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Dystopian literature

The movie.

Idiocracy.

Since like, you are talking about reading, and like, that's a bummer.
 
Gregory said:
Jennifer Government is a huge amount of fun, although much more humorous than most of the books being recommended. It's also dissimilar from a lot of them in that it features a government with two little power--the world is essentially run by various businesses and corporations, with no one with the power to reign them in, and the results are very grim (or they would be, if the book weren't so funny).
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I'll second this. Great book.
 
I enjoyed Philip Roth's The Plot Against America; a sort of alternate-history dystopia.

Of course, it all depends on your definition of "dystopian." One of my favorite novels, The Way We Live Now, is set in the author's own society but shows the workings of that society in a dystopian way.
 
Not sure if it fits here but I would add The Plague ( La Peste) by Albert Camus
 
One of my favorites is Earth by David Brin. It is a near-future sci-fi novel that extrapolates a lot of present trends such as global warming and reduced privacy. Still sci-fi, but with a whole lot to chew on.
 
Darth Rotor beat me to the recommendation of Logan's Run. Just to be clear, this is the original novel, by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson, published in 1967, rather than a novelisation (if there was one) of the film, which only took some basic elements from the original.

ETA: There's also a recent series of books set in a future where the world is run by China, and most of the Earth's surface is covered by a continuous city. I read the first two or three, but didn't feel like continuing. It was, I think, focusing mostly on the politics, and perhaps the history of how the Chinese came to be in power, but the society was fairly dystopian for the average member of the population. Unfortunately, I can't remember the author (though I think he was British or American) or the title of any of the books, and googling has not jogged any memories. (I'll look next time I'm in the local library, if I remember, and no-one else recognises the description.)
 
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No mention of Philip K. Dick yet?!?

(quotes from amazon and wiki)

Radio Free Albemuth-
It recounts the friendship of two California men, Nicholas Brady, a record store clerk and later a record company executive, and Philip K. Dick, a writer. During the several decades spanned by the novel, America slides into fascism, particularly under the presidency of Ferris F. Fremont, who comes into office in 1969. Once entrenched, Fremont begins tossing dissidents into camps and in some cases executing them. Brady, meanwhile, has been receiving communications from a Godlike intelligence which he dubs Valis (an idea the author utilized previously in Valis). Valis guides Brady in the secrets of the universe, in the conduct of his life, and in a plot to bring down the monstrous Fremont, a cause to which Brady is finally martyred. This bleak political vision is given extra force by its autobiogrphical tone. Though not one of Dick's best novels, it is an engrossing, non-stop excursion into a believable vision of Hell.
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Flow my tears, the policeman said-
The novel is set in a dystopian future United States, albeit one which is entering a post-totalitarian era with prospects of future democratic reform. Set in a then-future 1988, it extrapolates events from the late sixties and early seventies. These culminated in a "Second Civil War", also called the "Insurrection", which led to the collapse of democratic institutions in the United States and elsewhere. The National Guard ("nats") and US police force ("pols") re-established social order through instituting a dictatorship, with a "Director" at the apex, and police marshals and generals as operational commanders in the field. Compulsory sterilization of African Americans has sharply reduced their population, and increased their social status. By comparison, radicalised former university students eke out a desperate existence in subterranean kibbutz communes. However, there appears to be no social barriers to the use of recreational drugs in this future, nor are some forms of paedophilia a crime.
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Do androids dream of electric sheep?-
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" takes place in 1992 (in later publications, it takes place in 2021) several years after the fallout resulting from "World War Terminus" destroyed much of Earth. In the aftermath, the United Nations encourages people to emigrate to off-world colonies to preserve the human race from the effects of the radioactive dust.
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The people who remain on Earth live in cluttered cities where radiation poisoning causes significant illness and gene damage. All animals are endangered. Owning and caring for an animal is considered a civic virtue and a status symbol, depending on the rarity of the species. Animals are bought and sold according to the price of the latest Sidney's Catalog, including extinct animals (listed as 'E') and animals currently unavailable on the market (listed in italics at the last going price). Some people who cannot afford an animal choose to buy an artificial, robotic animal to maintain social standing. The protagonist Rick Deckard owned a sheep, which died of tetanus and was replaced by an electric replica to maintain the illusion of animal ownership.
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Deckard, an active bounty hunter for the San Francisco Police Department, prepares for a typical work day. He feeds his electric sheep as usual to prevent his neighbor from suspecting its true nature. Meanwhile, his wife spends her days at home under the influence of the empathy box and mood organ.

