Note
that the following is a creative assignment. I want you to have
fun with it. Feel free to adopt the tone and voice of the period,
but follow basic rules of grammar. Be succinct and clear.
Utopias are by nature subversive. They are pictures of an ideal
world that naturally point out the failings in our own flawed
societies. Imagine yourself to be a royal censor in
sixteenth century England, a representative of the regime of King Henry
VIII. You have just been given a copy of this very controversial
text. What aspect of life in More’s Utopian society do you
think would be most objectionable and potentially subversive in the
eyes of a royal censor? Adapt the voice of the censor, and in a 2
page letter to More (double-spaced), highlight this aspect of his
imaginary society that you find so problematic. List the reasons
why it would be potentially subversive, and suggest a way how More
could modify his ideal world to make it acceptable to excitable King
Henry VIII, who might if he just gets angry enough decide to chop off
his friend’s head.