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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A review of Callenbach's Ecotopia, which looks at his depiction of a society based on sustainability and the rejection of consumerism and industrialisation, and considers whether or not it is a valid social model.
Page Count:
3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: JL5_JLecotop.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
but one cannot help but wonder whether those who put forward such criticisms are able to set aside the constraints of their own cultural ideologies sufficiently to recognise the potential
of Callenbachs vision. The work is generally categorised as a novel, but it would be fair to say that Callenbach is far less concerned with plot and character than he
is with setting out the depiction of his utopia.
The background to the events are simple: Ectopia is a community created when Washington, Oregon and Northern California secede from the union, cut themselves off from the rest of the
USA, and effectively disappear for twenty years whilst they construct a society which rejects industrialisation, pollution, exploitation and militarism. After twenty years of silence, they open their doors to a
journalist, William Weston, who has been assigned to spend six weeks exploring and assessing the community. This provides the framework for Callenbach to elaborate on his utopia, in which ecological
interconnectedness and sustainability are the key issues.
The novel takes the form of a series of newspaper articles and journal entries by Weston; the society is therefore observed from the perspective of an outsider who is
constantly making comparisons to the culture with which he is familiar. Almost everything which Weston encounters is alien to someone brought up in the industrialised, materialistic consumer culture of the
rest of the USA. The food is unprocessed and unpackaged, housing is communal and flexible, to accommodate the requirements of growing families, clothing styles are based on pragmatics and comfort
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