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Average rating3.3
The book tells the story of Julian West, a young American who, towards the end of the 19th century, falls into a deep, hypnosis-induced sleep and wakes up one hundred and thirteen years later. He finds himself in the same location (Boston, Massachusetts), but in a totally changed world: It is the year 2000 and, while he was sleeping, the United States has been transformed into a socialist utopia. The remainder of the book outlines Bellamy's thoughts about improving the future. The major themes include problems associated with capitalism, a proposed socialist solution of a nationalisation of all industry, the use of an "industrial army" to organize production and distribution, as well as how to ensure free cultural production under such conditions. The young man readily finds a guide, Doctor Leete, who shows him around and explains all the advances of this new age; including drastically reduced working hours for people performing menial jobs and almost instantaneous, Internet-like delivery of goods. Everyone retires with full benefits at age 45, and may eat in any of the public kitchens. The productive capacity of America is nationally owned, and the goods of society are equally distributed to its citizens. A considerable portion of the book is dialogue between Leete and West wherein West expresses his confusion about how the future society works and Leete explains.
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I read this as part of my cantenbury classics of science fiction and fantasy.
This book/story is essentially a type of time travel story where a man gets hypnotized in 1887 and falls asleep for 113yrs to wake up in the future in the year 2000
Aside from that, there is really nothing really scifi about this at all. The entire story is really nothing more than a conversation between 2 people about socialist utopia of 2000 and how great it is vs capitilist society of 1887 with little to no arguments or points in favor of capitalism to any great extent and as such is much more of a manifesto on socialism than a inherent and true scifi story of any interest.
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