Ok, a bit different today....for whatever reason I LOVE dystopian fiction, always have since reading
"Farenheit 451" and (especially) "1984" as a teenager....in case you don't know, these books present a MUCH less than hopeful picture of the future, how prophetic they will prove to be will bet determined later......I have selected a variety here, certain to make both the right and the left mad a me for my choices (to my infinite glee of course)......I HOPE there are a few among my readership who appreiate good litrature, and even if you've read these before, I hope to promote some discusion on the topic of the planet's future, and where the blame for such bleakness lies.....some (most) of these are quit obvious choices, others maybe less so, but all are designed to make one think, and dicuss......MAYBE not theright forum for this, but I love to read, and hope some of you do too and maybe discover a few of the less obvous choices below:
1984 By George Orwell.....a brilliant bok, my favorite, which works on MAY different levels....on the surface, a dystopian horror tale in which "hatred" is encouraged and celebrated, on a deeper level a satiric look at our religious beliefs.....terrifying no matter which light it is viewed in. On the larger symbolic scale, Big Brother=God, Emmanuel, Emmanuel Goldstien=Satan, whom we are to blindly love or hate, well, because we are TOLD to.Brave New World by Aldous Huxley-"Control though Pleaseure"concepts rather than control through fear/hate, more satirical, even than 1984, and I personally find the writing a little clumsy, but some of the theories about mandatory promiscity and drug use as well as the caste sytem used DO ring true.
Farrenhiet 451 by Ray Bradberry-this one is a visonary classic, in which the printed word (books) are banned (here's the part peope miss:) due to the CURRENT POLITICALLY CORRECT CLIMATE.....yep, in this worldthey decide blacks are offende by this, and Jews are offended by this, so let's BAN ALL BOOKS.......sound familiar?
The Hunger Games Trilogy (The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay) by Suzanne Collins are a wonderful look at a world where a small, elitist society uses the masses for slave labor.....the movies thus far have been fabulous, the books are equally so
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand-what would happen to a world where all the "Intellectual Elite" went on "strike" and exiled thm selves from the mainstream......this is another thought provoking and chilling work.
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.....this one is terrifying as it looks at a society taken over by right-wing religious fanatacists, specifically what becomes to women in this world (The are stripped of all identity and are kept as "breeders"......terrifying book, because of all of these I think it hs probably the best choice of playing outThe Turner Diaries by WilliamPierce-a contrversial selection to the list, this is VERY hateful screed
aimed at blacks and jews, but there ARE some points that arise as to how thier world became whtit was, ending in a world wide race war......you WILL be offended by this book, but I think as we compare the various visions of dystopia, w must view this on as well, no matter how offensive.I recommend you read ALL OF THESE books if you haven't......we ARE being warned here, who knows which vision is the most likey to come to pass, but they are all scary.....lets see what we can do to change the future.
Please, read these, if, of course,you are an avid reader as I am myself......with all the advances in technology, with computers and sattelite TV and Kindles and IPads and IPods, with ALL that, NOTHING is more powerful than the printed word......READING IS FUNDAMENAL. It is best to read and digest the views MOST DISTANT from your own, at least you can see how your enemies think, and the protagonists, in ALL of the above, are enemies of freedom, and if you love your freedom, each of these books hints at how we can be losing it "without a shot being fired"
I don't exect any of you to read all of these, simply because I have.....but select ONE or TWO that
you have not read before and let us have a productve discussion on the books themselves, and the concepts laid out within.....I recomend them ALL, really, they can ALL scare/touch us in a different way, but I have a special soft spot for the underappreciated "Handmaid's Tale", lesser known compard to the others and chilling to the bones.
Wat do you think? I am an avid reader of ALL genres......will this work here, posting BOOKS? I don't know, thought I'd give it a shot.....I am trying to give this blog some form and personality, if I try things and they fail, at least I tried them.
