Ecotopia: A Novel

This was pretty good, not great, but worth reading. It has lots of ideas about how we could live better lives without being to overtly preachy, but it is preachy. It's an interesting take on ecology and what would be the best way to live. There were many good ideas, and the love story was a good addition, but not all that compelling. It was more about social change and interactions than personal interactions.

"Ecotopia" comprises the futuristic musings of Mr. Callenbach, who has compiled a "1984" for the late 20th century through visions of a positive utopia, albeit one that could only exist outside the borders of the United States. Unlike Orwell or Huxley, however, Callenbach prsents the fictitious nation of "Ecotopia" outside the political and technoloical sphere of the rest of the world- as an isolated geopolitical entity. This is interesting considering the book's emergance 20 years prior to the current "globalisation" conflict gripping the world that pits the global conformity thought to be a future theme by Orwell and Huxley aainst the virtues of th small nation-state. Callenbach presents Ecotopia as a model of small-nation efficiency and cohesiveness. Although the premises of Ecotopia's emergence as an independent state are somewhat suspicious, they are irrelevant to the overall message of the book.
That said, the book is throughlly well-executed, presenting the new nation as seen through the eys of an American reporter, significant due to the belligerant status employed between the two nations at the current period. Will Weston, the novel's "hero", not only studies Ecotopian culture but becomes overtaken and intertwined in its decadence. The interspertion of Weston's personal thoughts and his articles sent back to New York are interesting and present the contrastin views of Weston the "journalist" versus Weston the "man".
Ecotopia itself is the realisation of an almost utopic society for many environmentalists, urbanists, and socialists. One will have to dive into the actual work to discover its intricacies, but I will divulge that Callenbach does not present the nation as a complete paradise and carefully balances the American perspective with Ecotopian attitudes. I thoroughlly recommend this not only beautiful work of fiction, but excellent commentary on our social and environmental future.

Interesting to me that this book was written in 1975, 40 years ago but deals with some of the major problems of our current society in contrast to what we should or could do with to help the environment, prevent corporate abuses, growing wage gap between rich, middle class, and poor, legalization of marijuana and improved education. With my current interest in permaculture I absolutely love this book.

Ecotopia, by Ernest Callenbach, is not what one might call a novel. It's written from the point of view of a New York journalist exploring the world of the Northwest after an environmental secession. Others have mentioned the lack of character depth, but the point of the book is not to interest you in the characters; it is to interest you in the world.
In Ecotopia, people are very free, relaxed. In San Francisco, rather than the endless cars and streets and smog, there are parks and newly ubiquitous bikes. The idea behind the bikes is that you can go outside and find them, ride them where you're going, then leave them there for the next person to use. Interesting?
The culture and society of Ecotopia are thought-provoking, at least for a teenager. When I read this book it was the first time I really thought about what things could be done as alternatives to the current way of life. After reading Ecotopia, I am more environmentally conscious. I enjoyed the concept behind this book very much. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in the future if the Green party takes over, or something along those lines.

Northern California, Oregon, and Washington secede
from the union to do what?!!!?!

Create and environmentally intact Ecosystem!

If you are at all interested in the environment or
can't stand the fact that our government gets NOTHING done,
READ THIS BOOK! Just absorbing the incredibly unique and
frighteningly plausible concepts the zany Ecotopians have
tackled is a simply breathtaking experience!

Moreover, the story of Will Weston, the first American
ever admitted inside the new nation, is truly endearing.

One thing though, the best line in the book is found on
page eight! Can you find it?

Oh yeah, this book is nearly impossible to find in a bookstore
only the store.COM has it in its 1,000,000 versions!

This is not a book about plot or characterization; it is a book about an IDEA. You may or may not like the idea ... that's up to you.

Other reviews describe the idea well enough - basically that society "could be" organized around environmenal awareness and it might be nice to do give it a try. If you are looking for gripping plot or deep characters, you should go somewhere else.

But if you are interested in an idea that was radical at the time, and still pooh-poohed in our present day, then this is a book to read.

Indeed, the idea is so important, that this book should be read (... and criticized!...) in any decent educational curriculum. As such, this is a fine book and well worth your time, so long as you don't expect yet-another-normal-novel.

What a pity Frank Herbert or Connie Willis didn't write this book. Pairing the IDEA with plot and characterization would have made it so much better!

