Becoming Utopian: The Culture and Politics of Radical Transformation by Tom Moylan (review)

What does it mean to become utopian? In the midst of a global pandemic, civil unrest, and the effects of climate change, this question is more relevant than ever. While Tom Moylan agrees with Fredric Jameson that there has been a "weakening of utopian muscularity" (226), in his magnus opus Becoming Utopian: The Culture and Politics of Radical Transformation, he endeavors to remedy this problem, as each chapter advances his core belief in utopianism. A common thread woven throughout the book is that utopianism is predicated on a rupture with the current socioeconomic, cultural, and political systems and that it is a process centered on a "not yet existent reality" (as explored in Ernst Bloch's The Principle of Hope) and dependent on the "education of desire" (as understood by Miguel Abensour and further developed by others such as E. P. Thompson, Raymond Williams, and Ruth Levitas).

Moylan insists on a marriage between theory and practice, and this principle is underscored through repeated examples of real-life utopianism. He goes to great lengths to illustrate Jameson's distinction between a utopian impulse, which is an "articulation of utopian desire" (193) (often developed in a consciousness-raising stage of organizing and considered to be a precursor to utopian transformation) (189), and a utopian program, which is the realization of a utopia through planning and production (183). To become utopian, it is necessary to transform a utopian impulse into a utopian program. Moylan rejects the notion that a utopia is merely a blueprint and favors instead Bloch's concrete utopias and Eric Olin Wright's real utopias, which facilitate his exploration of how utopian programs (sustained by a utopian impulse) have been implemented in a variety of contexts.

While Becoming Utopian reflects upon Moylan's past writings, it offers more than just a synthesis of his signature works like Demand the Impossible: Science Fiction and the Utopian Imagination (1986), in which he coined the term "critical utopia," and Scraps of the Untainted Sky: Science Fiction, Utopia, Dystopia (2000), in which the concept of "critical dystopia" (influenced by the work of Raffaella Baccolini) is defined and explored. His new book focuses on the role of utopianism in specific political movements in which he has been engaged, either intellectually or as an activist, over the course of his lifetime. This autobiographical perspective compels the reader to understand that utopianism is not just some abstract concept that has no relevance for our everyday lives, but rather a process with very real socioeconomic and political implications.

Moylan provides several examples of seeds of utopianism that were planted in his younger years, utopian impulses that were strengthened through consciousness raising and activism. His interest in liberation theology provides an example of this process. Having been raised as a Roman Catholic, he later became enthusiastic about liberation theology, a religious movement embraced by many Latin American Catholics that espoused the belief that they should help the poor through not just their words, but also their actions. Led by Gustavo Gutiérrez starting in the late 1950s and influenced by Marxist thought, liberation theology denounced the system that predetermined the material conditions endured by the poor and announced the promise of a better life and afterlife for the poor. Moylan observes: "Central to this new 'prophetic temper' […] is an overtly utopian method that combines a negative 'hermeneutics of suspicion' with a positive 'hermeneutics of recovery' (77–78). In this way, liberation theology is guided by the same tendencies as utopianism, which requires rupturing with the current society and actively engaging in creating a new society that does not yet exist. Moylan illustrates how his involvement in the Young Christian Students movement (a liberalleaning Catholic Action organization centered on achieving social justice and equality) and his interest in liberation theology provided him with the building blocks for constructing his vision of a utopian society.

Following a foreword by Ruth Levitas, the introduction argues against a type of fatalistic dystopia...