Favorite Future Utopia Work

[kass21]

Mr_michel and others:

If you never read the book of 1984 and saw the movie, it is normal that you find it boring, it's not understandable if you didn't read first... I found the movie interesting, because it was similar to what I imagined, but it explains pratically nothing and barely make you feel the atmosphere of the story.

If you are american, you ought to read this book, especially since the patriot act has been written...Big Brother's watching you

btw... I'm not

 

[mr_michel]

Mr_michel and others:

If you never read the book of 1984 and saw the movie, it is normal that you find it boring, it's not understandable if you didn't read first...

never said i found it boring, just didnt like it that much

If you are american, you ought to read this book, especially since the patriot act has been written...

you really should check "the R document" it has a lot more similitudes to the patriot act situation

 

[ions]

And as far as the book "We" goes, I heard that it is kind of a reiteration of 1984, except a little duller version. Is that true?

I have been told that We was of great inspiration to Orwell when he was writing Nineteen Eighty-Four.

 

[Idril Silmaure]

1984, obviously, is a classic, with good reason..And also Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale - luckily I got to study it for A-Level which was great, really interesting.

 

[Mari]

As someone has already noted, most of the books listed so far are dystopias instead of utopias. I get the impression that dystopias are written more often. It's one thing to highlight what's wrong with our world by carrying it out to some terrible future; it's another thing to come up with solutions that could be represented in a utopia.

Dystopias are also more likely to come to pass. Things can always get worse, just by going the way they're going. Cheery, huh?

Two utopias that occur to me are:

Ecotopia, by Ernest Callenbach, which is inspirational on environmental issues.

Woman on the Edge of Time, by Marge Piercy, which is motivated by feminist issues. The utopia in this book, however, is intertwined with a future dystopia, and with a current-day tragedy.


Additional thought:

Last and First Men has some utopian elements, but it is dated now, and not particularly readable. Arthur C. Clarke, however, said it inspired his writing, so it is important in the history of science fiction.

 

[SFG75]

Brave New World gets my vote--I really didn't believe that 1984 was equal to it. Huxley's work was prophetic(right and wrong) about a good number of things.

 

[MonkeyCatcher]

I'd have to say 1984 by George Orwell and The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. I havn't read Brave New World yet, but I've added it to my TBR list since so many of you have picked it as your favourite

~MonkeyCatcher~

 

[Wolhay]

One of my favourite dystopias that hasn't been mentioned yet is 'Kallocain' by Karin Boye. It is similar to '1984' in the sense that it's about the development of a truth serum that could make thoughts illegal but it was published before it.

Karin Boye
(1900-1941)
​

 

[Dyaus]

My favourite dystopian books are :

Brave New World
1984
Fahrenheit 451
The Handmaid's Tale

Dystopian literature strikes me a lot more than utopian literature because you can see some of what is being described happening already.
Call these authors prescient or visionaries, but in the end, these books are very much about human nature - and these "utopia-gone-wrong" stories show how so many of our dreams of the future may start out on good intentions, but end up, due to many factors, becoming oh so very wrong and twisted.