Utopian and Dystopian Reading Group discussion
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Book suggestions for real utopian settings
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Smallo
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Aug 03, 2013 08:36PM
By "real" a setting in which humankind solved its major problems (poverty, war, crime, disease, etc.) and people live carefree, stress free lives...perhaps only dealing with boredom...I would also consider utopia at a price like brave new word. But I'm really looking for a setting...something like heaven before the fall because I want to read how authors tell stories in perfect words without conflict -- if such a feat is humanly possible.
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Interesting but setting sounds more dystopian than utopian. To clarify I want "true" utopian setting. For example Star Trek stories set exclusively on 22d-24th century utopian earth -- how people live their lives free of problems, money, etc.
Well, you could always start with the original: "Utopia" by Thomas Moore. Obiously it's a bit dated, and some of his visions might be... Well, forexample they have slavery. But this is from 1516 (if my memory serves me correct), and it is probably the most significant utopian book.
Then there are the utopian socialists from the 19th century, and there are a lot of utopian books from this period. My favorite is "News from Nowhere" by William Morris. Not because of the litterary content, but mainly because of his great vision of society. The book is written as an answer to the american utopia "Looking Backwords" by Edward Bellamy. That book is more readable, but also less beleavable as an organisational model of society.
HG wells have written a few not very good ones, but they are easy to get by.
"Bolo Bolo" by PM is a rather modern style utopia, but not written in the style of a novel. Allso some modern Zeitgeist stuff you might wanna read. i have read a book called "Looking Forward", that refers to the Bellamy book, but claims not to be a utopia (dah!)
And since you are after novels, you might also like "Woman at the edge of time" by marge Piercy. Modern stuff. From the 70's, I think.
My two absolute favorites are "the Disposessed" by Ursula Le Guin. She is a brilliant writer, and everything she has ever written is readable. But this is great, great stuff. It is what got me into utopias. She also wrote "very far from everything else" a bit earlyer.
"Voyage from yesteryear" by James P Hogan. It is ultimately a warstory, but some scenes there are absolutely brilliant. It makes you feel like its a mystery we havent abolished all this bullshit a long time ago.
There really is a lot of this stuff when you start digging. But this is the essential stuff, if you ask me.
Oh, I have also read a pretty funny one called "build your own utopia". It has a semi-hit in the anarchist bookshops in the 80s, I think ;-) It basically consists of a Questionare over what kind of ideal society you would want. Nerdy and cool. Turns out the entire pamplet is online now: http://www.seesharppress.com/utopia.html
