Where do I go after Orwell?

cornbb

Sorry, but these is one of those annoying "recommend me a book" threads.

So, I'm a huge fan of George Orwell, I've read pretty much all (I think) of his fiction and non-fiction stuff. Can anyone recommend something in a similar vein? You know, political satire/observations that haven't lost relevance since the 1930s? I need a good read...

wheres me jumpa

Perhaps not what youre after, but if you enjoyed 1984, you may also like A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Similar attempt to predict the future.

JaneHudson

cornbb wrote:

So, I'm a huge fan of George Orwell, I've read pretty much all (I think) of his fiction and non-fiction stuff. QUOTE]

Hey you just fulfilled one of my life ambitions!

I don't know much about politics but I think that all sattires have a hard time living up to the Orwell standard now. All the same I enjoyed brave new world as well and in the same vein "Do androids dream of electric sheep" was a great book.

cornbb

Cool, I'll check those out, thanks guys

JaneHudson, you can buy all of Orwell's novels in one Penguin volume for twentysomething euros. Definitely worth it! His non-fiction stuff is great too.

TheFredJ

if the factual down-and-out type stuff floated your boat, you might try some of the new journalism that came out of the 60s and early 70s - bits of wolfe etc, very ealry hunter s thompson (before the gonzo fully kicked in - stuff like the hell's angels book) etc.

you could also try looking at bits of mark twain and most of ambrose bierce (actually, from the satire point, you'd probly fall for his devil's dictionary. there's a few other american journalists of that era whose names escape me for now but who fit the orwell model.

jackbhoy

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Maybe not as good as 1984/Animal Farm but brilliant none the less

BossArky

As I posted in the other thread... try "The man in the High Castle" - Philip K Dick.... the other side win WW2.

Dudess

BossArky wrote:

"The man in the High Castle" - Philip K Dick.... the other side win WW2.

Readin' that at the mo. Class.

Yep, love the old futuristic, nightmare vision, political satire genre.
I would also recommend The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood - America run by crazy, right-wing christians in the early 21st century (!!!) and women reduced to second-class citizens. Referred to as the "feminist 1984" which is just lazy labelling but, in fairness, Atwood was clearly influenced by 1984. Absolutely superb.
Oryx and Crake is another brilliant futuristic novel by Margaret Atwood - science fiction as well as political. Amazing.
There is also Iron Heel by Jack London - actually precedes 1984 and, apparently, Orwell was a fan of it.
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess veers in a similar direction too.

Happy reading!

Mark

Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner. Get it incha.

Lazarus2.0

I read a lot of Orwell in my younger days and was enthralled , couldn't get enough ! Then I read his letters to Anthony Burgess (of A Clockwork Orange fame <fantastic predictive novel btw> ) and disillusion with the man set in . Not his works , I hasten to add ! Just the man himself .

Around the same time I was reading/discovering Peter Van Greenaway who I have to say is my favourite satirist (well he is more ironic than anything else because he wrote in present day or imminent as opposed to forescribing but i dunno would he be called an ironist or an ironoclast or whatever lol ) . Definitely worth a read if you like that kind of thing

Dudess

Read a book recently called The Olive Readers by Christine Aziz. Again, it's from the perspective of a woman in a nightmare futuristic world. Very Margaret Atwood-esque. Don't bother with it, though. Starts off brilliantly but fades into complete drivel, culminating in a crap ending.

metrovelvet

Philip K Dick
HG Wells
Brave New World - Huxley

RagShagBill

Err, maybe I'm just being dense, but I clearly remember posting in this thread. Was it deleted? And if so, why? In any case, I recommended Tocqueville for anybody who leaves Orwell without the idea that America reflects a perfectly Orwellian entity.

BossArky

If you posted in this thread from 3am Sunday morning until sometime later on Sunday then your post was lost due to a database restore. This happened to all posts on boards in that time period.

RagShagBill

That explains that then. Sorry about that slight matter of accusation.

Fr Clint Power

Fans of Phip K. Dick might be interested in The Alteration by Kingsley Amis. Dick regarded it as the finest example of alternative history he read. It is set in an alternative 1970s where the reformation never took place and Henry VIII never came to power. The main character is a ten old chorister at St. George's Basilica, for whom tragedy beckons when his teachers decide that the boy's superb voice is too precious to sacrifice to puberty. Despite his own misgivings, he must undergo castration, the alteration of the title.

damonjewel

If you like dense psychological books with a twist of sci fi then try seeking out Polish writer Stanislaw Lem. He wrote Solaris which has been made into a film twice (One in the Former Soviet Union, and a recent american version with George Clooney in it). Return from the stars is also excellent.

Kurt Vonnegut too is a great read, try slaughterhouse 5