Modern Usage
Further information: Arcadia (disambiguation)Arcadia is now the name of many cities and towns around the world.
In 1945, Evelyn Waugh sub-titled the first part of his novel Brideshead Revisited "Et in Arcadia ego", referring to his protagonist's blissful and innocent interbellum years as an undergraduate student at Oxford University at the height of the British Empire and his new-found friendship with an eccentric aristocratic family.
In Gabriel García Márquez's novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, the founder and patriarch of the Macondo community bears the name José Arcadio Buendía. Over the course of the novel, Arcadio becomes a multigenerational patronym that resonates with many of the other utopian tropes explored elsewhere in the text.
In the novel Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, the character of Judge Holden names his rifle "Et in Arcadia ego".
Arcadia was a spin-off musical group formed in 1985 by three of the members of the band Duran Duran.
In 1993, Tom Stoppard wrote Arcadia (originally to have been titled Et in Arcadia ego), a play involving themes of classical beauty and order in nature, associated with the idea of Arcadia, in conjunction with themes of historical change and the evolution of Western understanding of nature.
In fantasy literature, Arcadia has been used as a magical realm, respective to the fictional universe in which the story occurs. A number of role-playing games have also adopted the idea, either using it as a separate realm within the multiverse (à la the Arcadia of the Dungeons & Dragons universe), or even using it as the central focus of an entire game system (as in White Wolf's Changeling: The Dreaming game). In Changeling: The Lost, Arcadia is presented as a hellish realm, where humans abducted by the True Fae are subject to unimaginable torment and torture, in sharp contrast to its usual utopian description.
The "mystical civilization of Arkadia" was the background to the 1980s animation Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea.
Dragonhaven, a young adult fantasy novel by Robin McKinley, ends with the phrase "Arcadiae vias peregrinentur," which the author has stated roughly translates to "May they walk in Arcadia".
According to the best-selling PC-game The Longest Journey, Arcadia was divided from the primordial original world, and represents fantasy, dreams and magic, while our world, Stark, is the world of science and technology.
In the game Bioshock, Arcadia is a level in which the protagonist has to navigate through an artificial forest. Arcadia was created by Dr. Julie Langford. This forest provides the oxygen for the rest of the city of Rapture,and was used as a peaceful retreat for the citizens.
The name has recently been popularized by its connection to the pseudo-history of the Freemasons - in particular the Latin motto "Et in Arcadia ego" ("Even here, I exist.") The phrase is used frequently in conspiracy fiction and lore, such as the pseudo-historical work Holy Blood, Holy Grail and the novel The Da Vinci Code, where it is interpreted as an anagram of I! Tego Arcana Dei ("Begone! I know the secrets of God").
Rock band The Libertines have referenced Arcadia as the destination their imaginary ship Albion sails towards.
In the anime series Captain Harlock, the ship in which he travels is known as the Arcadia. He calls it the place "to fight and live for our freedom ".
Hell To Pay, a book in Simon R. Green's Nightside series, includes the protagonist's exploration of the Arcadian Project, a idyllic woodland fantasyland, populated by idealized versions of the subject's family and their childhood dreams.
Arcadia University is a college located in Glenside, Pennsylvania, USA.
Arcadia is the theme of album art for progressive rock band Asia's "Alpha" and "Astra" albums. Both were painted by artist Roger Dean.
The metal opera Angel of Babylon by Tobias Sammet's Avantasia ends with "Journey to Arcadia".
In the recent movie Resident Evil: Extinction, the characters seek to travel to Arcadia, Alaska, which is promised to be free of zombies. In Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D, it is revealed that Arcadia refers to the USS Arcadia, a ship that collects survivors for experimentation.
Arcadia is the name of the world in the Sega Dreamcast game Skies of Arcadia in which the inhabitants live on floating islands and continents, and fly through the skies in airships.
Read more about this topic: Arcadia (utopia)
Famous quotes containing the words modern and/or usage:
“And, in fine, the ancient precept, “Know thyself,” and the modern precept, “Study nature,” become at last one maxim.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“...Often the accurate answer to a usage question begins, “It depends.” And what it depends on most often is where you are, who you are, who your listeners or readers are, and what your purpose in speaking or writing is.”
—Kenneth G. Wilson (b. 1923)