Dystopian Fiction

As the weather gets colder and colder here in Forest Park and the rest of Chicagoland, I find that my reading (and listening habits, for that matter) tend to change dramatically. As winter settles in, so does my desire to read something that matches Mother Nature’s mood. What do I reach for? Usually a good piece of Dystopian Fiction. The Oxford English Dictionary provides this definition for Dystopia:

An imaginary place or condition in which everything is as bad as possible; opp. Utopia. So dystopian n., one who advocates or describes a dystopia; dystopian a., of or pertaining to a dystopia; dystopianism, dystopian quality or characteristics.

For me at least, cold weather means cold books, books that offer oftentimes bleak reimaginings of our world as well as others. Most Dystopian Fiction acts as a cautionary tale warning the reader about how bad humanity could get if certain practices continue. They are also most often set in the future and sometimes fall into the genre of Science Fiction, though not always. Below are a couple of our favorites as well as some helpful links to reading and viewing lists and some notes from the University of Santa Barbra.

Staff Picks

Kate: The Road by Cormac McCarthy – Recently turned into a major motion picture, The Road is a stark and often disturbing portrait of survival in a post-apocalyptic America. Centering around the journey of a boy and his father (both remain nameless throughout), the story acts as both a warning and an examination of the bond between father and son. The two characters celebrate the smallest victories and endure tremendous hardships as they head south, to warmer weather, while avoiding cannibals and “bad men”.

Ben: Dhalgren by Samuel K. Delaney – Dhalgren is a dark, experimental, occasionally shocking exploration of sex, race, class, and the nature of storytelling. The novel follows the journey of an amnesiac drifter called the Kid, who stumbles into a ruined, post-apocalyptic city. While struggling though this kaleidoscopic, fragmented, often violent environment, the once-lowly Kid eventually becomes a sort of folk hero. The story seems to end abruptly, but the final broken sentence links to the first sentence of the book, inviting the reader to plunge back into the novel and encounter it at a different level. Dhalgren clocks in at 800 dense pages, but the style—a combination of magical realism and science fiction—keeps the story center stage.

Ian: 1984 by George Orwell - Orwell’s undisputed masterpiece and the book in which the term “Big Brother” originated, this excellent science fiction novel tells the story of normal people struggling against an overbearing and invasive government that tracks their every move. 1984 is a quest for freedom and love wrapped in a disturbing vision of the future.

Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons - Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ epic masterpiece, Watchmen, is a novel unlike any I’ve read before. The Graphic Novel genre as a whole has always struggled against the notion that they are merely longer, more fantasy driven “cartoons.” While Watchmen may sometimes look like the Sunday morning funny pages, and its premise is definitely within the realm of fantasy, the literary presentation and the sheer scope of the content make this celebrated novel well-deserving of all the praise it has received since its 1987 release. Watchmen takes the “what if” question and runs with it from the very beginning. What if superheroes existed and some of them worked for the American government during World War II and the Cold War? And what if someone or something was trying to kill off all the heroes in an attempt to shift the political balance of the world? The most interesting aspects of Watchmen occur within the relationships that the book explores; relationships between the various masked adventurers, between those heroes and the public they are protecting, and the strained political situations that were in place from 1945 through the 1980s. All of this builds to a shocking conclusion that unites all of the subplots and obscure details that Moore’s writing explores and Gibbons’ artwork expresses.

More Resources for Dystopian Fiction

Snarkerati.com’s list of 50 Best Dystopian Films

Listverse.com’s Top 12 Dystopian Novels

Artandpopularculture.com’s Utopian and Dystopian Reading Lists

University of California, Santa Barbara - Dystopia and Science Fiction: Blade Runner, Brazil, and Beyond

Happy Holidays!

The library will be closed on the 24th and 25th, but all of our online services will be up and running. For example, you could download an audiobook collection of Charles Dickens' Christmas stories. Or, say, look up the number for the North Pole workshop, to make sure the elves have processed your order for this year.

We look forward to seeing you after Christmas, for the Wii Rock Band Potluck on January 4th, the book club on the 11th, or one of our other winter events! Until then we'll leave you with this bit of holiday cheer from one of our patrons, Hiroshi Yasuda. Happy holidays from all of us!

Book Review: American Salvage, by Bonnie Jo Campbell

Bonnie Jo Campbell's American Salvage contains experiments with form, such as "The Solutions to Brian's Problem", but it's the setting that ties all these stories together: the vast stretches of rural America--small one-industry towns, blighted landscapes, poor and desperate people. Campbell skillfully ratchets up the emotional intensity: the intense pain of a serious burn slides into the ecstasy of sex which climbs into Catholic passion; blood features prominently throughout, as does asphalt, and alcohol. Few of these stories have resolution; most often, something is immanent--either action or reaction remains to be resolved just beyond the margins of the text. When there is resolution, it is tentative and provisional. A crack is patched, an excuse found, a life or relationship will hold together for a while longer, perhaps. Most of Campbell's characters have their private sorrows, which define them more clearly than their circumscribed social lives. It's gripping reading, but there's something suspect in the ease with which the reader is drawn into Campbell's world. Race is rarely mentioned, but these stories all seem to be about white people's lives; a strange choice when race is so large an issue in rural America. And the characters, no matter how distasteful or unlikeable on the surface, are revealed to be complex and fascinating people. Campbell has taken the much-maligned rural American (the farmer, the factory worker) and rehabilitated (redeemed?) him. In these stories, he suffers, he yearns, he holds out work-scarred hands, gazes out of wise eyes, and invites the reader to share his sorrow and pain. Campbell has given this cast of characters, so often denigrated or overlooked in the story of America, a voice--but would their real-world counterparts recognize it? In any case, readers who hear that voice will likely find it both moving and memorable.

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