―　―
7
Utopias False and True in Baldwin’s“Sonny’s Blues”
David A. Farnell
“Utopia”is not a word often associated with the
immanent,＊ virtual,“not-yet”utopia, always present
fiction of James Baldwin; indeed, his stories are
and accessible through creative imagination. At the
commonly filled with the dystopian elements of Harlem
same time, the paper will consider that slippery
slums or similar locales of hopelessness. But dystopia
term, utopia, as well as the positives and negatives
engenders dreams of utopia, and“Sonny’s Blues,”a
of utopian longing, the benefits and the potential for
masterwork of desperation, addiction, and redemption,
destruction to be found in walking the knife-edge path
contains within it three paths to utopia – two false, one
to utopia, what Baldwin refers to in the story as the
true.
line between“deep water and drowning”
（139）
.
Sonny, the narrator’s brother, seeks a way out of
the dystopia of 1960s Harlem to a place where people
Utopian Dreaming
can communicate and commune with each other, and
Because of the slipperiness of the meaning of
thereby be free. He resists the temptation of one false
“utopia,”it seems practical to go into definitions before
path, religion – which provides, in the forms of Eastern
proceeding on to the story. Typically, when the word
mysticism and evangelical Christianity, a seductive
is used, it implies a blueprint-like description of an
promise of a utopian afterlife, in exchange for
imaginary, perhaps impossible, perfect or near-perfect
acceptance of this flawed world and an abandonment
civilization. But this is far from the only meaning. Even
of revolution – only to succumb to the second false
in that implicit definition, the subjectivity involved
path, heroin, which offers a spurious sense of control
in envisioning perfection makes one person’s eutopia
and communion in exchange for addiction, poverty,
（or positive utopia）another’s dystopia（or negative
and eventual death.
utopia）, or perhaps even anti-utopia（a utopia that
But drawing upon his creative energies, he
criticizes the very idea of eutopia）.Claeys and Sargent
masters a third, intensely personal path, music, and
lay out some basic, simple definitions that work well
by shattering the walls of alienation,“at the risk of
as starting points for all these terms. According to
ruin, destruction, madness, and death, in order to
them, the basic term“utopia”refers to“a nonexistent
find new ways to make us listen”
（Baldwin,“Sonny’s
society” that is “substantially different from the
Blues”141）, he creates an emancipating moment of
one in which the author lives”and is meant to be
anticipatory illumination for himself and his audience,
“recognizably good or bad to the intended reader”
（1）.
a shared space within here-and-now reality that
The default assumption is that the society will be a
Ernst Bloch calls a“Vorschein”of utopia that can
good one, but when needed, the more specific term for
be realized through art,“a countermove against the
a“positive utopia”is“eutopia”; and when referring to
bad existence,”a revolutionary vision intended not to
a negative utopia, the term is“dystopia”
（1-2）. They
comfort us into complacency, but to bring that bad
define other categories of utopia, but these are the
existence“to the point of collapse”
（Bloch, Utopian
ones which apply to this paper.
Function... 109）
.
Beyond these basics, there are many extended,
This paper will explore the theme of utopia
deeper definitions of the term. Robert Nozick claims
in Baldwin’s story, in the Blochian sense of an
that utopia is just barely attainable in reality,
＊
“Immanent”– in the sense of“inherent within”– is used here as the more proper term, even though its use often includes a sense of
the“about to occur”of its homonym“imminent.”In Bloch, both terms often apply at once, but the sacred implications of“immanent”
bring its meaning to the fore.
（　1 ）
―　―
8
福岡大学研究部論集 A 10（５）2010
describing it as a society in which “none of the
from the real, but, on the contrary, by looking into its
inhabitants [...] can imagine an alternative world they
progress, into its horizon [...] a forward dawning, into
would rather live in”（299）
, while Karl Mannheim
the New”
（Principle 76-7）. Elsewhere, he calls this
defines utopia as something“which transcends reality
“a contradicting countermove against the bad existence
and which at the same time breaks the bonds of the
（das schlecht Vorhandene）
,”and that this subjective,
existing order”
（173）
, thus putting it always just out
imaginative factor is a crucial complement to the
of reach, a perpetual revolution that, when achieved,
objective revolutionary action needed to improve
has already fallen short of utopia. The disappointment
society（Utopian Function 109）. As Moylan writes of
resulting from falling short may be one reason that so
Bloch,“a‘utopian’ gesture is of no use to anyone but
many（though not all）real-world utopian experiments
the powers that be if it does not recognize that its
end up failing catastrophically.
