Utopianism for a Dying Planet: Life after Consumerism by Gregory Claeys (review)

IF 0.4 3区 社会学 0 HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY STUDIES Pub Date : 2023-09-01 DOI:10.1353/ecs.2023.a909458
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Dystopia: A Natural History (2016), itself over 500 pages, examines the history of the concept in both creative literature and actual political regimes—that is, governments that have made real the sorts of scenarios that writers have only imagined. The book discussed here, Utopianism for a Dying Planet, is likewise bleak in tone, despite its concern with speculations we might think of as positive or optimistic. Indeed, for Claeys, it will take the boldest aspirations—the kind that are sometimes dismissed as unrealistic—to address what are in fact our realest problems. The bulk of the book is a survey of utopian ideas and practices, with a chapter at the end that distills useful lessons and applies them to the climate crisis. Historically, Claeys starts in ancient Sparta and ends with the counterculture of the 1960s, giving ample attention to debates over luxury in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe and the United States. Thematically, he moves from literature and political philosophy to cultural movements and governmental institutions, finding worthwhile, though admittedly dated, proposals for equity and sustainability in an array of sources that go far beyond the parameters of Thomas More's Utopia (1516). This range is the strength of the book: in my view, no one but Claeys could have covered the subject so knowledgeably, so expansively. In some ways, despite the focus on consumption and the environment, Utopianism for a Dying Planet is a good introduction to the subject of utopia in general. Part 1, \"Towards a Theory of Utopian Sociability,\" is composed of a meditation on the meaning of utopia; an excavation of its mythical background; and a [End Page 117] commentary on various theoretical models. In chapter 1, Claeys gives a broad and compound but nonetheless minimally complicated definition, so that \"utopia consists in any ideal or imaginary society portrayed in any manner\" (19). It has taken a number of forms: a text, a religion, a mental state, the very notion of progress, the experience of pleasure. At the same time, it is more than an empty placeholder or mere suggestion that things could be otherwise. Claeys insists, against theorists such as Fredric Jameson, on the details of plans and projects, however farfetched, and argues for the practical utility of even fantastical literature. Chapter 2 looks at the origins of utopia in such traditions as the myth of the Golden Age and the belief system of Christian millenarianism. The third chapter turns to Michel Foucault's theory of heterotopia, Victor Turner's concept of liminality, and Ernst Bloch's oft-cited idea of the concrete utopia, which Claeys describes as a kind of secular millenarianism. Part 2, \"Utopian Sociability in Fiction and Practice,\" moves from medieval times to the eighteenth century and looks in particular at the question of consumption and the potential of more robust sociability to compensate for greater abstention. Chapter 4 gives an account of utopias in practice, for instance in festivals, pilgrimages, and intentional communities. To readers of this journal, the fifth and sixth chapters are likely to be of most interest. Here, Claeys discusses the legacy of More, reflecting at length on the argument for luxury by Bernard Mandeville and the critique of private property and commercial consumption by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. As Claeys explains, there were four primary examples of virtuous self-restraint: the arcadian state of nature; the primitive Christian community; the classical republic; and the Tory or Country Party ideal. Of course, this is a well-trod terrain. 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Abstract

Reviewed by: Utopianism for a Dying Planet: Life after Consumerism by Gregory Claeys Jason Pearl Gregory Claeys, Utopianism for a Dying Planet: Life after Consumerism ( Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 2022). Pp. 608. $39.95 cloth. The latest book by Gregory Claeys gives an impression of summation and culmination. At over 600 pages, it returns to and reexamines many of the texts and topics that Claeys, a historian of radical and socialist thought, has spent a lifetime researching. His work across five decades as author and editor has helped us to see the significance of social idealism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Dystopia: A Natural History (2016), itself over 500 pages, examines the history of the concept in both creative literature and actual political regimes—that is, governments that have made real the sorts of scenarios that writers have only imagined. The book discussed here, Utopianism for a Dying Planet, is likewise bleak in tone, despite its concern with speculations we might think of as positive or optimistic. Indeed, for Claeys, it will take the boldest aspirations—the kind that are sometimes dismissed as unrealistic—to address what are in fact our realest problems. The bulk of the book is a survey of utopian ideas and practices, with a chapter at the end that distills useful lessons and applies them to the climate crisis. Historically, Claeys starts in ancient Sparta and ends with the counterculture of the 1960s, giving ample attention to debates over luxury in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe and the United States. Thematically, he moves from literature and political philosophy to cultural movements and governmental institutions, finding worthwhile, though admittedly dated, proposals for equity and sustainability in an array of sources that go far beyond the parameters of Thomas More's Utopia (1516). This range is the strength of the book: in my view, no one but Claeys could have covered the subject so knowledgeably, so expansively. In some ways, despite the focus on consumption and the environment, Utopianism for a Dying Planet is a good introduction to the subject of utopia in general. Part 1, "Towards a Theory of Utopian Sociability," is composed of a meditation on the meaning of utopia; an excavation of its mythical background; and a [End Page 117] commentary on various theoretical models. In chapter 1, Claeys gives a broad and compound but nonetheless minimally complicated definition, so that "utopia consists in any ideal or imaginary society portrayed in any manner" (19). It has taken a number of forms: a text, a religion, a mental state, the very notion of progress, the experience of pleasure. At the same time, it is more than an empty placeholder or mere suggestion that things could be otherwise. Claeys insists, against theorists such as Fredric Jameson, on the details of plans and projects, however farfetched, and argues for the practical utility of even fantastical literature. Chapter 2 looks at the origins of utopia in such traditions as the myth of the Golden Age and the belief system of Christian millenarianism. The third chapter turns to Michel Foucault's theory of heterotopia, Victor Turner's concept of liminality, and Ernst Bloch's oft-cited idea of the concrete utopia, which Claeys describes as a kind of secular millenarianism. Part 2, "Utopian Sociability in Fiction and Practice," moves from medieval times to the eighteenth century and looks in particular at the question of consumption and the potential of more robust sociability to compensate for greater abstention. Chapter 4 gives an account of utopias in practice, for instance in festivals, pilgrimages, and intentional communities. To readers of this journal, the fifth and sixth chapters are likely to be of most interest. Here, Claeys discusses the legacy of More, reflecting at length on the argument for luxury by Bernard Mandeville and the critique of private property and commercial consumption by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. As Claeys explains, there were four primary examples of virtuous self-restraint: the arcadian state of nature; the primitive Christian community; the classical republic; and the Tory or Country Party ideal. Of course, this is a well-trod terrain. For me, one of the highlights of the book is its commentary on lesser-known texts, many of...
