Lukes, Steven
Entry updated 3 June 2024. Tagged: Author.
(1941- ) UK academic and author, of sf interest for his only novel, The Curious Enlightenment of Professor Caritat: A Comedy of Ideas (1995), an abstractly Satirical anatomy of Utopias based on the heuristic premise that several ideal societies exist in the Alternate World here depicted. The protagonist, some of whose life and arguments explicitly reflect the eventful life of the Marquis Jean-Antoine-Nicolas de Condorcet (1743-1794), though he escapes "judicial" murder (Condorcet died in the turmoil of the French Revolution). After escaping arrest in his native land of Militaria, Professor Caritat is tasked to undertake a Fantastic Voyage to examine other states, including Utilitaria, Communitaria and Libertaria. In the end the Owl of Minerva tells him that all these Enlightenment solutions are procrustean. Any planet they dominate is doomed. "Only connect", says the owl. [JC]
Steven Michael Lukes
born UK: 8 March 1941
works (highly selected)
- The Curious Enlightenment of Professor Caritat: A Comedy of Ideas (London: Verso, 1995) [hb/The Senate]
links
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