the SolarQuest® iNetNews Service Home
the SolarQuest® iNetNews Service
Home
All Sections
Sustainability
Energy
Renewables
Technology
Transportation
Education
Interviews
Features
Editorials
People
EcoSage
Sponsors
Staff
About
Contact
Utopian Novel with Ecological Theme by Alex Shishin
by Alex S
People Making Connections
source: ECOTOPIA

•• Nov. 17, 2006 •• SolarQuest® iNet News Service ••
Part of my 1994 Ph.D. dissertation for the Union Institute (now Union Institute
and University) is the ecologically centered utopian novel, Real Time: A
Japanese Utopian Romance
. The novel expresses my ongoing concerns
with ecology, human rights, and equalitarian social organization.

The novel’s first person narrator is a resident foreign in present-day Japan
who is abducted by Japanese from the year 2347. Thomas Redburn,
photographer, recovering alcoholic, and family man, is taken in a time
machine to a world where class, hierarchy and the centralized Stare have
vanished and all aspects of life are managed democratically at the grass roots
level. War and environmental pollution are unknown. Production for
economic profit no longer exists. Gone is artificial overproduction and
planned obsolescence. Environmentally friendly technology produces things
only for the sake of utility and pleasure. The “Time Collective,” wishing to
study a twentieth century person, has justified abducting Tom by
rationalizing that they have saved him from a fatal accident. They presume
he will be happy in their beautiful world, but they are wrong. He is lonesome
for his family and wants to go home to the past. An ironically unhappy man
in a perfect world, Thomas Redburn critically questions all aspects of what his
abductors and saviors call “Real Time.” In this way, he (and the reader) learns
the inner working of a liberated society that can live within its ecological
means and cheerfully prosper at the same time.

Currently the novel is available as <1>Real Time: A Japanese Utopian
Romance, and Scholarly Commentary by Alexander Shishin from UMI
Dissertation Services, 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106; Tel:
1-800-521-0600 / 313-761-4700. A revised and undated version of the
novel is currently seeking a publisher.

Top iNet News Stories: Sustainability
Utopian Novel with Ecological Theme by Alex Shishin
Last Chance to Participate in the Echolist Contest
This is Chendebji
Taking the Easy Way Out: Presidential speeches
Outcomes of the Joburg Summit
Common Themes of the Summit
The General Assembly
The PlanetWork Initiative
NASREC
The International Humana People to People Movement
Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Rural Development
Kellogg Foundation: another way that works (Namibia)
Oxfam dump sugar on Sandton Square
Money talks – US aid
UNDP: community action
“Sought by many, achieved by few” – Sustainable Urbanization
A photo essay of the Street March
Is Free Trade Fair Trade? Farmers and Hawkers take to the streets
The Path to Poverty Reduction: Trade a means to an end?
Greenpeace
You are now viewing headlines 1 through 20.    Next >>


© 1998-2007 • EcoSage
contact info
e-mail