# Discussion and Bed explained — News from Nowhere

> Chapter companion for News from Nowhere by William Morris.

## What happens

The narrator attends a League meeting where a heated but good-tempered discussion about the future of a fully-developed new society takes place among six participants with divergent Anarchist views. After the meeting, he travels home discontentedly via the underground railway, muttering a wish to see the new world. Upon reaching the riverside near his home, the beauty of the winter night lifts his spirits, and he goes to bed with a vague hope for peace and goodwill. He wakes in a preternaturally sharp state, reflecting on his life's muddles, and later falls asleep again, only to awake into surprising adventures that he decides to narrate in the first person.

## Themes in this chapter

### Politics and Governance

The chapter opens with a political discussion at the League about the future of society, highlighting divergent Anarchist views and the process of debate.

### Nature and the Environment

The narrator's mood shifts upon encountering the moonlit river and clear sky, contrasting the oppressive urban environment with the beauty of nature.

## Character check-ins

### Guest

The protagonist who attends the League discussion, travels home by underground railway, and experiences a restless night before awakening to adventures.

### Friend Walter

The friend who reports the discussion and the narrator's subsequent experiences, and proposes to tell the story in the first person.

## Key lines

> If I could but see a day of it, if I could but see it!

The narrator longs to witness the future society they discussed.

_Expresses the narrator's deep desire for the realization of the new world._

> he felt as if he were in a pleasant country place—pleasanter, indeed, than the deep country was as he had known it.

The beauty of the night makes the suburb feel like an idealized countryside.

_Highlights the transformative power of nature on the narrator's perception._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/news_from_nowhere_se/chapters/i-discussion-and-bed
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/news_from_nowhere_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/news_from_nowhere_se/chapters