Comments on: The Just City, Jo Walton

By: nikki

nikki — Mon, 01 Jun 2015 10:14:00 +0000

In reply to nikki. I mean, obviously. Since utopia means nowhere and all. But you get my point. Hopefully.

By: nikki

nikki — Mon, 01 Jun 2015 07:50:00 +0000

Hahahahahaha. Not laughing at your review, which was interesting and was the only review of this book so far that got even remotely close to making me want to read it. I am laughing about not wanting to live in utopia. I would want to live there, but not because I think it would actually be utopia, but because I think it is nice to have far-fetched goals to works towards to acheive something at least decent. I actually DO live in a commune, and it is def not utopian. But it isn’t dystopian either. It’s just a bunch of people trying to make shit work in a way that works with their world views. Really, the idea of utopia is only theoretical. I don’t think there is any such thing.

By: Jeanne

Jeanne — Mon, 01 Jun 2015 02:18:00 +0000

I do love Walton’s Socrates. He is what you want him to be.
As a post-baby-boomer, I grew up laughing at the idea of a commune, reading Spider Robinson and reflecting on what an innocent time the 60’s really were. Now, though, I find that I have created a kind of utopian commune of my own, living in the same small town as my friends from college and vacationing with other college friends at least once every other summer. (We do the beach together every other year, but this summer we’re doing the Shaw and Shakespeare festival in Canada, too.)
Utopia is creating the place to live that you want. Perhaps some of my unhappiness with the college where we work is that I couldn’t make it over entirely in my own image. (Which would have been, as we’re observing here about the idealism of utopian societies, a bad thing in the end.)

By: anna

anna — Mon, 01 Jun 2015 01:15:00 +0000

In reply to Stefanie @Somanybooks. I suspected on reading Just City that it was either prompted by the idea in Among Others about 10 year olds, or something the writer already had in mind as a story when writing Among Others.

By: Athira / Aths

Athira / Aths — Sun, 31 May 2015 23:13:00 +0000

This is probably the second time this week that I am coming across a Jo Walton review. I so need to read her books – I know I am going to love her writings. Maybe I should read one of her books next month.

By: Nat @ Unbridled Enthusiasm

Nat @ Unbridled Enthusiasm — Sun, 31 May 2015 21:32:00 +0000

In reply to Jenny @ Reading the End.

INFP, which apparently are the ones who arrive euphoric at the Utopian cities, tell everyone they’re the happiest people alive and then leave two weeks later because someone did something *wrong* and they couldn’t stand it 🙂

What worries me about FIre From Heaven is that I think it’s on a bigger scale? I might be wrong, but The Last of the Wine sounds like a two dudes show and Fire From Heaven, in turn, has this Big Historic Event watermark all over it? You can tell by the amount of question marks that I’m not very sure about this.

By: Samantha

Samantha — Sun, 31 May 2015 14:30:00 +0000

Jo Walton is one of those authors that I have been meaning to try for some time but haven’t yet. (I have a very long list of authors that fit this category sadly). Have you read any others by her that you would really recommend? I’m not sure if I would enjoy this one or not but I did enjoy reading your thoughts on it 🙂

By: Marisa Repin

Marisa Repin — Sun, 31 May 2015 03:52:00 +0000

My problem with Utopian cities is that everyone has a different idea of what utopia is. Which is why books like this and Le Guin’s The Dispossessed fascinate me so much.

By: Jenny @ Reading the End

Jenny @ Reading the End — Sat, 30 May 2015 22:23:00 +0000

In reply to teresareads. Wow, your book of the year! That's awesome! It didn't rise quite to that level for me, but maybe the pair of books will, once I have the complete story.

By: Jenny @ Reading the End

Jenny @ Reading the End — Sat, 30 May 2015 22:22:00 +0000

In reply to Nat @ Unbridled Enthusiasm.

Ahahahaha, what MB type are you? I’m the psychopath one, INTJ. :p

Oh, you should OF COURSE read Mary Renault. Now Jo Walton and I differ on this: She thinks The Last of the Wine is among Renault’s best work, and I kiiiind of disagree. If you’re going to read one Mary Renault book and form your opinion from that, I’d recommend either Fire from Heaven (which is about Alexander the Great) or The Mask of Apollo. Those are both really really good books. The Last of the Wine to me is a slightly immature work by Renault — still really good! But not what I’d give to a newbie.