Subtleties of the Isle

Written by Joseph W. Meeker Ph.D

"You do yet taste

Some subtleties of the Isle."

Shakespeare, The Tempest, V, 124

When people try to imagine an ideal setting for human life, they are likely to think of an island environment.

Sir Thomas More’s Utopia (1516) became a model for most utopian writers of the modern world. Although utopia literally means “no place,” More’s version is clearly a small island: “The Island of Utopia contains in breadth two hundred miles, saving that it comes in toward both the ends, which, forming a circuit of five hundred miles, fashion the whole island like to the new moon.” (More,1516, p.265) Utopian literature, following the example of More, often uses islands to satirize and critique the habits of mainland societies and to describe a constructive island way of life that avoids mainland evils and demonstrates positive alternatives. Bounded island settings make it possible to imagine ideal human communities free of poverty, greed, illness, warfare, and the other forms of suffering that characterize life on the mainland.

But islands have a darker side as well. The water boundary that limits the influence of mainlands upon islands can of course also be used to make islands places of confinement. That is why islands have always been popular places for prisons and for the exile of unwanted people. Alcatraz and Rikers Islands are well known American prison islands, but there are hundreds of other islands around the world that are places of incarceration for criminals, the insane, and the diseased. Guantanamo Bay is an island prison much in the news. When some of its prisoners were recently relocated, they were moved to the Pacific island of Palau. From medieval times, leprosy has confined thousands to island settings for isolation, including the famous leper colony on Molokai in the Hawaiian Islands. The imagination has often chosen islands as places to put people out of sight, out of mind (Tuan, 1979). Islands are also favorite places for nuclear and ballistic missile testing and for dumping toxic wastes. Even Vashon Island was judged to be an ideal place for Nike ballistic missiles during the Cold War.

Islands have also known plenty of violence over the centuries, for they are often places of strategic importance for controlling trade and launching attacks on the mainland. World War II in the Pacific was almost entirely fought on islands, beginning with the Japanese bombing of Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor in 1941. The American response fought its way island by island toward Japan, and those Pacific islands are still littered by rusting military hardware offshore and on their beaches. The mental and spiritual debris that devastated Pacific island families and communities will remain even longer in the memories and storytelling of those who survived that period.

Little Guernsey Island in the channel between England and France was occupied by Nazis during World War II as a launching pad for a planned invasion of of England. That story has recently been told in the novel by Mary Ann and Annie Barrows, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2008). The tragicomic story shows how islanders used their wits to undermine Nazi plans and to secure their own survival through imaginative subterfuge and misdirection. Since recovering from WWII, Guernsey Island has also become a center for offshore banking and finance. It has joined a large congregation of islands where hidden fortunes can be sequestered from mainland economies and laws. Money storage and laundering has become a major industry in the modern world, and islands are world leaders in this venture.

An internet search of “Islands” leads to scores of websites offering travel and vacations to exotic islands of the world. The cruise ship industry seems to depend heavily upon the public romance with islands, especially in the Mediterranean, Caribbean, South Pacific, and Pacific Northwest. Islands in these areas have been heavily impacted by these tours, positively and negatively. While economies are enriched by tourist dollars, their communities have also been transformed into commercial boom-and-bust sites. Local artists become makers of tourist trinkets, and small businesses are often taken over by mobile merchants who sell jewelry and tee shirts when the boats are running, then leave the shops vacant during the off season. Small islands become dependent upon transient tourist income, but the real profits go to the mainland corporations who run these shows.

There are about 21,000 islands on Earth. They constitute about 7% of the land area, and about 10% of the world’s population lives on them. All but some 300 of these are “small islands” of less than 300 square miles, like Vashon Island (37 sq. mi.). Very few small islands are allowed to govern themselves, but are subject to laws and policies made elsewhere. When you live on a small island, the power always seems to reside somewhere else, not here.

The story of small islands is a sad chapter in world history. Islands have been invaded by military, missionary, and commercial forces and exploited by tourist organizations. Their indigenous people have been exterminated, converted to foreign religions, and exploited as sideshows. Their forests and minerals have been taken for use elsewhere. Invasive species of plants and animals have been introduced to further degrade their ecological stability. It is no wonder that islanders characteristically feel vulnerable and defenseless.

In some ways, most islands are not unlike small towns everywhere. Islanders pay close attention to their neighbors and gossip endlessly about them. They are rich or poor, conservative or liberal, criminal and lawful, old and young, angry and peaceful, and all the shades in between such polarities. Islanders look much like small town mainlanders when they are studied by political, economic, or social criteria. A slightly larger percentage of them may be artists or authors, perhaps because artful people often seek solitude more than others.

But the artist’s Paradise imagined by French impressionists like Gaugin does not represent the way most people live on islands. The vast majority of islands are not tropical or even temperate. About ninety percent of small islands are located in the northern quarter of the globe, above latitude 45 degrees. They are marine environments with wind and rainstorms, dark winters and long summer days. Their women are not the topless beauties beloved of impressionist artists, but are more likely to be bundled in wool or waterproof.

Expectations can create realities. People flock to Manhattan expecting to succeed in finance, the theater, or publishing. Some do. Hollywood is a magnet for aspiring actors and filmmakers, and occasionally one makes it. At a much deeper level, islands convey expectations of peace and Paradise created by thousands of years of island fantasy stories. Other stories of island miseries go unnoticed, for the human imagination persists in its vision of idyllic islands. The magic of islands rests upon this subtle foundation of imaginary reality. Islands are heirs to an ancient mythic legacy that depicts them as the natural home of wonders and feelings of freedom, however illusory these may be in fact. Islands are remarkable for the glow of imagination and fantasy that they have earned more than any other land form. No one is likely to mistake an island for a small town in Kansas.

People can find themselves in large cities by accident, but those who live on islands are likely to do so intentionally. More often than not, their reasons are of the heart.

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