Utopia

Utopia is a word used to describe a place or situation that is ideal or perfect. The word can also be used to describe a fantasy or dream world where people live in peace and harmony with nature. The idea of a utopia is often viewed in contrast to dystopia, which is the opposite of the perfect society.

The Utopian idea resurfaces throughout history, especially in fiction. Many SF stories use the utopian paradigm to explore fundamental change, a different way of being. These visions of new heavens and hells vary widely in their content and ambition. Some utopias are simple exoticism, and others attempt to reconcile historically opposed impulses.

Sir Thomas More, in his book Utopia (1516), described a society of perfect political and social order on an imaginary island. His work popularized the modern definition of utopia, any imaginary world that possesses highly desirable qualities for its inhabitants. The Greek eu-topos means “good place,” but the word has become a synonym for any desirable state of being.

The most famous utopian works include Plato’s Republic and HG Wells’s The Time Machine. Other notable utopian novels and stories are Ariel, by Octavia Butler, and The City and the Stars, by Robert A. Heinlein. In contemporary SF, utopian visions tend to be more open than in the past, and they are often characterized by a sense of restlessness and risk-taking experimentation. The utopian impulse has been deprived of its classical end of struggle and image of achieved harmony, but it continues to resurface warily and self-questioningly.