About the book
Set in an imaginary country near Antarctica, Austin Tappan Wright's novel is narrated by John Lang, an American who graduates from Harvard in 1905. There he befriends Dorn, a student from that country, and learns its rarely spoken language, which leads his uncle, a prominent businessman, to have him named Islandia's first American consul. The remote nation admits only a hundred foreigners at a time, rejects most Western technology and lives a rural life in which everyone does useful work. Wright, a Berkeley law professor, built the country as a lifelong hobby, and the novel appeared in 1942, eleven years after his death.
Tim O'Reilly listed it among the books that shaped how he thinks, describing a country where technology has not sped up life and people have time for relationships and the land, and noting that his first Sun workstation was named Isla.
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This book has 1 recommendation
Tim O'Reilly (Founder/O'Reilly Media)
Islandia, by Austin Tappan Wright. A utopian novel written in the 1930s, about an imaginary country where technology has not yet hastened the pace of life, and where people find time to nurture relationships and the land they live on. Also a novel of "the long view." My first Sun workstation was named Isla, and the dream of living on the land was a part of my move to Sebastopol. Physical labor is a wonderful antidote to the life of the mind.
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