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339 ratings, 3.59 average rating, 79 reviews
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published
June 1978
by Pluto P
binding
Hardcover, 176 pages
isbn
0861040260
(isbn13: 9780861040261)
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 484)
recommends it for:
revolutionaries
fun because it takes place mostly in the San Fransico bay area, this is an increadible vision of the future for people who have ever had a dream of living sustainably. California, Oregon, and Washington, seccede from the USA and become their own country. after 20 years of no contact and a small defensive battle for independence (hard to hear for pacificts that this is probably what would happen), a reporter from the East part of the remaining USA visits "Ecotopia" (the name of the new ...more
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Read in January, 2007
wow. i can't believe this book has so much cache in the left given how incredibly fucking sexist it is. i mean, i guess i can, but it's still disappointing. many folks over the years recommended this book to me, but once i actually got around to reading it i was seriously underwhelmed. if you enjoy books about whiny white men finding their masculinity in an ecological society, central to which is a gratuitous rape scene, this is the book for you.
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recommends it for:
everyone
The great thing about this book is it thinks through all your West Coast Succession dreams. There is a lot of fake future trivia you can relate to and all the Eco living standards are wonderful to think about. I rate it with a 3 because it is no literary masterpiece but I highly recommend it to anyone who has ever dreamed of West coast succession. Independent Eco living.
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A bit naive. It is like Weston paved the way for our current silly belief in green capitalism. The message: We can do everything we do now in more or less the same way, but we can do it differently and sustainably and green.
For a very different, though hardly as positive viewpoint about future direction, check out Derrick Jensen
For a very different, though hardly as positive viewpoint about future direction, check out Derrick Jensen
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Read in January, 2001
a story from the perspective of a journalist who gets permission to enter Ecotopia, a country that was seceded from the US. It is interesting to read a story of how people life in harmony with nature from a different view from what we have now. A must read.
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Read in January, 2005
This book is written very awkwardly. The narrator/main character travels throughout a newly independent country formed by the west coast of the United States, and tells (not shows) us what he sees. It's clear that Callenbach is enamored with the idea, and assumes we will be too, so he thinks that providing interesting characters or exciting events is unnecessary. He's also a bit "off" regarding sexism and racism. It would require the idea itself to be brilliant for this book to overcom...more
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Read in July, 2008
Entertainment-1 Stars
Education- 1 Star
Readability- 1 star
Innovation- 0 Stars
Inspiration- 1 Stars
This was a pretty entertaining book. I would have to put it as sci-fi, or maybe bio-fi. Getting back to the basics of nature and seeing how good life could really be if we tried. There are a LOT of holes in the concept of Ecotopia, but it looks like some place I would like to live, but will never exists sadly.
What really amazed me is some of the concepts he talks about (biodegradeabl...more
Education- 1 Star
Readability- 1 star
Innovation- 0 Stars
Inspiration- 1 Stars
This was a pretty entertaining book. I would have to put it as sci-fi, or maybe bio-fi. Getting back to the basics of nature and seeing how good life could really be if we tried. There are a LOT of holes in the concept of Ecotopia, but it looks like some place I would like to live, but will never exists sadly.
What really amazed me is some of the concepts he talks about (biodegradeabl...more
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Read in April, 2008
a campy view of right now as predicted in 1975. surprisingly prescient for a hippie sci-fi book! has one line i'd love to pass on to micheal pollan on food production... pg. 21 (the Minister of Food for the newly formed country comprised of norcal, oregon, and washington speaking to the protagonist) "'we constructed a national sludge drying system and natural fertilizer production. after seven years we were able to dispense with chemical fertilizers entirely. this was partly through sewage...more
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Of course, it's fun to read SF novels that prophesize about a future date that we're either at now or have already passed. This utopian novel is set in 1999, published in 1975. SF is full of dystopian novels that're projective critiques of the present tense. This is one of the rarer ones that critiques (what was) the present tense by postulating a utopia (of sorts) that's presumably rooted in the hopes that counterculture had for communes, eg. It's, perhaps, in the company of some of the wor...more
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Read in January, 2006
this book is horrible. it's unbearably sexist (including a date rape that had absolutely nothing to do with the plot and was perpetrated by the protagonist), racist (apparently the idea of a mixed-race environmental utopia was too much for the author to imagine, so he segregated all the black residents of the pacific northwest into a ghetto in oakland, which he named soul city), and boring (going on and on about details that have no relevance to real-life environmentalism, like the construction ...more
Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
al gore's minions
the story starts on May 3, which is when I just happened to start reading the book. freaky!
