What begins to emerge in both the libertarian visions of Morris, Bogdanov, and Huxley, and the separatist utopias of Gilman and Gearhart, is an increasing sense that the relationship between utopia and reality is one in which conflict is inherent. In News from Nowhere, as we have seen, the transition to utopia is marked by violence and bloodshed, while the memory of the squalor and brutality of the narrator's own time repeatedly threatens the precarious fabric of the utopian dream, ultimately overwhelming it altogether. Red Star not only begins and ends in the midst of revolutionary struggle, but also includes serious consideration by the utopians of a possible war of extermination against the human race— followed by the murder of its chief proponent by the visitor from Earth; while in Island, utopia is quite literally overwhelmed by a hostile outside world. In Herland, likewise, it is clear that the utopians’ wariness of their visitors from outside is amply justified: in the light of their initial attempt to capture one of the local inhabitants, not to mention Terry's subsequent attempted rape, or his threat to organize an expedition ‘to force an entrance into Ma-land’ (p.146), the decision to imprison them until ‘tamed and trained to a degree they considered safe’ (p.72) seems eminently reasonable. The visitors from ‘our’ reality have, so to speak, to be utopianized before being allowed their freedom. And in The Wanderground, of course, relations between the utopian Hill Women and what remains of modern civilization are marked by outright hostility.

It may be objected, however, that such antagonism is already implicit in the Renaissance utopia. The ruthless defence policy of More's Utopians, the massive fortifications of the City of the Sun, and the precautions which Bacon's Bensalemites observe to prevent the discovery of their land hardly suggest that congenial relations with the rest of the world are seen as likely. Nevertheless, there is a difference: in each case, utopia's strength is sufficient to render it secure: such is the military might of the Utopians and Solarians, not to mention the technological superiority of the Bensalemites, that there is never the slightest suggestion that the outside world represents a threat to their stability.