tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687975489922145220.post6675877014889191842..comments2023-08-10T04:03:44.387-04:00Comments on This Book and I Could Be Friends: No Man's LandEileenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11058705381647529328noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687975489922145220.post-41134919659155280002011-05-04T11:07:37.954-04:002011-05-04T11:07:37.954-04:00What a fantastic review! Wow you really brought up...What a fantastic review! Wow you really brought up a lot of things that I either skimmed over or didn't pull out as much. Scary scary scary stuff. I still like what she did in the book in examining gender but clearly it's not a utopia I'd be happy in, for the reasons I mentioned and all the ones you mention. Utopias really aren't very nice places at all are they? shudderAmyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18102250492155489672noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687975489922145220.post-10093577558833880252011-04-30T10:17:11.480-04:002011-04-30T10:17:11.480-04:00Also, there were several sequels to Bellamy's ...Also, there were several sequels to Bellamy's <i>Looking Backward</i> written in his own time by critics that illustrate exactly what I'm talking about. One dealt with a military threat from China that only Julian West, the 19th-century transplant, recognized as dangerous because the Americans of 2000 had reached such a level of comfort that danger seemed a remote possibility. Another sequel dealt with an overblown socialist bureaucracy on the brink of collapse.Eileenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11058705381647529328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687975489922145220.post-46325626206576136982011-04-30T10:10:27.843-04:002011-04-30T10:10:27.843-04:00That's why I wonder if utopian fiction is a de...That's why I wonder if utopian fiction is a dead genre. A perfect society is essentially entropic, having reached a point of ultimate stability. Without the influence of external forces - which in this case would be human diversity in culture, opinion, and so forth - there is no reason to develop responses to troublesome or potentially catastrophic situations. Cultural evolution has strong parallels in biology and ecology. A species with no genetic diversity, for example, or that has become too highly specialized, can be wiped out by a single plague or sudden change in environment.<br /><br />And not to mention the fact that there exist today a few societies where the conditions for utopia would seem to exist. Japan, for example, is a largely homogeneous, group-oriented culture with little poverty, a low crime rate, an educated populace, a comfortable standard of living, and a high level of technological development. Yet their country is far from perfect - they are very patriarchal compared to other developed nations, their birth rate is far below replacement levels, there's been an economic malaise for the past decade, and so forth. Now immigration could solve the population issue, but they won't consider it because it means opening their society to foreigners (<i>gaijin</i>), which is precisely what a utopian society like Herland or Bellamy's future United States probably <i>shouldn't</i> do. Because these new people might find some things not to their liking and want to change.<br /><br />I think the closest thing anyone could write today and still be taken seriously would a utopian subversion (what TV Tropes calls a Crapsaccharine World). Because really, the only way you create a universally happy, unquestioning population is through some very sinister means.Eileenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11058705381647529328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687975489922145220.post-35024623874731333332011-04-29T12:11:47.682-04:002011-04-29T12:11:47.682-04:00It's interesting how pervasive racism, ableism...It's interesting how pervasive racism, ableism, and generally proto-eugenicist ideology is in utopian fiction. It's like people can only imagine a "perfect society" that's completely homogeneous. It's that way all the way back to More's <em>Utopia</em>, in which the Utopians feel justified in seizing and colonizing land on the mainland as long as the natives "aren't using it" (by which they mean, "aren't using it in the same way the Utopians want to use it"). <br /><br />I mean, if you think about it this is kind of a bizarre way out of the whole problem of social conflict: remove all human difference! Surely the perfection of a truly perfect society would lie exactly in its ability to accommodate difference and make the most of diversity.Emilyhttp://www.eveningallafternoon.comnoreply@blogger.com