Heroes in Dystopia

This is a list for a possible book group focused on dystopias. I certainly make no claim to be an expert on literature but do hope that the selections given here will be of interest. Write me some e-mail (kainen at georgetown.edu) if you have comments.

Last modified 1/4/07

A novel is dystopian if it has a coherent social critique mixed in with the usual aspects of character and plot. The best known such novels are probably 1984, by Orwell, and Brave New World, by Huxley. The books listed below are much less well known. Moreover, some of them stretch the usual sense of dystopia in that they may reflect a particular character's viewpoint more than an actual social situation. However, IMHO, there are lurking aspects of everyday life which the novelist was trying to point out. Also, I use the phrase "Heroes in Dystopia" to emphasize the human who opposes the dystopian elements.

We, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Penguin, 1920 (I think the best translation of this Russian futurist novel is in Penguin.)
The Inheritors, Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford, Caroll & Graf, 1901 (Really unusual in so many ways ...)
Before Adam, Jack London, 1907 (Old Red-Eye was not a fellow you wanted to mess with, especially when he was tossing the wife-du-jour off a cliff. And if you like this one, do read The Star-Rover, about the astral travels of a San Quentin inmate.)
Limbo, Bernard Wolfe, Caroll & Graf, 1987 (orig. 1952) (Really chilling. A society that practices voluntary mutilation. Some might say that our educational system follows that strategy.)
The Thanatos Syndrome, Walker Percy, Ballantine, 1987 (I will probably need to reread this one. But the thanatopic strain is certainly well embedded in our current American society.)
Sailor Song, Ken Kesey, Viking Penguin, 1992 (I reread this recently and it really holds up! Although there is a dark thread which lies in the background, this is an exciting novel.)
The Disappearance, Philip Wylie, Victor Golancz Ltd., 1951 (Post-nuke scenario where men and women disappear for one another.)
Vineland, Thomas Pynchon, Little, Brown and Co., 1990 (Of course, Gravity's Rainbox is his major work, but Vineland also has wonderful 3-dimensional characters - the literary equivalent, perhaps, to Bacon's distorted figures.)
The Air-Conditioned Nightmare, Henry Miller (The final scene seems to predict Ronald Reagan ascension!)
The Sleeper Awakes, H. G. Wells (TV advertizing and dozens of different police forces are just two of the many aspects of modern life which Wells foresaw.)

I recently read ``A Hero of Our Times'' by Lermentov, which is a terrific novel. If there were a dystopian element, it would certainly be included for literary power. Perhaps there is since the hero is strikingly modern; one could regard the novel as a kind of science fiction as it projects social and individual behavior. I included Conrad and Ford's The Inheritors for similar reasons. Tono Bungay (Wells) might also fit.

Added Sept. 3, 2009: Since this was written, _two_ additional novels by Pynchon have appeared. Against the Day certainly has dystopian aspects and, IMHO, is another of Pynchon's great novels. The newest one, Inherent Vice, is interesting but I'm only a short way into the book.

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