Ecotopia

Rating:
Summary: I love this book, but........
Review: This is one of those books that only a mother could love. This is one of my favorite books, but all the critical reviews are correct: the writing style flips back & forth between pretentious & wooden, the characters either shallow or dopey (usually both). This book is no "A Tale of Two Cities." In fact, for this kind of story, Thomas Moore's "Utopia," Bellemy's "Looking Backward"--and probably everything written by Jules Verne are better stories....Way better (especially Moore, the grand-daddy of the genre).

I still love this book, because of all that. When written during the 1970s, it was so "out there" for its time--that reading it now is terribly dated. It's almost like watching 1950s movies about space flight....But this book (in its own weird way) was an important book that helped inspire the environmental movement. No, it's not Rachal Carsons's "Silent Spring," but it reads a heck of a lot better than "Unsafe at any Speed."

If you're in your forties (or older), and want a drift back to the "future" of 1970, or you're younger & want to know why your parents are so weird--Read this book. Or if you are an environmentalist, and want to know where your roots lie--this is a good book to read.

But if you don't have any special interest, and are just looking for a ripping good yarn to pass a rainy saturday afternoon....It's not this book, babe.

Rating:
Summary: A Greener Pasture?
Review: Utopia novels are always a real hoot to read. Every fringe group with an axe to grind eventually churns out some idealistic novel about the way things ought to be. We have socialism represented in Edward Bellamy's "Looking Backward." The racists weigh in with William Peirce's fascistic "The Turner Diaries." Even feminists have a novel, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "Herland." Perhaps it was inevitable the environmentalists would put forth their own work, Ernest Callenbach's "Ecotopia."

Ecotopia is a country made up of the states of Washington, Oregon, and a big chunk of California. After a period of political and economic turmoil, these states seceded from the United States circa 1980. They were able to do this because economic conditions in the United States were so bad (apparently Callenbach assumed the problems of the 1970's would continue to spiral us downwards) that the government could not mount an effective civil war to bring the states back into the fold. Further complicating the issue was the nuclear mines Ecotopian guerillas planted in Washington D.C. and other American cities. By the time "Ecotopia" starts, twenty years have passed since Ecotopia gained its independence.

"Ecotopia" tells the story of William Weston, a crack journalist for a big New York newspaper. Weston's mission, if he chooses to accept it, is to take a journey into the country of Ecotopia and report on what he finds there. Weston is your typical big city boy--arrogant, flighty, divorced, and always looking for a new bimbo to drape over his arm. The insights into Weston's character come from italicized "journal" entries placed directly before his official newspaper articles. Needless to say, Weston undergoes a sea change in attitude as he uncovers every aspect of Ecotopian life. He even hooks up with a tree-worshipping chickadee named Marissa, which allows Callenbach to throw in plenty of gratuitous sex scenes. Callenbach proves to us that a return to nature produces an oversexed population, a behavior Weston is more than willing to take part in.

Callenbach uses Weston's articles to reveal a wide array of Ecotopian modes of thought, creativity, and lifestyles. The most important of these aspects is the "stable-state" system, where Ecotopians direct all aspects of government, production, and lifestyle towards the idea of reusable commodities. Ecotopia avoids the use of heavy metals, unbiodegradable plastics, and internal combustion engines. They don't want to use anything that cannot be reused at some point, or anything that may put stress on the environment. Predictably, bicycles are widely used, population growth is discouraged, biodegradable materials are heavily used, and big cities are slowly giving way to smaller, tight knit communities. Pollution is a grave crime in Ecotopia, and many citizens agitate for military action against nations involved in reckless destruction of the environment.

Military action? From a peaceful, green state? Oh yes, Ecotopia does have a military branch, an intelligence apparatus, and a political structure that, at times, wields a heavy hand. Behind the all the hand holding and smiles lurk ominous communistic overtones that threaten to overthrow the world Callenbach attempts to create. At one point, secret police officers approach Weston after he meets with a group of disaffected Ecotopians who want to restore relations with the United States and ease the march towards a greener society. Ecotopians do not believe in being alone, either, as Weston discovers when told, "Here we try to arrange it so we are not lonely very often. That keeps us from making a lot of emotional mistakes." It also prevents people from thinking dangerous thoughts about society and their position within that society, does it not?

It is society over the individual that concerns Callenbach's Ecotopians. Weston learns "We don't think in terms of things, there are no such things as a thing-there are only systems." Weston realizes, at this point, that he is part of a system, that he is not a separate individual thing. Tell that to the individual who questions Ecotopia's emphasis on nature over humans. Of course, in Callenbach's utopia, no one seriously questions the underlying principle of environmental based political structures, but in the real world this would never happen. I shudder to think about what would happen to those who questioned this system too deeply. Perhaps a gulag system near Spokane or execution without trial might clear up these pesky problems.

"Ecotopia" isn't a lost cause. There are a few things within these pages that are agreeable and pleasing. The breakup of mass media systems within Ecotopia in favor of small, multiple outlets is a splendid idea. But overall, worrying darkness looms behind the smiling faces in Callenbach's utopian vision. "Ecotopia" proves that going too far to one extreme in a quest for ultimate happiness is never a good thing.