Socialist Fiction

[Lunatic Concept]

I was wondering what reccomendations people have on socialist fiction books? I really enjoyed the ragged trousered Philanthropists and I wondered if there are many other similarly styled novels around? To be honest I havent heard of too many and was wondering whether my comrades know many other good ones. There just sometimes a bit easier to read and pass on than purely theoretical works.

[Tommy4ever]

I've heard good things about Orwell's 'The Road to Wigan Pier' - I've not read it just yet though. I recently ordered it alongside 'The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists'.

[Property Is Robbery]

The Jungle is good, so is the Grapes of Wrath. Also I heard the novel "Union Dues" is good but I havent read it myself

[Magón]

The Iron Heel by Jack London is good.

[Red Commissar]

Germinal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germinal_(novel)) by Emile Zola revolves around a mining community and a strike it initiates.

It's science fiction, but The Dispossessed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dispossessed) has a lot of socialist themes. The sci-fi aspect isn't all that heavy either.

[Property Is Robbery]

Wouldn't you say the Dispossessed leans more towards anarchism? Because it seems like the one country is an allusion to US and the other to the USSR

[Red Commissar]

Wouldn't you say the Dispossessed leans more towards anarchism? Because it seems like the one country is an allusion to US and the other to the USSR

It's still "socialism"- at least the way I see it anarchism roots itself in socialist thought. There's a part where the main character is talking to a scientist from Thu who tries to get him to come to his country to share his discovery there, talking about how they were from the same socialist revolution in that world's past, that the people in the current country A-Io are just capitalists. The character rebukes this by reminding the scientist that they are "archists" and have halted their revolution prematurely. The scientist ends it with a promise to show how socialism works in Thu, to which the main character replies that he already knows how "real" socialism works (referring to his home of Anarres), and chides the scientist whether the government of Thu would let him tell people of it.

At the end the Thuvian scientist gives up, though he warns the main character not to give it to A-Io, but rather to freely spread the information to everyone. This piece of advice, in time, the main character takes, and sets the next phase of the story in motion.

So yes it leans more towards "anarchism", but it's still "socialism". This is just more of the usual divide between Marxist and anarchist thought.