# Recommend me some utopian and dystopian fiction **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 11, 2010, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-utopian-and-dystopian-fiction/556769 "2010-10-11T08:40:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sonnenstrahl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Sonnenstrahl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sonnenstrahl)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-utopian-and-dystopian-fiction/556769/41 "2010-10-14T19:03:12Z")
Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro. A film is coming out which will make it super popular again. What I loved about it, apart from the beautiful writing, was the acceptance of the characters and the way the author told the story as if the dystopian world was completely natural - it was an interesting comment on what can become socially acceptable. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-utopian-and-dystopian-fiction/556769/42 "2010-10-14T19:04:22Z")
[The Culture](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Culture) of Iain Banks’ novels is very attractive, anarchic, hedonistic utopia. Unfortunately, it all depends on technologies that might never exist. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-utopian-and-dystopian-fiction/556769/43 "2010-10-14T20:04:37Z")
Ooo, forgot to mention _Logan’s Run_ by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson (the book’s a lot better than the movie). Its future human society is a utopia until you turn 21, and then it very abruptly becomes a dystopia. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-utopian-and-dystopian-fiction/556769/44 "2010-10-14T20:11:06Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Ooo, forgot to mention _Logan’s Run_ by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson (the book’s a lot better than the movie). Its future human society is a utopia until you turn 21, and then it very abruptly becomes a dystopia. Neither the book nor the movie explains how it is possible to run a high-tech civilization with such a young population. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-utopian-and-dystopian-fiction/556769/45 "2010-10-14T20:21:31Z")
They don’t, really. In the book, at least, it’s clear that it’s gradually falling apart because the world is run by teenagers. In the film, they’re a bit older. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-utopian-and-dystopian-fiction/556769/46 "2010-10-14T21:04:25Z")
> [@Apocalypso](#): > > Utopian: . . . > > [Stranger in a Strange Land](http://www.amazon.com/Stranger-Strange-Land-Robert-Heinlein/dp/0441788386/ref=pd_mw_b_84?ie=UTF8&s=books) (really surprised no one’s mentioned this yet. It’s a classic.) It is not a utopia. The state/culture of Earth is not utopian, and we don’t see enough of Martian culture to make a judgment. The new religion Mike starts is, well, a new religion, not a utopia – a utopia has to encompass a whole society. An autonomous farm-commune could count as a utopia, but not a group of people just living as neighbors and practicing a religion. ---
**Author:** ![wintertime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c68b51/32.png) [@wintertime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wintertime)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-utopian-and-dystopian-fiction/556769/47 "2010-10-14T22:26:09Z")
Even older than _Pictures of a Socialist Future_ mentioned by **puddleglum** is the dystopian _[Le Monde tel qu’il sera](http://www.archive.org/details/lemondetelquils00souv)_ by Émile Souvestre. Maybe this is the first published dystopia in a modern sense – so, I think you might be interested. And let us not forget the influential “We” (1921) by Yevgeny Zamyatin. Another Russian author who is unfortunately almost unknown is Alexander Sinowjew or Aleksandr Zinoviev whose 1976 novel _Sijajustschije wyssoty_ (in German: “Gähnende Höhen”, I don’t know if an English translation exists) is a haunting dystopian satire set in a Soviet Union that has lost itself totally in a dehumanizing bureaucratic system. It’s brilliant but very hard to read/endure. I’d also like to add _Stand on Zanzibar_ (1968), _The Sheep look up_ (1972) and _The Shockwave Rider_ (1975) by John Brunner. The first one deals with overpopulation and its social impact, the second one with environmental degradation and pollution and the last one could be called a precursor of cyberpunk. I have reread _Stand on Zanzibar_ and _The Sheep look up_ a couple of months ago and was pleased to add them to the pretty short list of books read as a teenager that I still like. _[In the Country of Last Things](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Country_of_Last_Things)_ by Paul Auster isn’t even close to his best books but it’s not as one-dimensional as many dystopian books seem to be. Plus, it’s well written. > [@Karen\_Lingel](#): > > _Oryx and Crake_, by Margaret Atwood > _A Handmaid’s Tale_, by Margaret Atwood > (..) > The first is a future controlled by corporations. (..) Isn’t it rather set in a future after a future controlled by corporations? > [@belladonna](#): > > Another one I loved was called \*Shades of Grey \*by Jasper Fforde. It is about a world from which the ability to see true color has been drained, and the status of people rests on the color they are able to see. Hard to explain, but incredibly interesting, unusual, and well-written. I love FForde’s books but this sounds serious in contrast to his Thursday Next and Nursery crime series. Is it set in the same universe as his other series or an independent one and is it as serious as it sounds like? .. I have ordered it while writing – thanks for the suggestion. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-utopian-and-dystopian-fiction/556769/48 "2010-10-14T22:43:09Z")
