Speculative Fiction
One of the core competencies I believe is essential for effectively migrating through extraordinary change is a vibrant imagination. Imagining the future has long been one of the main preoccupations of writers and readers of fiction alike. In the middle of the last century, two imagined futures, Aldus Huxley's Brave New World, and George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four inflamed readerly imaginations with their cautionary tales. I've blogged previously on their varying predictions for our world today.
The following suggestions for those who want to "dive in" include fifteen authors whose speculative fictions address issues of gender (Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale; Gilman, Herland; Russ, The Female Man), religion (LaHaye, Left Behind), ethics (Card, Ender's Game; Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land), the environment (Callenback, Ecotopia), social commentary (Rand, The Fountainhead), as well other important works in the genre.
Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale
Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake
Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange
Ernest Callenback, Ecotopia
Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Charlotte Perkin's Gilman's Utopian Novels: Moving the Mountain, Herland, and With Her in Ourland
Robert Heinlein, Stanger in a Strange Land
Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
P.D. James, The Children of Men
Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth's Last Days
Doris Lessing, Canopus in Argos: Archives
Cormac McCarthy, The Road
George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four
Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
Joanna Russ, The Female Man
James Howard Kunstler, World Made By Hand
December 11, 2015 @ 6:02 pm
Hmmmm, I’m guessing maybe Cat’s Eye would be a good match for you. But there is such vaietry in her work that I would go with whatever one is calling most determinedly to you, and if that’s Handmaid’s Tale, I’m sure the library will do you proud. I’m quite tempted to join in; December is already looking messy, but I will try.