hopeful journey begins in refusing the bondage of the
In this paper, I will focus primarily on utopia as
present”
（274）.
described by Ernst Bloch in his massive 1400-page
It may sound strange to define“utopia”as“hopes
work, The Principle of Hope, and in other writings.
and dreams,”but the vast majority of descriptions of
Bloch, at once a philosopher, a communist of the old
utopia – from Plato’s Republic to the Garden of Eden,
school, and a Christian mystic, is by no means easy
from More’s own Utopia to Bacon’s New Atlantis, from
to pin down, but what I take from his （beautiful
French poems about the Land of Cokaygne to hobo
though sometimes impenetrable）explorations of the
songs about the Big Rock Candy Mountain – nearly
topic is that utopia – far from being an impossible-to-
all are inspiring dreams rather than serious blueprints
reach nonexistent land or society, or a future end-of-
for the foundation of an actual society. They may well
history we will one day achieve – is a process which
have within them serious, radical proposals, but unlike,
is always present in the here-and-now because it is
say, The Communist Manifesto or Fourier’s Theory of
present in the human imagination. This is of course
the Four Movements, they are essentially fantasies and
a dreadful oversimplification of a work that Frederic
fictions rather than sober plans. Still, they shake their
Jameson calls“a vast and disorderly exploration of the
audience out of complacency, challenge assumptions,
manifestations of hope on all levels of reality”
（Marxism
and thereby spark a desire for change. That change
120）
, but attempting a thorough examination of Bloch
may not – indeed, almost certainly will not – reach an
in a paper of this scope would be impossible. Still, we
objective status which we can call“utopia”; instead
can cover the basics.
it likely inspires a desire for smaller, more realistic
The key concept for Blochian utopia is the“not-
changes, baby steps in the right direction. But
yet,”which he explains as“that which stimulates the
considering the results of the most radical attempts
wishful element in the expectant emotions always
to make utopia real – the Soviet Union, North Korea,
arising from hunger, that which possibly diverts
Jonestown – baby steps are perhaps better.
and fatigues us, or which possibly also activates
and galvanizes us towards the goal of a better life:
False Utopias
daydreams are formed”
（Principle 76 – all italics are
As mentioned before, those daydreams and hopes
Bloch’s）
. This not-yet is a dream of the future, and
which Bloch calls utopian are those which do not
“The idea of the future as immanent to the present
entrap us in escapist fantasy or acceptance of the
[...] is embodied in [this] guiding concept of Bloch’s
status quo, but I would like to refine that definition
philosophy [...]”（Anderson 216）
. That is, because
somewhat for this paper. Bloch does not always make
we can conceive it, the not-yet is here and now, in
clear something which I believe is crucial to the
the form of creative imagining. Bloch mentions that
concept of utopia, and that is the idea of community.
some of these daydreams are merely diverting, even
A utopia for a single person or even a single family is
“base, dubious, dismal, merely enervating escapist
merely a selfish fantasy, and would be stretching the
dreams”which may even be“combined with approval
definition past the breaking point. Utopias have always
and support of the status quo,”such as“the empty
been concerned with communities which are radically
promises of a better hereafter.”But his focus is on
better（or worse, in the case of dystopias）than the
those other daydreams, the ones that“have sustained
ones in which we live. I think that Bloch does include
men with courage and hope, not by looking away
this idea of community, but not always explicitly –
（　2 ）
Utopias False and True in Baldwin’s“Sonny’s Blues”
（Farnell）
―　―
9
often, it seems to be an unstated assumption in his
– the Hollywood portrayals of mainstream American
work.
dreams, a life from which these boys are excluded,
What I have called “false utopias” in “Sonny’s
begins to inspire rage and revolution. The false path
Blues”are very much what Bloch calls“base, dubious,
has the potential to become a true one.
dismal, merely enervating escapist dreams”
: processes
This ambiguity arises again with the first of
or paths which lead into traps, such as lazy fantasizing,
Sonny’s false utopias, religion. The narrator is riding
fatalistic acceptance of the status quo, or the slow
in a taxi with Sonny, taking him home after Sonny’s
death of addiction. We see all three of these false paths
incarceration and rehabilitation, when he asks,“You
presented in the story, before we see the true path for
still want to go to India?”to which Sonny replies,
Sonny. However, I should clarify that by“false utopia”
“Hell no. This place is Indian enough for me”
（111）.
