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In Auden’s essay “Reading” collected in his book The Dyer’s Hand, he talks quite a lot about reviewers and reviewing books. He says:
Though the pleasure which works of art give us must not be confused with other pleasures that we enjoy, it is related to all of them simply by being our pleasure and not someone else’s. All the judgments, aesthetic or moral, that we pass, however objective we try to make them, are in part a rationalization and in part a corrective discipline of our subjective wishes. So long as a man writes poetry or fiction, his dreams of Eden are his own business, but the moment he starts writing literary criticism, honesty demands that he describe it to his readers, so that they may be in the position to judge his judgments.
To that end, Auden created a questionnaire for himself of things he would like to know about other critics when he was reading them. Does it help to know a reviewer’s idea of Eden? You be the judge. I give you my answers to Auden’s Eden Meme:
Landscape
Mesic prairie transitioning to savanna with lots of rivers, streams and some forested lakes.
Climate
Moderately cold and snowy winters and mildly warm summers.
Ethnic Origin of Inhabitants
As diverse as possible
Language
English will be the official language but all languages are encouraged (even Elvish and Klingon) and everyone should know more than one.
Weights and Measures
I know metric is easy, but I am attached to the quirkiness of feet and pounds and ounces and since this is my Eden, quirkiness rules.
Religion
Nature worship in which trees are sacred and animals can talk. Summer and winter solstice and spring and autumn equinox will be high holidays with festival celebrations.
Food
Auden doesn’t have food on his list so I thought it should be added. All food will be sustainably grown and organic and vegan with no weird processed chemicals or ingredients that no one can pronounce.
Size of Capital
Small enough that no one gets lost but big enough that everybody doesn’t know your name. Maybe somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 people.
Form of Government
An empire ruled by me. No just kidding! A democracy in which everyone is engaged and participates. It’s messy everyone gets a voice and plays fair because this is my Eden.
Sources of Natural Power
Wind, water, solar. Also human power especially in winter when it is cold. There will be communal power generating stations with stationary bikes hooked up to the power grid. For fun there will be community events – films and concerts – and those who attend will pedal the bikes for as long as they want to. That way people get out of the house, get some exercise and have fun. There will be no coal and no oil.
Economic Activities
Farming, arts and humanities, science and technology
Means of Transport
Bicycles, trolley cars, trains and boats. In winter skis and dog or horse-drawn sleds will be encouraged.
Architecture
Hobbit holes or other architecture that looks organic and melds with the landscape. There will be no skyscrapers. Buildings should be beautiful and human-scale and energy efficient.
Domestic Furniture and Equipment
Clean and simple design of natural materials in the style of the Amish and Shakers. Kitchen gadgets like coffee makers and food processors, and modern appliances are a must.
Formal Dress
In my Eden dress will be casual and hold to no particular style. Festival clothing will not be formal but it will reflect the season and be appropriately – er- festive.
Sources of Public Information
Publicly owned radio, citizen journalism, chatting with your neighbor over the garden fence or at the market. Particularly important government/city/village information will be broadcast over the radio and published online as well as posted at public gathering places.
Public Statues
Animals and characters from books, the occasional author or artist might also be honored with a statue.
Public Entertainment
Theater in the Park, orchestra, dance, poetry and book readings, amateur and professional performances, the solar festivals, community created events. No television.
So there they are, my answers to Auden’s Eden meme. Does it help you understand where I am coming from when I review books? I suppose it might a little since it reveals some of my biases and ideals. Please play along if you’d like and leave a comment or link back to this post so I and others can read about your own Eden. I won’t officially tag anybody but it would be really nice if Litlove, Danielle, Emily, and Daphne played along. Heh, I guess I just tagged four people.
Why even judge another person’s judgments? Accept them as one person’s view, supported or not. Mostly likely it will differ from another judgment and then another. We all read so differently and then judge differently. Fun.
Richard, I don’t think Auden is advocating judging another person’s judgments. His point is that book reviewers/ critics for all the talk of being objective are not and cannot be. His Eden questions are his way of “getting to know” the reviewer/ critic and as a result he will be armed with knowledge of the reviewer’s biases,etc and can take them into consideration when reading the criticism.
Stefanie: Thank you for the clarification. I wonder if a reviewer’s biases can be determined. Our own biases are difficult enough to determine and probably determined by those same unknown biases. Again one person’s bias is another persons truth.