Ecotopia is apparently an environmental classic, written in 1975. You can tell by the name that it's about a utopian society based on ecological principles. It's about Cascadia (Washington, Oregon, and Northern California) becoming an independent country.
It's interesting. It's more realistic than other utopian novels I've read, in that the society and its conditions are more likely to ...more
Ecotopia is apparently an environmental classic, written in 1975. You can tell by the name that it's about a utopian society based on ecological principles. It's about Cascadia (Washington, Oregon, and Northern California) becoming an independent country.
It's interesting. It's more realistic than other utopian novels I've read, in that the society and its conditions are more likely to ...more
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Read in September, 2006
I first learned of this book through something I had read by Kim Stanley Robinson, who refered to this as science fiction with a "green" theme. It piqued my interest and I was delighted when I could find this.
The book is written in two sections -- first, the reporter's actual reports that he has submitted to his newspaper, and then his private journals. At first, I really enjoyed the book. The ways and means of carrying out an eco-friendly lifestyle seemed very well thought-out and...more
The book is written in two sections -- first, the reporter's actual reports that he has submitted to his newspaper, and then his private journals. At first, I really enjoyed the book. The ways and means of carrying out an eco-friendly lifestyle seemed very well thought-out and...more
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why not dream big for a few days? this book is an easily read forecast of what could be the pacific northwest in the enviro-conscious, patriarchal-"chucking", racially monochromatic, all-loving revolution envisioned by Callenbach. he casually assumes that everyone will be extremely available for multiple sexual partners and that mass-america is interested in being humble. i wish. although i am enchanted by almost all of the systematic social, economic, political, and environmental chan...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommended to Dylan by:
an academic paper on utopianism and environmentalismrecommends it for: environmentalists
Callenbach details an environmentalist utopia in the form of a nation comprising Washington, Oregon and Northern California which seceeded from the US. Written in the 70s, it is supposed to take place in the not-too-distant future.
The narrator is a reporter from Washington, D.C., who narrates through his newspaper features and his diary. The book is unimpressive in its plot and style, but that is all just a vehicle for the fictional sociology and technology.
The society is relatively dec...more
The narrator is a reporter from Washington, D.C., who narrates through his newspaper features and his diary. The book is unimpressive in its plot and style, but that is all just a vehicle for the fictional sociology and technology.
The society is relatively dec...more
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Read in September, 2007
I absolutely love the idea of Washington, Oregon, and California breaking off from the United States and forming an ecologically sound country. He is absolutely correct in predicting the US would never let it happen without a huge political upheaval, be it disaster, threat, whatever. There are even some good ideas in this book, although in the end it reads like the before sleep daydreaming of a idealistic 25 yr old guy. He writes sex like a male teenager (not unlike tom robbins in fantasizing...more
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I love the ideas in this book - I would totally live in Ecotopia if it existed. The thing that is most sad to me is that all the technology in the book existed when it was written in the 70s and we still have utilized it!
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Read in September, 2008
This is a great book. Written in 1975, this book is a fantasy that proposes that the Western Coast of the United States separates itself from the USA and forms its own government called "Ecotopia". What is fascinating about the book is the author's ideas of what such a state would do. He combines the hippy social agenda with a very forward thinking enviromental agenda and forecasts a technology that approximates what we are currently thinking about. There are great ideas about how ...more
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recommends it for:
visionaries who want to be pragmatists
This book is hard to read because it is poorly written. That's why it didn't get five stars. I give it four stars because of its subject matter. Callenbach is a visionary writer who lays out an ecologically sound utopia for us. By writing these things in the form of fiction, readers are more able to get their minds around what is possible. Their minds are carried into the heart of the vision where possibilities can take root. This is another of those books that I have dragged everywhere with me ...more
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A little out-dated, but it contains some thought-provoking ideas for creating a new kind of society. Cool name too.
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recommends it for:
EVERYONE!!!
I read this book in college and reread it recently. While it isn't exactly full of meaningful prose, the concept is great and every kid today should be required to read it, and probably every adult. The gist is that Northern CA, WA, and OR cecede from the United States to form an ecological utopia. Everything in the book is possible and was possible back when it was written. Makes you wonder how much better our world could be right now if we had made some different choices only 30 years ago.
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