Chris Pak
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781781382844
- eISBN:
- 9781786945426
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781382844.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This book explores the emergence and development of terraforming in science fiction from H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds (1898) to James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar (2009). Terraforming is the ...
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This book explores the emergence and development of terraforming in science fiction from H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds (1898) to James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar (2009). Terraforming is the process of making other worlds habitable for human life. Its counterpart on Earth—geoengineering—has been positioned as a possible means of addressing the effects of climate change. This book asks how science fiction has imagined the ways we shape both our world and other planets and how stories of terraforming reflect on science, society and environmentalism. It traces the growth of the motif of terraforming in stories by such writers as H.G. Wells and Olaf Stapledon in the UK, American pulp science fiction by Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, the counter cultural novels of Frank Herbert, Ursula K. Le Guin and Ernest Callenbach, and Pamela Sargent’s Venus trilogy, Frederick Turner’s epic poem of terraforming, Genesis, and Kim Stanley Robinson’s acclaimed Mars trilogy. It explores terraforming as a nexus for environmental philosophy, the pastoral, ecology, the Gaia hypothesis, the politics of colonisation and habitation, tradition and memory. This book shows how contemporary environmental awareness and our understanding of climate change is influenced by science fiction, and how terraforming in particular has offered scientists, philosophers, and many other readers a motif to think in complex ways about the human impact on planetary environments. Amidst contemporary anxieties about climate change, terraforming offers an important vantage from which to consider the ways humankind shapes and is shaped by their world.Less
This book explores the emergence and development of terraforming in science fiction from H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds (1898) to James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar (2009). Terraforming is the process of making other worlds habitable for human life. Its counterpart on Earth—geoengineering—has been positioned as a possible means of addressing the effects of climate change. This book asks how science fiction has imagined the ways we shape both our world and other planets and how stories of terraforming reflect on science, society and environmentalism. It traces the growth of the motif of terraforming in stories by such writers as H.G. Wells and Olaf Stapledon in the UK, American pulp science fiction by Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, the counter cultural novels of Frank Herbert, Ursula K. Le Guin and Ernest Callenbach, and Pamela Sargent’s Venus trilogy, Frederick Turner’s epic poem of terraforming, Genesis, and Kim Stanley Robinson’s acclaimed Mars trilogy. It explores terraforming as a nexus for environmental philosophy, the pastoral, ecology, the Gaia hypothesis, the politics of colonisation and habitation, tradition and memory. This book shows how contemporary environmental awareness and our understanding of climate change is influenced by science fiction, and how terraforming in particular has offered scientists, philosophers, and many other readers a motif to think in complex ways about the human impact on planetary environments. Amidst contemporary anxieties about climate change, terraforming offers an important vantage from which to consider the ways humankind shapes and is shaped by their world.
Geoff Mulgan
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691165745
- eISBN:
- 9781400866199
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691165745.003.0006
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Financial Economics
This chapter studies the radical alternatives that can be found in the traditions of utopian thinking that have offered fully formed alternatives to a flawed present, from Thomas More to Ursula ...
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This chapter studies the radical alternatives that can be found in the traditions of utopian thinking that have offered fully formed alternatives to a flawed present, from Thomas More to Ursula LeGuin, and from William Morris to Ivan Efremov. Utopias are one of the ways societies imagine alternative futures, and many utopians put their ideas into practice too, creating islands of the future. Then as now they were healthy antidotes to the lazy pessimism which claims that all attempts at progress are futile. If utopias are worlds where predators have been eliminated, dystopias are ones where they rule. But utopias both promise too much and deliver too little, their greatest weakness now as in the past being that they lack an account of how change will happen.Less
This chapter studies the radical alternatives that can be found in the traditions of utopian thinking that have offered fully formed alternatives to a flawed present, from Thomas More to Ursula LeGuin, and from William Morris to Ivan Efremov. Utopias are one of the ways societies imagine alternative futures, and many utopians put their ideas into practice too, creating islands of the future. Then as now they were healthy antidotes to the lazy pessimism which claims that all attempts at progress are futile. If utopias are worlds where predators have been eliminated, dystopias are ones where they rule. But utopias both promise too much and deliver too little, their greatest weakness now as in the past being that they lack an account of how change will happen.
