereas “socialism is more sensitive to signals of wealth inequality” .  Capitalism states that people have the independence to work any job they can get.  Therefore, in a capitalist society, each citizen is given the opportunity to pursue happiness.  However, even an ideal capitalist state cannot be considered a paradise because the opportunity to pursue is not the same thing as a guarantee.  On the other hand, socialism represents a community that has potential to be a paradise.  In a perfectly socialist state, citizens work hard for the sake of working, share resources equally, and achieve happiness through moderation.  A certain mindset is necessary for socialism to work successfully.  The lamasery hidden in the Tibetan mountains is able to combine the attractive aspects of both economic systems.

When the travellers arrive to Shangri-La, Chang, a man from the town, acts as their tour guide.  Spurred by curiosity, Conway peppers Chang with questions - only a few of which he is allowed to answer.  Many of Chang’s responses deal with the importance of ‘good manners’ and he reveals that there are rarely any conflicts.  When Conway asks if there were any disputes over women, Chang replies, “ ‘Only very rarely, because it would not be considered good manners to take a woman that another man wanted”.  The citizens of Shangri-La have created a socialist society where they believe that “to govern perfectly it is necessary to avoid governing too much” (115).  Yet Chang also claims that they are able to pursue happiness.  Chang states that he and his fellow citizens, “devote themselves...to contemplation and the pursuit of wisdom” (97).  In this society where conflict is sparse, human ambition and freedom have been sacrificed in order to attain contentment.   Conway notices this sacrifice one night as he walks onto a balcony for some fresh air.  As he fantasizes about exploring the many mysteries of Shangri-La, he knew that “his movements were watched” and that “such freedom was illusory” (103).  Although Shangri-La may be defined as a paradise, perhaps paradise should stop having such a positive connotation.  

The first issue with ‘paradise’ is its inherent contradiction with progress.  Progress is most effectively driven by strong incentives, such as competition, rewards, and success, which are nonexistent in a utopian society.  Without progress, a society cannot expand, improve, or adapt, greatly reducing the society’s time horizon.  But more alarming is how a paradise, like Shangri-La, strips its’ citizens of human characteristics.  Socialism melts its citizens motivation and replaces it with a strict and molded perspective on life.  Shangri-La promotes eternal peace and this reduces human interaction to something less than human.  The most humane traits deal with making decisions that defy logic; it’s what differentiates humans from robots (Kraai).  Robots do not have the capability to love intensely, to imagine freely, or to rejoice completely.  They follow a strict code which ensures they always choose the most logical option.  This prevents ‘mistakes’, thus preventing learning and growth.  Emotion, therefore, is both a blessing and a curse.  It influences decisions with often unexplainable arguments and counters logic.  Basing a choice off of emotion can be a human flaw, but it also represents the capacity for ultimate happiness.  Without the opportunity to explore human nature, the citizens of Shangri-La resolve to live happily-enough.  By stripping away the citizens’ “always imperfect, chaotic, irregular and accidental character of the human condition”, Shangri-La is a robotic community where citizens sacrifice freedom and emotion in order to attain contentment (Zarka).

Shangri-La takes an unique approach on the pursuit of happiness.  The lamasery enables each citizen to pursue their own happiness, yet the society’s principles prevent its citizens from achieving complete happiness.  Hugh Conway’s attraction to the harmonious community derives from his time in war.  He has “used up most of [his] passions and energies” after soldiering in World War I and Father Perrault describes him fondly as “ ‘passionlessness’ ” (Hilton, 157).  Perreault makes it evident that these are the individuals that exist in his created paradise; tired, unambitious, and dispassionate citizens.  However, these characteristics are far from the perception of a stereotypical utopia and contradict the definition of paradise.  In order to attain a life full of contentment, Shangri-La citizens willingly sacrifice many of the aspects that contribute to a life worth living; in comparison to people who live an active life, the inhabitants of Shangri-La, “ ‘do nothing’ ” (97).

Works Cited

Kraai, Abby. "Creativity: What Separates Us From the Robots." Middle School Lunches Other Moments of Truth. N.p., 23 Feb. 2013. Web.

Muhammad, Cedric. "3 Reasons Why Good Socialism Beats Bad Capitalism." Forbes. Forbes, 20 Nov. 2013. Web.

Zarka, Yves Charles. "The Meaning of Utopia." Opinionator The Meaning of Utopia Comments. The New York Times, 28 Aug. 2011. Web.

Mark Roth

Ms. Romano

Blog #2

May 11th, 2015

Incentives of Paradise

People have dedicated lifetimes seeking earthly paradises, yet in James Hilton’s Shangri-La, four characters are kidnapped to a serene lamasery hidden in the Tibetan mountains.  Hugh Conway, Charles Mallinson, Henry Barnard, and Roberta Brinklow are forever linked when an evacuation flight from Baskul turns off course.  However, Hilton presents an intriguing complex as his characters initially resist their new surroundings.  Hilton illuminates the irony behind an unwanted paradise, but also ridicules the concept of paradise as well.  Many of the questions that the characters ask refuse to be answered and there is a general haze of confusion surrounding the majority of the events occurring within Shangri-La.  Without further delay, in the following expository essay I explore the components of a paradise and why it is impossible to attain today.

Paradise.  Upon hearing that word, putting aside the mythological communities of eternal happiness such as Shangri-La, Atlantis, and the Islands of the Blessed, each person imagines a different society.  Although complete happiness is the shared, overarching goal, the concept of happiness varies greatly.  For some in modern society, good health and opportunity achieves the same gratification as fame and wealth.  Therefore, the first obstacle in creating an utopian society is a like-minded population.  This leads to the second obstacle as well.  There is a fine line between paradise and a community of contented people.  Shangri-La represents the latter as each member of society thinks in moderation.  Modern vocabulary has presented ‘paradise’ as an unreachable goal where everyone is happy because they get everything they want--without having to work for it.  The inhabitants of Shangri-La practice a very strict social code that forces them to act similarly and they achieve happiness through appreciation of moderation.  

Another issue in the attainment of paradise is presented in Lost Horizon.  As Hugh Conway ventures onto the balcony for a moment of reflection, he feels the eyes of his ‘guides’ on his back.  He realizes that there is only an ‘apparent’ freedom.  This reveals the minimal amount of freedom that Shangri-La’s inhabitants have as well.  Although they are content, there are apparently no issues ever; and if there is one it is handled as follows; QUOTE FROM (115).  America was built on the freedom to pursue happiness and in created paradises such as Shangri-La, there is no opportunity to pursue happiness; there is only contentedness.  This is true not only for created communities, but can also be applied to Karl Marx’s beliefs on the perfect society; socialism.  Incentives seem to drive much of the innovation in American society, but in Shangri-La and socialism, incentives are nearly all but removed.  Can a society survive without some type of motivating force to propel it forward?  Is it human nature to work hard or are incentives required?