A thought provoking, inspiring, somewhat utopian science fiction novel about a global revolution in the near future. Covers some similar ground to TheA thought provoking, inspiring, somewhat utopian science fiction novel about a global revolution in the near future. Covers some similar ground to The Ministry of the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson, but this is written by a pair of Feminist, Queer Theorist, Communist writers, ME O'Brien and Eman Abdelhadi. It is written in the form of an oral history project, a bit like World War Z by Max Brooks. As speculative fiction some of this felt plausible, and some of it didn't, but it sparks the imagination and left me with some sense of optimism about the future, in spite of the mass death that occurs, and which feels like it's baked in to our existing socio-economic-political situation. ...more
I'm glad I have read this as one of the foundational works of Anarchist literature, but it's a fairly painful read. Kropotkin isn't much of a writer. I'm glad I have read this as one of the foundational works of Anarchist literature, but it's a fairly painful read. Kropotkin isn't much of a writer. For context, I read this on my Kindle, which means I mainly read it when I wasn't able to sleep and wanted to read without turning on a light and disturbing may partner. The beginning of the book was dull and repetitive, though I think it deserves credit for being original. He discusses countless examples of cooperation among animal species, contrasting this with the then popular notion of savage nature, red in tooth and claw, particularly promoted by TH Huxley's interpretation of Darwinism. After exploring animal relations he moves onto pre-historic humans, and gradually works through higher or more advanced forms of human society until he gets to Medieval Cities and then the current day (late 19th Century) with trade unions. The reason it is dull to read is that you can summarise everything he has to say with 'living beings have a tendency towards cooperation because it is beneficial to themselves and their species. Some people argue that the tendency towards competition is stronger, but they are wrong'. Everything he has to say reinforces this, and it gets boring reading the same idea explicated over and over again. The part that interested me the most is when he writes about Medieval cities, and contrasts the way they worked to the aristocratic feudal Lords in the surrounding countryside. The former lived through developing crafts and trade, and the latter by war and conquest.
Suffice to say if you are interested in Anarchist thought you may want to read this, but you I don't think you will get much out of it that a summary couldn't give you. ...more
Loading...
