Just read picrel and it fucking blew me away. Really loved all the questions it raised and social commentary. Anyone know any other great dystopian novels similar in themes? Preferably not Philip K Dick because I like variety in my reading
>>7383477
Fahrenheit 451 is a great book in my opinion. I'm currently reading Brave New World, but I'm not sure how I feel about it.
>>7383526
You're beautiful, thank you.
I thought no one would reply
>>7383570
No worries man. /lit/ takes a few minutes before anons reply. Also, I recommend 1984. In my honest opinion it is one of the most iconic dystopian novels. If you could recommend any new dystopian novels, that would be fantastic.
Foundation Pit
>>7383477
brave new world
>>7383585
can you explain the bear in foundation pit? i didn't understand that part at all
also i don't understand why it's classified as a dystopia, it just seemed like pessimistic soviet realism, and was fairly realistic. again, except for the part with the bear. WTF??
>>7383580
Yeah 1984 certainly on my list, I've started taking reading books as seriously as I do music and film recently so I'm afraid I don't really have any recommendations aside from Do Androids Dream which I thought was fantastic.
Thanks again for the reccs man
>>7383602
No problem man.
Oh, I forgot about Anthem by Ayn Rand. I don't read a lot of her work at all, but Anthem was pretty alright.
>>7383595
Platonov's work is very surrealist. Yes it was realistic in parts, but if you read closely you'll notice the absurdity. For example how Chiklin would kill kulaks and nobody would care, how peasants would lay in coffins and wait for death, how the the kulaks were liquidated by being rafted down the river, how their language had been completely mixed with Soviet slogans. Get an edition with notes, there's some good explanation in the Vintage edition.
I read the NYRB edition and I felt like the notes were satisfactory, and it had similar notes regarding the bear. However I still feel like it's super different form the rest of the book.
I don't really see any of the other examples as that surrealist, but rather an abstract representation of the realities of Soviet life back then.
>killing kulaks and no one would care
I mean that was basically the reality in many parts of the country
>peasants lay in coffins and wait for death
pretty straightforward metaphor/symbolism here
>liquidated by being rafted down the river
concrete representation of the forced migrations and resettlement that were common at the time
>language mixed with soviet slogans
again, a pretty realistic representation of life under communist rule. you see similar language use in 1960s-70s China and modern NK.
>>7383526
It's a mediocre at best book.
It's also not similar in themes at all.
>>7383670
What made the book mediocre for you?
>>7383696
Prose, setting, characters, social critique. Just about everything. Nothing in the book would I call good.
Riddley Walker
>>7383704
I respect your opinion.
What would be your top dystopian novels, then?
The Road.
>>7383754
A Scanner Darkly, Book of the New Sun, Do Androids Dream of electric sheep. They are not as dystopian as 1984/BNW though. Also those two aren't bad, much better than F451. Or I remember them in a better light, haven't read them since high school.
>>7383966
I've heard of a couple of those. I'll go ahead and bookmark them.
