Dystopian literature

[Francesca R]

I'm interested in any recommendations/synopses that anyone has, since I have a broad interest in this genre, but have not read very much of it at all, and am daunted by the long list of works out there.

At school I read sci-fi such as War of the Worlds (HG Wellls), Day of the Triffids (John Wyndham) and The White Mountains (John Christopher). I'm not sure those count as dystopian though.

In recent years I've read Ninteen Eighty Four (George Orwell), Brave New World (Aldous Huxley), and in the last month Lord of the Flies (William Golding) and The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood). The latter two were very enjoyable. With the former two, their reputation was so great that the novels themselves left me a bit flat

In short, I'm a rookie.

Which have you liked and why do you like them? Thanks

 

[Spindrift]

I agree with you on Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World. Dystopian works by definition can be depressing and can be a tough read.

More a post-apocalyptic novel but try "A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter Miller.

 

[Jason Smith]

It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis -- "Buzz" Windrip is elected president in 1936 and quickly transforms America into a fascist state. Buzz doesn't last long thanks to his ambitious cronies, but freedom never returns to America. In Lewis' vision, American fascism has that good-old-boy flavor; his tyrants aren't the humorless serious types like Big Brother. Instead they're down-to-earth, folksy people. Think of car salesmen who have complete power over you.

Bend Sinister by Vladimir Nabokov -- Adam Krug is a philosopher in a nation torn apart by civil war. One of Krug's classmates, the Toad, takes power, and uses his resources to get Krug's public support of the new regime. Nabokov wrote a serious dystopian novel with plenty of humorous swipes at bureaucracies. The Toad shouldn't have any problem breaking Krug except for the bureaucractic incompetency of Toad's regime.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury -- in the near future firemen don't extinguish fires, they burn books instead. Guy Montag is a fireman who enjoys his job until he has a change of heart and becomes a fugitive reader. Who needs books when there's constant electronic entertainment? Why think when you can amuse yourself all the time?

Mockingbird by Walter Tevis -- this book's part dystopia, part apocalypse. In the future robots do everything for us. Humanity is freed from drudgery so we can stay high. Spofford is a self-aware robot that oversees his mechanical brethren. Spofford wants to die, but he can't because he's programmed to take care of all humanity. His way around his programming was to add contraceptives to all the narcotics. A pair of humans who aren't interested in getting high meet and try to bring humanity back. I recommend this book because I liked the idea of an apocalypse brought about through indolence.

If you have an interest in apocalyptic fiction, I can make some more recommendations. These books should keep you busy for a while, though ...

Happy reading,
Jason

 

[Pope130]

Two off my favorite "End of the World as We Know it" novels are Pat Frank's "Alas Babylon" and John Christoper's "No Blade of Grass".

"Alas Babylon" is a nuclear war story set in Florida in 1959. It's not only a very realistic look at the aftermath of the collapse of society but also a fascinating view of American society of 1959.

"No Blade of Grass" is set in Britain in the late 1960's or early '70's. The apocalyptic event is the emergence of a plant virus that destroys grass. That includes the cereal grains (rice, wheat, maize and so on). It's a darker and more violent story, but also quite convincing. It was made as a movie, good 'B' grade in quality. It's hard to find here in unedited form.

Robert Klaus

 

[jimbob]

Basically my school reading list, I think the most optimistic book we studied was Farenheit 451...

 

[jimbob]

Pope130, "Death of Grass" by John Christopher?

Also on my school reading list...

 

[Pope130]

Pope130, "Death of Grass" by John Christopher?

Also on my school reading list...

Jimbob,
Yes, "No Blade..." is the North American title, I should have noted that in my post. Incidentally, the movie has Wendy Richard ("Are You Being Served" and "Eastenders") in her only appearance as a brunet.

Robert Klaus

 

[G-K-4]

I'm interested in any recommendations/synopses that anyone has, since I have a broad interest in this genre, but have not read very much of it at all, and am daunted by the long list of works out there.

...

Which have you liked and why do you like them? Thanks

I've read most of the same dystopian classics that you have, and then some. I like this genre and its siblings.

H.G. Wells took a stab at it in The Sleeper Awakes. Jules Verne wrote a novel called Paris in the Twentieth Century which isn't really a dystopia, except it is for the protagonist. Jack London's The Iron Heel is pretty grim. At this point it's more of an alternate future novel, but that is definitely a dystopia. One other which I have heard recommended but not yet read is We by Yevgeny Zamyatin.

If you're not averse to graphic novels, try Alan Moore's V for Vendetta. (The book is better than the movie.) For a short story I really recommend "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. I read that in seventh grade and I still think about it. 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.

Have you ever read any of the "ambiguous utopias"? These are novels that describe a "utopian" or at least "better" society but don't ignore the flaws, conflicts, and human limitations that make fiction interesting. They often contrast two different societies, one being the not-quite-utopia, and the other being a dystopian analog or descendant of our own society.

Classics include The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin and Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy. Starhawk's The Fifth Sacred Thing is also probably another example, but if you're posting to the JREF you'd probably find that book rather "woo". I might also place Kim Stanley Robinson's California Trilogy in the "ambiguous utopia" category (as a set), but these books are more often categorized as "ecological fiction" or "California fiction".

