So, I’m currently reading the Solarpunk novella *A Psalm for the Wild-Built* by Becky Chambers. I really do love this book, it’s such a cozy and relaxing story, but it got me thinking about the place of genuine Utopias in modern science fiction/fiction/fantasy books.
I feel like most of the books that are in these categories (at least those I have read/seen online) tend to revolve around dystopian settings like oppressive governments, corporate monopolies, dehumanization etc. This trend exists in almost all media today imo. Like, I was searching for films with Utopian settings the other day, and I found just one that actually tried to portray a genuine utopia and not a looks-like-utopia-but-its-really-a-dystopia scenario. I understand the appeal dystopias have, as it surely easier to tell a story in a world that’s awful rather than in one that’s (almost) perfect, but I believe it is getting a bit repetitive and tiresome.
So, the question I want to ask I suppose is this: Have you ever read a book that portrays a genuine Utopia? A world that is actually at least partially perfect. And did you like it?
by A_Guy195
7 Comments
I can‘t think of one, but if there were, I don’t think it would be worth reading. All utopian stories always seem to also be dystopias. There is a short story you probably have already read called The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas that illustrates this best for me.
The problem with utopias in fiction is that if everything really *is* perfect, there’s no obvious source of conflict, and conflict is the primary model of narrative. So you either have a utopia-which-isn’t-really, or you have outside forces encroaching on the utopia, or you have internal strife (in which case, is it a utopia, really?).
The City and the stars by Arthur C. Clarke
You should check out The Culture by Ian M. Banks. It’s a highly regarded sci-fi series and the books are fairly standalone (although some of them require reading previous entries).
Another one is Terra Ignota by Ada Palmer. Also sci-fi. It is an incredibly dense sci-fi that focus a lot more on sociology than just scientific advancements. Just a warning, it is a series with major elements heavily inspired by The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. Which means that it’s a story written to be engaging, but also require multiple reads, while being told from a first person POV that isn’t all that reliable (and may be purposefully obscuring and omitting stuff from you).
I’d suggest Of The City of the Saved and the various books set in the City of the Saved. It’s a city the size of a spiral galaxy where every human being who ever existed is resurrected after death in new immortal bodies. Most of the City is fairly utopian but there is a systemic prejudice towards those who aren’t pure humans(anyone with less than 1/8 non-human blood is pure) and more relevantly there are areas where it’s protocols of invulnerability are breaking down…
It’s a hard act to pull, unfortunately. A perfect place would be a wonderful reality, but in fiction you need imperfect things. The utopia aspects can easily just fade into the background, where conveniences are normal and not at all novel.
I guess Le Guins Dispossessed is a good example of a utopia but it’s absolutely not perfect. Perfection is impossible and there’s always going to be need for change and that’s going to cause conflict and the resolutions will improve some things will bringing about new needs for change.
Kim Stanley Robinson has apparently written utopian fiction too but I have never been able to get into his books.