Longer and Better Lives

This article explores utopian and dystopian elements of the societies depicted in selected sf works of James Murdoch MacGregor (pen name J.T. McIntosh), a largely forgotten Aberdeen-based journalist and fiction writer. The article focuses on the impact of Malthusianism and Darwinism on McIntosh’s projections of humanity’s social and biological futures. In connection with this, attention is devoted to the way in which McIntosh’s utopian scenarios resonate with such pressing issues as overpopulation, the depletion of natural resources, and the destruction of the natural environment, topics explored in many literary and filmic narratives of the period. The article also investigates McIntosh’s fictional engagement with the social and political issues relevant to the UK and the world in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, such as the Cold War and decolonization. Last but not least, the article attempts to define the position of this Scottish author in the sf canon and to consider the extent to which his Scottishness affects the problematics of his fiction

Connection (principal bundle) · Darwinism · Dystopia · Narrative · Natural (archaeology) · Politics · Contemporary Literature and Criticism · Literature, Film, and Journalism Analysis · Philosophy and Literary Analysis

• Scottish Utopian Fiction and the Invocation of God

  Timothy C Baker, Tim Baker•Utopian Studies•2010

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