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Ecotopia
written by Ernest Callenbach
Studio : Bantam
by Bantam
Release Date : 1990-03-01
Publisher : Bantam
Released : 1990-03-01
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780553348477
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 42 reviews)
List Price : $14.00
Our Price : $7.96
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Product Description |
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"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 Ecotopia's 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, Weston's conflict of values intensifies-and leads to a startling climax. |
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Between being lectured and being poked... |
The idea is that a news reporter is visiting a nation founded by Oregon, Washington, and northern California. The nation is a green, back to nature, dream. Solar power, deer hunting, no paint and few plastics, everything needs to be stable, friendly to nature. And you better be happy. BE HAPPY!
The government seems to be totalitarian state run by women with some men. They keep the USA out by threatening to explode nuclear mines in our major cities and having lots and lots of surface to air missiles. The main character decides to stay in this society. And who would of guessed. After all, back in the USA he just had a girlfriend he used for sex, a broken marriage, and tons of responsibility. Oh, and he isn't happy. And he started smoking pot the second he entered the nation.
Half of the book seems to be lectures. Lots of lectures. And joy. Lots of happy, joyful hugging and emotional meetings. Like it or not you WILL get hugged. Private emotions? Those are for OTHER people.
In the end the characters were not realistic, the system seemed to have too many holes and the story telling...well, there really was no story telling. Frankly, the society seemed more like a new age hippy cult and not one I would even want to visit. |
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Ecotechnology for the Masses |
I rarely read fiction and the initial premise of Ecotopia involving the Pacific NW region seceding from the US seemed somewhat far fetched but I was pleasantly surprised by the novel. Callenbach's richly-descriptive portrait of a society based on the concept of a "stable-state" ecosystem was quite thought-provoking. This is similar to the economist Herman Daly's advocacy of steady-state economics. It also parallels Robert Costanza's work in the emerging discipline of Ecological Economics as an alternative to the outdated, ideology-driven concepts of neoclassical economic theory. The centerpiece of the Ecotopia social model is for resource consumption to never exceed sustainable resource limits and to also treat pollution and waste as costs that are not externalized to the commons but are factored into economic decision-making at a fundamental level. Resources are recycled whenever possible and durable low-technology generally takes precedence over high-technology. Ecotopians generally embrace a philosophy of ecological intertwinement and reverence for nature. I see some similarities to James Lovelock's "Gaia hypothesis" and Edward O. Wilson's concept of "Biophilia".
I found the descriptions of the personalities and behaviors of the various characters throughout the novel to be quite entertaining, the women in particular having a more dominant role. Ecotopians are passionate if not quirky. The Ecotopians adopt a neomalthusian approach toward population regulation and this particularly resonated with me since I consider overpopulation and its resultant resource scarcity to be the single most critical issue facing the human species. The chapter on the ritual war games was intriguing and raises significant issues regarding the genetic predisposition toward competitive aggression in males. I was hoping to find some direct references to behavior science and the use of positive reinforcement but I didn't really find any though an Ecotopian model would provide more positive rewards as part of daily life.
Overall, Ecotopia is quite a stimulating read and I'm glad to add it to my small library. The novel is filled with creative approaches to a wide variety of social issues some of which probably aren't feasible but interesting none the less. Two other related books that some might find interesting are "The Collapse of Complex Societies" by the archaeologist Joseph Tainter and "Environment, Scarcity and Violence" by Thomas Homer-Dixon who heads the Conflict Studies department at the University of Toronto.
The mindless waste and hyper consumption of contemporary American culture is simply unsustainable. If I could move somewhere that embraced at least some of the aspects of the Ecotopian model I'd probably do so.
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A Credible Utopia |
When I first began reading _Ecotopia_ (1975) several years ago, I remember thinking that the basic premise-- that Washington, Oregon, and Northern California could successfully secede from the United States-- was far fetched. But Callenbach has written a "prequel," _Ecotopia Emerging_ (1981), which dramatizes how the revolution occurred. You may or may not find the details of that revolution plausible. But the point is this: Callenbach's utopia does not exist in a vacuum. It has a historical background. You feel that under the right circumstances, it _could_ become a reality. It feels solid.
Let us dispense with a few weaknesses to the novel. First, it uses the Visitor to Utopia plot, which is as old as Thomas More and which is by this time fairly predictable. I hope that readers will not rise up in wrath when I reveal that the hard-headed reporter who enters Ecotopia eventually becomes converted to the Ecotopian way of life. Second, Callenbach is frequently guilty of loading the dice in favor of his society. (The Ecotopians are healthier than most Americans, crime is almost nonexistent, and the sex in Ecotopia is just so doggoned much _better_.) A third problem is that much of what goes on in Ecotopia depends on its being isolated from the rest of the world. For example, hunting, woodcraft, and carpentry are taught as major parts of the school curriculum. This makes a certain amount of sense if your purpose is to give children an education in practical skills that they will need in their own society. But shouldn't education cover content areas that go beyond the boundaries of your own country?
