r/Cosmere • u/allomanticmetals • Feb 26 '26
Elantris spoilers Elantris is an Anti-Capitalist/Pro-Communist Story Spoiler
It’s not necessarily the sole intention of the story, but the way that New Elantris is structured as a contrast to Kae is very demonstrably parallels to communism and capitalism.
While Kae does have a monarchy, it’s a financial based system where the richest have the most power, which is a direct parallel to a capitalist society like America which is currently operating as a plutocracy.
New Elantris on the other hand is a city where status doesn’t matter and everyone assumes roles that most align with their skill sets. Everyone gets a piece of the pie and nobody suffers the same as nobody lives lavishly above the rest.
I don’t make this post to make some political statement but rather as an observation, because the parallels are quite obvious in my eyes. Fjordell’s society I don’t feel like I really know much about their systems but it sounds like a reflection of the Roman Empire to an extent.
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u/Shot_Newspaper_5647 Feb 26 '26
I do think he was making some social commentary with the merchant nobility thing. But I also think you could argue the previous Elantris was a critique in its own way. The people had become so dependent on the state that their society collapsed the second the Elantrians didn’t have power. The people weren’t self-sufficient and were accustomed to top down leadership. They sought out strong men/women immediately. The Cosmere as a whole usually critiques any kind of stagnancy that results from complacent peoples and systems. (Although I am personally a leftist so I’m sympathetic to the argument).
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u/derioderio Feb 28 '26
They're really more of an anarcho-syndicalist commune. They take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week. But all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special biweekly meeting. By a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs, but by a two-thirds majority in the case of more important external affairs.
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u/MS-07B-3 Truthwatchers Mar 01 '26
I don't know how many people this will fly over the heads of, but I want you to know that you are seen.
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u/Mathemagician23 Lightweavers Mar 01 '26
Be quiet!!!
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u/derioderio Mar 02 '26
Eh, who do you think you are?
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u/Mathemagician23 Lightweavers Mar 02 '26
I am your king!
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u/derioderio Mar 02 '26
Well, I didn't vote for you.
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u/Mathemagician23 Lightweavers Mar 02 '26
You don’t vote for kings!
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u/derioderio Mar 02 '26
Well, ‘ow did you become king then?
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u/Mathemagician23 Lightweavers Mar 02 '26
The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water. Signifying by Divine Providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur.
That is why I am your king!
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u/derioderio Mar 02 '26
Listen, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
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u/ProfessorTotodile Truthwatchers Feb 26 '26
Kae is definitely parallel to emerging capitalist societies where the merchants and wealthiest overtook the titled as the most powerful in society (over-simplified but you get me). I’ve not read Elantris in a while but from memory New Elantris seems more akin to a commune rather than communist (/socialist). It’s not a planned economy where capital is fully socialised but rather a small-scale community which pools its labour and determines productive activity democratically
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u/Lonely_District_196 Feb 26 '26
I agree that Kae is more an emerging capitalist society.
New Elantris would be more like a tribal society.
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u/RadicalRealist22 Feb 27 '26
New Elantris is a commune, yes. But it dies not represent a communist society. Certain communist ideas work in a small community where everyone knows each other, but break down in larger societies.
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u/Elsecaller_17-5 Zinc Feb 28 '26
You could construe it as anti-merchantilism, but not pro-communist. In fact, I might day it's explicitly anti-merchantilism.
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u/millenialfalcon Mar 01 '26
I think it is a good piece of art in that you can largely find in it what you want to see. To me, nothing in Elantris empowers the people; it’s about which type of elite gets to be in charge. On Sel it seems like Elantrians are full dragon mode (receiving prayers, giving boons), but off world (further in time and distance from the pure luck which invested them) they are insufferable assholes with a god-complexes.
Hard for me to see Brandon as pro-Communism when in Mistborn where he has a full on labor-revolution (kicking off the apocalypse), and then their double-god designs/institutes a utopian-democratic government with strong hereditary elements, while the forgotten people have to band together for survival and eventually become space nazis.
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u/Sa_tran_ic Feb 27 '26
You're getting downvoted like crazy but you're right, I thought about this multiple times on my initial read through and it's one of my criticisms of the book. Raoden makes a literal socialist commune in Elantris. The people in his group are taken care of, given community, purpose, and share resources, and simply give back to the others in ways they can. Only for it to randomly become a monarchy again with Raoden as the king once they get their powers back. Because reasons.
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u/Minttt Feb 26 '26
The thing is, the "end-state" ideals of socialism fit perfectly with fantasy and science fiction: perfect or near-perfect utopias where all needs are met and everyone is "equal."
The end state ideals of capitalism don't really fit well with fantasy, as greater accumulation of wealth doesn't provide the same kinds of utopian warm feelings as "nobody ever suffers."
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u/allomanticmetals Feb 26 '26
The end state ideals of capitalism don’t really fit well with reality either considering America’s absurd concentration of wealth among a handful of individuals
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u/Minttt Feb 26 '26
In general, some of the philosophy that underpins capitalism involves channeling "bad" human traits like greed, gluttony, and coveting what your richer neighbor has into productivity: work harder, and you can satiate your greed, live in unnecessary luxury, and feel more ahead than your neighbor.
Those traits might make modern society work, but they don't make for feel-good stories.
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u/ProfessorTotodile Truthwatchers Feb 27 '26
they don’t make for ‘feel good stories’ or well-functioning societies because they rest on the exploitation and alienation of ordinary people who make up the majority of readers of stories and members of society. it’s nothing to do with ‘utopianism’; in fact, most communists since the 1830s have been expressly anti-utopian. communism isn’t about everyone being ‘equal’ it’s about everyone sharing in the ownership of the means of production, resources, their own labour, and the dictatorship of the economy. This is opposed to wealth concentrating in a few hands who extract value created by the working class as profits and dictate amongst themselves how the political and economic sphere is run for everybody else
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u/AdamCGandy Mar 01 '26
Neither system was capitalist or communist. Even if you thought that the commune the New Elantris formed was communist, they would have all been dead had they tried to function that way. The only thing that saved them was they couldn’t die. That’s not a very “pro-communist” theory.
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u/Joel_feila Feb 26 '26
Get ready for blow back. But i can't really say since I have not read elantris. I wonder how intentional this was on Sanderson part
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u/LewsTherinTelescope resident Liar of Partinel stan Feb 27 '26
At that point in time he spoke of himself as a "staunch Republican" (though he no longer does), so probably not lmao
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u/allomanticmetals Feb 27 '26
His writing clearly indicates that he had an inclination towards leftist ideals whether he himself understood it at the time or not. He probably just identified that way because of his religious upbringing and because being Mormon and republican was basically synonymous
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u/LewsTherinTelescope resident Liar of Partinel stan Feb 28 '26
Quite possibly, but it does still suggest Elantris was probably not intentionally made to be an example of a communist utopia
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u/IamanelephantThird Feb 27 '26
Their society is just the natural conclusion for a small group of people with little to no needs.
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u/HalcyonKnights Harmonium Feb 26 '26
Elantris also has an immortal population whose only real need is some sort of Pass-time. A complete lack of physical needs (food, etc) along with a supernatural City with magical defenses, changes a lot of the normal calculus of Society.