This book has a fascinating history. Originally written as a news essay about the places to dispose sewage, it became one of the few viable utopian novels written since 1984 and Brave New World -- genuinely utopian, rather than anti-utopian. Of course, it's really about moving to Northern California in the 1970s, or Northern California as the Northern Californians hoped it would become. The internal combustion engine is outlawed, and babbling brooks flow down San Francisco's Market Street. Ecotopia's most engaging quality is the portrait that Callenbach provides of the golden young people of the counterculture, living the informal, thumb-your-nose- at-authority-but- build-a-world-together spirit that American culture had beaten down. (The spirit is mostly gone, but the novel remains.) Interestingly, Callenbach was a former Organizational Development consultant, and the corporations described in Ecotopia -- collaborative enterprises owned by the participants -- are not that different from the dot-coms of today.

Ecotopia landed in my possession in 1980, when I was voting for Ronald Reagan and Jeremiah Denton and antagonizing my leftist college classmates by writing 'truth-bombs' about the Nuclear Freeze movement on campus posters. I won't say the book changed my opinions-I'm too hard-headed for that, although time has mellowed(?) my arch-conservatism into radical anarcho-capitalism. Nonetheless, when I put the book down, I found myself smiling and thinking, 'That's where I want my summer home.' (The sequel, Ecotopia Emerging, struck me the same way.)
Ernest Callenbach's fiction sex-soaked, and a cultural-immersion experience in print. He's like Jimmy Buffett in that he makes you wanna be there, if only on holiday.
I'm usually so ideological that I'll pan a book that's out of sympathy with my politics (see my review of 'The Left Hand of Darkness' if the store puts it up). Not this book, nor its sequel! Ecotopia is propaganda, but it's well-written, seductive propaganda, and Ernest Callenbach is a writer I'd like to meet on-line, even if for naught more than to have a good him on a podium opposite L. Neil Smith... and don't stand too close or you'll get blood on your clothes!)
If you're a libertarian or a conservative who doesn't understand why the left is so good at the propaganda war, read Ecotopia and prepare to have your emotions played like a harp. Callenbach imparts the right-brain appeal of ecofascist/collectivist ideas with incredible skill. (But don't dismiss saved Charter Arms, a failing firearms manufacturer. Wonder how Callenbach feels about that?)
And, if for a moment you imagine that guns and cars are genital surrogates... well, what does that say about people who want to confiscate other folks' genitals, hmmm? Freud was a pedophilic fraud, so let's dispose of his tawdry symbolism and perverted pseudo-mythology and get on with issue-centered debate.")
Ecotopia was a decent book, and still is one--although HIV has made its innocent hedonism, at least for the foreseeable future, as deadly as playing Russian Roulette with a semi-automatic. Anyone who wants to fight eco-collectivism should read it-you'll get a visceral understanding of the emotionalistic appeal of the green left. END

Ecotopia tells the tale of a new nation - the area that is currently Washington, Oregon, and northern California - and how the people there live, viewed through the eyes of a reporter from the U.S.
One strong thread, as one would expect from the title, is the nation's orientation toward living lightly on the land - private cars are outlawed, only fully recyclable plastics are permitted, and so on. As such, it's a manifesto for the "small is beautiful" movement.
But even more interesting is the way that Ecotopian society has restructured social relationships. People live and work together in various types of small communities, providing a tribal form of companionship missing from our modern world. They have also found a freedom of emotional and physical expression that we lack. So it's even more of a must-read for anyone interested in the new community movement.

