Author: Skrimshire, Stefan

Source: Cultural Politics: an International Journal, Volume 4, Number 2, July 2008 , pp. 231-247(17)

Publisher: Berg Publishers

Abstract:

The subject of utopianism in contemporary political life has experienced a revival of interest in the last few years. One of the most polemical contributions is John Gray's Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia. One of the greatest benefits of this book is to paint for us an accurate picture of what a contemporary anti-utopian looks like. For Gray's position, it appears, is that utopian beliefs lead to ridicule at best and totalitarian violence at worst. In this essay I shall argue that this position ignores many nuances of utopian thought that operate today in, among other places, nonviolent movements of political resistance. As a means of critiquing Gray's pessimism, I refer to two recent works that attempt to tease out this complexity within utopian thought itself: Russell Jacoby's Future Imperfect: Utopian Thought for an Anti-Utopian Age (2005) and Frederic Jameson's Archaeologies of the Future: Utopia and other Science Fictions (2005).

Keywords: UTOPIANISM; FUTURE; JOHN GRAY; FREDERIC JAMESON; RUSSELL JACOBY

Document Type: Book review

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/175174308X310929

Publication date: 2008-07-01

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