Every couple of years, Phil teaches a course on utopias/dystopias and I throw this question out.
What dystopic or utopic novel would you recommend? Should be one not too much about technology-or robot heavy. It should be one with a critique of today's society. Any new ideas?
RUT, by Scott Phillips. A post-apocalyptic novel with no apocalypse. He just describes what things might be like if we keep going as we are. Funny, too.
ReplyDeleteIt's published by Concord Free Press, who, last I looked, will send your copy for free, so long as you promise to make a contribution to a worthy cayuse and pass the book along to someone else. It's a good deal for everyone.
I have it, Dana. Got it at Noircon but have never gotten to it. I will hand it over. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI found Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" dystopian and creepy.
ReplyDeleteCHILDREN OF MEN by P.D. James.
ReplyDeleteBoth of these are great books. Kitty, how are you?
ReplyDeleteI'm fine, Patti. Thanks for asking!
ReplyDeleteOff topic... The coloring here in Upstate NY is becoming quite lovely. Compared to more recent autumns, the color began early. But this is more "normal" for autumn -- the way I remember. How's the coloring in your neck of the woods?
Overnight everything turned. I never remember so abrupt a change. Don't know if was the rain or the high temps this summer or the sudden sun. Lovely but fleeting.
ReplyDeleteYes, CHILDREN OF MEN was one I'd mention too, but my favorite is probably Stephen King's THE STAND.
ReplyDeleteJeff M.
I guess ANIMAL FARM is way too out of date, or maybe it's not even a contender.
ReplyDeleteThe two classics:
ReplyDeleteDystopia: 1984
Utopia: BRAVE NEW WORLD
All good choices. He used Ella, Minnow, Pea last time but I really dislike that book and was looking to find something to change it. Early books in the course include Plato's Republic, Mores, Utopia, Piercy's Women on the Edge of Time, Gilman's Herland and a lot of shorts and articles.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite is NEVER LET ME GO but it's long to do in one week, which is what he prefers.
Well, of course, THE FEMALE MAN by Joanna Russ. Every actually given it a spin? Shorter than and as complexly critical as the Piercy, and certainly funnier...runner up in this sweepstakes, DAVY by Edgar Pangborn.
ReplyDeleteBut, then, if you really like THE CHILDREN OF MEN...
None of the libraries we have access to have THE FEMALE MAN but I did reserve DAVY. (My husband has read the Russ book and although he liked it, he thought it perhaps too difficult for his UGs.
ReplyDeleteUtopian novels: MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdie and BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley. There are two books on my to-be-read list — ULYSSES by James Joyce and GREAT EXPECTATIONS by Dickens — classics I should have read a long, long time ago. Now I will.
ReplyDeleteDystopian novels: I have read and reread — FAHRENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury and THE TIME MACHINE by H.G. Wells. The latter was more dystopian because nasty termites ate up my fairly rare hardbound edition.
It's not a novel, but I bet most of you've never heard of the animated series Ergo Proxy. I watched it a few years ago and I highly recommend it if you like these type of stories.
ReplyDeleteHow about going totally old-school and reading Samuel Butler's EREWHON, published in 1872.
ReplyDeleteI have had a copy of Midnight's CHildren waiting for years. Trouble the print is like an 8 font. Oh, boy do I remember reading EREWHON when I was a teenager. Excellent.
ReplyDeleteErgo Proxy is a new title to me. Have to look for it.
Paolo Bacigalupi's award-winning The Windup Girl. I find the premise terribly flawed for a number of reasons, but it's beautifully written and highly imaginative.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Loren. I put it on reserve at my library.
ReplyDeleteI dunno. I suspect that anyone who can handle the Piercy could handle the Russ. They and the Pangborn were things Bacigalupi (and I) grew up reading. I also read LOOKING BACKWARD back when I was reading EREWHON (25c each in the remaindered Lancer/Magnum editions at the Grant's) and ANIMAL FARM, though I didn't catch up with PENGUIN ISLAND till some years later. Ursula K. Le Guin's THE DISPOSSESSED is another obvious option; Kate Wilhelm's "The Winter Beach" (in LISTEN, LISTEN) or the full-novel expansion WELCOME CHAOS another. Donald Wollheim's ANARCHAOS would be about as bad a choice as the likes of ANTHEM, but of course there's WE by Zamaitin...and my old favorite from about that vintage, WAR WITH THE NEWTS by Karel Capek (the companion, THE ABSOLUTE AT LARGE, is not quite as focused a satire, but also worth the time).
ReplyDeleteHe remembered it as having confusing POVs. And these students need a very straight forward narrative because they are all pre-med students and have no interest in literature. Love LOOKING BACKWARD, which he used for years until he got tired of reading it. I loved THE DISPOSSESSED and will remind him. Thanks for the thinking cap.
ReplyDeleteUtopia: THE TOWERS OF UTOPIA By Mack Reynolds
ReplyDeleteDystopia: JAGGED ORBIT By John Brunner
Arthur C. Clarke's THE CITY AND THE STARS is actually both.
ReplyDeleteWV - forchrot: how to tell your front porch needs replacing
I've a fondness for Walden II, because of the psychological connection.
ReplyDeleteNot a novel, but Harlan Ellison's "A Boy and His Dog" is a must.
ReplyDelete