I do not mean“dystopia.”False utopias merely lead
The question refers to Sonny’s boyhood desire to go to
nowhere. Dystopia often serves a utopian function,
India and become a holy man,“sitting on rocks, naked,
in that it also spurs to action, through bad dreams
in all kinds of weather, but mostly bad, naturally, and
rather than good, misery rather than hope. However,
walking barefoot through hot coals and arriving at
one major difference from utopia is that dystopia can
wisdom”
（112）
. Sonny’s reply indicates that Harlem
be all too real. Heaven-on-earth is nearly impossible
already provides more than enough poverty and
to achieve; hell-on-earth is far easier. The real-world
hardship for anyone seeking wisdom in that way,
Harlem of James Baldwin’s experience, with its
and also implicitly rejects the idea of individual
poverty, violence, and oppression, certainly qualifies to
enlightenment – as we shall see, Sonny is drawn to
stand among the ranks of the many, many real-world
a communitarian enlightenment, as more befits the
dystopias, and its miseries have engendered many
concept of utopia. But while Eastern mysticism is the
utopias, false and true.
wrong path for Sonny, that does not mean it is a false
Also, just as utopia itself is subjective, so is the
path for all; while it is often used, like all religions, to
falsity or truth of that utopia. The false paths are
reinforce the status quo, it – like all religions – can also
false for Sonny, and the true path is true for him, but
be a source for inspiration to revolutionary action.
perhaps not for all.
We also see the treatment of Western religion in the
Actually, the first partly false, partly true utopia
story, in the form of Christianity. All his life Baldwin,
mentioned in the story has no clear connection to
who became a born-again preacher in his teens yet
Sonny; instead, it is for the high-school boys that the
later rejected organized religion, had an ambiguous
＊
narrator teaches.
He describes the trap in which the
and contentious relationship with Christianity that is
amply documented, and it is often an issue with which
younger generation finds itself:
These boys, now, were living as we’d been living
he struggles in his essays and fiction. In The Fire Next
then, they were growing up with a rush and their
Time, he recalls his conflicted feelings when preaching
heads bumped abruptly against the low ceiling
as his faith crumbled, and we see the way in which
of their actual possibilities. They were filled with
religion can function as an impediment to social
rage. All they really knew were two darknesses,
progress:
the darkness of their lives, which was now closing
[...] when I faced a congregation, it began to take
in on them, and the darkness of the movies, which
all the strength I had not to stammer, not to
had blinded them to that other darkness, and in
curse, not to tell them to throw away their Bibles
which they now, vindictively, dreamed, at once
and get off their knees and go home and organize,
more together than they were at any other time,
for example, a rent strike. [...] as I taught Sunday
and more alone.（104）
school, I felt I was committing a crime in talking
Their lives are lived in a dystopia, but they have
about the gentle Jesus, in telling them to reconcile
been blinded to that dystopia by the escapist fantasies
themselves to their misery on earth in order to
gain the crown of eternal life.（309）
of Hollywood. And yet the blindness cannot last, and it
is in the movie theaters that they dream“vindictively”
＊
Many of the stories in Going to Meet the Man feature
And thus, I am not including it in the count of“two false, one true.”
（　3 ）
―　―
10
福岡大学研究部論集 A 10（５）2010
this struggle, such as“The Outing,”which portrays
phrase,“Shikata ga nai,”
（仕方がない）, or“It can’t be
the evangelical-Christian adults as hypocrites who use
helped,”a phrase that can provide comfort but also
their religiosity as a way to network, to posture and
runs the risk of inducing an attitude of fatalism. Even
one-up each other, or to hide their own sins, as with
though Sonny acknowledges the value of the comfort
Gabriel, a deacon who physically and – it is implied
derived from giving God the credit for all good and
– sexually abuses his homosexual son, Johnnie（33）
.
evil in the world, he rejects that comfort along with its
In“Come out the Wilderness,”Ruth considers the
fatalism.
