This episode, Dystopian Fiction! And some of us are considerably more excited about it than others. We talk about the difference between oppressive and consumerist dystopias, how things that were shocking or innovative in fiction in the past may no longer be seen as such, and whether we live in a dystopia. Plus! Special guest senior foreign correspondent, Amanda, reporting in after being undercover in the overthereland!

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In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jessi | Amanda Wanner

Dystopian books we read for the podcast

• Steeple by Jon Wallace
• The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
• • (The Midwich Cuckoos was turned into Village/Children of the Damned not Children of the Corn)
• The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
• The Girl Who Was Plugged In by James Tiptree Jr.
• • Literary criticism on the portrayal of the body (Wikipedia section)
• The Power by Naomi Alderman
• The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood
• • In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination by Margaret Atwood
• Zone One by Colson Whitehead
• The Destructives by Matthew De Abaitua
• Autonomous by Annalee Newitz
• Wool by Hugh Howey

Other dystopian books we mentioned

• Red Rising by Pierce Brown (Matthew briefly mentioned this in our Space Opera episode)
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (Celsius 233)
• The Giver by Lois Lowry
• The Tripods series by John Christopher
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
• Battle Royale by Koushun Takami
• The Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
• Divergent by Veronica Roth
• 1984 by George Orwell
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
• The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• The Bees by Laline Paull
• Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson
• Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
• On Such a Full Sea by Chang-rae Lee
• We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
• The Wicked and the Divine by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie
• Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut
• Black Mirror (TV show)

Links, Articles, and Things

• Goodreads’ Dystopia section
• Huxley vs Orwell webcomic by Stuart McMillen
• • An adaptation of Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman
  • An explanation of why it’s not on McMillen’s website
• 100 Great Works of Dystopian Fiction
• International Upset: 11 Dystopian Novels from Around the World
• Social credit ratings in China

Questions

• Do you think our current world is a dystopia?
• I live in a dystopia, what should I do?
• What counts as dystopia?
• • Is all post-apocalyptic fiction dystopian?
  • Is all cyberpunk fiction dystopian?
• Any alternative history dystopic recommendations?
• Why would you/would you not describe historical events/books as dystopias?
• Please write a 1000+ word essay on the relationship between Christian dispensationalism and the Western dystopian literary history. I will send you special mail?!
• What book recommendations do you have for someone living in a dystopia?
• What goes on the Book Club for Masochists bingo sheet?

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Join us again on Tuesday, December 5th when we’ll be discussing Favourite Childhood Books!

Then come back on Tuesday, December 19th when we’ll be discussing the “genre” Books Turned into Movies (and TV shows)!