Imagining Albion: Part 1
Jun. 28th, 2006 10:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sawylWell worth catching, if possibly, is the first episode of Radio 4's Imagining Albion, presented by Francis Spufford.
The first episode described the relationship between utopian science fiction and British society, starting with HG Wells and moving on to Huxley before charting the decline of utopian fiction in the post-war years. Things were brought slap up to date with Gwyneth Jones talking about her Bold as Love series of novels and the idea that people in the 50s and 60s didn't need utopian fiction because they were, in some ways, living in their very own utopia albeit one bought with loans from the US. The programme ended with Ian McDonald talking about River of Gods, Brasyl, and how he was more interested in how non-US, non-European, cultures were going to be affected by the arrival of the future.
If nothing else, any program that kicks off with Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis, includes Arthur Bliss' March from his Things to Come Suite and John Adams' The Chairman Dances, can't be all bad..
The first episode described the relationship between utopian science fiction and British society, starting with HG Wells and moving on to Huxley before charting the decline of utopian fiction in the post-war years. Things were brought slap up to date with Gwyneth Jones talking about her Bold as Love series of novels and the idea that people in the 50s and 60s didn't need utopian fiction because they were, in some ways, living in their very own utopia albeit one bought with loans from the US. The programme ended with Ian McDonald talking about River of Gods, Brasyl, and how he was more interested in how non-US, non-European, cultures were going to be affected by the arrival of the future.
If nothing else, any program that kicks off with Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis, includes Arthur Bliss' March from his Things to Come Suite and John Adams' The Chairman Dances, can't be all bad..
