{"id":487,"date":"2012-09-22T11:40:54","date_gmt":"2012-09-22T11:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.minorcompositions.info\/?p=487"},"modified":"2026-03-17T13:42:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T13:42:15","slug":"open-utopia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.minorcompositions.info\/?p=487","title":{"rendered":"Open Utopia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script src=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/sdk\/js?client-id=BAAZVqDzpOe4wiR8CaLD_oJEvsW8k_r43j2m8f0nPZpK9MqpD3c_nCgZ1_fgqtEOiF3kkO3be21V5NnwRU&#038;components=hosted-buttons&#038;disable-funding=venmo&#038;currency=GBP\">\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>Open Utopia<br \/>\n<\/strong>Thomas More &amp; Stephen Duncombe<\/p>\n<p>Opinion polls, volatile voting patterns, and street protests demonstrate widespread dissatisfaction with the current system, yet the popular response so far has largely been limited to the angry outcry of <em>No!<\/em> But negation, by itself, affects nothing. The dominant system doesn\u2019t dominate because people agree with it; it rules because we\u2019re convinced there is no alternative.<\/p>\n<p>We need to be able to imagine a radical alternative \u2013 a Utopia \u2013 yet we are haunted by the disasters of \u201cactually existing\u201d Utopias of the past century, from fascism to authoritarian socialism. In this re-issue of Thomas More\u2019s generative volume, scholar and activist Stephen Duncombe re-imagines <em>Utopia <\/em>as an open text, one designed by More as an imaginal machine freeing us from the tyranny of the present while undermining master plans for the future.<\/p>\n<p><em>Open Utopia<\/em> is the first complete English language edition of Thomas More\u2019s <em>Utopia <\/em>that honors the primary precept of Utopia itself: that all property is common property. <em>Open Utopia,<\/em> licensed under Creative Commons, is free to copy, to share, to use. But <em>Utopia<\/em> is more than the story of a far-off land with no private property. It is a text that instructs us how to approach texts, be they literary or political, in an open manner: open to criticism, open to participation, and open to re-creation. Utopia is no-place, and therefore it is up to all of us to imagine it.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>In this volume, and its accompanying <a href=\"http:\/\/theopenutopia.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">website<\/a>, <em>Utopia<\/em> is re-imagined and brought into the digital age as a participatory technology for undermining authority and facilitating new imagination.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA welcome new intervention into an old text.\u00a0 Re-read through the lens of Duncombe\u2019s extensive \u2013 and persuasive \u2013 introduction, More\u2019s Utopia is revealed as a subversive methodology for approaching utopias, one that engages and expands our capacity for political invention and imagination. <em>Open Utopia <\/em>is an infinite demand that splits the subject open to new possible worlds rather than giving a closed plan.\u201d \u2013 Simon Critchley, author of <em>The Faith of the Faithless<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI first read More\u2019s <em>Utopia <\/em>as a student in Soviet times and remember it vaguely as a text venerable, but totally irrelevant to any lived experience. Stephen Duncombe\u2019s re-introduction helps me better understand how literature can be newly needful and differently taught.\u201d \u2013 Tatiana Venediktova, Moscow State University<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverybody knows the difference between an open and a closed door. Fewer know the difference between an open mind and a closed mind, especially on the American left, where intellectual policing often replaces intellectual encouragement.\u00a0 Stephen Duncombe, in conversation with More and the horrifying history of utopia and utopians, opens minds and doors and reaffirms the importance of utopian thinking. Adelante, excelsior!\u201d \u2013 Reverend Donna Schaper<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bio:<\/strong> Sir Thomas More was an English author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was beheaded for treason in 1535.<\/p>\n<p>Stephen Duncombe teaches media studies at New York University. He is the author of <em>Dream: Re-imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy,<\/em> and editor of the <em>Cultural Resistance Reader<\/em>. He lives in New York City.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ordering Information<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"paypal-container-H94WRX94RCJPW\"><\/div>\n<p><script>\n  paypal.HostedButtons({\n    hostedButtonId: \"H94WRX94RCJPW\",\n  }).render(\"#paypal-container-H94WRX94RCJPW\")\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p>Direct from Minor Compositions for special price of \u00a310 + shipping<\/p>\n<p>You can also download it here:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/openutopia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Open Utopia<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>308 pages, 6 x 9<br \/>\nUK: \u00a320 \/ US: $25<br \/>\nISBN 978-1-57027-245-5<br \/>\nRelease date November 1st, 2012<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Open Utopia Thomas More &amp; Stephen Duncombe Opinion polls, volatile voting patterns, and street protests demonstrate widespread dissatisfaction with the current system, yet the popular response so far has largely been limited to the angry outcry of No! But negation, by itself, affects nothing. The dominant system doesn\u2019t dominate because people agree with it; it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-duncombe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.minorcompositions.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.minorcompositions.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.minorcompositions.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.minorcompositions.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.minorcompositions.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=487"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.minorcompositions.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1807,"href":"https:\/\/www.minorcompositions.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487\/revisions\/1807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.minorcompositions.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.minorcompositions.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.minorcompositions.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.minorcompositions.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}