Art and the Beauty of the Earth, 1881
Where was this essay delivered? (Staffordshire, delivered to members of the Wedgewood Institute, Town Hall, Burslam)
What causes Morris to be concerned that he may offend his audience?
What changes have occurred in the art of recent centuries, in particular, the Renaissance? (art no longer anonymous, 84, admired aristocratic bias of classical times, art had been both useful and beautiful, 85)
What features does he admire in the artifacts of the past? (often common household goods, e. g. objects in Victoria and Albert Museum, made by ordinary people)
What does he admire in rural churches of the past? What had characterized the building process? (they were made intelligently and with pleasure, 86)
What had provided a partial compensation for the violence and ignorance of the past? (pleasure in work, 86) Why is this now less possible? (designer separated from executant, division of labor)
How do people generally respond to art? (87, very little, people only respond to familiar stories in pictures) What must change? (art must appeal to all people, 87)
If pleasure in work is not possible, what must be the alternative? (88, reduce all labor, even decoration, so that art is removed and only pain is left, 88)
What cannot machines do? (make works of art, 88)
What will restore pleasure in labor? (must be educated to discontent, 89, rebellion against blank ugliness)
Does he favor formal art education? (yes, feels it is a good improvement of recent times, is speaking to an art institute)
What are essential principles in art? (clarity of line, 89, cmp. Hopkins) Which of his principles resemble those of Ruskin? (see before creating, use material for its special qualities, 90, cleanliness of environment, 90)
Would Morris later change his mind about not using printed plates for designs? (Kelmscott Press of 1890s)
Why does he reject the argument that an ugly environment stimulates art? (91) What parts of nature does he think will be available to ordinary people? (91, spots which surround our daily lives--i. e., the pleasant rather than the sublime)
What should all people be entitled to? (a decent house in decent surroundings, 91) What are his views on the merits of “civilization”? Of British colonialism” (91, thrust on far off peoples at the cannon’s mouth)
Why does he mention Russia as a place of no hope? (91, Alexander II assassinated in 1881 after unrest by serfs and early revolutionaries)
What does he declare is his greatest hope? (92, that Britain will shake off foreign entanglements and give her people basic pleasures and hopes) What scenes prompt his belief that the ordinary people have been degraded? (92, eloquent passage on shouts in street)
What is his new definition of art? (arrangement of life for artistic labor, 92) What must be sacrificed? (money and dirt, 92)
What have recent generations done to the British landscape? (blotches of hideousness, 93) What resources could be used to clean up pollution? (money and science now expended on war, 93)
What new principle should be accepted? (external aspect of the country belongs to all, 93)
What changes has he noticed? (Kryle and Commons Preservation Societies, 93)
Why is he hopeful about the future? (94, world cannot return to slavery) How are we to act if we believe in a cause? (as if it depended on oneself alone, 94, cmp. categorical imperative)
“The Society of the Future,” 1886
When and where was this lecture delivered? (on the evening of Bloody Sunday, to the Hammersmith Branch of the Socialist League) May this affect its tone? (calls to action to remedy immediate evils)
What are some features of Morris’s lecture/essay style?
What does he believe are the important principles which underlie Socialism? (elimination of monopoly for the benefit of all, 188) Will there be drawbacks? (they will be balanced by the elimination of a system which works for only a few)
Does Morris appeal to a belief in progress? (the world cannot go back on its footsteps, 189)
What will be features of the new society? (people will feel the obligations of society more deeply, will have more leisure, crime will be lessened and education and greater ease will limit diseases, 189)
What contemporary theorists does he believe are unable to give hope? (utilitarianism, social Darwinism, 189, determinism, 191)
What does he lay out as the two modes of thought about socialism? (the analytical and the constructive, 190) What are the limitations of analysis in his (ironic) view?
What reason does he give for his desires for a radically transformed future? (has benefited from advantages of wealth) What is “the first of all [his] visions”? (words poor and rich will have lost their meaning)
What argument does he give against determinism? (humans as social animals determine Society, 191)
What points does Morris make about the merits of civilization? (good as a stepping stone to something better, 191) What is his personal response to civilization? (hates it)
What are the false goals of contemporary civilization, as he sees it? (people to be over-determined machines, 192)
What does he mean by stating that we should reject asceticism? What would have been the Victorian context for such a statement? (192) What is meant by the claim that civilization is a system for ensuring the vicarious exercise of human energies? (193)
What evils have been caused by luxury? (193) What are its features? (pollution, despoliation, grand clubs, 193)
What is the effect of the use of biblical resonances? (the husks that the swine do eat, 193)
What is wrong with the lives of the rich, and why should the poor not envy this? (dialectic opposite form of unnaturalness, 194) What will characterize the lives of free persons? (simplicity, simple pleasures, 194) What to him does this mean? (not uniformity but finding what one desires to do, 194, pleasure in the details of life, avoid servants, “turn your trouble into pleasure,” 195)
What present and former forms of hierarchy will disappear in the new society? (hierarchical position, property, belief in hereditary rank, 195, end of legal and monarchical systems) What forms of labor will disappear? (195-96, servanting, manufacture of inferior wares)
What will happen to machines? (used when desired, but slower processes accepted, 196)
What will happen to centers of population? (huge manufacturing districts will be broken up, 196) What critique does he make of a market economy? (depressions cause misery to thousands)
How will changes in education prompt and result from the elimination of social hierarchies? (197, no longer are people educated to serve or expect service; all should learn basic skills)
Is his belief that agriculture would not need machines convincing? What kind of machines would he have had in mind? (197)
Is Morris prescriptive about what the denizen of the future should do? (“the habits which would have given him the capacities of a man would stimulate him to use them,” 197)
In present day society, what is the goal presented as the result of effort? (will not have to exercise his energies, 198) How would this change? (people will concern themselves with efforts beyond personal use)
What according to Morris is “the besetting curse of civilization”? (“the sordid necessity to work at what doesn’t please us” 198)
What does he mean by his statement that people need to regain their eyesight? What examples does he give? (in an art gallery they seek out paintings known to have been costly, ignoring others; in literature they prefer moralism to visual representations, 198-200)
What are his views on the art of the future? (egalitarian, will appeal to senses, 200) What is his critique of the Victorian realist novel?
What has caused insensitivity to sensory experience? (grimy, disorderly, uncomfortable world, 200-201) What over-the-top example does he give? (201)
What is the context for his suggestion that in the new society no one will be “rewarded for having served the community by having the power given him to injure it”? (201)
What is meant by the claim that those of the future will look “with abhorrence at the idea of a holy race”? (imperialism, religious claims, 201)
What would define human relations? (201-202) What would be the relationship between an appreciation of nature and of art? (202)
What objections to an equal and free society does he try to anticipate? (future denizens of this society are more likely to be watchful and vigilant than those who live a degraded life, 203; the world wouldn’t stagnate because those who had learned to exercise their energies would wish to continue to do so, 203, most people would be happier)
What is his view of an elite who might object to this world? (their own world is worse, and they like it because others are relatively unfortunate, 203)
What is his conclusion? (let us rise up against these fools, 203-204) What makes the prose of this final passage effective? What is his final appeal? (“the test of our being fools no longer will be that we shall no longer have masters,” 204)
Page nos. are from A. L. Morton, ed., Political Writings of William Morris.