Cranial Herbs & Rice

I'm a big fan of anything William Gibson. His vision of the future seems pretty realistic. In some respects I think his newest book Spook Country based in a now of sorts is more frightening because it brings together just how similar his future and our today are. Obviously Spook Country takes many liberties with reality but a great read. As for Neurmancer specifically I think it was the first Gibson I read and a great introduction to the cyberpunk genera. I haven't gotten around to reading Difference Engine yet but I think I've read all his other stuff and enjoyed it.

V for Vendetta was good. I have not seen the movie just the graphic novel. It’s not something that absolutely excited me but it was a good read. I would have probably enjoyed it more as a novel. The only graphic novel I can think of off the top of my head that I absolutely loved was the Crow. I do plan to pick up R Crumbs Genesis (as in the bible) interpretation at some point but more because I think it will be funny than anything else.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I saw Blade Runner first and honestly see the two as very different and both are quite enjoyable in their own right.

Fahrenheit 451 A classic.

Brave New World. I read this at about the same time I read Fahrenheit 451 and 1984. I definitely see more borrowed from Brave New World in other dystopian literature. I should probably reread BNW at some point.

Nineteen Eighty-Four Another classic novel. Movie sucked.

A Clockwork Orange – I’ve read the book and I have seen the movie several times but I could not tell you how similar or different they are. The movie is quite enjoyable but honestly not all that groundbreaking.

It is interesting to see how current culture affects the style and content of dystopian fiction. So much of the older stuff has totalitarian overtones while William Gibson’s stuff is more along the lines of freedom gone wrong.

I would have included Logan's Run. Both the book and movie are excellent and original. The TV series was utter crap.

Soylent Green also feels like it is missing.

The Road sounds interesting. I’ve added it to “the list”.  My concern is that it was picket for Oprah's Book Club. I already have one of McCarthy other books on my shelf because it sounded interesting.

Daniel

 I haven't gotten around to reading Difference Engine yet but I think I've read all his other stuff and enjoyed it. 

 I just finished The Difference Engine a few days ago.  It is among the first of the Steampunk books I have read, but as I understand, it is the standard by which all other SP books are judged.  It was an interesting read, but was sort of scattered in its plot progression. 

Of those on the list, I have only read 1984 and Brave New World.  I loved BNW.  Not so much a fan of 1984.  I have also seen the movies for V and I am legend.  I don't know how the movies compare with the books. 

 

charles

Soylent Green was a good movie for it's time, but like all such films, the pacing feels seriously slow by today's standards.

 

I saw V for Vendetta before I read it.  I personally liked the movie more.  The tone is very different, but the script was exceedingly well written, I thought. On the subject of graphic novels, I also have Maus.  That is by far the most depressing thing I've ever read. It's a retelling of the German's treatment of jews, with the jews as mice and the germans as cats.  The author's father (uncle? can't recall now) survived one of the camps and was the inspiration for the story.

 

I've read F 451 a few times, but not since high school.  I remember liking it then.  I read 1984 a few times in HS as well.  Of all the dystopias I've read / watched, it felt more prescient than any other.  And the more we let our government do stuff like Patriot Acts et al, the more prescient he seems.  The biggest difference in my mind is that Newspeak isn't the removal of words from the language so much as the transfer from accepted words to politically correct phrases.

 

The Road was recently made into a movie, wasn't it?

 

I honestly don't think I've read any of Gibson's works?  I need to add Neuromancer and Dream of Electric Sheep, at least, to my list.  I also need to rent the latest director's reworking of Blade Runner to my Blockbuster queue.

 

I've read / tried to read a few Tad Williams works.  But his writing just takes too long to plow through.  He's worse than Jordon's wheel of time books as far as just getting too verbose to entertain after a while.  Great ideas, but when each book is 800+ pages and the series tend to be 5 to 10 books each.... the man enjoys typing too much.

I honestly don't remember Soylent except the end. It may have sucked but the concept was original. You are probably correct that it does not belong in the list.

If I remember it correctly 1984 is mostly a bit of anti communist propaganda. We like to see the parallels in our modern society and I think it is a good warning but ultimately we are far from the state that is described in 1984. Even the old soviet block while closer was far from having the power of the state in 1984. Do we need to be vigilant? Sure. Is 1984 around the corner? I'd say no closer than Brave New World or The Turner Diaries. If you think a certain truth you start drawing the parallels.

If you ever want to read a bit of dystopian future that will completely p__s you off read the Turner Diaries. It was a favorite of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols if I am not mistaken. The writing is pretty bad, but it is a really good example of writing for an audience in a way that will inflame and rally. It is certainly one of those books I would find online to avoid giving the author any royalties. Going back to my point, the racist and the over the top gun people can look at The Turner Diaries and say “wow that’s just what we are turning into we have to watch out” while someone without those beliefs is inclined to say yeah that’s not so much a realistic representation of the world. We draw our parallels because of what you already think is the world more than because those parallels are really necessarily there.

On the opposite side of politics I picked up The Army of the Republic in an airport of all places and found it to be quite interesting. To the best of my ability to tell it’s a call to armed conflict for the Greenpeace crowd. It is an interesting look into a theoretical very near future where the last of the protected forests have been logged (IE the redwoods are all but gone) and water is privatized. It makes a game of showing both sides while painting private industry as the enemy. I think some of the premises are a bit naïve. For example we won’t ever log the redwood forests. They are much more valuable for tourism even if they were privatized. If you have ever wondered how a decentralized domestic terrorist organization should/would/does work this seems a fairly reasonable representation. As I was reading it I did have the uncomfortable feeling of it reminding me of the Turner Diaries and they have certainly not been a positive influence. The only difference being I can kind of have some sympathy for the protagonists in this story even if they are misguided. Oh and the writing is much better.

You are correct The Road was made into a movie last year. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0898367/. Assuming the description of the book from the original article is correct I can’t see how that would make for much of a movie unless it has been heavily edited.

Daniel

That's interesting. I usually find Gibson and Bruce Sterling both to be well paced. Maybe the collaboration broke that. Steam punk conceptually appeals to me but always seems to come up a little short. I think that is the reason the Difference Engine has been sitting on my shelf unread. I like both authors but I just can't seem to actually start reading it.

 The middle of the book Difference Engine is well paced and follows a pretty streightforward plot.  The first chapter (which is quite long) was gruelling to get through.  If you can get through the first chapter, then you're set.  The last chapter too was sort of scattered and not exactly relevent to the stuff before it.  But there is a sort of logic to the book which may explain some of the authors' approach to the plot.