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'Utopias are neither as popular nor as frequent as their dark mirror, dystopias. Projecting from today into the future, using the thought experiment of extrapolation '(if this goes on...)' tends to produce more pessimism than optimism. That is hardly surprising in our perennially anxious times. Nor are vintage utopias palatable to a modern audience: they can contain racism, eugenics, or happily exterminate most of the biosphere (as in Joseph Fraser's 1889 'Melbourne and Mars: My Mysterious Life on Two Planets'). What can seem perfection then can read like tedious hell now. Additionally, utopias are not easy to write well, as polemical perfection lacks conflict, tension, the inherent interest of the devil's party. Some have endured, like Plato's Republic, but it is certainly less read than 'The Handmaid's Tale' or 1984.' (Publication abstract)
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Last amended 4 Aug 2022 10:23:43
https://meanjin.com.au/essays/a-feminist-imperialist-utopia/
A Feminist, Imperialist Utopia: Sir Julius Vogel and Anno Domini 2000
Meanjin Online
Subjects:
- Melbourne and Mars : My Mysterious Life on Two Planets : Extracts from the Diary of a Melbourne Merchant 1889 single work novel
- Anno Domini 2000, Or, Woman's Destiny 1889 single work novel
- Handfasted 1879 single work novel
- A Week in the Future 1889 single work novel
- The Germ Growers : The Strange Adventures of Robert Easterley and John Wilbraham 1892 single work novel
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