Utopian Fiction

Framed by the oil shale bust and the real estate boom, by protests against Reagan and against the Gulf War, The Optimistic Decade takes us into the lives of five unforgettable characters and is a sweeping novel about idealism, love, class, and a piece of land that changes everyone who lives on it. There is Caleb Silver, the beloved founder of the back-to-the-land camp Llamalo, who is determined to teach others to live simply. There are the ranchers, Don and son Donnie, who gave up their land to Caleb, having run out of options after Exxon came and went and left them bankrupt.

Caleb Allard is dying. His legacy haunts him: a pointless career and two dysfunctional children estranged from one another. Then a voice arrives. Immense. Debilitating. It fills Caleb’s skull, promising the one thing Caleb wants more than anything else—a purpose for his miserable life. It tells him of a young boy with miraculous abilities living in the Texas hill country. Find the boy, find your purpose.

Hawk’s life is a secret. Wanted for murder, he hides from the law on a marijuana plantation in the Texas hill country. The violence of his past pales against the depravities he endures on the farm: dangerous and miraculous secrets he must protect if he wants to survive.

The Man in the Moone, first published in 1638, is considered one of the first works of science fiction. The author was an Anglican bishop who became interested in astronomy following the circulation of the works of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo. Much of the current speculation about the moon was concerned with whether it was populated, and if so, by what race.

Nell'età della Controriforma, mentre da una parte maturavano le premesse storiche poste dall'Umanesimo e dal Rinascimento e dall'altra si stabilizzava la dominazione congiunta dell'Impero di Spagna e dell'Inquisizione, Campanella si assunse la missione di "debellare tre mali estremi: tirannide, sofismi, ipocrisia". Ispirata dalle utopie politiche di Tommaso Moro e Platone, nella "Città del Sole" Campanella immagina una repubblica "naturale", condotta da un re-sacerdote e da tre magistrati.

The New Atlantis (1627) is a utopian novel by Sir Francis Bacon in which he describes a vision of the future of human discovery, expressing his aspirations and ideals for humanity. The novel portrays a utopian world where "generosity and enlightenment, dignity and splendour, piety and public spirit" are the dominant qualities of the inhabitants.