this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
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There's also Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. I don't recommend it - the book is basically a "if Orwell was right-wing, soapboxing instead of trying to explain what's going on, and with poor writing skills". Seriously.
Yeah if never been interested in Atlas Shrugged, after learning it’s very conservative leaning.
Great suggestions!
Yeah, the whole book boils down to "the hand of the market will solve errything!". Except that Rand doesn't know that the hand of the market has Parkinson's.
She also kills off every character she sees as weak through their generosity. The book just hits you so hard over the head with her philosophy rather than letting you think.
It's popular on the right because of the lack of thinking required.
Not at all what I was getting at.
I read Brave New World &1984 back-to-back and highly recommend it.
Also by Huxley: Ape and Essence. Also a good read. Different though, but still dystopian.
Fuck. How could I forget mentioning it? I love this book, and the political implications of the story - with powerful States being nuked into mutants, and the little NZ in the middle of nowhere, completely forgotten, is saved by its own lack of relevance. The whole idea of a story within another story, with non-human apes doing human activities (to drive the idea that we are behaving like the other apes too) was genial.
Thanks for mentioning it!
No problem. I'm glad you liked it as well. I definitely read it right after brave new world around high school age. I should really re-read it. It's been a long time.
We is so obviously an influence on 1984 I'm surprised it isn't better known!
Brave New World and Clockwork Orange are two of my favorite books period. Great suggestions!
I dont know why I could never get through brave new world. I tried reading it once when I was in my early 20s and tried the audio book this year and couldn't do it.
I read We before I read 1984 when I was young and I thought it was amazing. I would add that it's also kind of sci-fi.