I rarely read fiction and the initial premise of Ecotopia involving the Pacific NW region seceding from the US seemed somewhat far fetched but I was pleasantly surprised by the novel. Callenbach's richly-descriptive portrait of a society based on the concept of a "stable-state" ecosystem was quite thought-provoking. This is similar to the economist Herman Daly's advocacy of steady-state economics. It also parallels Robert Costanza's work in the emerging discipline of Ecological Economics as an alternative to the outdated, ideology-driven concepts of neoclassical economic theory. The centerpiece of the Ecotopia social model is for resource consumption to never exceed sustainable resource limits and to also treat pollution and waste as costs that are not externalized to the commons but are factored into economic decision-making at a fundamental level. Resources are recycled whenever possible and durable low-technology generally takes precedence over high-technology. Ecotopians generally embrace a philosophy of ecological intertwinement and reverence for nature. I see some similarities to James Lovelock's "Gaia hypothesis" and Edward O. Wilson's concept of "Biophilia".
I found the descriptions of the personalities and behaviors of the various characters throughout the novel to be quite entertaining, the women in particular having a more dominant role. Ecotopians are passionate if not quirky. The Ecotopians adopt a neomalthusian approach toward population regulation and this particularly resonated with me since I consider overpopulation and its resultant resource scarcity to be the single most critical issue facing the human species. The chapter on the ritual war games was intriguing and raises significant issues regarding the genetic predisposition toward competitive aggression in males. I was hoping to find some direct references to behavior science and the use of positive reinforcement but I didn't really find any though an Ecotopian model would provide more positive rewards as part of daily life.
Overall, Ecotopia is quite a stimulating read and I'm glad to add it to my small library. The novel is filled with creative approaches to a wide variety of social issues some of which probably aren't feasible but interesting none the less. Two other related books that some might find interesting are "The Collapse of Complex Societies" by the archaeologist Joseph Tainter and "Environment, Scarcity and Violence" by Thomas Homer-Dixon who heads the Conflict Studies department at the University of Toronto.
The mindless waste and hyper consumption of contemporary American culture is simply unsustainable. If I could move somewhere that embraced at least some of the aspects of the Ecotopian model I'd probably do so.

Callenbach introduces the readers to many new ideas of how to build a self sustainable environment for the people who live there. Callenbach takes a look at present day America and gives ideas throguh this non-fictional book on what we as Americans can do to make the environment in which we live a much better place. If half of these practices were put into use right now, the world would be in a much better state of being. I read this book for a class which concentrated on the ethics of energy use, and I must say it was a perfect selection for us to read.

Facinating execution of a novel, written in the form of news reports and a diary kept by a journalist. William Weston is sent to give a first-person report on the Republic of Ecotopia, formed when Washington State, Oregon and Northern California seceeded from the USA. The new country is based on ecologically sound principals and a steady-state economy. Instead of a Unabomber/Luddite dystopia, the country is a lush, green land with many worker-owned industries that practice low environmental impact techniques. Many of the ideas here actuially make sense, and have become something of a rallying point for the Greens. I run a website on micronation and seditionist groups and I can safely say that just as many people have been inspired by Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" as they have by Callenbach's novel to strive for a piece of land to follow the premises of those books. The real-life states that became the fictional lands of "Ecotopia" do have small but vocal groups that would like to see an environmentalist regime like the one descibed in the novel, so we may one day see life imitating art. This probably defines the book's success, where those who read it want to bring it to reality.

Ecotopia has been on my reading list since it first appeared in 1975. I finally got around to reading it recently and was suprised to find it utterly engaging and only slightly dated (two-way TV must have seemed pretty cool prior to the Internet). Meanwhile, world population has grown by 2.5 billion and if anything the book is more relevant now than ever before. For example, in Callenbach's fabled nation, San Francisco's underground streams and creeks have been daylighted; schools don't have curricula or administrators; drug addictions are treated rather than punished; the work week is 20 hours; and the word "consumer" is not used in polite company. A great read for illiberal times.

Ecotopia is a book that is definitely worth reading, in that it describes a nation that is desperately striving to save its own environment and the health of the Earth as a whole. As an environmental novel this is undoubtedly a ground-breaking work. However, there were several areas where I thought that it could use considerable improvement. Firstly, the nation of Ecotopia is ridiculously fertile and well-off - many of the problems that would occur in any real implementation of an environmental state are simply brushed off. Population control is easy because these states are already close to zero-growth; finding money for maglev trains is even easier because Boeing just happens to be in the country; workers' control of factories and land reform is easy because people are all nice; there is no large-scale opposition; and so on. When considering past revolutions which also attempted to create Utopian states, this sort of doo dee doo optimism is somewhat disconcerting. Here, it seems that the book comes dangerously close to the line between vision and fantasy. Secondly, the book's storyline is somewhat trite, and character development is not really present. Thus, it would be stretching it a bit to call Ecotopia a work of literature. Nevertheless, though, Ecotopia is an imaginative work, and should be read if only for the sake of seeing what one possible environmental state might be like.

While there's nothing that I can really discuss content-wise that already hasn't been mentioned in other reviews, I just want to express my own enjoyment of this truly unique work. Granted, it is not the most well-written novel that I've read, but it has moved me as few have. Callenbach's vision of a society governed by a respect for the environment is one that I yearn to see become a reality. Ecotopia is a truly inspirational work, one which I highly recommend that everyone should read.

