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1Nickelini
A while ago I promised to post my comparisons of the books that I read during my course on dystopian literature. Here are some of my thoughts.
Here are the books:
Darkness at Noon, by Arthur Koestler
Bend Sinister, by Vladimir Nabokov
Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
And,
Homage to Catalonia, Animal Farm, and Nineteen Eighty-four, all by George Orwell. Homage to Catalonia is Orwell’s memoirs of the Spanish Civil War, which gave him the idea to write the other two novels. Because it’s a memoir, I’m not going to include it in this review.
In addition, on the side I also read Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, and The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood.
I had also planned to read We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin, A Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, and Korba the Dread, by Martin Amis. I’ll get to them one day.
There were two things that appeared in every one of these books.
1. the protagonist was under threat of a negative action by another, more powerful force (usually the state). This action was often arbitrary.
2. Most other characters in these novels obliviously went about their lives trying their best to follow these arbitrary, unfair rules. They generally behaved like sheep.
I’m glad I read each one of these books—they were all worth the time. I’m also glad I’ve now left their grim little worlds.
Here are the books:
Darkness at Noon, by Arthur Koestler
Bend Sinister, by Vladimir Nabokov
Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
And,
Homage to Catalonia, Animal Farm, and Nineteen Eighty-four, all by George Orwell. Homage to Catalonia is Orwell’s memoirs of the Spanish Civil War, which gave him the idea to write the other two novels. Because it’s a memoir, I’m not going to include it in this review.
In addition, on the side I also read Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, and The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood.
I had also planned to read We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin, A Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, and Korba the Dread, by Martin Amis. I’ll get to them one day.
There were two things that appeared in every one of these books.
1. the protagonist was under threat of a negative action by another, more powerful force (usually the state). This action was often arbitrary.
2. Most other characters in these novels obliviously went about their lives trying their best to follow these arbitrary, unfair rules. They generally behaved like sheep.
I’m glad I read each one of these books—they were all worth the time. I’m also glad I’ve now left their grim little worlds.
2Nickelini
Darkness at Noon
Arthur Koestler
All the warmth and fun of a January night in Stalingrad!
An old revolutionary leader, Rubashov, is imprisoned for crimes he couldn’t possibly have committed. The state’s goal is to elicit his confession. Koestler, who had recently renounced communism, wrote this novel after the Stalin show trials. Set in an unnamed country which is ruled by an unnamed dictator (read: USSR; Stalin), it is considered by critics to be one of the most important novels of the twentieth century. I’m not sure that it still is.
This novel is the most realistic of the lot.
Arthur Koestler
All the warmth and fun of a January night in Stalingrad!
An old revolutionary leader, Rubashov, is imprisoned for crimes he couldn’t possibly have committed. The state’s goal is to elicit his confession. Koestler, who had recently renounced communism, wrote this novel after the Stalin show trials. Set in an unnamed country which is ruled by an unnamed dictator (read: USSR; Stalin), it is considered by critics to be one of the most important novels of the twentieth century. I’m not sure that it still is.
This novel is the most realistic of the lot.
3Nickelini
Bend Sinister
Vladimir Nabokov
Without a doubt, this was the most challenging of the novels, but also the most rewarding. I read it twice. The first time I thought about 25% of it was “wow” and the other 75% was “what the . . . ?!” I realized I was missing a lot, but I also thought that Nabokov was an elitist snob. He even slagged Orwell in the preface. I didn’t really care if I didn’t get it.
But then I was assigned to write on either Darkness at Noon or Bend Sinister. I was really bored with Darkness at Noon, so I thought a challenge beat boredom. On a close second reading, I found a completely different novel. Disturbing, but also full of humour. Scenes that were like a Monty Python sketch, but at the same were chilling and sobering. Reading this book was an unsettling experience like no other. With the right director and producer, this book would make a great film.
This is not a book for people who like to speed read for basic plot and ideas, tick it off a list and move on to the next book. It’s a book for one who likes to stop and think and do a little work: for that reader, it is richly rewarding.
In it’s own way, my favourite of the group.