At the police station Deckard learns that the active senior hunter Dave Holden has been incapacitated by a Nexus-6, the most advanced and humanistic type of android created to date. Deckard is chosen to find the six remaining Nexus-6 models in the San Francisco area. His superior asks him to travel to the Seattle headquarters of the Rosen Corporation, the makers of the Nexus-6, to confirm that the Voigt-Kampff test will work on the new model. There he meets Rachael Rosen, a sharp-tongued, dark-haired woman who claims to be the company heiress.
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There are many, but those are some of the ones that jump out at me.
 
I nth Philip K. Dick.

If you enjoyed Handmaid's Tale you'll probably also like Oryx and Crake.

I haven't read any yet, but apparently J. G. Ballard mostly writes about dystopian societies.
 
Yeah, the real version of Brazil. Though I'm aware the OP wants books. :) I was pretty impressed by 1984, and its prescient nature. Interestingly, bits of Brazil are taken from 1984, like when the kid attacks Winston. There's a similar scene.

I'd say Catch-22 is one that hasn't been mentioned. It's pretty grim.
 
G-K-4 said:
And if you haven't seen Terry Gilliam's film Brazil yet, do so. Make sure you get the "Final Cut", from the Criterion DVD, and not, not, not the "love conquers all" version.
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Almo said:
Yeah, the real version of Brazil. Though I'm aware the OP wants books.
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I have seen Brazil a few times. I don't know which version, but I helped run the students' film society at uni and we put it in the schedule a couple of years running (which meant receiving a delivery of massively heavy 35mm reels and carting them over to our trusty projector in the lecture hall)

I did really struggle with it though. Not that it wasn't a very well done film, but I couldn't personally make dystopia and comedy mix. It actually made me shudder in several parts, right from the opening "arrest" scene of Tuttle/Buttle whomever. So I wouldn't be looking for more of that. But thanks for highlighting it anyway, and returning the memory :)
 
Not to overlook the not-late great Harry Harrison:

'Make Room! Make Room!'

ETA And pretty much anything by John Brunner.
 
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If you liked Donnie Darko...check out:

Southland Tales-The prequel saga(read these first)
http://www.amazon.com/Southland-Tal...bs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206638915&sr=8-2

and then watch the film:
Southland Tales
http://www.amazon.com/Southland-Tal..._bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1206638915&sr=8-1

El Paso and Abilene, Texas have fallen victim to twin nuclear attacks on July 4, 2005 – a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions which sent America into war. The PATRIOT Act has been upgraded to a new agency known as US-IDent, which keeps constant tabs on citizens – even to the extent of censoring the internet and using fingerprints in order to access computers and bank accounts. In order to be able to respond to a newfound fuel shortage, the German company Treer designs a generator of inexhaustible energy which is propelled by ocean currents, entitled "Fluid Karma." Unbeknownst to them, the generators alter the currents and cause the Earth to spiral out of control through space, ripping holes in the fabric of space and time.

In Los Angeles, a city on the brink of chaos, we follow the criss-crossed destinies of Boxer Santaros (Dwayne Johnson), an action film actor stricken with amnesia; Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar), ex-porn star in the midst of reconverting; and twin brothers Roland and Ronald Taverner (both played by Seann William Scott), whose destinies – on one evening – become intertwined with that of all mankind.
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Macoy said:
Not to overlook the not-late great Harry Harrison:

'Make Room! Make Room!'
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He's actually a pretty sharp political cartoonist too.

I found that out this year, when the Guardian's "view from..." was one of his cartoons for the South China post...
 
Macoy said:
Not to overlook the not-late great Harry Harrison:

'Make Room! Make Room!'
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"Soylent green is people" Charleton Heston on a good day. Otherwise he would have eaten Michael Moore. Not all at once, of course.

ETA And pretty much anything by John Brunner.
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The Sheep Look up. Did it the style of Dos Passos's USA.
 
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