Thomas O Beebee
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195339383
- eISBN:
- 9780199867097
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195339383.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature, American, 18th Century and Early American Literature
Literature has not neglected the fact that millennial expectations have hitherto always been defeated. Leon Festinger developed his theory of cognitive dissonance in part to explain the persistence ...
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Literature has not neglected the fact that millennial expectations have hitherto always been defeated. Leon Festinger developed his theory of cognitive dissonance in part to explain the persistence of belief in the face of disconfirmed prophecy. This chapter examines numerous literary examples of defeated millennium under the hypothesis that literature replaces cognitive dissonance with what I call reflective dissonance. It analyzes fictional texts’ rhetorics of reflection vs. persuasion, the types of possible worlds they construct, and the contribution these make to millennial discourse in the Americas. Three types of millennial defeat are posited: 1) defeated millennium nearly always takes historical examples as its objects of mimesis, and thus simply documents the defeats of millennial outbreaks by real-world forces; 2) pseudo-millennium shrinks millennial activity down to a simulation exercise, as in Ahab’s elevation of a whale hunt to a “final battle” between good and evil; and 3) dystopic millennium allows the millennial movement to “succeed,” but with a result far from the joy and plenitude promised by Revelation, and with the eschatechnologies of the New Order resembling those of a prison.Less
Literature has not neglected the fact that millennial expectations have hitherto always been defeated. Leon Festinger developed his theory of cognitive dissonance in part to explain the persistence of belief in the face of disconfirmed prophecy. This chapter examines numerous literary examples of defeated millennium under the hypothesis that literature replaces cognitive dissonance with what I call reflective dissonance. It analyzes fictional texts’ rhetorics of reflection vs. persuasion, the types of possible worlds they construct, and the contribution these make to millennial discourse in the Americas. Three types of millennial defeat are posited: 1) defeated millennium nearly always takes historical examples as its objects of mimesis, and thus simply documents the defeats of millennial outbreaks by real-world forces; 2) pseudo-millennium shrinks millennial activity down to a simulation exercise, as in Ahab’s elevation of a whale hunt to a “final battle” between good and evil; and 3) dystopic millennium allows the millennial movement to “succeed,” but with a result far from the joy and plenitude promised by Revelation, and with the eschatechnologies of the New Order resembling those of a prison.
Anita Tarr and Donna R. White (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496816696
- eISBN:
- 9781496816733
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496816696.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
Posthumanism in Young Adult Fiction: Finding Humanity in a Posthuman World, edited by Anita Tarr and Donna White, is a collection of twelve essays analyzing young adult science fiction and fantasy in ...
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Posthumanism in Young Adult Fiction: Finding Humanity in a Posthuman World, edited by Anita Tarr and Donna White, is a collection of twelve essays analyzing young adult science fiction and fantasy in terms of how representative contemporary YA books’ authors describe and their characters portray elements of posthumanist attitudes. The authors give a brief survey of theorists’ discussions of how posthumanism rejects—but does not entirely forsake—liberal humanist tenets. Primarily, posthumanism calls for embracing the Other, eliminating binaries that separate human and nonhuman, human and nature, organic and inorganic, stressing the process of always-becoming. Due to technological enhancements, we should recognize that our species is changing, as it always has, becoming more networked and communal, fluid and changeable. Posthumanism does not mandate cyborgs, cloning, genetic enhancement, animal-human hybrids, mutations, advanced prosthetics, and superhuman strengths—although all of these are discussed in the collected essays. Posthumanism generally upholds liberal humanist values of compassion, fairness, and ethical responsibility, but dismantles the core of anthropocentrism: the notion that humans are superior and dominant over all other species and have the right to control, exploit, destroy, or marginalize those who are not the ideal white, able-bodied male. The more we discover about humans, the more we question our exceptionality; that is, since we co-evolved with many other organisms, especially bacteria, there is no DNA genome that is uniquely human; since we share many traits with animals, there is no single trait that defines us as human or as not human (such as using tools, speaking language, having a soul, expressing emotions, being totally organic, having a sense of wonder).
