5 Creative Writing Ideas I Got from Plato’s ‘Republic’
Useful tips for sci-fi/fantasy authors
More than two thousand years ago a bearded white guy developed the most fascinating textbook for literature demiurges. Dozens of philosophy schools, Christian religion included, were based on Plato’s casual dialogues.
You might say: “Nooo, this is too boring! I don’t have time, I have to do my writing!” That’s okay. You do not need to read “The Republic”: I did it for you. In this article, I’ll share 5 ideas from “The Republic” which strike me as a fantasy writer and show how you can use them to develop your worlds.
1. The singleton
In programming, a singleton is an entity which can do one action. It has a single purpose, the sense of its existence is pursuing one goal.
Plato states everyone has to be a singleton. In his State, every citizen will have their own place and job, and no one will lead parallel lives. A soldier is a soldier only, an artist does nothing but painting, an engineer designs structures does not play flute in his free time. One’s life is dedicated to their profession.
“And if so, we must infer that all things are produced more plentifully and easily and of a better quality when one man does one thing which is natural to him and does it at the right time, and leaves other things.”
The result
The State gets perfect specialists (because everyone will spend all their time and effort in one area). Moreover, this is the only way Justice is born.
“You remember the original principle which we were always laying down at the foundation of the State, that one man should practice one thing only, the thing to which his nature was best adapted;–now justice is this principle or a part of it.”
If everyone is concentrated on and strives for perfection in one task, the exchange between people is always one to one, equal. Everyone gets their share of prosperity according to where on the scales of achievement they are placed. This is just.
The reality
The real world is not even close to it. I am an engineer/writer/stylist/model/gamer/blogger. What else can I say?
How you can use it
Build a state where a person is prohibited from having two jobs at once. Forbid hobbies. This will be a kind of totalitarian government which, hiding behind a beautiful idea, will control the personal lives of its citizens.
Isaak Asimov used this idea in his novella “Profession”.
2. The society
The society is a system of castes. There are artists, producers, and, most important, guardians. All ranks have traditional families and customs, but guardians are different.
First, women are equal to men and have the same duties and tasks.
Second, there are no families, or, better, the whole caste is a large family.
Every year men from 25 to 55 and women from 20 to 40 are gathered on a kind of a festival which lasts for a few days. On this festival, matchmakers are composing couples according to a man and a woman’s relation, achievements, and sympathy to each other. Children who are born after this festival are taken to particular places where they grow up not knowing their real parents. They will call each other brothers and sisters, and adults from that festival will become their mothers and fathers.
The result
This is the most tightly bonded caste ever. Everyone is relative to everyone, everyone is a part of a big family. They will care of and love each other.
“…for every one whom they meet will be regarded by them either as a brother or sister, or father or mother, or son or daughter, or as the child or parent of those who are thus connected with him.”
Moreover, a person, raised without binding to a specific adult, has only their State. The society deprives its children of parents, offering itself instead. Without a Mother, the Motherland steps forward.
The reality
Even now, in our liberal age, this looks… weird. The Communists tried to create something like that but unsuccessful. The traditional society objected against this highly rational but too radical decision.
How you can use it
This is a lovely idea to show in a fantasy or a sci-fi novel. You can make the whole population a family, or, like Plato, the rulers, or a certain village, weird and unnatural from their neighbors’ point of view.
Anne McCaffrey developed this idea in her cycle “Dragonriders of Pern”.
3. The censorship
The State controls its guardians from their earliest years. Everything they read, hear, or do, should be approved by the government. Music (including poetry), gymnastics, and rhetoric are the three sciences which will develop senses, body, and mind. Music will be introduced first and is the most important to be controlled. All dangerous ideas are to be banished. No weakness, no sorrow, no passion should be greeted. This leads to the strongest censure the world has known.
“…the first thing will be to establish a censorship of the writers of fiction, and let the censors receive any tale of fiction which is good, and reject the bad; and we will desire mothers and nurses to tell their children the authorized ones only.”
The result
The State designs its citizens. They are what the government wants them to be — ideal citizens.
The reality
The Soviet Union did a lot in this direction. Generation by generation, citizens were brainwashed with the communist ideology. USSR crashed, but millions of people still believe in the ideals it incepted.
How you can use it
Building a totalitarian government with that forceful censorship is easy and has been done dozens of times. “Brave New World” and “1984” are the two best examples. “Equilibrium” is even better because the government there banned emotions. Plato despised them as well.
What might be more interesting is showing how this idea might be turned to good. I can’t remember a single example in the world literature. Maybe you should write it.
4. The Chosen One
The ruling caste, the guardians, are raised from their birth by the State and the society. They exercise their body and learn music and poetry approved by the government. The whole generation, men and women alike, face trials. The Chosen One has to pass them all. He should be trained and tested from his birth up to his twenties, and only the one who shows the best results and has never lost himself will be chosen.
“And therefore our guardians must be men who have been tried by many tests, like gold in the refiner’s fire, and have been passed first through danger, then through pleasure, and at every age have come out of such trials victorious and without stain, in full command of themselves and their principles; having all their faculties in harmonious exercise for their country’s good.”
The result
The State gets the best from the best, the most valiant, intelligent, and content ruler ever.
How you can use it
You can describe the life of someone who has been the best from their early years and has always passed the tests. Then, make him lose the last one.
Why? What will happen to him, his friends and competitors, his teachers? What will happen to the State? This is a decent writing prompt.
5. The inception
How is this perfect State to be started? What will be the beginning of this brave new order?
Plato suggests dividing families. All people older than ten years should leave the city. The governors will then take possession of the children and raise them according to the new ideology.
“They will begin by sending out into the country all the inhabitants of the city who are more than ten years old, and will take possession of their children, who will be unaffected by the habits of their parents; these they will train in their own habits and laws…
“Yes, that will be the best way.”
The result
The State will get the first generation of the guardians it designed. These kids, having grown up, will rule the city, including their parents, but will not regard them as such.
How you can use it
I can see a dramatic story here. Describe the separation of families — by force, for sure. Which parent will let anyone “take possession” of their children if not forced to? This story can be combined with that of the Chosen One.
“The Republic” has much more. Read it and form your opinion. Everyone looks at the world with their own eyes. Everyone lives in their own reality, reads their own books, and consume the ideas in their own unique way. What old Plato’s ideas might become in your hands? Let us witness.
References
Plato. The Republic. Translated by B. Jowett. Project Guttenberg. 2008 http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1497/1497-h/1497-h.htm