description:  The importance of this book isn't so much to be found in its literary form as in the lively imagination of an alternative &amp; ecologically sound lifestyle on a greater scale, presented more or less realistically. It expressed on paper the dream of an alternative future held by many in the movements of the 1970s &amp; later. Even the names of the two characters most reflective of their respective viewpoints--"Will West(on)", the representative for materialist American culture &amp; "Vera Allwen" ("Truth for All Time"), the President &amp; spokeswoman for Ecotopia--suggest the degree to which the author intended the book to be a reflection of American ecological &amp; cultural deficiencies. Worth mentioning is Callenbach's speculation on the roles of TV in his envisioned society. In some ways anticipating C-SPAN, which would 1st be broadcast in 1979, &amp; reality tv, which would not emerge as a fact for another two decades, the story mentions that the daily life of the legislature &amp; some of that of the judicial courts is televised in Ecotopia, &amp; even highly technical debates addressed the needs &amp; desires of the viewers. Another interesting feature in the novel is "print on demand" (POD) publishing. In the novel, customers could choose a literary work from a jukebox-like device that would then print &amp; bind the book. In the 21st century, POD services such as Lulu.com that print, bind &amp; ship books for customers who order on-line, have become commonplace. In contrast to much of the Green movement in contemporary America with its preference for regulation, however, Callenbach's Ecotopia has relatively laissez-faire economic tendencies. In 1981, Callenbach published Ecotopia Emerging, a multi-strand prequel suggesting how the sustainable nation of Ecotopia could have come into existence. In 1990, Audio Renaissance released a partial dramatization of Ecotopia on audiocassettes in the form of recordings of a radio network broadcast (Allied News Network replacing the Times-Post). The tape-recorded diaries of William Weston were read by the book's author, Ernest Callenbach. Weston's reports were read by veteran news reporter Edwin Newman. Ecotopia is now required reading in a number of colleges (see NY Times article The Novel That Predicted Portland),
language: English
title: Ecotopia: An Audio Novel
titlecomplete: Ecotopia: An Audio Novel
characters: William Weston, Vera Allwen
genres: Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Utopia, Dystopia, Environment, School, Fiction, Science Fiction, Ecology, Politics
ratings_count: 5282
places: The United States of America
series: Ecotopia
publisher: Audio Renaissance (Los Angeles)