I recently came across this work and I wanted to ask /lit/ if it had any other examples of under-appreciated dystopian fiction or dark alternative histories. I found Lewis' "It Can't Happen Here" to have a bit of Twain's satirical bite a la Letters from the Earth and the imaginative scope of Dick's Man in the High Castle. It was a fun read, particularly considering current events.
The other "unappreciated" dystopic work I can think of is The Camp of the Saints, which reads about as imaginatively as The Turner Diaries. Help me out, /lit/. I'm in a mood to read creative imaginings of how western civilization dies.
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin.
>>8163972
Darkness at Noon
>>8164689
Does /lit/ know any other dystopian fiction that isn't Brave New World, 1984, or We?
Every single time this topic comes up, it's always We that gets brought up, and usually in a post that simultaneously is condescending in regards to the other two like it makes the poster so well-read just because it's not in high school curriculum like those.
I mean, I enjoy We as much as the next /lit/izen, but can't anything else get some love?
On that note, and to respond to the OP, I recently read Ray Bradbury's short story The Pedestrian and thought it was pretty terrific.
>>8164766
All dystopian is the same, desu. Give up
>>8163972
The Wanting Seed by Burgess, just don't tell /pol/
The Aerodrome, Rex Warner.
Good old 1930s fear of fascism.
>>8164766
>condescending
>like it makes the poster so well-read just because it's not in high school curriculum
Yep, sounds like /lit/ to me.
>>8164856
Yeah, fair enough
Also, bumping in the hopes that there will be some more solid recommendations. Would specifically like to see recs of short stories.
>>8166239
You'd probably like a lot of Saki, but he's not alternative history, just twisted short stories.
Illustrated Man is a series of connected stories by Ray Bradbury, and you'd probably like most of them.
Master and Margarita by Bulgakov is a novel, but it's an alternative retelling of the arts administration under Stalin which is pretty bleak and dystopian even with the magic bits to replace state torture scenes.
A lot of Nabokov's short stories are pretty bleak too; Cloud, Castle, Lake in particular springs to mind and I think you can find that in most selections.
>>8164825
Hardly. In fact it's fascinating to see all the different ways by which we might end up in the exactly the same shitty place. There is no good principle of human society that does not invite its undoing when overindulged or poorly construed
>>8164746
My nigga.
Darkness at Noon is probably a better revealation of the horrors of Stalinist communistic totalitarianism than anything cooked up by an American.
Koestler knew his shit because he dealt with it straight up.
>>8163972
The Iron Heel by London
>>8163972
Bend Sinister, by Nabokov
Subtle insult to Stalin, too.
>>8166267
>Master and Margarita by Bulgakov is a novel, but it's an alternative retelling of the arts administration under Stalin which is pretty bleak and dystopian even with the magic bits to replace state torture scenes.
What? I read MaM and really liked it, but I don't know dick about Russia. Is there any good page you could link me about what the book is supposed to really be about?