The twelve essayists do not propose that YA fiction should offer guidelines for negotiating posthumanist subjectivity—being fragmented and multiple, networked vulnerable—though many of the novels analyzed actually do this. Other novelists bring their adolescent characters to the brink, but do not allow them to move beyond the familiar structures of society, even if they are rebelling against those very structures. Indeed, adolescence and posthumanism share many elements, especially anxieties about future possibilities, embracing new ideas and new selves, and being in a liminal state of in-between-ness that does not resolve itself. In other words, young adult fiction is the ideal venue to explore how we are now or we might in the future maintain our humanity in a posthuman world.Less
Posthumanism in Young Adult Fiction: Finding Humanity in a Posthuman World, edited by Anita Tarr and Donna White, is a collection of twelve essays analyzing young adult science fiction and fantasy in terms of how representative contemporary YA books’ authors describe and their characters portray elements of posthumanist attitudes. The authors give a brief survey of theorists’ discussions of how posthumanism rejects—but does not entirely forsake—liberal humanist tenets. Primarily, posthumanism calls for embracing the Other, eliminating binaries that separate human and nonhuman, human and nature, organic and inorganic, stressing the process of always-becoming. Due to technological enhancements, we should recognize that our species is changing, as it always has, becoming more networked and communal, fluid and changeable. Posthumanism does not mandate cyborgs, cloning, genetic enhancement, animal-human hybrids, mutations, advanced prosthetics, and superhuman strengths—although all of these are discussed in the collected essays. Posthumanism generally upholds liberal humanist values of compassion, fairness, and ethical responsibility, but dismantles the core of anthropocentrism: the notion that humans are superior and dominant over all other species and have the right to control, exploit, destroy, or marginalize those who are not the ideal white, able-bodied male. The more we discover about humans, the more we question our exceptionality; that is, since we co-evolved with many other organisms, especially bacteria, there is no DNA genome that is uniquely human; since we share many traits with animals, there is no single trait that defines us as human or as not human (such as using tools, speaking language, having a soul, expressing emotions, being totally organic, having a sense of wonder).
The twelve essayists do not propose that YA fiction should offer guidelines for negotiating posthumanist subjectivity—being fragmented and multiple, networked vulnerable—though many of the novels analyzed actually do this. Other novelists bring their adolescent characters to the brink, but do not allow them to move beyond the familiar structures of society, even if they are rebelling against those very structures. Indeed, adolescence and posthumanism share many elements, especially anxieties about future possibilities, embracing new ideas and new selves, and being in a liminal state of in-between-ness that does not resolve itself. In other words, young adult fiction is the ideal venue to explore how we are now or we might in the future maintain our humanity in a posthuman world.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520223639
- eISBN:
- 9780520938052
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520223639.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter discusses the evolution of the Benito Mussolini regime's patronage structure and examines how Italians' critiques of foreign mass societies played a role in the definition of fascist ...
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This chapter discusses the evolution of the Benito Mussolini regime's patronage structure and examines how Italians' critiques of foreign mass societies played a role in the definition of fascist models of modernity. Mussolini's 1927 Ascension Day speech clarified the larger goals that inspired visions of collective change in Italy, presenting domestic and foreign policy measures as two sides of one totalitarian vision of national regeneration. The concern with degeneration that pervades this speech also stemmed from Mussolini's fears of a subversion of racial hierarchies. This chapter suggests that it was the dystopias of Russia, America, and Germany that Italians hoped to avoid.Less
This chapter discusses the evolution of the Benito Mussolini regime's patronage structure and examines how Italians' critiques of foreign mass societies played a role in the definition of fascist models of modernity. Mussolini's 1927 Ascension Day speech clarified the larger goals that inspired visions of collective change in Italy, presenting domestic and foreign policy measures as two sides of one totalitarian vision of national regeneration. The concern with degeneration that pervades this speech also stemmed from Mussolini's fears of a subversion of racial hierarchies. This chapter suggests that it was the dystopias of Russia, America, and Germany that Italians hoped to avoid.
