Dystopian Fiction

[Brosip Tito]

So I'm a huge fan of 1984, and I've been thinking about buying the book "Jennifer Government". Have any of you read it? Thoughts?

As well, what are some other dystopian novels worth checking out?

[TheGodlessUtopian]

Animal Farm and 1Q84 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/ref=pe_157930_21240060_pe_i01e/?ASIN=B004LROUW2)

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

The Palace of Dreams by Ismail Kadare

[The Jay]

Oryx and Crake is partly a dystopian societal novel, it's also an apocalyptic though, if you're into that.

[Aloysius]

The Hunger Games trilogy is pretty super.
Seriously.
Read that shit in less than a week.

Also: http://listverse.com/2008/03/12/top-12-dystopian-novels/

[Red Commissar]

The Iron Heel by Jack London was often considered to be an early forerunner of 'dystopian' fiction, it was published in 1908. It's less about the actual dystopian society, but rather about the formation of such a such a state by the corporate elite of the United States through their influence in politics. Much of the book's plot concerns the resistance of these individuals to the "Iron Heel", the term for this government. Jack London was a socialist, though some of his social views (particularly towards Asians) were rather shit, but it doesn't come out much in the book (aside from the issue that all of the major characters are white).

I've not had a chance to read Jennifer Government though.

[Ostrinski]

Iron Heel is probably my favorite novel.

[KurtFF8]

So I'm a huge fan of 1984, and I've been thinking about buying the book "Jennifer Government". Have any of you read it? Thoughts?

As well, what are some other dystopian novels worth checking out?

I read Jennifer Government when I was in high school and loved it (as well as 1984) so I certainly recommend it. I'm also a sucker for dystopian fiction.

[Mike Foster]

I didn't like Jennifer Government at all. There are some good ideas in there (most of which come and go in the early chapters), but the style of it put me off. There's something smug about it, almost as if the author expected it to be turned into a blockbuster film.
Much, much better dystopias include The Machine Stops by E M Forster and The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.
To watch my talk about dystopian fiction, type 'a pessimists guide to the future' into YouTube

[Susurrus]

Margaret Atwood's dystopic fiction is good. Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood, A Handmaid's Tale, etc.

Of course, I just met her a couple days ago at a writer's festival, so I may be a bit biased.:blushing:

[#FF0000]

you people are talking about dystopian fiction and not one mention of philip k dick?

motherfuckers

[gorillafuck]

Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep

[#FF0000]

The Man in the High Castle

Flow my Tears the Policeman Said

A Scanner Darkly

c'mon son

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

That's a good point, The Penultimate Truth is one of my favorite novels and fits perfectly.

[Deicide]

Brave New World is ok.

[ckaihatsu]

Brave New World is ok.


_Brave New World_ is somewhat problematic from a leftist point of view since it implicitly criticizes many societal elements that a left-wing position would actually *favor*. (I just read and finished it in the past couple months.)

It's not nearly as wieldy and useful as _1984_ which describes an utterly *frightening* totalitarian-type government that readily evokes parallels to fascism. Instead _BNW_ builds up to a crescendo of a finish in which...



...a very well-developed, though homogenous, caste society / civilization is juxtaposed to the traditionally personal, though superstitious, mores of an iconoclastic "Savage" who happens to be Native American.

This treatment, therefore, tips the scales towards a *critique* of a well-advanced civilization for hypothetically trading off daring and critical mindedness for contentment and happiness. Certainly this is a totally fair and apt theme to explore, but Huxley depicts this population as inevitably being victimizers with mob-like behavior resulting from their society's rigid social planning -- it's the slap-in-the-face of all of humanity for even *attempting* to organize anything new, based on the trite and fatalistic "human nature" argument.

[Deicide]

invokes parallels to fascism

It invokes parallels to all forms of totalitarianism, including 20th century 'communist' regimes.

[Brosa Luxemburg]

Brave New World by Huxley and The Giver by Louis Lowry

[ComradeOm]

I found Jakob Arjouni's Chez Max to be interesting. And Man in the High Castle has already been mentioned

[Rooster]

You've read 1984 and you want more? Well... why don't you read the book (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_%28novel%29) that the story was stolen from?

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin more or less started this kinda of genre.

From wiki:


We (Russian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_language): Мы) is a dystopian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dystopia) novel by Yevgeny Zamyatin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgeny_Zamyatin) completed in 1921 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1921_in_literature).[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_%28novel%29#cite_note-0) It was written in response to the author's personal experiences during the Russian revolution of 1905 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_revolution_of_1905), the Russian revolution of 1917 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_revolution_of_1917), his life in the Newcastle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newcastle_upon_Tyne) suburb of Jesmond (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesmond), and his work in the Tyne (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Tyne,_England) shipyards during the First World War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I). It was on Tyneside that he observed the rationalization (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationalization_%28economics%29) of labour (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_%28economics%29) on a large scale.

It's a cool little book and it has more or less held itself up since it was written. Some of the more technological elements in it seem a little corny, but it's still a great read that you should try to get.

[#FF0000]

The entire Cyberpunk genre would be good to look into as well. I especially like cyberpunk stuff since more 'classical' dystopian stuff e.g. 1984, Brave New World, and We I find to be really, really preachy.

Neuromancer by William Gibson
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

Both of these writers are prophets.