Christianity of her New York relatives:
Christianity appears again in the story in the form
They, like her father, were earnest churchgoers,
of a street revival outside the narrator’s home, where
though, unlike her father, their religion was
Sonny is staying. One man preaches while a woman
strongly mixed with an opportunistic respectability
solicits donations and two other women back up the
and with ambitions to better society and their own
preacher with“Amens.”Then they all break into a
place in it, which her father would have scorned.
hymn, with only“their voices and their Bibles and a
Their ambitions vitiated in them what her father
tambourine,”singing of how Christianity has“rescued
called the“true”religion, and what remained of
many a thousand! ”
（130）Baldwin writes,
this religion, which was principally vindictiveness,
Not a soul under the sound of their voices was
prevented them from understanding anything
hearing this song for the first time, not one of
whatever about those concrete Northern realities
them had been rescued. Nor had they seen much
that made them at once so obsequious and so
in the way of rescue work being done around
venomous.（208）
them. Neither did they especially believe in the
And yet, her father, he of the“
‘true’ religion,”rejects
holiness of the three sisters and the brother, they
her when she is caught alone with a boy, even though
knew too much about them, knew where they
lived, and how.（130）
nothing untoward had happened（211）
. Her father’s
religion divides him from his daughter rather than
This song nevertheless“seemed to soothe a poison
bringing them together.
out of them,”but while it does bring them a moment
But Baldwin often shows a respect for religion even
of comfort, this comfort is described in individual, not
as he criticizes those who use it for base purposes:
communal, terms, and backward-looking rather than
I was instructed to feed the hungry, clothe the
forward. John Reilly describes it as“a familiar moment
naked and visit those in prison. I am far indeed
of communion”
（143）, but Baldwin’s words suggest it
from my youth, and from my father’s house, but
is at best an ambiguous communion:“the eyes focused
I have not forgotten these instructions, and I
on something within [...] they were fleeing back to their
pray upon my soul that I never will. [But] The
first condition”（130-1）
. When Sonny comes inside
people who call themselves“born again”today
from listening to the song on the street, he remarks
have simply become members of the richest, most
of the singer,“‘What a warm voice. [...] But what a
exclusive private club in the world, a club that
terrible song,’”laughing（131）. He acknowledges the
the man from Galilee could not possibly hope – or
benefits of Christianity, but implies that they are not
wish – to enter.（
“Open Letter...”784）
.
enough, for him at least.
We see a more subtle, mixed view of Christianity
This conversation moves into a conversation
in“Sonny’s Blues.”It first comes up in the letter
between Sonny and his brother about heroin, the
the narrator receives from Sonny during his period
closest thing to real, frank communication they have
of incarceration and treatment, shortly after the
shared so far in their lives. Sonny says,“‘When she
narrator’s daughter has died of polio:“I sure was
was singing before [...] her voice reminded me for a
sorry to hear about little Gracie. I wish I could be like
minute of what heroin feels like sometimes – when
Mama and say the Lord’s will be done, but I don’t
it’s in your veins. It makes you feel sort of warm and
know it seems to me that trouble is the one thing that
cool at the same time. And distant. And – and sure. [...]
never does get stopped and I don’t know what good
It makes you feel – in control. Sometimes you’ve got
it does to blame it on the Lord. But maybe it does
to have that feeling’”
（132）. Sonny’s frequent pauses
some good if you believe it”
（110）
.“The Lord’s will
indicate his difficulty in expressing himself so openly
be done”is the American equivalent of the Japanese
to his much older brother; Sonny’s addiction is one of
（　4 ）
Utopias False and True in Baldwin’s“Sonny’s Blues”
（Farnell）
―　―
11
many experiences in their lives that they have not
conceptual, virtual, imaginary space – a topos, in Greek.
shared, and communication difficulties have always
The apparently good place where Sonny has been was,
plagued their relationship. As the narrator says,“The
for a time, a comforting false eutopia, but when he hits
seven years’ difference in our ages lay between us
bottom, he finds himself in a bad place, a dystopia.
like chasm: I wondered if these years would ever
operate between us as a bridge”
（111）
. A chasm of
Utopia from Dystopia
understanding is, indeed, the greatest obstacle to
But, again, dystopia engenders utopia. Sonny turned
happiness in the story, and is a major recurring theme
to heroin to escape the dystopia of Harlem. When
in Baldwin’s work, but we will return to this later.