Anne Fuchs
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781501735103
- eISBN:
- 9781501734816
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501735103.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This epilogue connects the analysis of time and temporality with a broader perspective on the future direction of the humanities. In 2017, the renowned German writer Juli Zeh published Leere Herzen ...
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This epilogue connects the analysis of time and temporality with a broader perspective on the future direction of the humanities. In 2017, the renowned German writer Juli Zeh published Leere Herzen (Empty Hearts), a dystopian novel that imagines life in postdemocratic Germany and Europe. Zeh's novel does not rank among her highest literary achievements. From a temporal perspective, however, Leere Herzen is an intriguing novel: it places what one might call a “plausible dystopia” within close reach of the disillusioned age. Dystopia no longer designates the final apocalyptic catastrophe that dramatically unfolds in the distant future but rather the gradual erosion of democracy in the here and now. By radically shrinking the temporal gap between now and the future, Zeh's dystopia suspends the future perfect as an enabling perspective that can mobilize preventative action. By contrast to the apocalyptic staging of the tipping point that terminates life on this planet, presentist dystopias envisage the future as unfolding incrementally and cumulatively in the extended present.Less
This epilogue connects the analysis of time and temporality with a broader perspective on the future direction of the humanities. In 2017, the renowned German writer Juli Zeh published Leere Herzen (Empty Hearts), a dystopian novel that imagines life in postdemocratic Germany and Europe. Zeh's novel does not rank among her highest literary achievements. From a temporal perspective, however, Leere Herzen is an intriguing novel: it places what one might call a “plausible dystopia” within close reach of the disillusioned age. Dystopia no longer designates the final apocalyptic catastrophe that dramatically unfolds in the distant future but rather the gradual erosion of democracy in the here and now. By radically shrinking the temporal gap between now and the future, Zeh's dystopia suspends the future perfect as an enabling perspective that can mobilize preventative action. By contrast to the apocalyptic staging of the tipping point that terminates life on this planet, presentist dystopias envisage the future as unfolding incrementally and cumulatively in the extended present.
Gershon Kurizki and Goren Gordon
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- July 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198787464
- eISBN:
- 9780191829512
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198787464.003.0015
- Subject:
- Physics, Theoretical, Computational, and Statistical Physics, Particle Physics / Astrophysics / Cosmology
Henry and Eve have finally tested their quantum computer (QC) with resounding success! It may enable much faster and better modelling of complex pharmaceutical designs, long-term weather forecasts or ...
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Henry and Eve have finally tested their quantum computer (QC) with resounding success! It may enable much faster and better modelling of complex pharmaceutical designs, long-term weather forecasts or brain process simulations than classical computers. A 1,000-qubit QC can process in a single step 21000 possible superposition states: its speedup is exponential in the number of qubits. Yet this wondrous promise requires overcoming the enormous hurdle of decoherence, which is why progress towards a large-scale QC has been painstakingly slow. To their dismay, their QC is “expropriated for the quantum revolution” in order to share quantum information among all mankind and thus impose a collective entangled state of mind. They set out to foil this totalitarian plan and restore individuality by decohering the quantum information channel. The appendix to this chapter provide a flavor of QC capabilities through a quantum algorithm that can solve problems exponentially faster than classical computers.Less
Henry and Eve have finally tested their quantum computer (QC) with resounding success! It may enable much faster and better modelling of complex pharmaceutical designs, long-term weather forecasts or brain process simulations than classical computers. A 1,000-qubit QC can process in a single step 21000 possible superposition states: its speedup is exponential in the number of qubits. Yet this wondrous promise requires overcoming the enormous hurdle of decoherence, which is why progress towards a large-scale QC has been painstakingly slow. To their dismay, their QC is “expropriated for the quantum revolution” in order to share quantum information among all mankind and thus impose a collective entangled state of mind. They set out to foil this totalitarian plan and restore individuality by decohering the quantum information channel. The appendix to this chapter provide a flavor of QC capabilities through a quantum algorithm that can solve problems exponentially faster than classical computers.