While there's nothing that I can really discuss content-wise that already hasn't been mentioned in other reviews, I just want to express my own enjoyment of this truly unique work. Granted, it is not the most well-written novel that I've read, but it has moved me as few have. Callenbach's vision of a society governed by a respect for the environment is one that I yearn to see become a reality. Ecotopia is a truly inspirational work, one which I highly recommend that everyone should read.

I read the prequel (which came out later) to this book, Ecotopia Emerging, first. Ecotopia Emerging was an excellent book, with a pretty gripping plot that did a good job of highlighting Callenbach's call for a more balanced and ecologically sound way of living. I read this book a few weeks later, and I could barely get through it. If you've ever read any science fiction concerning a utopian or alternative society which is visited by an outside scientist/journalist/observer who then ends up becoming a part of the society (think Walden Two), you've already read this book. The book is simply a mouthpiece in which the journalist (with whom you are supposed to identify) wanders around recording his observations in Ecotopia (and sleeping with every woman he meets along the way). There is no real plot or characterization, and it's too predictable to be exciting. If you're looking for a good work of fiction about an ecotopian way of living, do yourself a favor and read Ecotopia Emerging, not this.

What an inspirational book! Such great words sound so new because we are living in a denial so very old. What an important piece of work and how relevant now more than ever!

Written from the journal of a (quote) "dumb chauvinist ugly american bastard". Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach details the 1 month and a half of a journalist/diplomat living within a culture (northwest) that seceded from an overwhelming backwards and depressing U.S.A. inc. It explains how day to day life would be if we lived in a democracy (a place where people are put before profits, or more likely, where people evolved their idea of what is profitable).

I would recommend this book to everyone young or old. Of course it would be hard for most people to grasp, knowing most sheeple are so loyal to their programming/ groupthink. I had to read this book a few times so it would soak in. Truly a wonderful relief and so refreshing. Please get the word out and buy this for all your friends so we can all finally start living.

So many great ideas in this book to mention. A few of these being:

1. self destructive, counter-productive lifestyles aren't very intelligent.

2. Large organizations do not work. small is beautiful.

3. Conformity is what happens to things when they are dying. Diversity and individualism are what sustain cultures in any aspect of creation.

4. The right to live. Basic levels of survival are guaranteed to all, regardless of their level of conformity. (kind of like why communities were invented for in the first place.)That poverty is the worst form of oppression and totally unnecessary.

5. A twenty hour workweek gets way more things done and much faster.

6. nuclear families are a form of torture.

7. Supply and demand is in the most part a lie.

8. How we feel in our hearts is important and worth fighting for.

8 1/2. Living in denial is not cool and will not be tolerated

9. Good things take time to mature and there is no rush, enjoy the process.

10. Women are natural leaders.

10 1/2. Polluters are dealt with justly as the criminals that they are. (given the verdict of assault or robbery) So it is simply not profitable to be a criminal anymore.

10 3/4. "Victimless" crimes such as prostitution, gambling, and drug use are no longer in the law books, since it's silly.

11. Cars are for people who don't know.

12. life is fun and should be celebrated.

13. clean water, peaceful surroundings, loving communities, beautiful scenery, sustainably co-existing, evolved selfishness, good food that doesn't kill you, incredible sex, amazing conversations, sanity, healthcare that works and is free, work that isn't prostitution, school that isn't brainwashing but actually teaches kids about life, etc... If you are interested in any of these things. read it and weep, then get to work and finally start living responsibly!

For you types that are into suicidal tendencies, sado masochism, communism, totalitarianism, strange forms of overzealous hero-worshipping, or are just plain brainwashed, I don't recommend this book. For it would be hard for you to start coming to grips with the reality that our hearts, I mean, Ernest Callenbach does with Ecotopia. then maybe you will find your way home as well. but I don't want to give away everything in this book. Happy reading!!!!! :)

