While browsing the Alien-Online's links page I followed a reference to The Science Fiction Foundation. An event they hosted in August caught my eye, the subject being A Commonwealth of Science Fiction. I wondered if NZ was represented so checked the programme and was pleased to see that Lyman Tower Sargent gave a short talk on 'Eutopias and Dystopias in New Zealand Science Fiction'. What's the betting that Samuel Butler was included in this presentation?!
Anyway a bit more research tells me that Sargent is a Ph.D. Professor of Politics at the Univerity of Minnesota and somewhat of an authority on utopian thought. He spent a stint at Victoria Uni as a visiting professor and co-wrote a book about intentional communities in New Zealand. Did you know that New Zealand has, per capita, more intentional communities - groups of people who have chosen to live and sometimes work together for a common purpose - than any country in the world? Now that is interesting.
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