News from Nowhere

“And therewith I took a handful of money out of my pocket, as one does in a foreign country. And by the way, I saw that the silver had oxidised, and was like a blackleaded stove in colour.”

The seemingly natural gesture of pulling out money to pay someone who has rendered a service instead becomes a marker of difference. Guest feels himself to be in a foreign country, and the oxidization on the coins registers the passage of time.

“And you see this ferrying and giving people casts about the water is my business, which I would do for anybody; so to take gifts in connection with it would look very queer.”

Dick’s use of the word “business” to describe his work emphasizes the difference in the diction of their time period. Business, to Guest, is entirely reliant on the involvement of money, but for Dick, his business is something he offers to all. In another example of differing diction, he refers to money as a “gift,” like any other present, unexpected and only accepted under the appropriate circumstances.

“As they were the first of the sex I had seen on this eventful morning, I naturally looked at them very attentively, and found them at least as good as the gardens, the architecture, and the male men.”

Having already witnessed the aesthetic improvements in the architecture and landscape of 21st-century Hammersmith, Guest is pleased to see that the people are also attractive. While there is a certain amount of objectification in comparing women to gardens and architecture, the overarching point is to show that socialism would not lead to vulgarity or ugliness and that it would not shock someone with Victorian tastes.