Ecotopia 30 Years Later
Grist writer Pat Joseph takes a look at the 30th anniversary edition of Ernest Callenbach’s novel “Ecotopia” and finds a lot of unexpected content.
“Ecotopia is a “stable-state” society, where old notions of economic progress are retired and “biological stasis” becomes the ultimate goal. That sounds good, as far as it goes; however, the vision is weighed down by so much extraneous cultural baggage — Marxism, paganism, free love, ritual warfare, communal living, abortion on demand, legalized drugs, gamelan orchestras — that readers coming to Ecotopia for the first time will find both more and less than they bargained for.”
Like all idealistic post-apocalyptic utopian novels of the 70s, they don’t age well. Nostalgia can make us forgive all sorts of short-comings in the literature that shaped our views. Speaking of cheesy idealistic post-apocalyptic novels from the 70s (well actually 1980), I am re-reading my copy of Omega by Stewart Farrar. Witches save the world!
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