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/lit/ - Literature

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15814156 No.15814156 [Reply] [Original]

Books about suffering and endurance, whether it be futile or a worthwhile effort. Something gritty and realistic, not fantasy/aliens/zombies. Books like pic related

>> No.15814232

>>15814156
Stoner

>> No.15814254

>>15814156
Alas, Babylon - Pat Frank
On the Beach - Neville Shute
The Last Ship - William Brinkley (not very good)

Also maybe Armageddon by Leon Uris, which mainly centers on Berlin, immediately post-war, which has a pretty apocalyptic feel for reasons detailed in the novel.

All of them have a bit of a sentimental streak towards the end though, which I suppose The Road kind of does too.

>> No.15814427

>>15814156
>a fucking post-apocalypse novel
>'realistic'

>> No.15814441

>>15814427
It’s catastrophe is brought on by either a meteor or a nuke/EMP, so yes. It is within the realm of realism

>> No.15814448

>>15814441
speculative fiction is inherently hyperbolic and exaggerated, however. it has to have a tinge of fantasy in order to be compelling.

>> No.15814451

>>15814441
Not if it’s an EMP lmfao

>> No.15814452

Yeah give me The Road but good please

>> No.15814504

>>15814452
You’re asking for World War Z and don’t even know it

>> No.15814645

>>15814441
every post-apocalypse is flawed because it presupposes anarchy will be the default

>> No.15814700

>>15814448
>>15814645
Quit giving me your $10 words you pseuds and recommend a book. I dont care what you think a lawless society would be like. Read into the baltic civil war and that will answer your wrong presupposition about life after chaos. College fags I swear

>> No.15815224

>>15814700
Not him but I count 5 recommendations so far
I don’t even think you know what you’re asking for. Do you want post-apocalyptic fiction or not?

>> No.15815264

>>15814645
This is very true

>> No.15815289

>>15815224
Talking to the ones splitting hairs as to what an apocalypse should be

>> No.15815459

If you like The Road and want a literary Pain Olympics, try The Crossing. It's tied with Blood Meridian for his best work.

>>15814645
>>15814427
Post-apocalyptic fiction presupposes the series of events necessary to create post-apocalyptic conditions because the journey to that state isn't the part that matters. The Road, for example, flat-out avoids discussing the big cataclysm in detail altogether. The text isn't meant to chronicle how the world could hypothetically fall, it's meant to explore how characters might behave in the worst, most lawless type of world imaginable, and whether or not life is actually worth living at that point. When people talk about literally any kind of "realistic" story I think they're more so talking about how the world and its characters behave under the conditions we are already supposing for them.

>> No.15815511

>>15814645
Also, to add onto: >>15815459, something I think The Road does pretty smartly is avoid explicitly confirming if the world actually fell into the total anarchy you're criticizing or if the father is so suspicious and afraid of people because of the horrors of the initial lawlessness that he is avoiding others in a way that keeps him scared and ignorant and denies the boy the company of other humans. They run into raiders, cannibals, etc., but but the story is kept so narrow and personal that I don't think it's ever actually confirmed that the father's perception of the world around him is correct.

>> No.15815513

>>15815459
The Road gets a pass because McCarthy literally created a scenario where there was no hope because there was no more food being created on Earth.
Most post-apocalyptic authors though make it so that there’s far, far too little actual damage done before the world just completely goes to pieces and everybody becomes hyper violent

>> No.15815540

>>15815513
>Most post-apocalyptic authors though make it so that there’s far, far too little actual damage done before the world just completely goes to pieces and everybody becomes hyper violent
I can agree with that. What's the worst you've ever seen on this?

>> No.15815580

>>15815540
I hate this book and it’s premise so much I didn’t mention it because I didn’t want our teenage OP to read it but, “One Second After” has the world go to shit immediately because the lights go out.
The premise is also based on a super-EMP which a cursory google search will prove is absurd

>> No.15815613

>>15814156
>>15814254

I also forgot to mention, there’s a short story called “Night Surf” by Stephen King that is pretty good
I think it’s an early iteration of his larger book, The Stand (which I can’t recommend)

It’s definitely not as expansive as you’d like but it’s pretty well rounded and worth the 12 minutes, or whatever, that it takes to read

>> No.15815986
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15815986

More about a social, catabolic collapse than apocalypse. Heavy on the suffering. Weird but good mix of high/low brow.

>> No.15816107

>>15814232

Fpbp. This guy got his shit rocked repeatedly and in every possible way throughout the whole story.

>> No.15817158

>>15814645
that's because it's actually an obverse reflections of the conditions of neoliberal life. just like how cowboy shows in the fifties imagined the wild west to be suburban life but with pistols and stetsons