addiction becomes a new dystopia, he rejects it and
The desire to be part of a real community, with
climbs out of the pit. And the path he follows to do so
understanding and even communion, is what Sonny
is music, the true utopian path of this story. Although
seems to be seeking when he tries heroin. The
we usually think of utopia as being presented through
narrator remembers the last time he saw Sonny
the written word, Edward Rothstein writes,
before hearing of his arrest; he finds Sonny living in
But no other form of expression has been so
an apartment with a number of other people, probably
associated with the utopian dream as music. Music
addicts,“and he treated these people as though they
does not, of course, outline utopias such as those of
were his family and I weren’t”
（128）
. As drug addicts,
More and Marx; particular sets of social relations
they share a utopian dream, creating familial bonds;
are not expressed; there is no literal discussion
but the dream is false, as are those bonds. Typically,
of money or education or the moral life. But [...]
Sonny and the narrator fight, even though the
music creates an autonomous world of sound with
narrator’s intention had been to heal the rift between
its own set of laws and relationships, its own sort
them, and Sonny ends up throwing his brother out.
of order, its own conception of tension and release.
The urge for community and communion is a
And in the midst of these abstract orders are
utopian urge, as is the desire to be“in control,”as to
encoded visions of utopia and dystopia.（24）
be in control of one’s own destiny is the very definition
Rothstein is far from the only one who identifies music
of freedom. But of course, trying to find those in a
as a path to utopia, or even as utopia itself. Bloch
heroin-filled needle is the falsest of false utopian paths.
writes,“Among the arts, music has a very special
Both community and control are illusions. As addiction
juice [...]. The utopicum of this expression is the hour
takes hold, control turns to slavery; as life becomes
of language in music, understood as keenly hearing; is
centered around the desire for ever-increasing doses
a poesis a se [creation through itself] with passwords
of the drug, the addict becomes utterly self-centered,
allowing entry into the material tone-nature of all
making community impossible.
that wells up [...]”
（Principle 1069-70）. More simply,
In the conversation about heroin that Sonny has
Ben Anderson states that “Bloch’s explanation of
with the narrator, Sonny tries to describe his addiction
music is grounded upon an understanding of music as
in spatial terms, as a place:
anticipation. Bloch argues that music, by virtue of its
“But I can’t forget – where I’ve been. I don’t just
non-representational qualities, offers privileged access
mean the physical place I’ve been, I mean where
to the‘not-yet become’”
（217）.
I’ve been. And what I’ve been.”
Music permeates“Sonny’s Blues,”from the title
“Where have you been, Sonny?”I asked.
itself to the aforementioned street-revival gospel to
[...]
constant spontaneous appearances of music as the
“Oh well. I can never tell you. I was all by
narrator moves through Harlem. Near the beginning
myself at the bottom of something, stinking and
of the story, one of his students is“whistling a tune, at
sweating and crying and shaking, and I smelled
once very complicated and very simple, it seemed to
it, you know? my stink, and I thought I’d die if I
be pouring out of him as though he were a bird”
（105）
.
couldn’t get away from it and yet, all the same,
As the narrator walks with a heroin addict, an old
I knew that everything I was doing was just
friend of Sonny’s, they pass a bar where“a juke box
locking me in with it.”
（135-6）
was blasting away with something black and bouncy
Seeking community, he finds isolation; seeking
and I half watched the barmaid as she danced her
freedom, he finds imprisonment. These create a
way from the juke box to her place behind the bar. [...]
（　5 ）
―　―
12
福岡大学研究部論集 A 10（５）2010
When she smiled one saw the little girl, one sensed the
in a way that recalls the death of his uncle, who by
doomed, still-struggling woman beneath the battered
panicking failed to get out of the way of the oncoming
face of the semi-whore”
（107）
. The narrator’s mother
car.“He and the piano stammered, started one way,
tells him that his uncle, a singer and guitarist, died by
got scared, stopped; started another way, panicked,
being run over by a car-full of drunken white men,
marked time, started again; then seemed to have found
right before the eyes of the narrator’s father:“Your
a direction, panicked again, got stuck”
（140）
. But the
father says he heard his brother scream when the car
narrator listens, and this is crucial, because all through
rolled over him, and he heard the wood of that guitar
the story his failure to listen to his younger brother
when it give, and he heard them strings go flying, and
has resulted in a“chasm”between them. After the
he heard them white men shouting, and the car kept
death of their mother years before, the narrator
a-going and it ain’t stopped till this day”
（118）. When
“played the role of the older brother”
（120）and, from
Sonny rejects his brother and throws him out of the
this false position – as implied by the phrase“played
heroin den, the narrator stops himself from crying by
the role”– asks Sonny about his future plans. Because
whistling a blues tune（128）
.
