readers advisory for all discussion

Hi Everyone,

I'm looking for book suggestions around the theme of Community, Utopia, and the Individual for an alternative residency program I'm working on. It can be anything: fiction, non-fiction, magazine articles, comics, whatever. I'm just interested in what comes to mind as a good, maybe more current read around the theme. I know it's broad, so feel free to throw out anything! Thanks so much.

Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia and Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time spring to mind immediately for me. Neither are short and they date from the 1970s and 1980s, so I'm not sure if they'll work for your program, but they're really great. I'll keep thinking and surely will come up with other ideas, too. :-)

My immediate thought is, of course, Utopia and Candide. There is also a great chapter in the book The Worldly Philosophers about the Utopian Socialists, who I think had their communities at the end of the 19th century.

On a more fun note, my brain jumps to zombies. I haven't read The Walking Dead, but that seems like a dystopian community. Also, the movie 28 Days Later has interesting parts about individuality and community. Also, the TV show Firefly.

I have a shelf for utopian/dystopian books: http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/...

Oh wow, awesome. I've never heard of Le Guin's or Piercy's- can't wait to check them out. And I love the TV recommendations, plus the huge shelf of recommendations. Thanks Christy and Sparrow!

Oh, I realized my link was wrong for the Walking Dead. Fixed!

Also, a lot of the books on that shelf of mine aren't that great, so if you have questions about them, feel free to ask.

i have not read any of these, so i can't give detailed information, but there are a bunch of reviews on here you can check out...

Gray Matters
Ecotopia: The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston
Pacific Edge

Well, there's always ("We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin) . It is a dystopian novel that preceded and give birth to a number of other dystopian novels of our era (1984, Brave New World, and Anthem cheifly among them).

Another great novel about a community is (The Fifth Sacred Thing) .

It has been YEARS since I read this last and it is LONG overdue for a second read, but it really left an impression on me about the way we govern our communities and what I wish I could see more of in regard to that.

The novel is about a 'post-apocalyptic' community that is governed by women and set in what feels like a First Nation's fable. It is well written and I remember not being about to put it down while I read it. Admittedly, it IS women's studies oriented, but makes for good community reading, which is what I found most impressive about it.

Thanks so much, Micha and Karen!

Please let me know how your research goes. I am very interested in community building! ^_^

If you want older texts, Erewhon and The Book of the City of Ladies are interesting. There's also a utopian section in Gargantua and Pantagruel.

Oh, and there is Herland, although that is really more an excuse to talk about feminism than a serious utopia (since it posits radical biological unrealities).

Micha wrote: "Well, there's always ("We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin) . It is a dystopian novel that preceded and give birth to a number of other dystopian novels of our era (1984, Brave New World, and Anthem cheifly a..."

I just read this; quick read but plenty of meat.

Thanks Miriam! Thanks for the seconding, Denae.

It's a favorite! ^_^

(i just moved this thread to the "so ask already" folder so more people would see it)

margaret atwood's "year of the flood" goes in depth about the rooftop utopian communities that develop after a disease kills most humans. she even has the songs they sing, but then things start to go downhill:( for the utopians as the bad guys start getting after them, i guess this is sort of a follow up of "oryz and crake"
flood is a fantastic and detailed novel

The Gate to Women's Country is post-apocalyptic, but the society detailed in the book is engaged in the questions about how to build or rebuild society. The question of gender is a big one.

Also, speaking of, it's been a while since I was a starry-eyed teen, but everyone I knew was reading Starhawk's The Fifth Sacred Thing for a while, and arguing about it like crazy. It's a feminist utopia written by a New Age writer. I'm sure it's dated and cheesy, but I imagine it would be an interesting period piece.

I spent years thinking about what Earth might be like if we based our society off win-win negociations instead of comabt and survival of the fitest. If when groups first met they swamped representitives to help each group learn about the others and worked towards cooperation and survival of everybody realizing we are a species that is related and we only share the planet for a limited time.
I created a whole civilization based off this concept over the years and then introduced them to an enemy they couldn't communicate with in order to force them to cooperate with Earth to fight for their survival.
This is the basis of my second novel. It won't really help because I take a utopian society and ruin it by introducing humans and our warlike ways and basically destroy everything. Entertaining, but not helpful because it is going the wrong way.

Ceridwen's recommendations reminded me of "ammonite" by niccola griffith, takes place on another planet, but the fascinating thing is that it is all women and they figured out a way to have ankle biters without having sex with men, no men on planet at all, well except for...not telling here. but anyway, fairly detailed description of this different kind of community (s) and utopias frankly.

There's a Lois McMaster Bujold book about a planet of only-men too, right? Could be an interesting pairing...hold on...

I'm pretty sure it's Ethan of Athos. Hrm, I had thought it was a stand-alone book. This may not be a helpful suggestion. This is one in a long series of books about the same character, and while they can stand-alone (at least the ones I've read) many people dislike jumping in the middle of things.

Ahhh! These are amazing!! Thank you everyone! Thanks, Karen, for moving the thread!

Ethan of Athos. Hrm, I had thought it was a stand-alone book. This may not be a helpful suggestion. This is one in a long series of books about the same character, and while they can stand-alone (at least the ones I've read) many people dislike jumping in the middle of things.

It really is a stand-alone. Or a spin-off? Miles (the main character from the Vorkosigan series) is not in it, although one of his mercenary officers, Ellie Quinn, is there recuperating from injuries received in the previous installment.