Vladimir Nabokov
Without a doubt, this was the most challenging of the novels, but also the most rewarding. I read it twice. The first time I thought about 25% of it was “wow” and the other 75% was “what the . . . ?!” I realized I was missing a lot, but I also thought that Nabokov was an elitist snob. He even slagged Orwell in the preface. I didn’t really care if I didn’t get it.
But then I was assigned to write on either Darkness at Noon or Bend Sinister. I was really bored with Darkness at Noon, so I thought a challenge beat boredom. On a close second reading, I found a completely different novel. Disturbing, but also full of humour. Scenes that were like a Monty Python sketch, but at the same were chilling and sobering. Reading this book was an unsettling experience like no other. With the right director and producer, this book would make a great film.
This is not a book for people who like to speed read for basic plot and ideas, tick it off a list and move on to the next book. It’s a book for one who likes to stop and think and do a little work: for that reader, it is richly rewarding.
In it’s own way, my favourite of the group.
4Nickelini
Lord of the Flies
William Golding
I read this in grade 10, way back in the late ‘70s. I remembered it quite well, and remember liking it. This time around, not so much.
Did Golding write this to refute Rousseau’s utopian dream of the noble savage, and the idea that that corruption comes from “civilization”? Does this book show that evil lurks within us all? Or, does this book show that given a fresh, unspoiled environment, we bring our baggage with us? Is Golding saying that nasty British school boys will continue to be nasty boys in any environment? He does not give the definitive answer; it is up to the reader to decide.
After 30 years, I was hoping that things would work out better this time for Piggy. Alas, fiction doesn’t work that way.
William Golding
I read this in grade 10, way back in the late ‘70s. I remembered it quite well, and remember liking it. This time around, not so much.
Did Golding write this to refute Rousseau’s utopian dream of the noble savage, and the idea that that corruption comes from “civilization”? Does this book show that evil lurks within us all? Or, does this book show that given a fresh, unspoiled environment, we bring our baggage with us? Is Golding saying that nasty British school boys will continue to be nasty boys in any environment? He does not give the definitive answer; it is up to the reader to decide.
After 30 years, I was hoping that things would work out better this time for Piggy. Alas, fiction doesn’t work that way.
5Nickelini
Fahrenheit 451
Ray Bradbury
If you haven't yet read Fahrenheit 451, I highly recommend it. It was written 56 years ago, but really stands the test of time. Sometime after the year 2022, the government is planning a war, but keeps the population occupied and unaware of it by bombarding them with mindless TV shows:
"If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war. If the government is inefficient, top-heavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than the people worry over it. Peace, Montag. Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information. Then they'll feel they're thinking, they'll get a sense of motion without moving."
I was amazed at how relevant the philosophy of this novel holds up. Sure, some of the things that Bradbury included in his future-world seem unlikely--people still smoke pipes and cigarettes anytime, anywhere, and the cars are fueled by gas. But those are more charming than discrediting.
It's a quick read--my copy is 190 pages, including three
introductions. I think it probably took me three hours to read, maybe four.
I would say this one is the most SciFi of the group.
Ray Bradbury
If you haven't yet read Fahrenheit 451, I highly recommend it. It was written 56 years ago, but really stands the test of time. Sometime after the year 2022, the government is planning a war, but keeps the population occupied and unaware of it by bombarding them with mindless TV shows:
"If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war. If the government is inefficient, top-heavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than the people worry over it. Peace, Montag. Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information. Then they'll feel they're thinking, they'll get a sense of motion without moving."
I was amazed at how relevant the philosophy of this novel holds up. Sure, some of the things that Bradbury included in his future-world seem unlikely--people still smoke pipes and cigarettes anytime, anywhere, and the cars are fueled by gas. But those are more charming than discrediting.
It's a quick read--my copy is 190 pages, including three
introductions. I think it probably took me three hours to read, maybe four.
I would say this one is the most SciFi of the group.
