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Loading... Ecotopia (original 1975; edition 1979)by Ernest Callenbach
Work detailsEcotopia by Ernest Callenbach (1975)
None.  maybedog | Apr 5, 2013 |  I'm a die-hard lefty and I still think this is a terrible book. It's poorly written, biased, and short-sighted propaganda. I read as much of it as I could before I just had to throw it down in disgust, and this was at a time when I was young enough believe I had to finish every book that I read. For decades this was the only book I couldn't finish. It's really not even worth my time to review thoroughly so I'll give you just one example of how stupid and ill-conceived it is: The people are environmentalists and yet they refuse to paint or upkeep their houses because it's natural to just let the wood fall back to its natural state. Hunh?? Since when is it environmental to waste wood by letting it rot away? Oh yes, let's cut down even more trees than we already are. I also was upset with the weird violent arena thing they had going on. I didnt get far enough to find out what that was about but it disturbed me. About a decade ago I told a friend who loved it how much I hated the book. Years later he came up to me and told me that he had re-read it as a "full" adult and he now agreed with me: the book is junk. Don't waste your time, read something about real change and real activism. (  ) maybedog | Apr 5, 2013 | Visionary, pivotal, important. How I believed this, back in the day. And I still think...why not? Callenbach originally self published, out of his garage. I've always loved that. (  ) jarvenpa | Mar 31, 2013 | I had to read this book for my Utopian/Dystopian Literature course, and even though it's a book that I would never choose to read voluntarily, I still liked it. I enjoyed the ideas expressed for this environmental utopian community. Callenbach did not try to create an absolutely perfect society. He gave Ecotopia a mixture of innovative, controversial, and bizarre concepts: Innovative (use of only biodegradable and/or recyclable products) Controversial (bloody war games) Bizarre (nurses that have sex with their patients as part of a recovery treatment!) Parts of the community that I really loved: liberal use of marijuana (legal in Ecotopia!) and the 20-hour work week. Parts of the community that I hated: communal living (every Ecotopian lived with a group of people; you'd probably be shunned if you rented your own apartment to live in by yourself. I'm not even sure that's allowed--I thought the concept seemed more stifling than unifying) and the very flippant attitude towards sexual relationships (there were no monogamous relationships in Ecotopia; everyone had multiple partners and they often had sex in public places). I think Ecotopia would be a great vacation spot, but I don't think I would want to live there. I wouldn't fight it if I had to move there though. (  ) Kayla-Marie | Apr 6, 2011 | Love, love, love this book! Read years ago in a high school environmental science course, and I look forward to reading it again. (  )1  wineisme | May 11, 2009 | no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0553348477, Paperback)A novel both timely and prophetic, Ernest Callenbach’s Ecotopia is a hopeful antidote to the environmental concerns of today, set in an ecologically sound future society. Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as the “newest name after Wells, Verne, Huxley, and Orwell,” Callenbach offers a visionary blueprint for the survival of our planet . . . and our future.Ecotopia was founded when northern California, Oregon, and Washington seceded from the Union to create a “stable-state” ecosystem: the perfect balance between human beings and the environment. Now, twenty years later, this isolated, mysterious nation is welcoming its first officially sanctioned American visitor: New York Times-Post reporter Will Weston. Skeptical yet curious about this green new world, Weston is determined to report his findings objectively. But from the start, he’s alternately impressed and unsettled by the laws governing Ecotopia’s earth-friendly agenda: energy-efficient “mini-cities” to eliminate urban sprawl, zero-tolerance pollution control, tree worship, ritual war games, and a woman-dominated government that has instituted such peaceful revolutions as the twenty-hour workweek and employee ownership of farms and businesses. His old beliefs challenged, his cynicism replaced by hope, Weston meets a sexually forthright Ecotopian woman and undertakes a relationship whose intensity will lead him to a critical choice between two worlds. (retrieved from Amazon Sun, 06 Jan 2013 01:24:46 -0500) Ecotopia was founded when northern California, Oregon, and Washington seceded from the Union to create a ?stable-state? ecosystem: the perfect balance between human beings and the environment. Now, twenty years later, the isolated, mysterious Ecotopia welcomes its first officially sanctioned American visitor: New York Times-Post reporter Will Weston. Like a modern Gulliver, the skeptical Weston is by turns impressed, horrified, and overwhelmed by Ecotopias strange practices: employee ownership of farms and businesses, the twenty-hour work week, the fanatical elimination of pollution, mini-cities that defeat overcrowding, devotion to trees bordering on worship, a woman-dominated government, and bloody, ritual war games. Bombarded by innovative, unsettling ideas, set afire by a relationship with a sexually forthright Ecotopian woman, Westons conflict of values intensifies-and leads to a startling climax.… (more) (summary from another edition) |
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It's really not even worth my time to review thoroughly so I'll give you just one example of how stupid and ill-conceived it is: The people are environmentalists and yet they refuse to paint or upkeep their houses because it's natural to just let the wood fall back to its natural state. Hunh?? Since when is it environmental to waste wood by letting it rot away? Oh yes, let's cut down even more trees than we already are.
I also was upset with the weird violent arena thing they had going on. I didnt get far enough to find out what that was about but it disturbed me.
About a decade ago I told a friend who loved it how much I hated the book. Years later he came up to me and told me that he had re-read it as a "full" adult and he now agreed with me: the book is junk.
Don't waste your time, read something about real change and real activism. (