/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.2482368]

Hey, I'm really into dystopian novels. I really enjoyed The Giver, Brave New World, etc. I also read the Hunger Games and enjoyed it for what it was. Same with the Gone series by Michael Grant.

Can you recommend me any good dystopian books?

[Anonymous No.2482373]

george saunders - pastoralia, civilwarland in bad decline
matthew derby - super flat times
kathy acker - empire of the senseless
margaret atwood - handmaid's tale

[Anonymous No.2482375]

[Anonymous No.2482381]

>>2482373
I've read The Handmaid's Tale, but the rest I haven't. Thanks.
>>2482375
I have that laying around somewhere, I haven't gotten a chance to read it. I should have read that before I even thought about reading YA.

[Anonymous No.2482393]

The thing I liked about the Gone series is that it contained a mass disappearance (of all adults, to be specific), and some of the kids had powers and/or mutations. If there is anything out there like that as well, I'd enjoy reading it.

[Anonymous No.2482419]

haven't read it: 2666, Bolano

[Anonymous No.2482425]

>>2482419
That looks...interesting. I'm not sure if it's my style, but I'll certainly check it out.

[Anonymous No.2482432]

>>2482425

Do, I've read it, it's absolutely amazing. Very interested in literary construction too, the first parts are taken up with a kind of metatextual game involving an obscure author and three academics on the search for him.

I'm going to recommend JG Ballard's 'The Atrocity Exhibiton'. Just approach it with a patience for its aesthetic, I find the best dystopian literature makes the reader complicit in its architecture and atmosphere, and this book is the most amazing example of this.

[Anonymous No.2482449]

>>2482432
Wow, I'm actually interested in both those books now. Now I have to find them...

[Anonymous No.2482454]

>>2482449

Good, do it! In terms of The Atrocity Exhibition, the form of the novel is experimental, Ballard himself recommends the reader just browse through, pick something that interests them and then give it a try. I'm going to post a chapter from the novel so you can get a feel of what Ballard does with text, he is a master, as much an artist as an author. So here we go...

[Anonymous No.2482459]

WHY I WANT TO FUCK RONALD REAGAN

RONALD REAGAN AND THE CONCEPTUAL AUTO DISASTER. Numerous studies have been conducted upon patients in terminal paresis (GPI), placing Reagan in a series of simulated auto crashes, e.g. multiple pileups, head-on collisions, motorcade attacks (fantasies of Presidential assassinations remained a continuing preoccupation, subject showing a marked polymorphic fixation on windshields and rear trunk assemblies). Powerful erotic fantasies of an anal-sadistic surrounded the image of the Presidential contender.

Subjects were required to construct the optimum auto disaster victim by placing a replica of Reagan’s head on the unretouched photographs of crash fatalities.

In 82% of cases massive rear-end collisions were selected with a preference for expressed fecal matter and rectal hemorrhages. Further tests were conducted to define the optimum model-year. These indicate that a three year model lapse with child victims provide the maximum audience excitation (confirmed by manufacturers’ studies of the optimum auto disaster). It is hoped to construct a rectal modulous of Reagan and the auto disaster of maximized audience arousal.

Motion picture studies of Ronald Reagan reveal characteristic patterns of facial tones and musculature associated with homoerotic behavior. The continuing tension of buccal sphincters and the recessive tongue role tally with earlier studies of facial rigidity (cf., Adolf Hitler, Nixon). Slow-motion cine films of campaign speeches exercised a marked erotic effect upon an audience of spastic children. Even with mature adults the verbal material was found to have a minimal effect, as demonstrated by substitution of an edited tape giving diametrically opposed opinions...

[Anonymous No.2482460]

INCIDENCE OF ORGASMS IN FANTASIES OF SEXUAL INTERCOURSE WITH RONALD REAGAN. Patients were provided with assembly kit photographs of sexual partners during intercourse. In each case Reagan’s face was super imposed upon the original partner. Vaginal intercourse with "Reagan" proved uniformly disappointing, producing orgasm in 2% of subjects.

Axillary, buccal, navel, aural, and orbital modes produced proximal erections. The preferred mode of entry overwhelmingly proved to be the rectal. After a preliminary course in anatomy it was found that the caecum and transverse colon also provided excellent sites for excitation. In an extreme 12% of cases, the simulated anus of post-costolomy surgery generated spontaneous orgasm in 98% of penetrations. Multiple-track cine-films were constructed of "Reagan" in intercourse during (a) campaign speeches, (b) rear-end auto collisions with one and three year model changes, (c) with rear exhaust assemblies...

SEXUAL FANTASIES IN CONNECTION WITH RONALD REAGAN. The genitalia of the Presidential contender exercised a continuing fascination. A series of imaginary genitalia were constructed using (a) the mouth parts of Jacqueline Kennedy, (b) a Cadillac, (c) the assembly kid prepuce of President Johnson...In 89% of cases, the constructed genitalia generated a high incidence of self-induced orgasm. Tests indicate the masturbatory nature of the Presidential contender’s posture. Dolls consisting of plastic models of Reagan’s alternate genitalia were found to have a disturbing effect on deprived children.

[Anonymous No.2482461]

REAGAN'S HAIRSTYLE. Studies were conducted on the marked fascination exercised by the Presidential contender’s hairstyle. 65% of male subjects made positive connections between the hairstyle and their own pubic hair. A series of optimum hairstyles were constructed.

THE CONCEPTUAL ROLE OF REAGAN. Fragments of Reagan’s cinetized postures were used in the construction of model psychodramas in which the Reagan-figure played the role of husband, doctor, insurance salesman, marriage counselor, etc.

The failure of these roles to express any meaning reveals the nonfunctional character of Reagan. Reagan’s success therefore indicates society’s periodic need to re-conceptualize its political leaders. Reagan thus appears as a series of posture concepts, basic equations which reformulate the roles of aggression and anality. Reagan’s personality. The profound anality of the Presidential contender may be expected to dominate the United States in the coming years. By contrast the late JFK remained the prototype of the oral subject, usually conceived in pre-pubertal terms. In further studies sadistic psychopaths were given the task of devising sex fantasies involving Reagan. Results confirm the probability of Presidential figures being perceived primarily in genital terms; the face of LB Johnson is clearly genital in significant appearance--the nasal prepuce, scrotal jaw, etc. Faces were seen as either circumcised (JFK, Khrushchev) or uncircumcised (LBJ, Adenauer). In assembly-kit tests Reagan’s face was uniformly perceived as a penile erection. Patients were encouraged to devise the optimum sex-death of Ronald Reagan.

[Anonymous No.2482464]

And then have a look at this:

http://k-punk.abstractdynamics.org/archives/003268.html

[Anonymous No.2482493]

>>2482461
>>2482460
>>2482459
Now I'm not so sure. That just seems bizarre.

[Anonymous No.2482513]

>>2482493

Haha, I thought you might say something like that. I find Dystopian novels that try to express their content without supporting it in dystopian form tend to fall flat. Ballard constructs his own frame of reference and nomenclature, it's bizarre and unsettling, but it's very powerful too once you begin to immerse yourself in it. He constructs his own incredibly unnerving world, and I'm not sure what more you could ask from a dystopian text than that.