Thank you! Enjoyed that very much. Very nice summary of Utopian writing.
"It might be wise to take an honest inventory of Utopian fiction and to acknowledge that it is actually a form of the authoritarian imagination."
Yes, that seems precisely correct. Very closely related to what I call the Paradox of Tyranny.
"Many people dream of how they would make the world a better place. Hope they never get the power to do so, as most have no understanding that their better world is our enslavement."
Great read many thanks. I will put your novel on my reading list. John Carey´s The Intellectuals and the Masses from 1992, by close analysis of their writings, exposed how the progressives, socialists and intellectuals of the late 19th early 20th century loathed and detested those they regarded as socially inferior and where it ultimately led i.e starvation in Russia and the death camps in Germany and Poland.
British philospher John Gray also wrote a book about utopias...around 2013. Can´t recall the title he´s always worth reading.
Yes, I have Gray's book here - he very wisely connects Utopianism to apocalyticism. I agree concerning the condescending attitude to the masses that utopian planners have. People are treated as a problem to be solved.
I think you've identified that utopia is a literary fiction genre for non-fiction authors. That's why the better writing is on the dystopian side. See for example 'The Machine Stops' by E.M. Forster.
Thank you! Enjoyed that very much. Very nice summary of Utopian writing.
"It might be wise to take an honest inventory of Utopian fiction and to acknowledge that it is actually a form of the authoritarian imagination."
Yes, that seems precisely correct. Very closely related to what I call the Paradox of Tyranny.
"Many people dream of how they would make the world a better place. Hope they never get the power to do so, as most have no understanding that their better world is our enslavement."
https://www.mindprison.cc/p/tyranny
Great read many thanks. I will put your novel on my reading list. John Carey´s The Intellectuals and the Masses from 1992, by close analysis of their writings, exposed how the progressives, socialists and intellectuals of the late 19th early 20th century loathed and detested those they regarded as socially inferior and where it ultimately led i.e starvation in Russia and the death camps in Germany and Poland.
British philospher John Gray also wrote a book about utopias...around 2013. Can´t recall the title he´s always worth reading.
Yes, I have Gray's book here - he very wisely connects Utopianism to apocalyticism. I agree concerning the condescending attitude to the masses that utopian planners have. People are treated as a problem to be solved.
Bravo Ewan! Hell is the heavens we build for ourselves.
I think you've identified that utopia is a literary fiction genre for non-fiction authors. That's why the better writing is on the dystopian side. See for example 'The Machine Stops' by E.M. Forster.