February/March 1982 RAIN Page 11 ___fa timber industry in Washington and Oregon. Like the first book, this second collection of The Northwest Experience gives clarity to our sense of place, helps us understand our past (and so better enables us to plan our future), and makes us feel good about living here. Northwest Perspectives addresses itself to many of the same questions of attributes, culture, and identity, but its tone is more academic and its scope more narrow. This compendium grew out of a four-week Institute on Northwest Literature and History held in 1976 at the University of Oregon. With articles on Indian literature, regional folklore, nineteenth-century notables, and literary interpreters, the volume is highlighted by a select, annotated bibliography of Pacific Northwest literature and an essay by Norman Clark (who is also represented in The Northwest Experience,2) titled “Notes for a Tricentennial Historian." After succinctly tracing some key themes of Northwest development, he comments: To look back a hundred years is to see an ambiguous and complex [history]—it is to see the tradition of opportunity glorified, then distorted, then soured, then redefined with a refreshed vision . . . [The] circumstances of our own lives . . . seldom reflect our ideals, and we may suppose that in time our flaws, like those of our forefathers, may perhaps obscure our motives, even our achievements . . . I wonder what generosity there may be for us in pages to be written by a Tricentennial historian. If that Tricentennial historian is an Ecoto- pian historian, history may indeed find generous words for us in its pages. —MR The Ecotopian Encyclopedia for the 80's: A Survival Guide for the Age ofInflation, by Ernest Callenbach, 1980,275 pp., $9.95 from: And/Or Press P.O.Box 2246 Berkeley, CA 94710 Great oaks from little acorns grow, and great societal changes grow, in the long run, out of the small decisions that people make, in their millions, day by day. Let's try to make them right. For the long haul between now and the time Ecotopia formally announces Independence there's a lot to learn and a lot of mistakes to be made. The process is always more pleasant if you have the right tools, and Callenbach has given us a good one—an Ecotopian Encyclopedia of ideas on how to live well and save money. Stewart Brand called it “kind of like The Whole Earth Catalog, maybe better." From Aging to Zoning, this Encyclopedia is brim full of fascinating tips, advice, shortcuts, explanations, translations, how-to's, what-to's, who-to's, and fun facts to know and tell. You won't find this information in Encyclopedia Brittanica. Under the letter "S," for example, are listed: Salads; Salt; Saunas, Hot Springs; Scavenging; School, Improving; Schools, Starting; Self-Defense; Sending Money; Sewage; Sewing; Shoes and Sandals; Showers; Silverware; Sleeping Bags; Small Claims Court; Smoking; Social Security; Solar Energy; Soups; Spray Cans; Stable-State Systems; Stocking Up; Stoves, Portable; Street Life; String Bags; Sugars; and Surplus Stores. The Ecotopian Encyclopedia will find a prominent place in RAIN's Resource Library. Make sure you've got a copy available, too. —MR The Ecotopian Sketchbook, by Judith Clancy, 1981, 48 pp., $4.25, published by Banyan Tree Books, available from: Bookpeople 2940 Seventh St. Berkeley, CA 94710 If you were an Ecotopian, your passport would have some peculiar features. Fill in the spaces, affix your photo, rubber stamp at will, color it official Ecotopian colors, and you will find yourself with a new international identity. Should nostalgia overwhelm you, draw wrecked autos and discarded beer cans on the U.S. side of the border. This alternative coloring book, inspired by the novel Ecotopia, is a great find for anyone—child or adult—who likes to doodle! Unlike the wonderful Urban and Suburban Ecotopia posters drawn by Diane Schatz for RAIN, these sketches are not “closed" or “finished." Rather, you are invited to complete them and to immigrate, to “consider yourself one of us: a magician, a maker, an artist." —MR From: The Ecotopian Sketchbook
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