he has also cast Sonny in the role of child, he does
All of these moments of music are transformative
not really listen to Sonny, but attempts to browbeat
– taking one out of oneself, nourishing a fragile purity
him into not pursuing his dream of becoming a jazz
in a flawed world, comforting oneself against despair,
musician. This failure to listen due to the assumption
signaling death and horror with the cacophonous
of false roles causes all their conversations to fail,
“music”of a guitar run over by a car – but they are
even the one about heroin that precedes the jazz
all foreshadowings of the climax of the story, Sonny’s
performance, although that conversation, in which
jazz performance. After their conversation about
Sonny bares his heart, lays the ground for the narrator
heroin, Sonny invites his brother to come hear him
to“open within”and truly listen to the music.
play the piano with a group, the first time Sonny has
Failure to listen is failure to communicate, and
performed in more than a year. The narrator finds
thereby failure of community. Communication, and
himself in a new world, the jazz club, where for the
community, is what Sonny has hungered after all
first time he sees Sonny not as a little brother, but as a
through the story, and what has compelled him to
leader in his own right, a man recognized and admired
follow utopian dreams in search of a better society.
by his bandmates and audience. He begins to see that
This failure of and hunger for community runs
there are more dimensions to his brother than he had
throughout Baldwin’s writings, and it often results,
ever considered:“[...] it was clear that, for them, I was
as with Sonny and his brother, from assumptions of
only Sonny’s brother. Here, I was in Sonny’s world. Or,
false roles in which the humanity of the players is
rather: his kingdom. Here, it was not even a question
diminished and limited through stereotyping. Later in
that his veins bore royal blood”
（138）
.
the same collection, racism is the most obvious case,
As the music begins, in an echo of Roland Barthes’
with Jesse, the sheriff’s deputy in“Going to Meet the
“Musica Practica”
（Barthes 149）
, the narrator muses
Man,”whose racism makes him feel powerful, but also
makes him insecure, vicious, sexually dysfunctional,
on the nature of music:
All I know about music is that not many people
“emasculated, from an emotional perspective”
（Pratt
ever really hear it. And even then, on the rare
49）. Because of the role in which he casts himself（and
occasions when something opens within, and
is cast by upbringing and societal expectations）
, he
the music enters, what we mainly hear, or hear
cannot see African-Americans as fully human, nor, by
corroborated, are personal, private, vanishing
limiting himself to little more than being“the White
evocations. But the man who creates the music is
Racist,”can he himself be fully human. The castration
hearing something else, is dealing with the roar
of the lynched black man is symbolic of the emotional
rising from the void and imposing order on it as
self-castration of the racist, “self-estrangement,
it hits the air. What is evoked in him, then, is of
threatening himself and society with impotence and
another order, more terrible because it has no
sterility”
（Griffith 515）.
words, and triumphant, too, for the same reason.
Baldwin touches on this again and again in his work,
And his triumph, when he triumphs, is ours.（139）
but despite the tragedy of it all, he offers a possibility
Sonny does not, at first, triumph. In fact, he plays
of hope and progress.“White people in this country
（　6 ）
Utopias False and True in Baldwin’s“Sonny’s Blues”
（Farnell）
will have quite enough to do in learning how to accept
―　―
13
potentia）utopia. As Reilly points out, it does not
and love themselves and each other, and when they
blind its participants to reality（145）. The narrator is
have achieved this [...] the Negro problem will no
“aware that this was only a moment, that the world
longer exist, for it will no longer be needed”
（Fire Next
waited outside, as hungry as a tiger, and that trouble
Time 299-300）
;“The black and white confrontation,
stretched above us, longer than the sky”
（Baldwin,
whether it be hostile [...] or with the intention of
“Sonny’s Blues”142）. But it is real. It is similar to the
forming a common front and creating the foundations
Zen Buddhist concept of kenshou（見性）
, a moment
of a new society [...] contain[s] the shape of the
of illumination, and Sonny, like a boddhisatva（菩薩）
,
American future and the only potential of a truly valid
cannot be free until all are. Without realizing, he has
American identity”
（No Name 470）
. He puts it best,
followed through on his childhood dream of Indian
perhaps, with sad simplicity in“This Morning, This
enlightenment, metaphorically “walking barefoot
Evening, So Soon,”the story following“Sonny’s Blues”
through hot coals and arriving at wisdom”
（112）
.