Some people also consider Iain M. Bank's "Culture" novels to be ambiguous utopias, but I've only read a couple of them and am not sure myself. The main character in Consider Phlebas fights against the Culture's utopia, and in the novella "State of the Art" there is a lot of internal disagreement within a Culture spacecraft crew about what the good life really is.

I hope that these are some useful recommendations. Happy reading!

 

[Francesca R]

*Oh wow this forum is awesome sometimes*

Thanks so much / so far all

 

[jimbob]

Actually there was one book that wasn't dystopian/apocalyptic that we studied at school:

"To kill a mockingbird".

Good book, but not exactly a happy ending.

 

[Magenta]

One other which I have heard recommended but not yet read is We by Yevgeny Zamyatin.

I've read and would also recommend We. It's similar to Nineteen Eighty-Four but was written in the 1920s.

How about Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (filmed as Blade Runner)

 

[Georg]

Fatherland

by Robert Harris.

 

[brodski]

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, the book that kick started the modern genre.
ETA beaten to it...

Although not, to my mind, strictly within the dystopian genre (it's in now way sci-fi nor futuristic), I'd also recommend darkness at noon by Arthur Koestler, a fascinating examination of the mindset of a totalitarian regime, and beautifully written.

And whilst we're stretching the boundaries, get copy of the script of Rhinoceros by Eugène Ionesco (there was a fantastic new translation recently commissioned by the Royal Court theater)

 

[blobru]

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, the book that kick started the modern genre.
ETA beaten to it... ...And whilst we're stretching the boundaries, get copy of the script of Rhinoceros by Eugène Ionesco (there was a fantastic new translation recently commissioned by the Royal Court theater)

Toss in Kafka as an absurdist who wrote borderline dystopias -- dystopia as pointless bureaucracy -- The Castle being a fair example.

We is probably my favorite novel in any genre. Citizens as numbers sounds such a cliche, but it seems original here, part of the mad logic of the book, which reads like a blank verse diary. Mirra Ginsburg translation recommended.

Stanislaw Lem, Memoirs Found in a Bathtub (apparently based on a Victorian-era dystopian[?] work, A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder by James De Mille). Writing in Communist-era Poland, Lem no doubt got to know dystopia close up.

The worlds in several of Philip K Dick's stories could be classified as dystopias. Clans of the Alphane Moon is the oddest I think, almost a satire on the genre, about a "utopia" where each citizen's mental illness determines his or her class.

Of course the great-granddaddy of the genre, though technically not a novel, is Plato's Republic, in its own way more interesting, and frightening, than anything that followed, given that it is conceived as a utopia (that I can't imagine anyone would want to live in) and its subsequent influence on political theory and history.

 

[brodski]

Of course the great-granddaddy of the genre, though technically not a novel, is Plato's Republic, in its own way more interesting, and frightening, than anything that followed, given that it is conceived as a utopia (that I can't imagine anyone would want to live in) and its subsequent influence on political theory and history.

If we include Republic then we are all really missing the obvious, Utopia by Thomas More.

 

[blobru]

If we include Republic then we are all really missing the obvious, Utopia by Thomas More.

Sure.

In some ways, I find the philosophical utopias way scarier than the literary dystopias; the authors of the latter realize the society they are describing only seems perfect to the powerful and/or delusional characters in the story, and that their utopia, the very idea of utopia, is tragically flawed; the authors of the former don't.

It's the same feeling I get when people I've just met smile of a sudden and want to tell me "the most wonderful secret in the world", and hand me a pamphlet with a bearded man on the cover, gazing at the horizon.

 

[brodski]

In some ways, I find the philosophical utopias way scarier than the literary dystopias; the authors of the latter realize the society they are describing only seems perfect to the powerful and/or delusional characters in the story, and that their utopia, the very idea of utopia, is tragically flawed; the authors of the former don't.

Quite, that's what's so scary about the works of Anne Rand (acutely, her prose is what's really scary, I would add some of her works to the list, but I wouldn't want to dignify them with the label literature.

 

[PrincessIneffabelle]

I liked Psion, Catspaw, and Dreamfall by Joan D. Vinge. The stories center around Cat, an outcast half-human psion orphaned as a child and left to fend for himself in the abysmal underbelly of an otherwise prosperous and enlightened society. You got dystopian social commentary, entertaining sci-fi, interesting characters, solid story-lines, and people who can do way cool stuff with their psychic powers! (also a little sex, drugs, and politics thrown in for good measure)

 

[Pope130]

Since we're including older dystopias, I'll mention an obscure one. Jules Verne's "The Begum's Fortune". A large bequest (the titular "fortune") is to be used to create an ideal model society. Germans and French disagree on how to carry this out, so agree to disagree, and create two working models. They set up in Oregon (that's how I first got interested, not much fiction set in my home state).

The Germans create a very dark, controlled, industrial society. The French colony is very open, beautiful and filled with art and music.

The French colony sounds much better, until you notice that the homes, music and art all mandated by the governing council. It's the 'light' side of dictatorship, but dictatorship nonetheless.

Robert

 

[Gregory]

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).