Trouble in Utopia

Trouble in Utopia
Author: Dan Horowitz
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2012-02-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1438407084

This book provides a thorough and detailed examination of Israeli institutions and how they function. It explains the decline in effectiveness of the government and the spread of cultural malaise in the Israel of the eighties. Horowitz and Lissak trace the integrative and disintegrative trends in Israel and show how a society that had laid the foundations for a cohesive Jewish nation-state became increasingly vulnerable to centrifugal forces. The book not only reflects a broad and comprehensive approach, but also focuses on themes that cut across institutional structures, such as the weakening of social and political cohesion in an overburdened polity.

Utopia

Utopia
Author: Thomas More
Publisher: e-artnow
Total Pages: 105
Release: 2019-04-08
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 8027303583

Utopia is a work of fiction and socio-political satire by Thomas More published in 1516 in Latin. The book is a frame narrative primarily depicting a fictional island society and its religious, social and political customs. Many aspects of More's description of Utopia are reminiscent of life in monasteries.

The Seep

The Seep
Author: Chana Porter
Publisher: Soho Press
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2020-01-21
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1641290870

A 2021 Lambda Literary Award Finalist “A unique alien invasion story that focuses on the human and the myriad ways we see and don’t see our own world. Mesmerizing.” —Jeff VanderMeer A blend of searing social commentary and speculative fiction, Chana Porter’s fresh, pointed debut explores a strange new world in the wake of a benign alien invasion. Trina FastHorse Goldberg-Oneka is a fifty-year-old trans woman whose life is irreversibly altered in the wake of a gentle—but nonetheless world-changing—invasion by an alien entity called The Seep. Through The Seep, everything is connected. Capitalism falls, hierarchies and barriers are broken down; if something can be imagined, it is possible. Trina and her wife, Deeba, live blissfully under The Seep’s utopian influence—until Deeba begins to imagine what it might be like to be reborn as a baby, which will give her the chance at an even better life. Using Seeptech to make this dream a reality, Deeba moves on to a new existence, leaving Trina devastated. Heartbroken and deep into an alcoholic binge, Trina follows a lost boy she encounters, embarking on an unexpected quest. In her attempt to save him from The Seep, she will confront not only one of its most avid devotees, but the terrifying void that Deeba has left behind. A strange new elegy of love and loss, The Seep explores grief, alienation, and the ache of moving on.

Consuming the Romantic Utopia

Consuming the Romantic Utopia
Author: Eva Illouz
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 390
Release: 1997-05-29
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 0520205715

The study begins with readings of ads, songs, films and other public representations of romance and concludes with individual interviews in order to analyze the ways in which mass messages are internalized.

Utopia or Oblivion

Utopia or Oblivion
Author: R. Buckminster Fuller
Publisher: Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller
Total Pages: 225
Release: 1963
Genre: Architecture
ISBN:

Utopia or Oblivion is a provocative blueprint for the future. This comprehensive volume is composed of essays derived from the lectures he gave all over the world during the 1960’s. Fuller’s thesis is that humanity – for the first time in its history – has the opportunity to create a world where the needs of 100% of humanity are met. “This is what man tends to call utopia. It’s a fairly small word, but inadequate to describe the extraordinary new freedom of man in a new relationship to universe — the alternative of which is oblivion.” R. Buckminster Fuller. Description by Lars Muller Publishers, courtesy of The Estate of Buckminster Fuller

Utopia PR

Utopia PR
Author: Adam Bender
Publisher: Adam Bender
Total Pages: 239
Release: 2021-02-22
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1736096214

Humor Book Winner in the 2021 IndieReader Discovery Awards A sci-fi satire about seeking work-life balance while doing public relations for an authoritarian president. PR extraordinaire Blake Hamner (the "n" is silent) put off his honeymoon for his big break: joining a major political campaign for president. Now, the "Hammer" struggles to make time for his marriage as Crisis Communications Manager for Our Leader, who since taking power has become increasingly mad and totalitarian. The Hammer starts to reconsider his career choices when one of Our Leader’s savage steel hounds attacks the Comms team at a press conference. He’d love to talk about his erratic job with his wife, Triple-N news anchor Maria Worthington, but they have a rule: the broadcast journalist doesn’t ask Blake for inside information about his work, and the spin doctor doesn’t use their relationship as leverage on what Maria reports. They say you shouldn’t keep things from each other in a marriage, but it’s OK—the only secrets between Blake and Maria are professional. When a revolutionary levels grave allegations against Our Leader—and accuses Blake of distributing disinformation and propaganda to cover it up—the PR rep who thought he could talk his way out of any crisis finds himself utterly trapped in a dystopian job. Praise for Utopia PR "In a tale that’s reminiscent of political farces such as the HBO TV series Veep, Bender employs a smooth, amusing, and straightforward prose style that’s briskly paced ... Its tone is irreverent, and readers looking for a quick chuckle will likely enjoy Bender’s winking comedy, which is punctuated with genuinely sweet, sincere moments." -- Kirkus Reviews "Sharp and witty, the novel Utopia PR is a free range political send-up set in a chaotic, perplexing, and familiar future world." -- Foreword Reviews "It is a fun and efficient book, but also scary: like all good fiction, it uses sarcasm to make readers think about the world outside." -- IndieReader "A lighthearted, uplifting vision into the dark times we’re facing." -- IndieMuse “Philadelphia writer Adam Bender’s new novel Utopia PR, a political satire set in a dystopian Washington, DC, offers a brisk and entertaining sendup of politics and the media, two machines driven by capitalism and ambition.” -- Broad Street Review "A dystopian novel laced with intrigue, science fiction, romance and humor ... I recommend this book to fans of dystopia who would appreciate a comedic writing style and the underlying themes of marital challenges, finding your purpose, diversity and manipulation through social media." -- Reedsy Discovery For fans of humorous science fiction, political satire, speculative fiction and dystopia; authors like John Scalzi, Christopher Moore, Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury, George Orwell, and Christopher Buckley; and books like: Catch-22, Thank You for Smoking, Slaughterhouse-Five, and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Adam Bender is an award-winning journalist and author of speculative fiction that explores modern-day societal fears with a mix of action, romance and humor. He is the author of The Wanderer and the New West, Divided We Fall and We, The Watched.