I just started it because of this thread - no, it is not serious. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![wintertime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c68b51/32.png) [@wintertime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wintertime)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-utopian-and-dystopian-fiction/556769/49 "2010-10-14T23:13:32Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > I just started it because of this thread - no, it is not serious. 🙂 Ah, good to know, thanks. In case you don’t already know it and are interested: _[One of our Thursdays is Missing](http://www.jasperfforde.com/nextbook.html)_ is going to be published in a couple of months. **belladonna** also mentioned _The Year of the Flood_ and while I don’t think that it has the same quality as _Oryx and Crake_, the audio version is so well done that I enjoyed it almost more. ---
**Author:** ![Rich\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@Rich\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rich_L)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-utopian-and-dystopian-fiction/556769/50 "2010-10-21T12:46:18Z")
Let us not forget Island, Aldous Huxley’s Utopian book. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-utopian-and-dystopian-fiction/556769/51 "2010-10-21T12:59:59Z")
Personally, my top recommendation in dystopian science fiction is [Wyst, Alastor: 1716](http://www.amazon.com/Wyst-Alastor-1716-Bk/dp/0879975938/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1287665618&sr=1-1), by Jack Vance. Like all of Vance’s books, the plot is basically an adventure story. It’s about a young man from a different planet who arrives on the world of Wyst, which is set up as a collectivist society where everybody works only 13 hours a week and receives equal portions of food and housing. I find the backdrop to be much more convincing than _Brave New World_, _1984_, or _Fahrenheit 451_. Vance’s focus is not about oppression through torture and murder as much as on the psychological effects of the system, as the young people get wrapped up in a dumbed-down, hypersexualized culture, kind of like _Idiocracy_. In addition, it’s just a very well-written novel. The main character, Jantiff Ravencloak, is one of the best protagonists I’ve ever seen in a science fiction novel. The minor characters are equally well-drawn and the conclusion is genuinely exciting. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-utopian-and-dystopian-fiction/556769/52 "2010-10-21T13:28:09Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > Personally, my top recommendation in dystopian science fiction is [Wyst, Alastor: 1716](http://www.amazon.com/Wyst-Alastor-1716-Bk/dp/0879975938/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1287665618&sr=1-1), by Jack Vance. Like all of Vance’s books, the plot is basically an adventure story. It’s about a young man from a different planet who arrives on the world of Wyst, which is set up as a collectivist society where everybody works only 13 hours a week and receives equal portions of food and housing. I find the backdrop to be much more convincing than _Brave New World_, _1984_, or _Fahrenheit 451_. Vance’s focus is not about oppression through torture and murder as much as on the psychological effects of the system, as the young people get wrapped up in a dumbed-down, hypersexualized culture, kind of like _Idiocracy_. So, it’s actually **utopian** SF! ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-utopian-and-dystopian-fiction/556769/53 "2010-10-21T14:07:05Z")
Jack London’s \*The Iron Heel \*was an important influence on Orwell’s _1984._ Ayn Rand’s _Anthem._ Harlan Ellison’s _Repent Harlequin! said the Tick Tock Man._ I’ll add another vote for Ira Levin’s _This Perfect Day_. It’s both a solid adventure story and a neat satire of the left’s Care Bear fascism. "Christ, Marx, Woods and Wei led us to this perfect day … " Lord, that nursery rhyme still chills my blood. \*The Wanting Seed \*and \*A Clockwork Orange \*by Anthony Burgess. Harry Harrison’s _Make Room! Make Room!_ which inspired the film _Soylent Green._ Aldous Huxley’s _Ape and Essence_. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-utopian-and-dystopian-fiction/556769/54 "2010-10-21T14:24:32Z")
> [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > Ayn Rand’s _Anthem._ With which we’re all familiar, because it was the shortest book on the summer reading list. But, not a good book to give to teenagers! 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-utopian-and-dystopian-fiction/556769.md?page=2)