On the other hand, there are some definite strengths to the novel. The narrator, a journalist named William Weston, is intelligent, observant, and engaging. (Many utopian visitors are rather wooden-headed.) His observations of Ecotopia, told in a series of journal and notebook entries from May 3 through June 25, are clear, concrete, and relaxed in style. The novel is, in fact, remarkably easy to read. Well, what are some of the characteristics of the society that Weston is exploring?
First, the technology is-- selective. It has been used to develop elaborate recycling systems, from sophisticated sewer systems to recycling trucks and centers to the use and re-use of biodegradable plastics. Gasoline cars have been outlawed in favor of electric cars, magnetic monorails, and public bicycles. Some electronic equipment (can openers, hair curlers, skillets) are absent, but others (television, videophones, refrigerators) are present. If this seems a bit "low tech" to some readers, remember: It is the task of the utopian author to construct a society that can be built using present-day technology. Utopias based on lots of fantastic, futuristic devices are not, ultimately, believable.
Second, Ecotopia has become more rural and less urban. To be sure, there are still cities such as San Francisco. But there is less urban sprawl (many old business skyscapers have been converted to apartments), more parks and gardens, and less smog (since petroleum cars have been banned). Many people are living in small communities, and the population in Ecotopia has gradually diminished through the use of birth control. Woodlands and farmlands have spread, and many Ecotopians are now forest rangers or cowboys. Dams have been demolished to return rivers to their natural state. Power comes from solar plants, sea power, and a few fusion plants. Animals have returned in great numbers to Ecotopia, and controlled hunting is encouraged.
Third, there has been a breaking away from the Protestant work ethic and large group activities. There is a twenty hour work week, factories are run on an informal basis rather than in an assembly-line manner. Work crews and volunteers for chores do their tasks in an unhurried, gamelike manner. Citizens are encouraged to spend time doing arts and crafts. Individual sports, such as hiking or camping, are encouraged, while spectator sports, such as baseball or football, are virtually nonexistent. As Weston notes, the sports pages in Ecotopia make rather dull reading. But more citizens are physically fit.
Finally, there are the dark-- or at least more controversial aspects-- of Ecotopia. The citizens are direct, emotional, and loudly argumentative. They frequently engage in lover's quarrels and family disputes, and they are often taking sides in a discussion over the quality of food in a restaurant or in political debates. There is also a strong Survivalist element in Ecotopia, and many citizens engage in aggressive war games. (Some Ecotopians may be druidic tree-huggers, but they are _not_ sentimental and weak.) The nuclear family is gradually giving way to communal families. Most blacks have chosen to live in voluntary "city states" in the Oakland area, indicating a kind of _de facto_ separation of racial cultures. Opposition leaders who want closer relations with the United States are an underground movement. They are quickly squashed by the government. One wonders how much freedom of speech is really allowed in this society.
Yet I find, somewhat to my surprise, that I wouldn't mind living in Ecotopia. Our current government is so corrupt, so incompetent, so cowardly, and so little concerned with public welfare that Ecotopia seems wonderful by comparison. This is how utopian satire works. You say, "If this imaginary world, with all its faults, looks good... then what are we to say about the world in which we live?"
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Ecotopia |
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In 1980, the states of Washington, Oregon (probably only the western halves - the eastern halves of both states are socially conservative) and Northern California secede from the USA and build an ecological utopia, complete with recycling, alternative energy, a virtual ban on the ICE, and Native American chic. Their government policies stand in relation to the election platforms of Ralph Nader and Dennis Kucinich as the platforms of Nader and Kucinich stand in relation to George W. Bush's policies. For a few years I went to an Internet forum, one of the participants of which was a teacher of wicca and a community activist from Portland, OR with a rather authoritarian personality, who attacked people who advocated scientific rigor in public policy or expressed dislike of the work of her friend Ursula Kroeber Le Guin. She was incensed when somebody called Hillary Clinton "a left-wing politician": the real left-wingers are bell hooks, Barbara Ehrenreich (she gave a few more names that I cannot recollect at the moment). This book reminded me of her, for in Ecotopia, people like her would be in power. Yet while reading Ecotopia, just as when I was reading Edward Bellamy's Looking Backwards, I had the feeling that to some extent, I am living in this utopia, since the political movements that produced the two utopias, ecology in the 1970s and socialism in the 1890s, influenced the culture of this country in various ways. |
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A Great Concept |
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After reading "Utopias on Puget Sound," I was hooked on the history and all things utopia. I would bet that most people in Washington state and British Columbia would love to form a new country, but alas, we can dream about what life might be like if the west coast were to break away and start an ecotopia. |
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