Richard, that’s sort of the point of describing Eden. If you like the reviewer’s Eden chances are you’ll like similar books. If you don’t like the person’s Eden you can make allowances accordingly. As for whether we can know our own biases, sure we can, maybe not all of them, but certainly a good many of them.
At the moment my Eden would be one in which WordPress sent me notification that you’d published a new post – you’ve gone awol again.
I wonder, in fact, if you read someone’s criticism often enough you don’t very quickly pick up on what their Eden is without them ever having to tell you? It certainly works that way with bloggers, I think. You quickly recognise those with whom you wouldn’t want to share your Eden because you would disagree violently all the time and the imagined Eden would come crashing down as quickly as the biblical one. This reminds me of an assignment I used to set my Children’s Literature students which was to discover an author’s vision of what Peter Hollindale calls childness from their work. It’s very rare you can’t spot it.
Your Eden sounds a humane and sensible place, Stefanie but I can’t believe in any Utopia and, as Edwin Muir has it in his poem “One Foot In Eden”: What had Eden ever to say/Of hope and faith and pity and love/Until was buried all its day/And memory found its treasure trove?.
Muir on our post-edenic world:
Yet strange these fields that we have planted/So long with crops of love and hate./Time’s handiworks by time are haunted,/And nothing now can separate/The corn and tares compactly grown….
Ian, are you tossing a snake into my garden?
I suppose I was, Stefanie! Eden is something we cannot go back to and Utopias are something that I think should make us shudder whether Socialist; Libertarian; Religious Fundamentalist; Green; Fascist – even your decent and humane one.
Ian, oh I agree, Utopias are impossible fantasies. Not only does everyone have a different idea of what a Utopia should be, none of us are perfect. In past utopian community experiments participants quickly find out that human nature is the real snake. I think Utopias also assume perfection which means there is no change and therefore stagnation will eventually set in. Unless you can build a Utopia based on change but I’m not sure that can happen.
Alex, so what did you do to make WordPress mad?
I think you are right about blogging and how we get to know the blogger and at least have some understanding of likes and dislikes. Blogging is a much different animal than formal book reviews or criticism. Still, in the interest of disclosure as well as being too lazy in the heat to think too deeply…
Well said, Alex, I reckon we could have pretty well written Stefanie’s Eden for her don’t you think? I agree with much of her Arden tho sometimes I do wonder whether a benign dictatorship, that stays that way, might not be ideal. Sometimes our democracies are just too messy and risk spoiling all the other edenic things. Joking really, and yet …!
I like Auden’s point … Makes much sense to me. I trust Stefanie’s judgement because I like her Eden! I think that makes sense!
Whisperinggums, you either know me pretty well or I am not a very mysterious person or maybe both
Bookman and I were talking about my Edenic government being a benign dictatorship but I told him it just wouldn’t work because I wouldn’t want to be in charge. Maybe you’d like to come be in charge? I was going to tag you but I don’t recall you ever doing memes, so I didn’t. Still, if you feel so inclined, I’d love to read the details of your Eden 
No I wouldn’t want to be in charge either!
And you’re right I don’t really do memes, so thanks for not tagging me. I occasionally do them in situ but today my brain is dry!!
Ooh this looks like fun – and quite intriguingly taxing to do. I completely agree with what you said in your top comment to Richard, this isn’t about ‘judging’ in that way the mind flies to nowadays. It’s about declaring, as a critic, who you are and where you stand, so that it is clear you are speaking for yourself and not claiming some sort of spurious representation of shadowy clumps of others. I think that’s a good and necessary thing, and particularly for the critic to understand his or her own perspective. I write as an educated white woman, and that immediately puts me in one sort of place whether I like it or not. And I’m quite sure I have my own Eden!
Litlove, it wasn’t as hard to work out as you might think. I was surprised at how I little time I had to spend thinking about my answers. It took me longer to type it all up! And thank you for further clarifying Auden’s purposes. I look forward to reading about your Eden!
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This sounds like fun. I like your version of Eden–I think it would be quite similar to my own. I’ll have to save this meme for a day I’m feeling drained and in need of inspiration (and with the weather being the way it is, I’ll need it sooner than later!;) ).
Your Eden sounds like a wonderful place to live!