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A review by qstew
Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy
3.0
Debit cards! Surround sound speaker systems! Amazon fulfillment centers! Ubiquitous sidewalk awnings!
In earnest, I did find myself taken aback by some of Bellamy's technologically-innovative prophecies - namely those listed above - but for the most part this book presents nothing unique as pertains to a utopian novel.
Depending on your sociopolitical leanings and preconceptions, the ideas presented in this book will either tickle you pink something fierce or lead you to see red (with the blood of the proletariat). I, personally, thought the futuristic picture painted herein was one of perfection, though such is the nature of utopias.
The arrival to the structure of the respective society is one of dubious incident; the notion that an entire nation of people would shrug off the nationalizing of all industry without even mild cause for alarm is beyond preposterous.
As a treatise on socioeconomic revolution, I found it to be a fantastic work with some truly inventive approaches to many of the issues which plagued late-19th century society. As a story? Couldn't have been more trite, overwrought, or formulaic.
This "novel" is a thinly veiled attempt to convey Bellamy's political agenda in the form of an overextended borderline-science fiction allegory. Tremendously little happens as pertains to any semblance of a plot, and what does transpire is entire presumable by the reader simply based on the tone created at the outset. A solid 50-60% of the book is one character explaining the intricacies of the hypothetical 20th century to the narrator. There is an all too derivative romantic subplot, and no part of it even appealed to the romantic glutton in me for lack of depth.
I won't by any means attempt to fault Bellamy for his attempts at predicting the speech patterns or dialect of the real-world 20th century, though towards the beginning of the novel the narrator states that 2000s speech is more similar to the 1880s than that of the 1700s - a very bold assumption for someone of his position to make.
Perhaps my biggest issue with the book is how flat the ending fell. Without spoiling anything explicitly, Bellamy tries one final "gotcha" at the end that was entirely unneeded and foreseeable. On the whole I enjoyed the ideas he proposed in the story and can certainly respect his decision to utilize a constructed future world as the delivery for the ideas. In some ways, he does a good job of guessing how we nowadays might have improved life for the masses; in others - some might say for the most part - he missed the mark catastrophically.
As an avenue for ideas, it is a passable work. As a story, it just BARELY qualifies - guy goes to sleep in 1887, wakes up in a utopic 2000. He freaks out, but quickly learns how great things are now through a series of personalized lectures from a doctor.
Wicked.
In earnest, I did find myself taken aback by some of Bellamy's technologically-innovative prophecies - namely those listed above - but for the most part this book presents nothing unique as pertains to a utopian novel.
Depending on your sociopolitical leanings and preconceptions, the ideas presented in this book will either tickle you pink something fierce or lead you to see red (with the blood of the proletariat). I, personally, thought the futuristic picture painted herein was one of perfection, though such is the nature of utopias.
The arrival to the structure of the respective society is one of dubious incident; the notion that an entire nation of people would shrug off the nationalizing of all industry without even mild cause for alarm is beyond preposterous.
As a treatise on socioeconomic revolution, I found it to be a fantastic work with some truly inventive approaches to many of the issues which plagued late-19th century society. As a story? Couldn't have been more trite, overwrought, or formulaic.
This "novel" is a thinly veiled attempt to convey Bellamy's political agenda in the form of an overextended borderline-science fiction allegory. Tremendously little happens as pertains to any semblance of a plot, and what does transpire is entire presumable by the reader simply based on the tone created at the outset. A solid 50-60% of the book is one character explaining the intricacies of the hypothetical 20th century to the narrator. There is an all too derivative romantic subplot, and no part of it even appealed to the romantic glutton in me for lack of depth.
I won't by any means attempt to fault Bellamy for his attempts at predicting the speech patterns or dialect of the real-world 20th century, though towards the beginning of the novel the narrator states that 2000s speech is more similar to the 1880s than that of the 1700s - a very bold assumption for someone of his position to make.
Perhaps my biggest issue with the book is how flat the ending fell. Without spoiling anything explicitly, Bellamy tries one final "gotcha" at the end that was entirely unneeded and foreseeable. On the whole I enjoyed the ideas he proposed in the story and can certainly respect his decision to utilize a constructed future world as the delivery for the ideas. In some ways, he does a good job of guessing how we nowadays might have improved life for the masses; in others - some might say for the most part - he missed the mark catastrophically.
As an avenue for ideas, it is a passable work. As a story, it just BARELY qualifies - guy goes to sleep in 1887, wakes up in a utopic 2000. He freaks out, but quickly learns how great things are now through a series of personalized lectures from a doctor.
Wicked.