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Utopian fiction vs. post-apocalyptic reality: great interview | (Read 322 times) |
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Joel Hollingsworth
Posts: 1639
zone 10: Oakland, CA
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July 27, 2010, 04:35:34 PM |
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Via cityfarmer.info, a great interview with the authors of Ecotopia (a 1975 utopian novel, that predicted a lot of the eco-innovations of places like Portland) and Farm City (a recent book about living in the worst part of the city, with hippy values but rebelling against their idealism).
Ernest Callenbach and Novella Carpenter
It is amazing how agreeably they disagree. Together, they see a lot of what's right in intentional communities, and a lot of what's wrong with them, as well.
An excerpt:
The Weeds of Ecotopia
By Jeremy Adam Smith
shareable.net
July 20, 2010
as excerpted by cityfarmer.info
Jeremy Adam Smith: Do you see Ecotopia as a vision that you’re working towards on your farm?
Novella Carpenter: No. The thing is, I’m not part of that. Because that was like my parents’ deal. They were utopians. They were gonna go and live back to the land and all this stuff and I think that’s kind of bullshit. My tendency is to react against that, is to not ever think there’s going to be Utopia. It’s sort of a pessimistic optimism, is what I call it. So, you’re like, “I want to do this thing but everything’s fucked up.” I mean, it’s like that’s what is awesome about Ecotopia, is that everything isn’t fucked up.
Callenbach loosens up re: profanity over the course of the interview, but says work like Novella is doing is like what pioneer species do after a fire.
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« Last Edit: July 27, 2010, 04:55:04 PM by Joel Hollingsworth »
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"the qualities of these bacteria, like the heat of the sun, electricity, or the qualities of metals, are part of the storehouse of knowledge of all men. They are manifestations of the laws of nature, free to all men and reserved exclusively to none." SCOTUS, Funk Bros. Seed Co. v. Kale Inoculant Co.
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Emerson White
Posts: 489
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August 09, 2010, 12:21:20 AM |
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I've just read the barest bit, and I generally like it, I just wish that she were more articulate. It's sad how little we as a society have invested in teaching ourselves to communicate well.
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Nature will always move towards a balance, unfortunately part of that process is that high concentration of vegetables in your garden going to pests and disease striking one or more trees in your perfectly balanced stand of trees.
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Eric
Posts: 11
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August 13, 2010, 11:15:08 PM |
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I appreciated Novella's perspective though. She's in tough part of town, not the North Berkeley or the Berkeley Hill, she squats, her neighbors squat; I imagine beyond her yard, not a lot of inspiring scenery and so for her to grow the food and garden she does, she gives a lot to the community.
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Joel Hollingsworth
Posts: 1639
zone 10: Oakland, CA
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August 16, 2010, 12:44:07 AM |
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I've just read the barest bit, and I generally like it, I just wish that she were more articulate. It's sad how little we as a society have invested in teaching ourselves to communicate well.
Hm...her writing is articulate enough, and my opinion is that her academic credentials and performance as a journalist suggest that one could find much better examples of any decline in the effort our society invests in communications education.
She does write that talking to her neighbors regularly has introduced phrases like "How you?" into her habits of speech. Maybe that's a part of what's bothering you?
For this interview, she seems to be speaking as though it isn't being written down. I appreciate the authenticity, but I also appreciate the work the other interviewee does to speak in a way that makes more sense as written English.
It was an interesting choice, and IMHO a tremendous effort at "communicating well" (regardless of language standardization), how she handled the eminent author's re-interpretation of "TMI." I've never heard that abbreviation used to refer to the quantity of un-differentiated data, only to information with some uncomfortable qualities, and it seems to me he was wrong and she gracefully acknowledged that possibility without being impolite about it.
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« Last Edit: August 16, 2010, 03:11:00 AM by Joel Hollingsworth »
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"the qualities of these bacteria, like the heat of the sun, electricity, or the qualities of metals, are part of the storehouse of knowledge of all men. They are manifestations of the laws of nature, free to all men and reserved exclusively to none." SCOTUS, Funk Bros. Seed Co. v. Kale Inoculant Co.
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 articles by paul wheaton: [diatomaceous earth] [raising chickens] [lawn care] [Sepp Holzer] [cast iron] [flea control]
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