Skip to main content

Classic Dystopias

A few years ago I stumbled across the website Reading Trails. I got really excited because it plays to what I think is one of my strengths as a readers advisor. I may not have read everything out there, but I'm really good at talking to other readers, reading reviews and just generally keeping track of what's out there to read and why people are reading it. I liked Reading Trails because I could group together titles on similar topics, settings, etc. whether or not I'd read them, and I had a lot of fun doing it. Unfortunately Reading Trails is looking pretty broken, so I think I'm going to bring my own Reading Paths to this blog on Mondays.

For some reason I keep finding my way to dystopian novels. They satisfy my need for thought-provoking fiction with a touch of sci-fi. Here are a few classic dystopian novels I've read, along with one I haven't, but might as well have for as much as I've heard about it.

  • Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury - A classic of high school required reading lists, this 1953 novel shows us a society where firemen start fires, specifically burning books, the paper of which ignites at 451 degrees Fahrenheit. While many claim the book is an anti-censorship tale (this was the McCarthy era), Bradbury emphatically stated that the real enemy was television and people's willingness to be lulled into blissful ignorance by it. Either way, it's a thought-provoking look at how casually we can come to accept all sorts of things that aren't all that good for us.
  • 1984 by George Orwell (1949) - Another product of the Cold War, Orwell's dreary look 35 years into the future is so depressing, but scarily well-written and almost plausible. I read this the same summer as Fahrenheit 451, and while this is definitely a "better" book (whatever that means), I like Bradbury's book better because it doesn't make me want to put a gun to my head whenever I think about it. I'm an eternal optimist who loves a challenge, which is why I think I like a lot of darker fiction, because I can always see the glimmer of hope even if it's hard to find, but there are no glimmers in 1984.
  • We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (1921) Considered one of the grandfathers of dystopian novels, Orwell was one of many who received inspiration from Zamyatin's response to the fallout of the Bolshevik uprising in Russia. An acquaintance recommended this to me after we'd gotten into a discussion about 1984. Now I'd recommend We before 1984 every time. While We is still not very cheery, I think in being just slightly less pessimistic about the world, it's also much more realistic with it's theme that there is no final revolution.
  • Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932) This is the only one I haven't read, but I've heard enough about it to speak intelligently. Consistently listed on best novel lists, Huxley's World State shows how advances of science can lead to a fractured society as well.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ebooks & Libraries

For a long time I've been frustrated with the way ebook publishers have been approaching library lending, but my rage has been overruling my sense and I haven't been able to get many coherent thoughts into print. Luckily Bobbi Newman pretty much hit the nail on the head with her " 9 Reasons Why Publishers Should Stop Acting Like Libraries Are the Enemy and Start Thanking Them ". I could go through each of her reasons and expound on why each one makes so much sense and explains a piece of where my frustration is coming from, but I'm going to focus on the points that have been bugging me the most. First from the consumer side, I know I'm not alone in the group of people who don't like to buy books until they're pretty sure they're going to love them. I simply read too much for buying every book I read to make any sort of financial sense. Often that means borrowing the first book in a series or by a new author to see if I want to spend money on th...
1 comment
Read more

Reflections of a New Community College Librarian

After months of searching I finally found found a job and I have to say that I'm really surprised with both where I landed and how much I'm loving it. After focusing primarily on the public library reference jobs that were similar to my most recent position, I stumbled onto a couple openings at nearby community colleges. When I'd first graduated from library school I heard somewhere that people who worked in community college libraries claimed they were this magical land where public meets academic, where you don't have to deal with spoiled rich kids and people are looking for things more stimulating than the latest James Patterson novel. But I went to library school so I could become a public librarian and I loved the public library job I eventually got, so I never really thought about that statement. While I loved my public library job, one of things I discovered I loved most about it was teaching public computer classes. Eventually it clicked with me that academi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Library Dopplegangers

I feel bad when I don't blog about serious library issues , but the truth of the matter is, I think a blog is more fun to read when there are more frequent shorter posts, so maybe I should follow my own advice. It seems at every library I've ever worked at, there have been people who were perfect dopplegangers for other people I know. I used to have a coworker who's voice was a dead ringer for an aunt who has a really unique way of talking. At my current library there's one person who's a dead ringer for a librarian at my previous library and another person who I swore every time I saw her for the first few weeks, looked exactly like my husband's grandma. Granted, I was thinking of my husband's grandma when I first met her roughly a decade ago, which is probably why it really weirded me out. Has anyone else ever noticed this phenomenon? Do you have coworkers who remind you of someone else?
Post a Comment
Read more