Word: utopia
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That's not to say that this generation is living in some sort of racial Utopia. Diversity simply refers to a racial mix, not whether the people in that mix get along. For my new book The Color of Our Future, I traveled around the country and found a generation that is increasingly aware of diversity but equally likely to be confused by it or afraid...
...blind and defeated rebel arrives near Plymouth in 1660. As he proceeds to plant an intolerant city-state on American soil, this Milton sneers at the memory of More, calling him an idolater who had had his head chopped off. And yet Milton must repress his delight in Utopia, More's 1516 tract about a perversely perfect new world. He heaps murderous scorn on neighboring English Catholics, although he is surreptitiously enthralled by their pageantry. He is Satan, and tragically, he knows...
Long before his death in 1994, Bill Levitt fully understood that it was Levittown, a working stiff's utopia, that had been his great and intricate achievement. Levittown isn't a visionary product of high design. No major architect went near the place. It was what you get when a canny businessman sees a massive public appetite and applies capital and logistics in a timely fashion...
...answer is obvious, and writer-director Gary Ross can be fairly accused of stacking the deck in making the static utopia of Pleasantville seem not only narrow but also inane and empty--certainly not in the least desirable, even when contrasted with the more unattractive features of the '90s in the opening sequence. Pleasantville is moreover, when one comes down to it, a very weird and potentially unsettling world of doubtful reality. Perhaps as a consequence, the movie is guilty of certain logical gaps and inconsistencies; for instance, how do the Pleasantvillers know what colors are when they begin...
...your hopeful eyes, the large box under the tree at Christmas promised hidden delights. Indeed, as you eagerly tore open wrapping paper, you revealed a gray compact box, two squarish, unwieldy controllers, a zapper gun, and the ultimate in cartridges: "Super Mario Bros." with "Duck Hunt." 8-bit utopia was yours! That first night, you tried desperately to shoot all of those damn ducks, and rescue Princess Toadstool from the clutches of the evil Bowser. In the soft glow of the T.V. screen, your face was radiant and peaceful...