Entropia: Life Beyond Industrial Civilisation

In a bizarre and unexpected twist of fate, I’ve recently received calls from TV executives in Los Angeles who have been wanting to purchase rights to my novel, Entropia: Life Beyond Industrial Civilisation, to make a television production. That’s right, a TV show! It’s one of the major global players. A contract has been signed and now we are waiting (possibly 18 months or so) to see what happens. These things don’t happen overnight.

As you can imagine, I feel a bit uncomfortable dealing with global production companies, but this seemed like a good opportunity to get radical environmental themes infused into mainstream culture. Let’s call it ‘research translation’. An opportunity too good to pass up. Here’s hoping they do a good job (I’ll be involved as consultant but without final creative authority). Perhaps, if it is done well, it’ll be able to spark new cultural conversations and mobilisations regarding degrowth, permaculture, and the simpler way. I’ll keep you posted. Crazy times – and dignifying for the book to be recognised in this way.

In celebration of this news, I’ve decided to make the e-book of Entropia available on a ‘pay what you want’ basis here. The paperback is available here.

Here is the blurb:

When industrial civilisation collapsed in the third decade of the 21st century, a community living on a small island in the South Pacific Ocean found itself permanently isolated from the rest of the world. With no option but to build a self-sufficient economy with very limited energy supplies, this community set about creating a simpler way of life that could flourish into the deep future. Determined above all else to transcend the materialistic values of the Old World, they made a commitment to live materially simple lives, convinced that this was the surest path to genuine freedom, peace, and sustainable prosperity. Seven decades later, in the year 2099, this book describes the results of their remarkable living experiment.

Here are some testimonials:

“Entropia is a masterful work of the imagination that envisions a world beyond growth and consumerism. This is no escapist fantasy, however, but rather a practical and inspiring reminder of what we humans are capable of – and a wake up call to action. It is a literary manifesto that will inspire, challenge, and give hope.”
Paul Gilding, The Great Disruption

“Looking back from the future, this visionary book describes the emergence of a culture and economy based on material sufficiency. In doing so it provides one of the most detailed descriptions we have of an ecologically sane way of life. Overflowing with insight and beautifully written, Entropia unveils the radical implications of moving beyond fossil fuels. This book may come to define what ‘sustainability’ really means.”
Richard Heinberg, The End of Growth

“Utopian novels usually outline a world of material abundance, in which technology has reduced labour to a minimum and where everyone is rich. But Samuel Alexander, following the tradition of Henry Thoreau and William Morris, has written a ‘utopia of sufficiency’, in which a simple living community of poet-farmers rebuild their society after the collapse of civilisation. Entropia is both confronting and inspiring, giving us an insight into the possibility of a much saner and more satisfying world.”
Ted Trainer, Transition to a Sustainable and Just World

“One of the more intriguing attempts to date to imagine a viable future on the far side of our civilisation’s decline and fall, Samuel Alexander’s Entropia borrows the language of Utopian literature to present alternative visions of politics, society, and spirituality in the aftermath of the industrial age.”
John Michael Greer, The Ecotechnic Future: Envisioning a Post-Peak World

The e-book of Entropia available on a ‘pay what you want’ basis here. The paperback is available here.

About the author

Samuel Alexander is a lecturer and researcher at the University of Melbourne, Australia, teaching a course called ‘Consumerism and the Growth Economy: Critical Interdisciplinary Perspectives’ as part of the Master of Environment. He is also a Research Fellow at the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute and co-director of the Simplicity Institute.

Alexander’s interdisciplinary research focuses on degrowth, permaculture, voluntary simplicity, ‘grassroots’ theories of transition and the relationship between culture and political economy. His current research is exploring the nexus between degrowth and urban studies. He is the author of 13 books. Follow Alexander at The Simplicity Collective.