Ecotopia
September 5, 2008 – 12:38 pmOooh, I recently finished a superly-interesting book: Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach (in 1975!). I stumbled across this little gem in the Sci-Fi section of the library (yes, I read Sci-Fi, and my prissy ass is not ashamed). It’s about this fictitious country that is actually northern CA, OR, and WA which secede from the United States to become a sustainable state. An American reporter goes there 20 years after it becomes independent, to investigate the society. Basically the Ecotopians do all kinds of things that make loads of sense in real life, if your main concerns aren’t consumerism and convenience. Really I’m not sure what the plot is in the novel, except as a tool for the author to disseminate his plan for revolutionizing society into a stable-state system (an admirable aim). The characters were sort-of interesting, but the main idea, Ecotopia, is what makes the book. If Ecotopia really existed, I’d pick up and move there post-haste. Somebody read it so I’ll have someone to talk about it with!