MetaChat - What are your favorite stories about dystopian society?

MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.

08 January 2006

What are your favorite stories about dystopian society? →[More:]I've always had a fondness for stories about dystopian, usually post-apocalyptic, societies. A conversation the other night reminded me that there are plenty I haven't read or seen. So now I'm curious. Which have you liked best or least, and why?

post by: rebirtha at: 12:34 | 19 comments

I think Blindness by Jose Saramago (I nominated it for the book club this month) looks really interesting, but I haven't read it yet.

Also, here's a link to a very similar question (with some great suggestions) on the Converse website.

posted by amro 08 January | 12:46

In the Country of Last Things
Earth Abides
On the Beach
Alas, Babylon
The Postman (the book, not the movie)
Make Room! Make Room!
The Quiet Earth

Blindness was pretty good.

posted by cmonkey 08 January | 12:48

Oh, On the Beach! I had scary dreams for a month after reading that book. Good one.

posted by amro 08 January | 12:50

Well, Librarything currently has the bends, so I can't pull up what I have under that tag. But here's one you should check out.

Veniss Underground - Jeff VanderMeer. Beautifully lush, dark and scary. Sort of a varient on the "mankind creates monsters which destroy him" theme, mixed in with the tales of Orpheus and Pygmalion. Definitely get the Spectra edition which contains some excellent additional short stories set farther in the future.

posted by selfnoise 08 January | 12:53

Well, Librarything is happy again, and reminds me of Y: The Last Man, which isn't terribly deep but is a lot of fun.

posted by selfnoise 08 January | 13:04

Blindness is an extraordinary tale, amro. The opening is just so... normal. Banal. Being stuck in traffic. It makes the whole thing so much more acceptable and frightening.

I generally don't enjoy Margaret Atwood, but The Handmaid's Tale is engrossing. It seems much more fantastical than Blindness, but the potential is there in everyday life, I see it everywhere, especially on TV.

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 08 January | 13:08

Octavia Butler's "Parable of the Sower" and "Parable of the Talents." I find a lot of her work to be interesting, and these are probably her best books. They're also written from a black and female perspective, which pretty rare in science fiction. Not quite sure it's dystopian, as such, but Walter Miller's "A Canticle for Leibowitz" is always great, and it's very definitely post-apocalpytic.

posted by ubersturm 08 January | 13:14

Hahaha. I love the disclaimer here.

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 08 January | 13:20

Wikipedia reminded me of Feed, which is quite good.

posted by selfnoise 08 January | 13:30

City Of Truth by William Morrow

posted by jonmc 08 January | 13:45

Brave New World by Huxley, of course, the the Godfather of Dystopian masters. Awesome.

posted by alteredcarbon 08 January | 13:58

For New Yorkers, there's always Jack Womack.

posted by Armitage Shanks 08 January | 14:15

infinite
jest.

of course this is my answer to every question about books.

posted by sam 08 January | 14:56

Riddley Walker. But no one else I know liked it.

posted by tangerine 08 January | 20:17

A Canticle for Liebowitz.

posted by mygothlaundry 08 January | 22:57

Riddley Walker. But no one else I know liked it.

Loved it. The idea about the way dogs' behavior changed was heartbreaking. Nothing had made me that sad since the end of Silent Running when I was 13.

posted by Armitage Shanks 08 January | 23:49

Man, On the Beach is a killer. Movie ain't half bad either. You might try Dhalgren by Sam Delany.

posted by sciurus 09 January | 11:52

some others:

Oryx and Crake, also by Margaret Atwood

Cloud Atlas has some futurish dystopian elements also. (book we just did for the club)

posted by Lipstick Thespian 09 January | 14:42

1984 and The Handmaid's Tale.

posted by kirkaracha 09 January | 17:02

← I'm going to Europe || Having Fun With Elvis On Stage. →

HOME || REGISTER || LOGIN