6Nickelini
The Handmaid’s Tale
Margaret Atwood
I didn’t study this one, or spend a lot of time thinking about it, so I don’t have a lot to say. I imagine when this book was printed in the 1980s it seemed fairly impossible or far-fetched, but it’s creepy how Atwood’s world is no longer as out of the question. The way the women were treated and covered up in public reminded me of the Taliban. And the loss of rights and rules that they lived under make me think of where the US could end up with a series of changes such as the Patriot Act. This society is really fundamentalism run amok. Very creepy and depressing, but there is some hope in the ambiguous ending to this novel.
Margaret Atwood
I didn’t study this one, or spend a lot of time thinking about it, so I don’t have a lot to say. I imagine when this book was printed in the 1980s it seemed fairly impossible or far-fetched, but it’s creepy how Atwood’s world is no longer as out of the question. The way the women were treated and covered up in public reminded me of the Taliban. And the loss of rights and rules that they lived under make me think of where the US could end up with a series of changes such as the Patriot Act. This society is really fundamentalism run amok. Very creepy and depressing, but there is some hope in the ambiguous ending to this novel.
7Nickelini
Animal Farm
George Orwell
I think Animal Farm is an amazing achievement because Orwell tells a complete story, one with no messy unanswered questions and no ambiguity, all in 80-odd pages. Orwell wrote it as an allegory of the Soviet revolution, but it still works for the reader who doesn’t have that background knowledge. Personally, it reminded me of the corporate world (power corrupts, whatever world you live in). Not a happy story, but I found it a very satisfying read. Probably my favourite of the group.
George Orwell
I think Animal Farm is an amazing achievement because Orwell tells a complete story, one with no messy unanswered questions and no ambiguity, all in 80-odd pages. Orwell wrote it as an allegory of the Soviet revolution, but it still works for the reader who doesn’t have that background knowledge. Personally, it reminded me of the corporate world (power corrupts, whatever world you live in). Not a happy story, but I found it a very satisfying read. Probably my favourite of the group.
8Nickelini
Nineteen Eighty-four
George Orwell
What is there left to say about Nineteen Eighty-four that hasn't already been said! In this novel, Orwell created the uber-dystopia. This is the most depressing and hopeless society of any of these books because the state’s control is so complete (e.g. thought crime, the two-way monitors everywhere), and there is no possibility of escape. I appreciate Orwell’s straightforward writing style and can see why this book has had such a significant impact on readers.
The ultimate dystopian novel, the benchmark for all others.
George Orwell
What is there left to say about Nineteen Eighty-four that hasn't already been said! In this novel, Orwell created the uber-dystopia. This is the most depressing and hopeless society of any of these books because the state’s control is so complete (e.g. thought crime, the two-way monitors everywhere), and there is no possibility of escape. I appreciate Orwell’s straightforward writing style and can see why this book has had such a significant impact on readers.
The ultimate dystopian novel, the benchmark for all others.
9Nickelini
The Trial
Franz Kafka
This was the last dystopian novel that I read, and to tell the truth, I was really tired of these depressing little worlds by the time I got to this one. The Trial is very much like listening to someone tell you his dreams—I could only take it in small chunks (about 15-20 minutes at a time). It was also a little like the Nabokov book in that it mixed humour with horrible events. Very strange and dream-like.
My favourite opening line of this group of books: “Someone must have been telling lies about Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning.” (Although the first line of Nineteen Eighty-four is also excellent: “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” You just know something is wrong with this world.)
Franz Kafka
This was the last dystopian novel that I read, and to tell the truth, I was really tired of these depressing little worlds by the time I got to this one. The Trial is very much like listening to someone tell you his dreams—I could only take it in small chunks (about 15-20 minutes at a time). It was also a little like the Nabokov book in that it mixed humour with horrible events. Very strange and dream-like.
My favourite opening line of this group of books: “Someone must have been telling lies about Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning.” (Although the first line of Nineteen Eighty-four is also excellent: “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” You just know something is wrong with this world.)
10margad
Thank you for reading all of these at a whack, so we don't have to. I don't think I could take it!