Utopia novels are always a real hoot to read. Every fringe group with an axe to grind eventually churns out some idealistic novel about the way things ought to be. We have socialism represented in Edward Bellamy's "Looking Backward." The racists weigh in with William Peirce's fascistic "The Turner Diaries." Even feminists have a novel, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "Herland." Perhaps it was inevitable the environmentalists would put forth their own work, Ernest Callenbach's "Ecotopia."
Ecotopia is a country made up of the states of Washington, Oregon, and a big chunk of California. After a period of political and economic turmoil, these states seceded from the United States circa 1980. They were able to do this because economic conditions in the United States were so bad (apparently Callenbach assumed the problems of the 1970's would continue to spiral us downwards) that the government could not mount an effective civil war to bring the states back into the fold. Further complicating the issue was the nuclear mines Ecotopian guerillas planted in Washington D.C. and other American cities. By the time "Ecotopia" starts, twenty years have passed since Ecotopia gained its independence.
"Ecotopia" tells the story of William Weston, a crack journalist for a big New York newspaper. Weston's mission, if he chooses to accept it, is to take a journey into the country of Ecotopia and report on what he finds there. Weston is your typical big city boy--arrogant, flighty, divorced, and always looking for a new bimbo to drape over his arm. The insights into Weston's character come from italicized "journal" entries placed directly before his official newspaper articles. Needless to say, Weston undergoes a sea change in attitude as he uncovers every aspect of Ecotopian life. He even hooks up with a tree-worshipping chickadee named Marissa, which allows Callenbach to throw in plenty of gratuitous sex scenes. Callenbach proves to us that a return to nature produces an oversexed population, a behavior Weston is more than willing to take part in.
Callenbach uses Weston's articles to reveal a wide array of Ecotopian modes of thought, creativity, and lifestyles. The most important of these aspects is the "stable-state" system, where Ecotopians direct all aspects of government, production, and lifestyle towards the idea of reusable commodities. Ecotopia avoids the use of heavy metals, unbiodegradable plastics, and internal combustion engines. They don't want to use anything that cannot be reused at some point, or anything that may put stress on the environment. Predictably, bicycles are widely used, population growth is discouraged, biodegradable materials are heavily used, and big cities are slowly giving way to smaller, tight knit communities. Pollution is a grave crime in Ecotopia, and many citizens agitate for military action against nations involved in reckless destruction of the environment.
Military action? From a peaceful, green state? Oh yes, Ecotopia does have a military branch, an intelligence apparatus, and a political structure that, at times, wields a heavy hand. Behind the all the hand holding and smiles lurk ominous communistic overtones that threaten to overthrow the world Callenbach attempts to create. At one point, secret police officers approach Weston after he meets with a group of disaffected Ecotopians who want to restore relations with the United States and ease the march towards a greener society. Ecotopians do not believe in being alone, either, as Weston discovers when told, "Here we try to arrange it so we are not lonely very often. That keeps us from making a lot of emotional mistakes." It also prevents people from thinking dangerous thoughts about society and their position within that society, does it not?
It is society over the individual that concerns Callenbach's Ecotopians. Weston learns "We don't think in terms of things, there are no such things as a thing-there are only systems." Weston realizes, at this point, that he is part of a system, that he is not a separate individual thing. Tell that to the individual who questions Ecotopia's emphasis on nature over humans. Of course, in Callenbach's utopia, no one seriously questions the underlying principle of environmental based political structures, but in the real world this would never happen. I shudder to think about what would happen to those who questioned this system too deeply. Perhaps a gulag system near Spokane or execution without trial might clear up these pesky problems.
"Ecotopia" isn't a lost cause. There are a few things within these pages that are agreeable and pleasing. The breakup of mass media systems within Ecotopia in favor of small, multiple outlets is a splendid idea. But overall, worrying darkness looms behind the smiling faces in Callenbach's utopian vision. "Ecotopia" proves that going too far to one extreme in a quest for ultimate happiness is never a good thing.

The main problem with the idea of an "ecotopia" is that no such state would be able to fend off its neighbors for long. Do you really think a bunch of California hippies could hold off the rest of the United States in a civil war? In the real world, California would be reintegrated with the US by lunch time. A state organized on these principles would simply not be able to exist for long before being swallowed up by its less enlightened but more aggressive neighbors. Sorry. "Those who beat their swords into plows will plow for those who don't."
But as another reviewer wrote, this book is an excellent way to look at the emotional appeal of radical environmentalism, and as such I recommend it.

Ernest Callenbach in his book Ecotopia, creates a society that is very reachable in todays world. He clearly shows that human beings can live in harmony with the planet. Callenbach develops a de-centralized governmental structure based on environmental "Stable-State" principles that is much better than the current American Democratic system of government we have today. One that is frought with corruption from Corporate special interests. Callenbach looks at many areas in his book: from high-speed train travel, carless cities, sewerage treatment, relying on organic farming, their arts and doing away with all commercialized sports, their health-care system, their education and schools, worker controlled business enterprises, a new and fairer tax system, alternative energy sources like Solar, Wind and Tidal power, and many other subjects. This book is a must read for all who believe that there is a better "Earth Friendly" way to live than the current American setup we have now.

