Tag Archives: utopia

In the Chinks of the World Machine

Posted on August 22, 2018 by jananson

In the Chinks of the World Machine provides a committed but very readable picture of the achievements of serious science fiction by women at the time of its publication in 1988. Sarah Lefanu was in a privileged position to write … Continue reading →

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Dark Horizons: Science Fiction and the Dystopian Imagination

Posted on August 10, 2018 by jananson

The monochrome cover of Dark Horizons is very dark, and its subtitle is Science Fiction and the Dystopian Imagination, but the agenda of editors Raffaella Baccolini and Tom Moylan in this collection of essays is as much about utopia as … Continue reading →

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Utopia without Fascism

Posted on March 27, 2017 by jananson

The 1000-page bulk of Austin Tappan Wright’s Islandia had sat intimidatingly on the shelf since I acquired it. Only in the period of forced leisure after an operation did I get round to reading it. Long hours in bed gave … Continue reading →

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Jean Hegland’s Into the Forest

Posted on January 6, 2017 by jananson

I first heard about Jean Hegland’s novel Into the Forest in an Interzone review by David Pringle in 1998, two years after the book was published. Hegland is a West Coast author and Pringle positioned her novel in a subgenre … Continue reading →

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What’s the Story to Get to a Better Society?

Posted on June 28, 2016 by jananson

I wanted to write something else about the EU referendum – or rather about one aspect of the consequences now unfolding at dizzying speed. How, though, to make that relevant to the focus of this blog? Well, when you stand … Continue reading →

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Crafting Utopias – by Kirsty Hartsiotis

Posted on April 12, 2016 by jananson

It’s a long way from Central Africa to Gloucestershire, but it’s ideas and commitment, not location, that make a utopia. In Anthony Nanson’s Deep Time we are introduced to a number of different communities, some striving for an ideal and … Continue reading →

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Future Primitive

Posted on April 23, 2015 by jananson

A particular kind of science fiction converges with green aspirations in ‘future primitive’ visions of a future society less dominated by technology. There are positive and negative versions of this kind of future – and positive and negative pathways to … Continue reading →

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