I've read a lot of these in the somewhat distant past and appreciate the refresher. The quote you give from Fahrenheit 451 is chilling. It seems this book has not dated at all (except for the superficial aspects you cite); rather, it seems to have un-dated if such a thing is possible - become more pertinent than ever.
I never liked Lord of the Flies, and I find the questions you posed highly enlightening about why that may have been. The novel is almost like a tract for the concept of original sin. Although the British public school system of the time may have been the primary focus of Golding's wrath.
I might have to read Bend Sinister when I have the luxury of extra time to read more slowly and ponder.
I've read a lot of these in the somewhat distant past and appreciate the refresher. The quote you give from Fahrenheit 451 is chilling. It seems this book has not dated at all (except for the superficial aspects you cite); rather, it seems to have un-dated if such a thing is possible - become more pertinent than ever.
I never liked Lord of the Flies, and I find the questions you posed highly enlightening about why that may have been. The novel is almost like a tract for the concept of original sin. Although the British public school system of the time may have been the primary focus of Golding's wrath.
I might have to read Bend Sinister when I have the luxury of extra time to read more slowly and ponder.
11CarlosMcRey
It sounds as if Farenheit 451 would make for an interesting comparison with Brave New World both of whom sort of suggest dystopian governments as natural outgrowths of social and technological trends in industrialized nations. Huxley's dystopia is a little less sinister from what I remember, though it's been years since I read both books.
12elbakerone
#6 - I just found this thread after posting a comparison of The Handmaid's Tale to The Swallows of Kabul. Great minds think alike. ;)
13annakarina
I have read just about every book by Orwell, *except* 1984... there must be something wrong with me!
Anyway, after reading this, I'm really looking forward to getting into Bend Sinister (I'm a big Nabokov fan, but I don't know this one), and I think I'd like The Trial from your description...
About Farenheit 451: as you say, the philosophy of the novel still holds it's own over 50 years later, but at the same time does feel a bit dated to me; Bradbury showed amazing foresight but the themes he explored have been done and re-done again and again since the novel first came out. I did get a bit of a sense of déjà-vu reading it for the 1st time in 2008; but that doesn't really detract from the story.
Anyway, after reading this, I'm really looking forward to getting into Bend Sinister (I'm a big Nabokov fan, but I don't know this one), and I think I'd like The Trial from your description...
About Farenheit 451: as you say, the philosophy of the novel still holds it's own over 50 years later, but at the same time does feel a bit dated to me; Bradbury showed amazing foresight but the themes he explored have been done and re-done again and again since the novel first came out. I did get a bit of a sense of déjà-vu reading it for the 1st time in 2008; but that doesn't really detract from the story.
14NocturnalBlue
Wow, Nickelini, if I had to read all those novels in the course of couple months I think I would be permanently depressed about the human race. Of the ones you reviewed, I have read Lord of the Flies, Animal Farm, 1984 andFahrenheit 451, but that was spread out over a couple years.
I've also read We and since you haven't tackled that one yet, I'll give it a shot. Bear in mind I read it over five years ago and only have some vague recollections and an old paper to go on.
One of the interesting things about We was the math motif. Both 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 made an explicit point of showing that you can create dystopia when a malevolent governing body grabs control of language (instead of Big Brother, you get the Benefactor). We skips all that and jumps right into numbers. Everything was described with a mathematical metaphor. D-503 (the lead character) worked on a ship called the Integral and his original log was more about calculations and precise numbers. Math by it's very nature attempts to lead you to the solution where there's only one correct answer which fit perfectly in this dystopia where there was only one right way.
I've also read We and since you haven't tackled that one yet, I'll give it a shot. Bear in mind I read it over five years ago and only have some vague recollections and an old paper to go on.
One of the interesting things about We was the math motif. Both 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 made an explicit point of showing that you can create dystopia when a malevolent governing body grabs control of language (instead of Big Brother, you get the Benefactor). We skips all that and jumps right into numbers. Everything was described with a mathematical metaphor. D-503 (the lead character) worked on a ship called the Integral and his original log was more about calculations and precise numbers. Math by it's very nature attempts to lead you to the solution where there's only one correct answer which fit perfectly in this dystopia where there was only one right way.
