Talk:Erewhon

message: I don't know about this article.  It seems to me that Wikipedia ought to be reserved to plot summaries, social context, and other less subjective things.  This article is more like a literary analysis.  "Clearly" this and "obviously" that wouldn't even be proper in any situation.  It's a book, Butler isn't here to tell us what he meant so it's open to interpretation.  And if it isn't, then it would be better to leave out the "clearly" in the first place.
I'm not sure what to do with this article.  If anyone likes the book and likes Wikipedia they should tear the intro down and start over.  There are also some other areas throughout the article that need to be neutralized.
Roy Harmon 18:30, 13 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: [Untitled]

message: "Banks of that era were few and quite magnificent."  
Not only does the entry itself read like a subjective literary analysis, but this kind of subjective language has no place in an encyclopedia entry.  How does the practice of shaving coins lead the author to a conclusion about these banks supposed 'magnificence?'  If subjectivity is the rule, I could replace the word 'magnificent' with 'malevolent,' 'conniving,' or even 'purple,' and the 'truth' of the statement would be no more nor less verifiable.
This entry needs some serious cleanup.
:Actually, banks of that era were magnificent. "The first banks were probably the religious temples of the ancient world," according to History_of_banking#Earliest_banks, and the resemblance continued down to modern times.  Pawyilee (talk) 17:51, 9 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Defining "Magnificence" 

message: :To him it was a joke...
Sez who? Butler says in his PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION:
::I regret that reviewers have in some cases been inclined to treat the chapters on Machines as an attempt to reduce Mr. Darwin's theory to an absurdity.   Nothing could be further from my intention, and few things would be more distasteful to me than any attempt to laugh at Mr. Darwin; but I must own that I have myself to thank for the misconception, for I felt sure that my intention would be missed, but preferred not to weaken the chapters by explanation, and knew very well that Mr. Darwin's theory would take no harm.  The only question in my mind was how far I could afford to be misrepresented as laughing at that for which I have the most profound admiration. 
Retrieved from The Project Gutenberg eBook, Erewhon, by Samuel Butler   Release Date: March 20, 2005  [eBook #1906] Pawyilee (talk) 17:51, 9 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: The Book of Machines

message: Removing this bit here:
:"Mesopotamia, in mid-Canterbury, is probably the most famous of New Zealand's high-country sheep stations. Its boundaries, which lie along the Rangitata River from Forest Creek to where Camp Creek joins the Havelock River, embrace an area of about 100,000 acres. Mesopotamia's neighbours are the famous Mount Peel, Mount Potts, and Erewhon Stations. The nucleus of the station was taken up in 1857 and 1858 by Henry Phillips, J. Carter, and E. Owens, who in 1860 sold their leases to Samuel Butler. Because it was isolated behind river barriers, Butler named his station Mesopotamia. In 1863 Butler sold his interest in the station and since then the leases have passed through many hands" (entry in 'Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand' 2010 website).
The parenthetical at the end is not a valid source citation, making this unsourced.  This level of detail does not belong in the intro, and it doesn't belong to any existing section of the article.  It is an unnecessary digression that adds nothing to the current article.  The single sentence paragraph that followed it provides the only relevant info much more succinctly: there is a sheep station in NZ named after Butler's novel.
If someone cares to find an actual source for this and edit it so that it has a place in the article, more power to you.  As-is, it's rubbish. 71.200.134.47 (talk) 13:16, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
replies: text:  The source is http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/1966/mesopotamia-station/1 Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand is the official encyclopaedia of New Zealand. Stuartyeates (talk) 02:09, 26 August 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pseudo-sourced digression in intro 

message: A reference to Erewhon is in Rod Serling's Night Gallery Season 2, episode 21, "You Can't Get Help Like That Anymore". 62.113.189.16 (talk) 16:12, 9 November 2013 (UTC)
thread_title: References

message: Are there any indicators or have there ever been any suggestions that the Butlerian Jihad of Dune may have been, in name, a reference to the suggestions in this and Butler's letters that machines might evolve over time and pose a danger?
-=Worloq=- (talk) 02:08, 23 April 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Butler and Dune's Butlerian Jihad