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垂死星球的乌托邦主义:消费主义之后的生活格雷戈里·克莱斯(书评)
《垂死星球的乌托邦主义:消费主义之后的生活》,作者:杰森·珀尔·格雷戈里·克莱斯,《垂死星球的乌托邦主义:消费主义之后的生活》(普林斯顿:普林斯顿大学出版社,2022)608页。布39.95美元。格雷戈里·克莱斯的新书给人一种总结和高潮的印象。在超过600页的篇幅中,它回归并重新审视了克莱斯这位激进和社会主义思想的历史学家花了一生的时间研究的许多文本和主题。他作为作家和编辑的五十年的工作帮助我们看到了十八和十九世纪社会理想主义的重要性。《反乌托邦:自然史》(2016)本身就有500多页,它考察了这一概念在创造性文学和实际政治制度中的历史——也就是说,政府把作家们想象出来的各种场景变成了现实。这里讨论的这本书,《垂死星球的乌托邦主义》,尽管它关注的是我们可能认为是积极或乐观的猜测,但语气同样黯淡。事实上,在克莱斯看来,要解决我们最现实的问题,需要最大胆的愿望——有时被认为是不现实的那种愿望。这本书的大部分内容是对乌托邦思想和实践的调查,最后一章提炼了有用的经验教训,并将其应用于气候危机。从历史上看,克莱伊斯从古代斯巴达开始,以20世纪60年代的反主流文化结束,对18世纪和19世纪欧洲和美国关于奢侈品的争论给予了充分的关注。在主题上,他从文学和政治哲学转向了文化运动和政府机构,在一系列远超托马斯·莫尔(Thomas More)的乌托邦(1516)范畴的资源中,发现了有价值的、尽管公认过时的关于公平和可持续性的建议。这个范围是这本书的优势所在:在我看来,除了克莱斯,没有人能把这个主题讲得如此博学、如此广泛。在某些方面,尽管关注消费和环境,但《垂死星球的乌托邦主义》是对乌托邦主题的一个很好的介绍。第一部分“走向乌托邦社会理论”是对乌托邦意义的思考;挖掘其神话背景;以及对各种理论模型的评论。在第一章中,Claeys给出了一个广泛而复杂的定义,但仍然是最低限度的复杂,因此“乌托邦包括以任何方式描绘的任何理想或想象的社会”(19)。它有多种形式:文本,宗教,精神状态,进步的概念,快乐的体验。与此同时,它不仅仅是一个空的占位符,也不仅仅是暗示事情可能不是这样。与弗雷德里克·詹姆逊(frederic Jameson)等理论家不同,克莱斯坚持认为,无论计划和项目多么牵强,都要考虑到细节。他还主张,即使是幻想文学,也有其实际用途。第二章考察了乌托邦在黄金时代神话和基督教千禧年信仰体系等传统中的起源。第三章转向米歇尔·福柯的异托邦理论,维克多·特纳的阈值概念,以及恩斯特·布洛赫经常被引用的具体乌托邦的观点,克莱斯将其描述为一种世俗的千禧年主义。第二部分,“小说和实践中的乌托邦社交”,从中世纪到18世纪,特别关注消费问题和更强大的社交能力的潜力,以弥补更多的弃权。第四章给出了乌托邦在实践中的描述,例如在节日、朝圣和意向社区中。对于本杂志的读者来说,第五章和第六章可能是最感兴趣的。在这里,Claeys讨论了莫尔的遗产,详细地反映了伯纳德·曼德维尔对奢侈品的争论和让·雅克·卢梭对私有财产和商业消费的批判。正如克莱斯解释的那样,有四个主要的良性自我约束的例子:田园般的自然状态;原始的基督教社区;古典共和国;保守党或乡村党的理想。当然,这是一个很好的地形。对我来说,这本书的亮点之一是它对不太知名的文本的评论,许多……
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来源期刊
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY STUDIES
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY STUDIES HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY-
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74
期刊介绍: As the official publication of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS), Eighteenth-Century Studies is committed to publishing the best of current writing on all aspects of eighteenth-century culture. The journal selects essays that employ different modes of analysis and disciplinary discourses to explore how recent historiographical, critical, and theoretical ideas have engaged scholars concerned with the eighteenth century.
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