15Nickelini
After reading all these dystopian novels last autumn, I swore to read happier books for a long, long time. Well, another dystopian novel snuck up on me without my knowledge: Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro. I listened to the audio book.
When I started to listen to it, I did not know what the book was about, or that it was a dystopian novel. So it was quite fun to experience the pieces coming together in my head. Of the books I reviewed above, I'd say Never Let Me Go is most like the Handmaid's Tale in subject and atmosphere. I didn't find it as disturbing as many of these others, although it isn't a happy story by any means. I liked the understated style. Definitely recommended.
When I started to listen to it, I did not know what the book was about, or that it was a dystopian novel. So it was quite fun to experience the pieces coming together in my head. Of the books I reviewed above, I'd say Never Let Me Go is most like the Handmaid's Tale in subject and atmosphere. I didn't find it as disturbing as many of these others, although it isn't a happy story by any means. I liked the understated style. Definitely recommended.
16margad
Perhaps the universe is trying to tell you something! What, I can't imagine, though. Never Let Me Go has been on my TBR list for awhile. One of these days I will get to it.
17Fullmoonblue
Isn't it strange how the scary, depressing novels are so often the most moving & rewarding ones...? I used to worry that my tastes were too 'dark' or something, but stories like these remind me to pay attention to what's good in my life, and also strengthen my committment to changing what seems off...
Hooray for the less than lovely.
On this theme, I'd totally advise anyone to read Foe by J.M. Coetzee. It takes Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe as a starting point, but you do NOT need to have read Crusoe to get Coetzee. It's a weird, amazing, utterly disconcerting and dystopian read.
Will certainly work on some of these other novels over the summer. Thanks for posting the list!
Elizabeth ("fullmoonblue")
Hooray for the less than lovely.
On this theme, I'd totally advise anyone to read Foe by J.M. Coetzee. It takes Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe as a starting point, but you do NOT need to have read Crusoe to get Coetzee. It's a weird, amazing, utterly disconcerting and dystopian read.
Will certainly work on some of these other novels over the summer. Thanks for posting the list!
Elizabeth ("fullmoonblue")
18margad
Jane Smiley said an interesting thing in Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel: that reading or writing a novel is essentially an optimistic endeavor, because no matter how awful the things are that happen in a novel or how tragic the ending, there is a subtext about our freedom to make different choices than the characters did.
19Nickelini
That's good--fits perfectly, doesn't it? That book has been on my TBR list for a while. I'll have to hunt it down.
By the way, where have you been, Margad? Are we just visiting different threads from each other, or have you been away from LT?
By the way, where have you been, Margad? Are we just visiting different threads from each other, or have you been away from LT?
20margad
I've been building a website - www.HistoricalNovels.info - which has taken up an awful lot of my time. However, I'm pondering a comparison between three of the books I've read recently - As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann, The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. by Sandra Gulland, and a book I'm currently about a third of the way through, Q by Luther Blissett. The first is set during the English Civil War (Cromwell vs. King Charles I), the second during the French Revolution, and the third during the Peasant Rebellion in early Reformation Germany and its aftermath. Three pretty different novels, but all set during wars that resulted from the anger of common people mired in poverty against aristocrats whose lives were becoming ever-more-frivolous examples of conspicuous consumption.
22janeajones
20> Margad -- your historical novels site is amazing-- it's going to take me a while to browse all through it, but I'm looking for some good (literary) novels to assign to my humanities students, and this is a treasure trove! Thanks for all your hard work there. BTW -- if anyone is having a hard time linking, I opened IE and posted the URL there, when clicking on the link in your posting said that the site did not exist.
http://www.historicalnovels.info/
http://www.historicalnovels.info/
23margad
So glad you're enjoying the historical novels site, and thanks for posting a better link. I've fixed the link in post #20 above, so that should work, too, now.
I'm trying to be as comprehensive as possible, so the quality of the novels I've listed is very mixed, but there should be something there to suit just about anyone's taste.
I'm trying to be as comprehensive as possible, so the quality of the novels I've listed is very mixed, but there should be something there to suit just about anyone's taste.