A classic tale and a classic environmental vision, Ecotopia is as vital today as it was 30 yrs ago. Full of seemingly idealistic ideas that, upon closer examination, are totally plausible, this book has a vision of the future which is already beginning to come to pass.

I simply loved this book and I immediately read Ecotopia Emerging. What I would like to see is a sequal or another book written for this age (2000), like; Ecotopia 2000. Ernest Callenbach's ideas are mind-blowing but realistic and I would love to read another one written for the present time period. We need his input for this world to survive and he can reach so many people with a new fiction novel. I have been watching his books come out but there is not one that I know of, yet. (...) GRATEFULLY, GAYLE LUBIN

After reading "Utopias on Puget Sound," I was hooked on the history and all things utopia. I would bet that most people in Washington state and British Columbia would love to form a new country, but alas, we can dream about what life might be like if the west coast were to break away and start an ecotopia.

I loved reading Ecotopia for my Government class. This book is really easy to understand. The author goes into great detail. For those of you who do like exploring new things this book is for you. It is possible to have a world like Ecotopia, that's whats so appealing. I recomend this to everyone. Open your mind explore something new and don't be afraid.

This is the silliest book. A fantasy book needs at least a bit of authenticity in the characters, and/or in the specific situations that make up the bigger fantasy, to be at all readable. To me it seemed the fantasy of a very young adult author, too immature to even begin to understand relationships, cause and effect, and human complexities.
For instance: the scene of a couple fighting angrily and somewhat violently, in a hotel hallway, in front of an amused and approving crowd, was ridiculous. The author, basking in this utopia of men and women letting out their uncontrolled rage to no consequence (the couple miraculously ends in an embrace after solving nothing, and no one is emotionally or otherwise hurt from this scene, just "cleansed" of their anger), can't be so naive that he does not see how unrealistic this is (that in violent fights generally just one prevails, and that this is not desirable in anyone's utopia- for the more violent and angry ones to prevail, I would guess), and this lack of connection to any human truths make it hard to read.
The hodgepodge of ideas thrown together in this author's personal Utopia is really nothing more than a mess of self-righteous rebellion against anything and everything he could attack in this time period (I think it was written in the 70's). This may be a good book to read to study the mindset of some of the people who participated in the cultural revolution of the 70's: the "anything but what we have now" shotgun approach to cultural improvement.
This book is not well thought out, and is laborious to read. I don't recommend it.

ecotopia - an ecological utopia; utopia from callenbach's point of view, yet completely dismissing any sort of sociological reality. i understand that he's trying to describe a 'perfect' society, but it is so stretched and strained at points as to defy any logic - there must be 100% suspension of belief to enjoy this book. additionally, the timeframe - a mere 20 years - is a completely outlandish figure to reconfigure a society as drastically as he describes.
really, this is not worth the money or the time.

I lived in Northern California during the 1960s and 1970s and I feel that the book is less about environmentalism or ecology or sustainable growth or anything objective and more about the author's own journey from an ideal happy life in a rural farm in Pennsylvania to a painful experience in Chicago and finally to some kind of childlike euphoria in the hippy culture of northern California in the early 1970s.

Although he chose the title as Eco-topia what he actually describes is his version of the final fulfillment of the hippy ideal of life. The book is much more readable and digestible if we think of it as a novel in the fairy-tale land of Hippytopia where trains traveling at 225 miles per hour provide no seats or seat belts but cushions on the floor and recycle bins marked Metal, Glass, and Plastic and where passengers relax with a communal joint. It is in many ways the final gasp of hippydom. Don't bogart that joint my friend, pass it over to me.

Sad attempt at scifi -- billing itself as political it fails at that too. Simplistic and underwhelming, it's difficult to persevere [we had it assigned in our book club] -- if you're interested in scifi U- and Dys- topias, check out the realf stuff - Ted Sturgeon, David Brin, the Hyperion novels, etc,etc

Green Goebbels is repeating his brother Joseph's words:

"It would not be impossible to prove with sufficient repetition and a psychological understanding of the people concerned that a square is in fact a circle. They are mere words, and words can be molded until they clothe ideas and disguise."