Literature: Left-leaning or socialist horror fiction?

[Oswy]

Does it exist?

I'd love to check out some books if anyone knows an author or two.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

I don't know of any but if any do exist I doubt you will find any such books at your local library (as many don't even have the communist manifesto). I would expect to search specific online bookstores once you know what you are looking for.

With that said I wish you luck in searching for one; after all, it is always fun reading left-leaning fiction.:)

[Rufio]

Books or films?
There are quite a few horror, or horrorish films that critique capitalism. Or elements of capitalism, at least. Not sure about genuinely socialist stuff though. That's always harder to come by.

Edit: Obviously literature, for some reason I thought that was part of the forum title not the thread.

For books, not really horror but with some elements of horror, in some books, there's China Mieville.

I'm sure I can think of more, let me rack my brain. :blushing:

[Tenka]

Does it exist?

I'd love to check out some books if anyone knows an author or two.
I'm interested in knowing this, too. It's hard, I reckon, to fit any overtly leftist analysis into horror fiction, unless it's about something that hits a little too close to home to be entertaining, like pandemics (though zombies are fine) and nuclear apocalypse, etc.
I tend to like horror fiction with a materialist bent à la H.P. Lovecraft's writings, though he was pretty conservative throughout most of his life and its shown in his writing (didn't have much nice to say about them foreigners or dark-complect'd folk, though at least he was antitheistic).

[Dumb]

To the extent that it resembles a left-wing parody of right wing politics, I'd suggest the Wall Street Journal.

[o well this is ok I guess]

I don't think so, but this presents a great opportunity to think up some cheesey scenarios.

A group of teenagers are on their way to the beach (where their union is doing a demonstration!) when their car breaks down and they have to enter a corporate headquarters in order to use their phone. But a seemingly innocent software company starts extracting surplus-value out of them, one by one!

[TheGodlessUtopian]

I'm actually in the beginning stages of writing a horror story with some leftist bits in it.

[Oswy]

Books or films?
There are quite a few horror, or horrorish films that critique capitalism. Or elements of capitalism, at least. Not sure about genuinely socialist stuff though. That's always harder to come by.

Edit: Obviously literature, for some reason I thought that was part of the forum title not the thread.

For books, not really horror but with some elements of horror, in some books, there's China Mieville.

I'm sure I can think of more, let me rack my brain. :blushing:

Yeah, it seems much easier to find films that, if not necessarily leftist, are critiquing capitalism. Hostel comes to mind and 8mm - in both cases excessive wealth allows and maybe drives the desire of the wealthy to do something awful, simply because 'they can' and in the meantime show how the lives of the many are cheap and easy to dispose of.

[Oswy]

I'm actually in the beginning stages of writing a horror story with some leftist bits in it.

I don't know that I have the confidence but I'd like to go down that route too. My vague idea is to use the Satanic worshippers scenario which - through reference to their obsessions with mysticism, exclusivity, luxury, hierarchy, relationships of domination, pleasure in (or indifference to) the suffering of others etc - shows their values and aims to be parallel to those of the capitalist class, indeed their membership will be shown to be drawn from the capitalist class. My heroes would be a group of cool and sexy leftist squatters who having found an apparently abandoned mansion, find themselves witness to a midnight sacrifice!

What do you think?

[Oswy]

I'm interested in knowing this, too. It's hard, I reckon, to fit any overtly leftist analysis into horror fiction, unless it's about something that hits a little too close to home to be entertaining, like pandemics (though zombies are fine) and nuclear apocalypse, etc.
I tend to like horror fiction with a materialist bent à la H.P. Lovecraft's writings, though he was pretty conservative throughout most of his life and its shown in his writing (didn't have much nice to say about them foreigners or dark-complect'd folk, though at least he was antitheistic).

I'm a big fan of At the Mountains of Madness, the first Lovecraft story I read. Unfortunately, the racism and snobbery which is fortunately absent from that text is all too obvious in most of his others. Otherwise Lovecraft's slow-release style and subject matter have great appeal.

[Rooster]

Does it exist?

Yeah, it's called Atlas Shrugged :D

[TheGodlessUtopian]

I don't know that I have the confidence but I'd like to go down that route too. My vague idea is to use the Satanic worshippers scenario which - through reference to their obsessions with mysticism, exclusivity, luxury, hierarchy, relationships of domination, pleasure in (or indifference to) the suffering of others etc - shows their values and aims to be parallel to those of the capitalist class, indeed their membership will be shown to be drawn from the capitalist class. My heroes would be a group of cool and sexy leftist squatters who having found an apparently abandoned mansion, find themselves witness to a midnight sacrifice!

What do you think?

It's not bad but I think it would be a mistake to use the cliched Satanic worshipers as the evil guys.I think a more "christianized" cult would do as it would better be able to associate the overtones to the reader.Satanism,depending on what variety one practices,has more in common with leftist trends than it does with conservative ones;or in the very least it attracts people who aren't from the "normal" middle class.With a pseudo-Christian cult all the pillars of capitalism would shine a lot better...in my opinion.

Still,it sounds like a good idea,one that you can take places.I might suggest watching the Wes Craven film "The People Under the Stairs" as that has some social commentary which I found very amusing.

[Book O'Dead]

Does it exist?

I'd love to check out some books if anyone knows an author or two.

Horror, eh? I can only think of one novel that slightly approximates that: A Maggot, by John Fowles.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Maggot
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Fowles

Otherwise you can check out Umberto Eco's works like Foucault's Pendulum and The Name of The Rose:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foucault%27s_Pendulum_(book)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Name_of_the_Rose
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umberto_Eco

None of the above are horror novels in the strickt sense of genre but they have a lot of elements of the Gothic and, in the case of "Foucault's Pendulum", plenty of phantoms and zombie-like religious cultists to satisfy our literary paranoia.

[Geiseric]

George A. Romero films have obvious themes against the government. In Dawn of the Dead it starts off with police raiding a ghetto lol.

Day of the Dead seems pretty leftist as well, satire of the military.

Night of the Living Dead has racial tensions too, this is undeniable, the working class american male actually sides WITH the black man against the older, rich white man. Progressive as SHIT.

[EvilRedGuy]

William Gibson(hes a communist). Cyberpunk, Steampunk, postcyberpunk is advanced late capitalism in the future. Dystopia.