THE CAT'S PAJAMAS XXXVIII

Tad Tuleja

 

A collection of the (mostly) true origins of familiar phrases

 

ON CLOUD NINE

 

The last third of the 19th century saw the publication of numerous utopian novels, most of them written by social reformers appalled at the depredations of industrial capitalism. These books had large readerships in their day, but have been largely forgotten in our day. The reverse was the case with Cloud Nine, an "anti-utopian fancy"  written in 1894 by a staunch defender of the status quo, "J. P.  Morgana."

The identity of Morgana has never been determined. Some literary historians believe the author was financier J.P. Morgan, though several others have been suggested. Whatever his or her identity, it's clear that Morgana's book provided ammunition for the enemies of social reform. The society sketched in Cloud Nine was an unrealistic one in which the supposed dreams of utopian socialists had been brought to fruition. There were no poor, no hungry, and no classes. Everyone had a management position, although there was little work to be done. The standard garb of the Cloud Niners was a flowing, angelic robe; their principal endeavor was harp strumming. Cloud Nine was physically situated "about 20 miles straight up, above Boston."

It is from this novelistic attack on utopian schemes that we get both cloud nine, for impossible bliss, and the similarly derisive catchphrase pie in the sky. According to Morgana, on Cloud Nine every meal was dessert, and the ingredients of the meals all came free. In the words of the character Samuel Bombast (thought to be a parody of Samuel Gompers), "Here we toil not, nor do we spin; but every day brings us pie in the sky."