Ecotopia: The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston
by Ernest Callenbach
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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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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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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 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
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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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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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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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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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Another Fonsecca recomendation, probably Sarah recomended it first. Utopian society? yes please. Dave Hoover hated how unrealistic it is. But sometimes he is a buzz kill, rain on your parade scientist. The states of Northern Cali, Oregon and Washington form a country of lofty esoteric governing ideals. If you shut off the part of your brain that says "thats soooo could never really happen", and love it for what it is - a green idealists paradise - you will love love love this book.
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Read in July, 2007
It took me a while to get used to the style of this book: it is built to be like a manuscript that is put together from the news articles and journal entries from a New York Times journalist that travels to the country of Ecotopia (northern Cali, Oregon and Washington) twenty years after it seceeded from the U.S. I enjoyed the unique techniques this author used to provoke his readers into thinking about the planet and the positive things that can be done to coinside with it.
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Read in July, 2007
This book has been on my "to-read" for awhile. The tone of the book reminded me a lot of the all the dystopia novels & movies I love so much (1984, Brave New World, etc.), but the world described was actually somewhere I might like to live. Imagine, a country that founded itself on principles of sustainability. I really enjoyed the way the book was structured - one chapter was a column from a reporter not native to Ecotopia. The next, his personal journal entry.
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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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Read in November, 2006
Northern California, Washington, and Oregon secede forming the enviromentally and socially conscious Ecotopia, essentially free from war and pollution. Through the journals of an intrepid reporter, the secrets of such a paradise are shown to the otherwise slowly decaying world. 20 hour work weeks, woman dominated government,
and tree worship.
and tree worship.
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Read in March, 1994
I first read this book as a senior in high school, over 10 years ago. At the time, I was preparing to attend a liberal arts school in the Rockies, but I didn't know at the time I would find at college that some of the ideas in the book were the norm at my school. Since the first reading, I've picked it up maybe half a dozen times.
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This is painful reading at times, I cringed at the writing style, I cringed at the blatent sexism, I cringed because the main character is really not very likable.
But some of the ideas are really cool and it only took me a couple of hours to read and now I have another thing to talk about in Seattle cafes.
But some of the ideas are really cool and it only took me a couple of hours to read and now I have another thing to talk about in Seattle cafes.
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Read in January, 1986
Every left-coasters dream: California, Oregon, and Washington, fed up with the ecological excesses of the rest of the nation, join together and secede from the union, forming the new nation of Ecotopia. Written from the point of view of the first "American" journalist allowed to visit the country.
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Somewhere between Science Fiction, Fantasy and How-To, it presents a host of entirely feasible ways of living in greater harmony with the Earth (and each other) and how life might be if these ways were followed. The world would be much better if reality were closer to this model. Excellent read.
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