Phoebe Chen
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496816696
- eISBN:
- 9781496816733
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496816696.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
Phoebe Chen analyzes three representative YA dystopic novels in which characters face ecological disaster and finds them lacking, inadequate to address posthumanist possibilities. Ecological ...
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Phoebe Chen analyzes three representative YA dystopic novels in which characters face ecological disaster and finds them lacking, inadequate to address posthumanist possibilities. Ecological posthumanism stresses connections—between self and Other, human and environment, present and past—erasing borders that constitute liberal humanism. Earth Girl, Of Beast and Beauty, and Orleans all feature female protagonists living in ruined eco-systems whose subjectivities are massively influenced by their environments. Jarra, as an archaeologist on Earth, heals through recovery of the past; Isra reclaims the human traits of compassion and sacrifice to embrace the Other; and Fen survives (for a while) in the flooded streets of Orleans by embedding herself into the environment, thus losing her posthuman dignity. Chen describes such novels as being an “imaginative platform” for speculating about being human in ruined environments, a likelihood we all will face.Less
Phoebe Chen analyzes three representative YA dystopic novels in which characters face ecological disaster and finds them lacking, inadequate to address posthumanist possibilities. Ecological posthumanism stresses connections—between self and Other, human and environment, present and past—erasing borders that constitute liberal humanism. Earth Girl, Of Beast and Beauty, and Orleans all feature female protagonists living in ruined eco-systems whose subjectivities are massively influenced by their environments. Jarra, as an archaeologist on Earth, heals through recovery of the past; Isra reclaims the human traits of compassion and sacrifice to embrace the Other; and Fen survives (for a while) in the flooded streets of Orleans by embedding herself into the environment, thus losing her posthuman dignity. Chen describes such novels as being an “imaginative platform” for speculating about being human in ruined environments, a likelihood we all will face.
David Seed
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252038945
- eISBN:
- 9780252096907
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252038945.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter analyzes Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and its dystopian contexts. The novel widely is recognized as a classic among postwar American dystopias. It belongs in that body of science ...
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This chapter analyzes Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and its dystopian contexts. The novel widely is recognized as a classic among postwar American dystopias. It belongs in that body of science fiction published just after the Second World War, which gradually took over the function of social criticism previously performed by realist fiction. The novel shares an overall pattern common to two of the most famous dystopias of the period: Frederik Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth's The Space Merchants and Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano (1952). All three novels focus on a protagonist working within an organization with which he becomes increasingly dissatisfied. Under the impact of a catalytic character or event, these dissatisfactions gradually come to a head and result in final separation from that organization.Less
This chapter analyzes Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and its dystopian contexts. The novel widely is recognized as a classic among postwar American dystopias. It belongs in that body of science fiction published just after the Second World War, which gradually took over the function of social criticism previously performed by realist fiction. The novel shares an overall pattern common to two of the most famous dystopias of the period: Frederik Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth's The Space Merchants and Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano (1952). All three novels focus on a protagonist working within an organization with which he becomes increasingly dissatisfied. Under the impact of a catalytic character or event, these dissatisfactions gradually come to a head and result in final separation from that organization.
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804773997
- eISBN:
- 9780804777834
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804773997.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter deals with the different genres of dystopias. Television significantly played in the antimodern warnings of cultural crisis and visions of future dystopia. Cultural damage from the left ...
