Ecotopia: A Novel

First read this nearly 30 years ago - I borrowed a copy from a friend and skimmed through it - I always wanted to reread it more thoroughly, but I sort of forgot about it. Reading that Ernest Callenbach had died put it back into my memory and I decided to see what 40 years would do to its vision. As anybody who has visited Portland can tell you, some of it has become real - and more of it should. Looking back, it seems funny that Callenbach has to explain what biodegradable means or that composting and recycling were once unknown. Though we are still learning that laws against victim-less crimes should be abolished.The "plot" to this story is largely superfluous - it follows that standard device of having a stranger going into an Utopia and describing it for people back home. This has been used as far back as Thomas Moores Utopia and in one of my favorite utopian novels, Island by Aldous Huxley. The stranger is usually converted to the utopian life. The story of how Ecotopia was created seems unlikely, but if you look at all the countries that have devolved since the mid 70s like the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia and all the areas that would like to split away, like Scotland, Flanders, Catalonia and most certainly Kurdistan, then perhaps this is not so wild of an idea. A lot of people in Texas are always saying they want independence. At any rate, what is important here is how a green society would work - Callenbach could have placed it on another planet for all the difference it would make (you know, like Pandora in Avatar).One of the things I like about Callenbachs proposed world is how it doesn't fit neatly into any currently existing political or cultural viewpoint. Or at least not any that will likely be allowed onto the pages of the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal. His ideas will resonate best amongst the outsiders and freethinkers across the social spectrum, whether they be left or right or neither. But before you laugh it off, remember; a lot of these things have happened or are happening now. Perhaps back in the early 70s, when this book was being written, they only seemed possible through secession, but now they are being implemented state by state. The next twenty years should be be interesting - you can get a heads up by reading this book.

I didn’t realize when I bought it that this book was written in 1975. It’s about Washington state, Oregon, and northern California seceding from the United States to create their own environmentally friendly society and a journalist’s impressions about it. Some of the ideas such as biodegradability and picture phones were way ahead of its time. There’s a woman president and a 20-hour work week. There’s more focus on joy and communing with nature and each other than achievement or material success. Marijuana is legal. They hold brutal war games as an outlet for aggression. People live in communal arrangements and relationships are pretty open. It’s amazing how prescient this book is especially about environmental solutions, but then many sci-fi writers seem to be able to envision the future. The story is told in articles the journalist sends back to his editor and entries in his personal diary. Certain segments of the population choose to have their own areas to preserve their cultures which some have accused of being racist in this book. Though it was interesting to read about this version of a society that strives to be utopian, not much actually happens in the story.

What some people still can't see was known 50 years ago and this book makes clear that we are no smarter, no better at planning, no more far-sighted than we were then. The steps this fictional green government takes to run a sustainable community are as far out of reach today as they were then. Read this and wonder, regret, and weep that no-one took this seriously and now the time seems too late, our human character too rigid, our politicians too stupid, and the planet too impatient to offer mc much hope.

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.

This arrived in good condition and ahead of schedule. It was a book I had first read in the early 1980s, and very interesting to see which aspects had stood the test of time.

A bit wornout but as expected.

Very good book which although impracticable is an excellent view of a future of uncertainty.

I bought for a gift so I had never read it, but it was told me that it is a very very nice book

Würde Ernest Callenbachs ECOTOPIA heutzutage erstmals erscheinen würde man es vermutlich in das Genre des "Solarpunk" einordnen - wobei dieses Buch noch viel mehr ist als einfach nur ein Roman, sondern auch ein wichtiges ökologische Manifest, welches vor mehr als vier Jahrzehnten viele heute dringender denn je zu lösende Probleme adressierte.Es wundert mich nicht im geringsten, dass dieses Buch einen derartigen Stellenwert unter Umweltschützern und solchen, die es gerne werden wollen, hat. Ich selbst kenne dieses Buch seit Mitte der 80er Jahre und kehre immer wieder zu ihm zurück... und es ist wirklich erstaunlich, wie viele Ideen der Autor vorweggenommen hat, genauso wie es erstaunlich ist, wie anders sich die tatsächliche Geschichte in vielem entwickelt hat.Bei alldem sei noch angemerkt: ECOTOPIA liest sich schlichtweg gut und ist einfach eine schöne und mahnende Utopie, welche seinerzeit so wichtig war wie heute.Alles in allem: ein Buch, welches jeder Leser, der sich für Umweltschutz interessiert, ganz einfach kennen sollte.Von mir gibt es verdiente 5 Sterne.