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'''Pseudo-utopian''' fiction occurs more often than fully utopian fiction, because pseudo-utopias appear much more realistic.  The Greek root for the word "utopia" involves a bit of a pun on the part of St. Thomas More, the author of the 1516 book that introduced the term, ''On the Best State of a Republic and on the New Island of Utopia'': it can come equally from Εὐτοπεία ''eutopeía'', "good place land," or Οὐτοπεία ''outopeía'', "no place land," so utopia equally means "the good place," and "the place that cannot exist."  The impossibility of a true utopia appears often in utopian literature.

Pseudo-utopian fiction appears more commonly, offering perhaps not a perfect vision of the future, but certainly a vastly improved version of it.  The Fifth World treats tribal life in terms like those described by Daniel Quinn:

:“The tribal life and no other is the gift of natural selection to humanity. It is to humanity what pack life is to wolves, pod life is to whales, and hive life is to bees. After three or four million years of human evolution, it alone emerged as the social organization that works for people. People like the tribal organization because it works equally well for all members.” 

And:

:"Natural selection is a process that separates the workable from the unworkable, not the perfect from the imperfect. Nothing evolution brings forth is perfect, it's just damnably hard to improve upon."

The [[feral]] cultures of the [[Fifth World]] do not lead perfect lives (that would seem very boring); they simply live in a world where many of the problems we thought intractable and unsolvable no longer exist.

== Related fiction ==

=== Television ===

* ''Star Trek'' (1966-Present) ([[Wikipedia:Star Trek|Wikipedia]])  ''Star Trek'' presents the standard vision of a pseudo-utopia based in humanism and technological advancement.  The Fifth World presents a pseudo-utopia based in relationship in a more-than-human world.

=== Literature ===

* ''Always Coming Home'' by [[Wikipedia:Ursula K. Le Guin|Ursula K. LeGuin]] ([[Wikipedia:Always Coming Home|Wikipedia]]])
* ''The Dispossessed'' by [[Wikipedia:Ursula K. Le Guin|Ursula K. LeGuin]] ([[Wikipedia:The Dispossessed|Wikipedia]])
* ''Island'' by [[Wikipedia:Aldous Huxley|Aldous Huxley]] ([[Wikipedia:Island (1962 novel)|Wikipedia]])
* ''Ecotopia'' by [[Wikipedia:Ernest Callenbach|Ernest Callenbach]] ([[Wikipedia:Ecotopia (novel)|Wikipedia]])
* ''Future Primitive: The New Ecotopias'' edited by [[Wikipedia:Kim Stanley Robinson|Kim Stanley Robinson]] ([[Wikipedia:Future Primitive: The New Ecotopias|Wikipedia]])
* ''The Fifth Sacred Thing'' by [[Wikipedia:Starhawk|Starhawk]] ([[Wikipedia:The Fifth Sacred Thing|Wikipedia]])

== Themes in common with most pseudo-utopian fiction ==

* [[War]] as we know it has largely disappeared; villages in particular raid one another rather frequently, but raids aim to strike terror (in order to avoid conflict), rather than take lives.
* [[Disease]] has all but disappeared; without dense populations and [[domestication|domesticated]] animals, most diseases die out.
* Poverty, wealth and class do not exist because tribal societies share everything they have; whether they experience feast or famine, they do so as a community.
* Because [[feral]] people live with patterns of diet and exercise that humans have evolved with, they live longer and enjoy greater health, while tracking and hunting reunites them with [[synaesthesia]], which in turn trains their senses to become much more acute.

== Themes that defy most pseudo-utopian fiction ==

* [[Technology]] in the Fifth World plays a much more subdued role.
* Humanism does not contribute much to the Fifth World's pseudo-utopia; instead, deep ecology and [[animism]] suggest that humanity finds this pseudo-utopia by accepting its role as part of the living world, rather than trying to assert its uniqueness or rulership.
* Plenty of problems still happen in the Fifth World.
** [[Civilization]]'s legacies, like [[nuclear power]] and [[global warming]], continue to have an impact.
** Individuals must still undergo their own [[Hero's Journey]] into [[initiation]].
** Each [[The Fifth World:Spirit of place (Feel)|place]] has its own conflicts, which it plays out in the life of that place, including humans.
** The place of the human community in the living world requires constant mediation and re-negotiation.

== Examples ==

* Societies exist at a smaller, human scale, so most stories revolve around the interplay of distinct and unique personalities, rather than global events.  The Fifth World focuses more on the epic of a particular place, than on sprawling, global tales.
* Technology and science still exist, but attitudes towards them have changed.  Rather than defining society, Fifth Worlders see tham as tools.  They prize elegance over flashiness.
* While many of the seemingly intractable problems our civilization faces have become irrelevant, many sources of conflict remain.

== See also ==
{|
| valign="top" |
* [[The Fifth World:Feel]]
* [[The Fifth World:Post-apocalyptic (Feel)]]
* [[The Fifth World:Magical realism (Feel)]]
* [[The Fifth World:Spirit of place (Feel)]]
| valign="top" |
* [[War]]
* [[Disease]]
* [[Technology]]
* [[Medicine]]
|}

[[Category:The Fifth World|Feel 2]]