Posts Tagged ‘dystopia’

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? often titled Blade Runner is a novel by Philip K. Dick.

It’s really good. Dystopian future up there with Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World. The book explores what it is to be human. The answer, according to Dick, is empathy. Androids, not matter how sophisticated the AI, can’t quite get human emotions. Whereas humans, even when given a Penfield Mood Organ to programme their feelings, still want a full range of experience.

For me, the most important theme of the book Mercerism. Does it matter where Mercer is real or not, if a collective experience and spiritual unity is generated from that idea? The answer is yes, it does matter. But that doesn’t mean there is no value in it. It could still be meaningful and worthwhile. So take that, Buster Friendly.

The Testaments is a novel by Margaret Atwood. It is a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale. There are a couple of very mind spoilers in this post.

Released 34 years after the original, it is set a few decades after the original and tells of the final days of Gilead as told by a series of different narrators: Aunt Lydia, a girl from Gilead and a girl from Canada. The final part of the novel is narrated by a history professor several hundred years in the future attempting to piece together the final days of the failed state.

I enjoyed the novel a lot. probably more so than the original. Atwood comments in the opening that she wrote the book due to so man requests from fans with the implication that it would provide closure. In some ways, I felt this was not needed. It was a dystopian novel: should there be a happy ending? Does it detract from the horror if we know it is going to be alright in the end? But maybe that is a comfort that I, as a man, do not need but others might.

The Handmaid’s Tale is a novel Margaret Atwood. It describes a near-future dystopian world in which democracy has been replaced by a fundamentalist Christian military government and re-structured society.

In said society women are divided into functions for men. The protagonist, Offred, is a handmaid. She is used for breeding purposes only. Still, better than being a Martha, or shipped off to the colonies…

Imagine a world in which all books are banned. Where all books are burned because they might contain conflicting ideas. Where thinking is actively discouraged in favour of accepting the simple truth presented by authority. In short, imagine the Bible Belt.

This is the setting for Ray Bradbury‘s dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451.

I had already seen the movie, which I enjoyed, and I enjoyed the book as well. However, I would not go as far as Tom to suggest that it is better than Nineteen Eighty-Four or Brave New World. I enjoyed both of those far more whereas I cannot say I imagine myself re-reading Fahrenheit 451. Definitely worth reading though.

I had a lot of optimism when I started reading Lord of the Flies. I was hoping for a fascinating exploration of the dark side of human nature through the story of what would happen if a group of boys found themselves alone on an uninhabited island. A primitive, savage society arranged around its leader, the lord of the flies.

However, it turns turns out that the lord of the flies is just a pig’s head on a stick.

Still, at least I know never to reveal that my childhood nickname was “piggy”. So it was not a complete waste of ten hours of my life, even if the author, William Golding, somewhat missed the point.

Jack having mentioned Jennifer Government a few times, I decided it was worth giving a read.

It’s a science fiction book, though set in the present day, except that society has taken a very different course of action. Capitalism has been allowed to run rampant and now almost everything is privatised – even the police is a private company. It was almost about to say “even the healthcare system”, but then I remembered that isn’t some kind of horrible nightmare, that is just present-day United States.

I enjoyed it, but to discuss the reasons why would only end in spoilers, so I will simply say, if you’re a fan of Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four, then you’ll probably enjoy this.