Questions for book research (An Atlas of Utopia)
I met some of you in Berkeley; greetings to the rest of you.
H-Utopia, like the 25-year-old Society for Utopian Studies, is devoted to discussion of utopianism in all its forms, from literary expression to policy analysis to architectural criticism to activism. Our focus is on the forms, contents, and influence of utopian/dystopian thinking.
Recent Content
Call for Short Stories: Our Entangled Future -- January 15, 2019
“The world and its possibilities for becoming are remade with each moment” – Karen Barad
Researchers on climate change, transformation and planetary futures – how would storifying your research look like with propositional scenarios? C-CHANGE and AdaptationCONNECTS at the University of Oslo are inviting short stories that help activate the possible and challenge dominant modes of thinking and action around the tepid response to climate change.
CFP: Scientiae 2019 (Belfast, June 12-15)
SCIENTIAE: Early Modern Knowledge
June 12th – 15th, 2019
Queen’s University, Belfast.
With plenary addresses by:
Ingrid Rowland (Notre Dame/Rome) & Rob Iliffe (Oxford)
and plenary panels led by:
Subha Mukherji (Cambridge) &
Marco Sgarbi, Pietro Daniel Omodeo, and Craig Martin (Venice).
Olaf Stapledon's anthropology and critical theory
In Last and First Men both the utopias of the Fifth and Eighteenth (Last) Men include an area set aside for rough living, the possibility of death, and in general the abandonment of civilization. Although a lot of the literature on Stapledon (and plenty of other authors) deals with the idea that humans have an animal nature and a higher nature, Stapledon's novel is the only example I know of where having a place to indulge your animal nature is necessary for the fulfillment of your higher nature.