so would anyone like to compare and contrast The 5th Sacred Thing and Ecotopia.
I will start.
Though I love the basic idea of Ecotopia as an ecologically minded country and lots of "Pagan" elements I do have the problem with its 1970s limited views of race, ethnicity, gender and sexualities... but we do have to remember it was written in the mid 1970s and even Ernest Callenbach would say his second book, Ecotopia Emerging (written 10 years later), had better character development and better ideas.
So other commentaries?
I will start.
Though I love the basic idea of Ecotopia as an ecologically minded country and lots of "Pagan" elements I do have the problem with its 1970s limited views of race, ethnicity, gender and sexualities... but we do have to remember it was written in the mid 1970s and even Ernest Callenbach would say his second book, Ecotopia Emerging (written 10 years later), had better character development and better ideas.
So other commentaries?
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Ecotopia Emerging (now limited sections free online)
Thu, May 24, 2007 - 3:13 PMEcotopia Emerging (now limited sections free online)
I was doing a google search for a specific book today online (a pdf copy of "From Dictatorship To Democracy" by Gene Sharp) when I realized that googles "book search" is now up and running so I did a search for Ernest Callenbach's "Ecotopia Emerging" and surprisingly found a limeted free copy
books.google.com/books
I have not gone through the whole limited version yet (reight now I hate reading on a computer screen), but so far page 58 and a little beyond I find interesting and then some more continues on page 285. Callenbach writes of the emergence of the "Survivalist Party" which is not "survivalists" as in people fearing a take over by a world government entrenched in their bunkers with a century supply of food and ammo as is often ascribed to the word, but seem more like a merger of Peak Oilers, Earth First!ers and movements like the permaculturalists, local economy supporters, antiglobalists, green anarchists, green party-ers and others. If Cascadians are to make a political branch of the the Cascadian movement then maybe the "Survivalist Party" just might be that perfect name. If I could I would copy and paste so much in this post. As far as I know the prequel to Ecotopia (Ecotopia Emerging) was better and I heard tries to undo some of the undertones of racial issues and even the objectification of women as just sexually active Pagan idols (as some claim), but I will have to read more to find out.
A limited (or limited preview) of the original "Ecotopia" is also online at
books.google.com/books
or the full version at www.indybay.org/uploads/aipotoce.pdf
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Re: The 5th Sacred Thing and Ecotopia
Thu, May 24, 2007 - 3:22 PMI just recently started reading The 5th Sacred Thing and my only comment in comparison so far is that the world outside of Ecotopia seems a lot less scary than the land beyond the San Francisco/northern Cal region in 5th.
