Reading Time
7:55 pm
- John Waters
Let me preface this post with an apology to all the
great authors and works not listed below. There are many, and it's nearly
impossible to give an account of them all. I might write a sequel someday,
though.
In no particular order, here is a list of some of the
literary works I truly appreciate and would recommend everyone to read at some
point.
George Orwell - Nineteen
Eighty-Four
For me, this is for certain one of the best, if not
the very best, works of dystopia ever written. Without discussing the plot in
detail, it offers a prophetic, nightmarish vision
of a futuristic totalitarian society in which the latest advances in psychology
and cutting-edge technology are being used to keep the masses in submission in
the most extreme ways.
As a historian and a linguist, I found the book
particularly interesting for it, among other, challenges the notions of:
1. privacy – what if someone was able to control our
thoughts? What if controlling the "truth"
and the "history" enabled someone to control how and what people
think?
2. free will and brainwashing – how is it possible to
live in a society without basic civil rights, under
a government that exercises complete and unchallenged control?
3. history and censorship – can history be rewritten
and forged? Can "truth" be fabricated?
4. language – are thoughts dependent on the words that
express them? Is it possible to limit speech and understanding by eliminating
the ill-suited words?
Thinking about these questions makes you
a bit paranoid, doesn't it? In one moment you think you know exactly what you
believe about everything, and then suddenly you question whether or not you
believe anything at all about anything. It's hunting. It's disturbing. It's absolutely brilliant, not for its
literary genius or complexity, but for the ideas behind it.
Aldous Huxley – Brave New World
The novel focuses on a somewhat similar subject as Nineteen
Eighty-Four, but there are many undisputable and significant differences. This
is an anti-utopia that depicts the formation of a society in which, through clever use of genetic engineering, brainwashing
and recreational sex and drugs, all its members are made into happy consumers.
However, they are conditioned into being happy, and
their happiness exists in only the most trivial sense: they lead lives of
simple pleasures, without science, art, passion, danger or sin.
Regardless of the flaws the novel
obviously has, the reason I found it so fascinating is the fact that it seems
much closer to our everyday reality than Nineteen Eighty-Four. Come to
think about it, our world is starting to resemble Huxley's science fiction
setting more and more with each new day. His far-future fantasy reflects a
reality that could be today. And the big question is: will we control
technology or will technology control us someday?
Douglas N. Adams - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy
Please, before anything... don't
panic! This is only the first
book in a trilogy of five books (yes, you read that right, it wasn't a
mistake).
Believe me, providing a short summary of the plot is
absolutely needless here. The reason this book series made it on this list is
not its plot whatsoever. It’s the ideas, wonderful commentaries on the human
condition, clever humour, puns, jokes and apparent absurdities that made me
fall madly in love with Mr DNA's work. The series combines some seemingly
incompatible elements; sci-fi and comedy, for instance. In that sense, I can
understand how some might not absolutely love it. But if somebody absolutely
hates it – well, you're probably the reason humans are only the third most
intelligent species on Earth. And I'm not even sorry for quoting that.
Want to finally know the answer to life,
the universe, and everything? Read the Hitchhiker's Guide series!
Chuck Palahniuk - Fight Club
The first rule about Fight Club: you do not talk about
Fight Club.
The second rule about Fight club: you do not talk
about Fight Club.
I'll be honest here: first time I heard about Fight
Club was when the film adaptation came out. It never appealed to me - probably
because the title evoked an image of a boxing ring in my imagination that
simply never was my cup of tea. Long story short, I had never seen the film
before I was introduced to the book. This happened at about my graduate year as
the book was brought to me as part of my required reading. Needless to say I
was stunned by the text before me. Speaking of "never judge a book by its
cover (or title)", huh?
Ever since I've read it a million times, wrote
numerous essays on the issue of femininity in it, memorized and quoted many
memorable paragraphs, and saw the film multiple times. And nowadays I can say
it's probably my favourite book ever for it is very clever, insightful, dark,
and thought-provoking.
I'm certain most are familiar with Fincher's film,
which is, by the way, a brilliant adaptation, but – spoiler alert! – the book
has quite a different ending!
And – of curse:
Antonie de Saint-Exupéry – The Little Prince
A review wouldn't do justice to this short novel.
But here's an advice: make your children read it. And
then make them re-read it when they grow up.
But bear in mind this is not a book for children. It's
a book for adults who remember being children.
That's all I have to say.
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