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Hello, I'm joined today by John Carey and Anthony Graling to look at utopias real and

fictional in the past, present and future.

Utopia by definition does not exist.

The literal meaning of the Greek is nowhere. And yet coming up to the

third millennium we're still enthralled by its allure. Why do some of us still believe in

it after the devastation reached this century by the utopian ideals that gave rise to fascism and communism and what

utopias in fiction tell us about the present and even the future.

John Carey is the editor of a new fascinating anthology on the subject, The Faber Book of

Utopias.

He is a distinguished critic and journalist and mirtant professor of English at Oxford University.

Dr Anthony Graling is a lecturer in philosophy at Birkbeck College London

and a fellow of Sudan's College

Oxford. He works for human rights as a member of the Writers in Prison Committee of PEN and

the China and Tibet Human Rights Group June 4th. John Kerry, Utopia means

no place. Why is it so often been taken to mean a good place?

Well, I think the idea came before the word, the idea, as you said, has been there really, I think think since human thought began the idea of some

golden age or some time in the past or some possibility in the future heaven of paradise

something that would be better than now.

And when Moore called his Utopia, Utopia, No Place, I think it was a sort of joke, that is to say that actually the title page of Utopia does to call

it the best place but calling it no place really beg the question well could you ever have it? Is it possible?

...