Ecotopia

the notebooks and reports of William Weston

182 pages

English language

Published Dec. 14, 2014 by Banyan Tree Books in association with Heyday Books.

ISBN:
978-1-59714-293-9
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
880565521

View on OpenLibrary

3 stars (3 reviews)

"Twenty years have passed since Northern California, Oregon, and Washington seceded from the United States to create a new nation, Ectopia. Rumors abound of barbaric war games, tree worship, revolutionary politics, sexual extravagance. Now this mysterious country admits its first American visitor: investigative reporter Will Weston, whose dispatches alternate between shock and admiration. But Ectopia gradually unravels everything Weston knows to be true about government and human nature itself, forcing him to choose between two competing views of civilization"--Back cover.

24 editions

reviewed Ökotopia by Ernest Callenbach (Rotbuch, #200)

Bißchen wenig Story

3 stars

Ein klassischer utopischer Roman. Ein Teil des Landes hat sich von der USA abgespalten um eine alternative Gesellschaft aufzubauen. Diese verwirklicht im weitesten Sinne ökosozialistische Ideen. Ein Reporter aus den USA besucht diese Welt und stellt allerlei interessante Entwicklungen fest. Viele der Ideen, die der Autor in den 70er Jahren des letzten Jahrhunderts formulierte, finden sich heute als Lösungsansätze zum Umgang der der Klimakrise: Weitgehender Verzicht auf fossile Rohstoffe, Nutzung von erneuerbaren Energiequellen, Ausbau des öffentlichen Personenverkehrs usw. Das ist interessant und erfrischend, da der Roman im Grunde die Solarpunk-Utopien vorweggenommen hat. Man möchte nicht allen Ideen von Ökotopia folgen, aber zentral ist ein radikaldemokratisches politisches System und somit sind sämtliche Aspekte ja auch ver- und aushandelbar. Bin der Ideenwelt schon interessant , leider ist die Story ein wenig mau.

reviewed Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach

Enjoyable, but with a lot of whitewashing

3 stars

Overall I enjoyed Callenbach's visions of a hopeful future. A few things felt out of place to me though:

The first was the "war games" which just didn't quite fit with the rest of the society, in my mind. It's quite possible I'm just missing something, but I couldn't understand why they were included or what their place in the functioning of the society was supposed to be (as a vent for toxic masculinity to express itself so that it doesn't permeate into every day life, maybe? It seems like this could be done with less injury). They're also part of broader problematic appropriation of indigenous culture by the almost exclusively white cast (more on that in a bit) in the book in a way that feels a bit tropey, which I didn't love.

Similarly, there's a very out-of-place feeling chapter in the middle where he randomly says (paraphrasing): "and …

avatar for archduke

rated it

4 stars

Subjects

  • Environmentalism
  • Conservation of natural resources
  • Nature conservation
  • Utopias
  • Environmentalists
  • Human ecology
  • Fiction