in the collection:“For everyone’s life begins on a level
Compared to the default definition of utopia, the
where races, armies, and churches stop. And yet
“blueprint model,”this Blochian immanent conceptual
everyone’s life is always shaped by races, churches,
utopia is arguably the truer utopia. When Jameson
and armies; races, churches, armies menace, and have
describes the way that, once capitalism and socialism
taken, many lives”
（150）
.
become practical political realities, Utopian Imagination
Baldwin’s utopian dream, then, is of true community,
gives way to Utopian Fancy（using Imagination and
which requires self-knowledge so that we can be fully
Fancy in Coleridge’s sense）
, he demonstrates that,
human – but this also requires seeing others as fully
once achieved in the real world, utopia is always found
human. To do this, we must have true communication,
lacking, and so ceases to be utopia（Archaeologies 55）
.
which requires listening without false assumptions.
I believe Jameson also leaves open the implication that
That is what the narrator learns to do, in listening
second-class citizens, denied the middle-class benefits
to improvisational jazz, a form of music about which
of a tarnished utopia and forced to live apart from
he knows very little. Jazz is one of the few truly
mainstream society in dystopian conditions, may well
American art forms, and, not insignificantly, it is a
have a truer grasp of the concept of utopia, in that
black art form. The narrator has long locked himself
they may stick with Utopian Imagination rather than
into roles: responsible older brother, upwardly mobile
Fancy.
math teacher. Out of his element in the jazz club,
The ephemeral, impractical, never-to-be achieved
surrounded by people who don’t know who he is and
and yet always-accessible utopian dream, a dream that
practically worship his little brother, truly listening
inspires to progressive, revolutionary action rather
for the first time to an alien music created by that
than entrapping, is the true utopia. It inspires those
brother, the mask which society has placed on his soul
who are open to it to transform themselves, to become
falls away and he opens to utopian possibilities:
more fully themselves and to see others equally as
Then they all gathered around Sonny and Sonny
fully, to accept them and to understand who they are.
played. Every now and then one of them seemed
More than the education plans, moneyless economic
to say, amen. Sonny’s fingers filled the air with
schemes, spartan rules on fashion, and ironically
life, his life. But that life contained so many others.
restrictive free-love fantasies that we see in“blueprint”
[...] It was very beautiful because it wasn’t hurried
utopias, the utopian dream as described in Baldwin’s
and it was no longer a lament. I seemed to hear
story, by avoiding concrete form, remains true. This is
with what burning he had made it his, with what
symbolized in the closing sentence of the story, when
burning we had yet to make it ours, how we could
Sonny sips from the drink his brother has sent him,
cease lamenting. Freedom lurked around us and
and then places it on the piano, before playing again,
I understood, at last, that he could help us to be
where“it glowed and shook above my brother’s head
free if we would listen, that he would never be
like the very cup of trembling”
（142）
. The“cup of
free until we did.（141-2）
trembling”is a reference to Isaiah 51:22, in which God
This is a moment of perfection, a release from misery,
promises the Jews that their punishment is over, and
a communion between audience and musicians –
they will no longer suffer his wrath. The world may
an immanent “not-yet”（yet eternally present in
wait outside“like a hungry tiger,”but communion,
（　7 ）
―　―
14
福岡大学研究部論集 A 10（５）2010
community, and communication are forever in reach,
Trans. Neville Plaice, Stephen Plaice, and Paul
because the utopian moment is forever immanent.
Knight. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press,
1986.
——. The Utopian Function of Art and Literature:
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（　8 ）
Visions of Utopia. NY: Oxford UP, 2003. 1-28.