Abstract
The utopic scene Raphael composes for us presents stories and apparent illustrations of certain characteristics of the representation. They can be classed into two large groups, each having a similar structure. The first includes narratives of successful cultural contacts between Raphael, his fellow travelers, and the Utopians. These latter have easily assimilated the Old World's science, technological advances, and humanities. The second group is made up of stories with a negative character. Here Utopia has expanded into neighboring "utopic" societies, exploiting them commercially, waging imperialist wars against them, conducting a corrupt and deceitful diplomacy toward them. These are the "moments' when the Utopians have mixed with the "impure," blood and gold; they mastered this contact by rejection, be it political, geographic, or axiomatic. Gold is thus for outside use only, untouchable and untouched. It is a means of corruption in foreign places; it "contains' corruption at home. It is in this same way that blood is spilled only outside city walls, by slaves who are simultaneously butchers and hunters, and off the island, by mercenary Zapolit troops. This repulsion, however, does not hinder the Utopians from accumulating enormous quantities of gold and silver from their judicious commercial enterprises; neither does it keep them from eating meat, nor from being able to defend themselves with courage and valor in an all-out war of patriotic sentiment. But now we know that the utopic figure whose production takes place in the neutralized space between contrary elements is perfect for gathering up these same elements, now neutral, in a group that is at once complex, coherent, and pluralistic.