24Nickelini
High Rise, JG Ballard
This short novel from the 1001 list is about a group of people living in an apartment building were things begin to go badly, horribly wrong. Life disintegrates into violence and anarchy. This is dystopian fiction, although in this case the dystopia is pretty much self-imposed by the building residents and not from some government-gone-bad (as you find in most dystopian works). Of all dystopian novels, I compare it most closely with Lord of the Flies, but instead of an island, the setting is a high rise, and instead of a group of British school boys, there is a group of British professionals.
What I Liked About the Novel: It was an interesting and somewhat fun read, in the way that a Stephen King story can be fun. Written in 1975, it shares a similar style to some of King's work that he wrote around that time (I'm not talking about his horror, but more his Twilight Zone-ish stuff). Ballard is a talented writer and I would say this novel leans more to a literary style than a mass-market best-seller style.
I also like how Ballard uses the high rise as an allegory for society and as a comment on societal behavior. The people who live on the highest floors act as the aristocracy, descending through the ranks to the people on the lower floors as the lower class (this is symbolic--there are no downtrodden or members of the underclass in this book--everyone has a good job). Clever social commentary, this is.
What I Did Not Like About the Novel: to make this novel work, I had to totally suspend belief. It's written in a realistic style--there are no talking animals (fables such as Animal Farm), and lover's passion does not cause rooms to spontaneously combust (magical realism such as Like Water for Chocolate). But the way the apartment complex is organized and the behavior of the residents doesn't come close to sounding true. There are 40 floors of inhabitants, but they all sort of act the same--violent, catatonic, promiscuous. And the fact that they would all join in on this deadly game rather than just calling the police is absolute nonsense. But if you can swallow that, it works.
Recommended if you're in the mood for something along these lines.
This short novel from the 1001 list is about a group of people living in an apartment building were things begin to go badly, horribly wrong. Life disintegrates into violence and anarchy. This is dystopian fiction, although in this case the dystopia is pretty much self-imposed by the building residents and not from some government-gone-bad (as you find in most dystopian works). Of all dystopian novels, I compare it most closely with Lord of the Flies, but instead of an island, the setting is a high rise, and instead of a group of British school boys, there is a group of British professionals.
What I Liked About the Novel: It was an interesting and somewhat fun read, in the way that a Stephen King story can be fun. Written in 1975, it shares a similar style to some of King's work that he wrote around that time (I'm not talking about his horror, but more his Twilight Zone-ish stuff). Ballard is a talented writer and I would say this novel leans more to a literary style than a mass-market best-seller style.
I also like how Ballard uses the high rise as an allegory for society and as a comment on societal behavior. The people who live on the highest floors act as the aristocracy, descending through the ranks to the people on the lower floors as the lower class (this is symbolic--there are no downtrodden or members of the underclass in this book--everyone has a good job). Clever social commentary, this is.
What I Did Not Like About the Novel: to make this novel work, I had to totally suspend belief. It's written in a realistic style--there are no talking animals (fables such as Animal Farm), and lover's passion does not cause rooms to spontaneously combust (magical realism such as Like Water for Chocolate). But the way the apartment complex is organized and the behavior of the residents doesn't come close to sounding true. There are 40 floors of inhabitants, but they all sort of act the same--violent, catatonic, promiscuous. And the fact that they would all join in on this deadly game rather than just calling the police is absolute nonsense. But if you can swallow that, it works.
Recommended if you're in the mood for something along these lines.
25margad
Thanks for an interesting post, Nickelini. It brings up the question of what allows us to accept the unrealistic events or aspects of a novel. In well-written magical realism, for example, it's can be quite easy to accept things like passionate love causing a room to burst into flames, at least for readers who enjoy magical realism. Maybe the hardest thing to find credible is when people don't behave in psychologically realistic ways. But here, too, what is credible may differ from reader to reader.
27WilfGehlen
Just had a thought today about Zamyatin's We. Essential elements are the 200 years war, the glass wall erected to protect the survivors from the outsiders, the erosion of personal freedoms for the good of the one state.