Utopia Parkway

Utopia Parkway
Author: Deborah Solomon
Publisher: Other Press, LLC
Total Pages: 593
Release: 2015-10-13
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1590517156

Deborah Solomon’s definitive biography of Joseph Cornell, one of America’s most moving and unusual twentieth-century artists, now reissued twenty years later with updated and extensively revised text Few artists ever led a stranger life than Joseph Cornell, the self-taught American genius prized for his enigmatic shadow boxes, who stands at the intersection of Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, and Pop Art. Legends about Cornell abound—the shy hermit, the devoted family caretaker, the artistic innocent—but never before has he been presented for what he was: a brilliant, relentlessly serious artist whose stature has now reached monumental proportions.

The Utopia Experiment

The Utopia Experiment
Author: Dylan Evans
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2015-02-12
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 144726133X

As read on BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week. Imagine you have survived an apocalypse. Civilization as you knew it is no more. What will life be like and how will you cope? In 2006, Dylan Evans set out to answer these questions. He left his job in a high-tech robotics lab, moved to the Scottish Highlands and founded a community called The Utopia Experiment. There, together with an eclectic assortment of volunteers, he tried to live out a scenario of global collapse, free from modern technology and comforts. Within a year, Evans found himself detained in a psychiatric hospital, shattered and depressed, trying to figure out what had gone wrong. In The Utopia Experiment he tells his own extraordinary story: his frenzied early enthusiasm for this unusual project, the many challenges of post-apocalyptic living, his descent into madness and his gradual recovery. In the process, he learns some hard lessons about himself and about life, and comes to see the modern world he abandoned in a new light. 'A gripping, slow-motion car crash. You can't take your eyes off it' Julian Baggini, Financial Times 'It radiates an intense intelligence and a candour that is never less than touching and, sometimes, downright heartrending' Daily Mail 'Extraordinary . . . both frightening and compelling' GQ

The Feminist Utopia Project

The Feminist Utopia Project
Author: Alexandra Brodsky
Publisher: The Feminist Press at CUNY
Total Pages: 377
Release: 2015-09-21
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1558619011

This “incredible addition to the feminist canon” brings together the most inspiring, creative, and courageous voices concerning modern women’s issues (Jessica Valenti, editor of Yes Means Yes). In this groundbreaking collection, more than fifty cutting-edge feminist writers—including Melissa Harris-Perry, Janet Mock, Sheila Heti, and Mia McKenzie—invite us to imagine a world of freedom and equality in which: An abortion provider reinvents birth control . . . The economy values domestic work . . . A teenage rock band dreams up a new way to make music . . . The Constitution is re-written with women’s rights at the fore . . . The standard for good sex is raised with a woman’s pleasure in mind . . . The Feminist Utopia Project challenges the status quo that accepts inequality and violence as a given, “offering playful, earnest, challenging, and hopeful versions of our collective future in the form of creative nonfiction, fiction, visual art, poetry, and more” (Library Journal).

Welcome to Utopia

Welcome to Utopia
Author: Karen Valby
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2010-06-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1588369684

BONUS: This edition contains a new Afterword and a reading group guide. Utopia, Texas: It’s either the best place on earth, or it’s no place at all. In the twenty-first century, it’s difficult to imagine any element of American life that remains untouched by popular culture, let alone an entire community existing outside the empire of pop. But Karen Valby discovered the tiny town of Utopia tucked away in the Texas Hill Country. There are no movie theaters for sixty miles in any direction, no book or music stores. But cable television and the Internet have recently thrown wide the doors of Utopia. Valby follows the lives of four Utopians—Ralph, the retired owner of the general store; Kathy, the waitress who waits in terror for three of her boys to return from war; Colter, the son of a cowboy with the soul of a hipster; and Kelli, an aspiring rock star and one of the only black people in town—as they reckon, on an intensely human scale, with war and race, class and culture, and the way time’s passage can change the ground beneath our feet. Utopia is the kind of place we still think of as the “real America,” a place of cowboys and farmers and high-school sweethearts who stay together till they die. But its dramatic stories show us what happens when the old tensions of small-town life confront a new reality: that no town, no matter how small and isolated, can escape the liberating and disruptive forces of the larger world. Welcome to Utopia is a moving elegy for a proud American way of life and a celebration of our relentless impulse toward rebirth.