Four disturbing reads eerily similar to our world today
Introducing Busy Reading, a monthly column for bookworms and library lovers. Look forward to our Associate Editor Emmerson Jull profiling local writers, exploring emerging genres, compiling book reviews and recommending a new read each month.
These four dystopian novels present unnerving explorations of corruption and widespread social unrest. Whether read as cautionary tales or guides to surviving unthinkable circumstances, you’re sure to find these books eerily prophetic.
1984 by George Orwell
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” (Orwell, 1949)
1984 is the most obvious addition to this list, and for some, it will be the most resonant. The Party’s slogan reads like a training manual for present-day authoritative governments: “War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength.”
In this not-so-distant dystopia, privacy is nonexistent, citizens are under constant surveillance and even their deepest inner thoughts are monitored by the Thought Police.
1984’s protagonist Winston Smith lives under the Party’s totalitarian rule of Oceania. His life is dull and grey, walled in by screens that scrutinize his every breath. Winston is disillusioned by the Party’s propaganda and finds himself sympathizing with the Brotherhood, a body of anti-state conspirators. As such, Winston has committed the ultimate act of treason, “thoughtcrime.” Winston’s dissidence grows as he falls in love with Julia, a member of the Junior Anti-Sex League.
The terrifying world envisioned by Orwell is one of blinding fealty, extreme paranoia and a total lack of empathy. Today, we sign our rights away to social media conglomerates, outfit ourselves with computers and cameras, consume manipulative on-screen propaganda—and even facial recognition technology has surpassed Orwell’s darkest imaginations. Maybe it’s time to make Orwell fictitious again?
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
“That’s all anybody can do right now. Live. Hold out. Survive. I don’t know whether good times are coming back again. But I know that won’t matter if we don’t survive these times.” (Butler, 1993)
Parable of the Sower is a brilliant work of science fiction. At 15-years-old, Lauren Olamina has so far survived the climate apocalypse and the depravity of life in California. While Lauren’s neighbours live in denial about the chaos leeching into their gated community, she prepares to protect her loved ones and spread word of a new faith: the Earthseed.
Parable of the Sower is set in a post-apocalyptic America in the early 2020s. The country has been overwhelmed with social unrest, accelerated by environmental crises and steep economic inequality. Education systems have collapsed, money is near-worthless due to inflation and the only things people really need—clean water and food—are rare enough to kill for. If that’s not shocking enough, in the novel’s sequel, Butler writes of a presidential candidate—a racist and religious fanatic—who promises to “make America great again” (seriously).
Butler is not merely prescient. She saw the world in the 1990s with startling clarity and imagined how a deliberately ignorant society might fare in a future ravaged by global warming and oppression. Our world may be past reading Butler’s work as a warning. Instead, we should learn from Lauren’s method of survival by embracing change and building community, with trust and faith for a better future.
Severance by Ling Ma
“The End begins before you are ever aware of it. It passes as ordinary.” (Ma, 2018)
Severance is set in an alternate history of the U.S. and traces the life of Candace Chen before and during Shen Fever, an incurable fungal infection originating in China. Candace hardly looks up from her work as the world succumbs to Shen Fever, even as her employer mandates N-95 masks and the streets of New York empty around her.
Ma’s nonlinear narration style exposes parallels between Candace’s past and her present. We learn of Candace’s parents emigrating from Fuzhou, China, to Salt Lake City, Utah. By postgrad, both of her parents are deceased. With few friends and no relatives in America, Candace is only tethered to the present by the ins and outs of her unfulfilling job. Once Shen Fever has decimated society, Candace seeks permanent shelter with a group of fellow survivors, led by a power-hungry man.
Severance describes a world decaying as office workers toil away, labouring until their last breaths to answer phones and meet deadlines. The “fevered” are compelled to mindlessly relive their routines until their bodies yield to sickness, not unlike the living.
Read Severance for an uncomfortably familiar story about weathering the end of the world under capitalism. With astute commentary on immigration, relationships, family and faith, Ma illustrates the human tendency to grasp onto nostalgia until it’s all we have left.
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
“Better never means better for everyone… It always means worse, for some.” (Atwood, 1985)
While researching for her novel in the 1980s, Atwood collected a box of newspaper clippings describing a world rife with religious and racial tension, infertility caused by environmental pollution and state-sponsored efforts to increase births while attacking abortion and women’s rights. She imagined what the U.S. might look like if those issues hit a boiling point and rightwing fundamentalists took over the state. Her answer was the legendary feminist dystopia, The Handmaid’s Tale.
In the Republic of Gilead, with a majority of the population infertile, women are indoctrinated and forcibly bred to repopulate the state. Bodily autonomy is nonexistent, and women not selected for childrearing are relegated to caretaking and matronly roles.
Our narrator, Offred, is separated from her family during an attempt to escape to Canada and then forced to become a Handmaid. As such, her sole purpose is to bear a child for Commander Fred Waterford and his barren wife, Serena Wharton. Offred lives out most of her days incarcerated, except for when she must collect food or attend public executions; worse, when she is forced to participate in a monthly, semi-religious ritual of mass rape.
As ultraconservatism and religious extremism infiltrate world governments, and waves of anti-abortion legislation sweep the U.S., our society bears more resemblance than ever to the violent patriarchy and racism in The Handmaid’s Tale.
Busy Reading Book Club: This Monster of Mine by Shalini Abeysekara
To keep you “Busy Reading”, Jull will select a book club pick each month, with an emphasis on diverse voices and thoughtful stories. We’d love to connect with fellow readers to share the joy of great books, so if you’re reading along, let us know what you think by emailing ae@theontarion.com.
For October, we’re reading This Monster of Mine by Canadian author Shalini Abeysekara. It’s a delightfully thrilling romantasy inspired by ancient Rome and Abeysekara’s firsthand knowledge of the flawed justice system as a former corporate lawyer.
18-year-old Sarai, who is seeking vengeance against the man who attempted to murder her, returns to the Academiae of Ur Dinyé to train as a magical prosecutor and investigate her unknown assailant. She’s assigned to work with Kadra, a ruthless judge—and the most likely suspect in her case. Though Sarai plans to take down Kadra, she finds herself drawn towards him instead, and their slow-burning fatal attraction evolves against a backdrop of mystery and deceit in a complex world of politics and magic.