Thought by some to be a knock against Stalin (who hadn't really arrived yet when the book was written), it seems a more apt description of the U.S. in the years following Sept 11, 2001. The fence along the southern border, private government agendas pursued under the guise of more palatable public agendas, the need to conform, not to speak out. Zamyatin provides hope that mankind will prevail in the next generation, as O-90 escapes to the outside with her unborn child, fathered by D-503. We also have hope for our subsequent political generations.
After all, it's not a dystopia if we're living through it, is it?
Thought by some to be a knock against Stalin (who hadn't really arrived yet when the book was written), it seems a more apt description of the U.S. in the years following Sept 11, 2001. The fence along the southern border, private government agendas pursued under the guise of more palatable public agendas, the need to conform, not to speak out. Zamyatin provides hope that mankind will prevail in the next generation, as O-90 escapes to the outside with her unborn child, fathered by D-503. We also have hope for our subsequent political generations.
After all, it's not a dystopia if we're living through it, is it?
28margad
Just goes to show - this is an inherent weakness of humanity that will keep recurring if we don't learn from our mistakes. It's all too easy to point fingers at other countries. Not so easy to keep these things from happening in our own country when a situation arises that makes people fearful. It's good that we have authors who keep pointing this out to us!
29WilfGehlen
As the philosopher George Santayanita said, Those who remember the past are condemned to relive it as it repeats itself.
ETA spelling correction.
ETA spelling correction.
30geneg
Santayanita? Isn't that a horse racing venue in California? I think Santayana is the fellow you want.
31WilfGehlen
Thanks Gene, but I don't think Santayana ever said that. :)
33WilfGehlen
Sorry, you just tripped over one of my bad jokes. Even my wife doesn't understand me, no reason anyone else should.
34MarianV
Has no one examined Cormac McCarthy's The Road?
It's been several years since I read it, but it keeps haunting me. A nuclear catastrophe could happen by accident, mistake, mis-understanding...In the late 40's Neville Shute's novel On the Beach was condemned by some people who believed that it might scare people away from using atomic energy. At that point in time, we were looking forward to atomic-heated housing, building, atom powered cars & helicopters, no more dirty coal, no more messy oil. By the beginning of the 21st. century everything would be powered by safe, clean atomic energy.
It's been several years since I read it, but it keeps haunting me. A nuclear catastrophe could happen by accident, mistake, mis-understanding...In the late 40's Neville Shute's novel On the Beach was condemned by some people who believed that it might scare people away from using atomic energy. At that point in time, we were looking forward to atomic-heated housing, building, atom powered cars & helicopters, no more dirty coal, no more messy oil. By the beginning of the 21st. century everything would be powered by safe, clean atomic energy.
35geneg
Yeah, I remember that. They made it sound like they would pay us to use electricity. Remember redi-killowatt? Remember total electric homes? Boy, what a bunch of suckers we were.
36snickersnee
I'd always thought of Koestler as a journalist, and Darkness at Noon as descriptive rather than predictive.
Anthony Burgess hasn't been mentioned. Most are aware of A Clockwork Orange, at least via the film. His 1985 is also well-worth reading - the appendix about the consolidation of vowels in English is worth the price of the book.
Anthony Burgess hasn't been mentioned. Most are aware of A Clockwork Orange, at least via the film. His 1985 is also well-worth reading - the appendix about the consolidation of vowels in English is worth the price of the book.
37margad
Yes, we do have a thread about Cormac McCarthy's The Road, comparing it with Blood Meridian. I've added a quick post to it, to bring it back up to the top, in case people want to discuss it further.
It seems like we may not have been sufficiently scared away from using atomic energy - people keep bringing it up again as a "cleaner" source of energy than oil. Wish we would get serious about using less energy - it's not easy, but it does seem like the only sound solution.
It seems like we may not have been sufficiently scared away from using atomic energy - people keep bringing it up again as a "cleaner" source of energy than oil. Wish we would get serious about using less energy - it's not easy, but it does seem like the only sound solution.