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This chapter deals with the different genres of dystopias. Television significantly played in the antimodern warnings of cultural crisis and visions of future dystopia. Cultural damage from the left as well as the right in both the United States and Britain were anticipated from the start of the television era. The media-promoted and politician-massaged concern about rising crime rates was a transatlantic phenomenon. CBS put together a conference of social scientists to assess “ways and means of securing realistic estimates of the different effects of exposure to television violence” in 1969. By 1970, there was a speedily rising concern in Britain about urban violence. Furthermore, a group of British political scientists maintained that the British environmental movement was a distinct phenomenon less driven by “hysteria”.Less
This chapter deals with the different genres of dystopias. Television significantly played in the antimodern warnings of cultural crisis and visions of future dystopia. Cultural damage from the left as well as the right in both the United States and Britain were anticipated from the start of the television era. The media-promoted and politician-massaged concern about rising crime rates was a transatlantic phenomenon. CBS put together a conference of social scientists to assess “ways and means of securing realistic estimates of the different effects of exposure to television violence” in 1969. By 1970, there was a speedily rising concern in Britain about urban violence. Furthermore, a group of British political scientists maintained that the British environmental movement was a distinct phenomenon less driven by “hysteria”.
Vlad P. Glăveanu
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- December 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780197520499
- eISBN:
- 9780197520529
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780197520499.003.0007
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Social Psychology
This chapter uses the core concepts of position, perspective, and dialogue to analyze the workings of society. From this standpoint, we cannot conceive the possible outside of a societal framework ...
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This chapter uses the core concepts of position, perspective, and dialogue to analyze the workings of society. From this standpoint, we cannot conceive the possible outside of a societal framework given the fact that societies, all over the world and across historical time, comprise a variety of positions and, through the accumulation and transmission of culture, allow the development of perspectives, including on society itself. At the same time, societies are constantly transformed by the sense of possibility that fuels social change, activism, and the imaginative construction of the future in utopias and dystopias. Democratic systems, built on plurality and dialogue, tend in principle to expand the possible for individuals and communities adopting them. And yet democracies, as both a form of government and a way of living, are inherently fragile. In the end, societies of the possible are both an ontological condition for human communal living and a reality that should not be taken for granted.Less
This chapter uses the core concepts of position, perspective, and dialogue to analyze the workings of society. From this standpoint, we cannot conceive the possible outside of a societal framework given the fact that societies, all over the world and across historical time, comprise a variety of positions and, through the accumulation and transmission of culture, allow the development of perspectives, including on society itself. At the same time, societies are constantly transformed by the sense of possibility that fuels social change, activism, and the imaginative construction of the future in utopias and dystopias. Democratic systems, built on plurality and dialogue, tend in principle to expand the possible for individuals and communities adopting them. And yet democracies, as both a form of government and a way of living, are inherently fragile. In the end, societies of the possible are both an ontological condition for human communal living and a reality that should not be taken for granted.
Lyman Tower Sargent
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- June 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780199609932
- eISBN:
- 9780191869761
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199609932.003.0018
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature, Prose (inc. letters, diaries)
This chapter explores colonial utopias/dystopias. Utopianism and colonialism have had direct connections from the time Thomas More inadvertently created a genre of literature when he published what ...
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This chapter explores colonial utopias/dystopias. Utopianism and colonialism have had direct connections from the time Thomas More inadvertently created a genre of literature when he published what is now known as his Utopia, in 1516. Utopia reflected the process of exploration taking place in the early sixteenth century that resulted in the discovery of the lands that were to become colonies. Colonists generally have the expectation of achieving a much better life by settling, while producing an actual dystopia for the original inhabitants. While the colonists did not always find what they expected, they were often led to settle by clearly utopian projections of what life would be like in the new place. Those settlers who had the leisure to write about their hopes for the future in the new place sometimes depicted what that place might look like in the future.Less
This chapter explores colonial utopias/dystopias. Utopianism and colonialism have had direct connections from the time Thomas More inadvertently created a genre of literature when he published what is now known as his Utopia, in 1516. Utopia reflected the process of exploration taking place in the early sixteenth century that resulted in the discovery of the lands that were to become colonies. Colonists generally have the expectation of achieving a much better life by settling, while producing an actual dystopia for the original inhabitants. While the colonists did not always find what they expected, they were often led to settle by clearly utopian projections of what life would be like in the new place. Those settlers who had the leisure to write about their hopes for the future in the new place sometimes depicted what that place might look like in the future.