Buzz
It’s one thing to claim that life feels like a typical dystopia, but it’s an entirely different matter to pick up a particular book and discover that someone who’s been gone for two decades perfectly captured the dark realities of our modern world.
Whether you lean liberal or conservative, here are 10 novels from 10 different authors that, when combined, offer everything you need to understand the discontent sweeping through modern America. These books are ranked from the solidly insightful (#10) to the astonishingly accurate (#1).
10. Kallocain by Karin Boye
Picture a society where your words hold more weight than your actions. Where what you do no longer matters, but whether you say and think the 'right' things does. A place where holding 'incorrect' views could lead to public disgrace. Sound familiar? Written in 1940, Kallocain eerily predicts today’s political correctness with uncanny accuracy.
Written by Swedish author Karin Boye, Kallocain presents a dystopian world where scientists have developed a truth serum that forces you to reveal even your hidden secrets. The authorities inject it into everyone. If anyone confesses to harboring a single 'wrong' thought, they face punishment. In this world, it's not your actions, but your language, unconscious biases, and private ideas that determine whether you deserve to exist.
Kallocain was penned during a time when the fear of a Nazi invasion was a very real threat, so its depiction of a dystopian regime leans more towards fascism on steroids than today's campus protests. Nevertheless, its call for the freedom of thought, no matter how unapproved or 'incorrect,' continues to resonate.
9. Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut
Player Piano is unsettling not because it mirrors present-day America, but because it depicts a future America where we might already be past the point of no return. In this hyper-mechanized society, no meaningful jobs remain for anyone.
Machines handle everything. The only ones left are a small, dwindling, ultra-wealthy elite and an enormous, disillusioned populace with no purpose, no money, and no hope.
Yep, that definitely seems like a possible America in 2020. And the similarities don’t end there. The world of Player Piano is driven by unchecked innovation that ignores ethics, morality, or the potential consequences of new technology on the rest of us.
Just like we’re rushing toward developing AI even though experts like Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk warn it might spell our doom, Player Piano exists in a world without limits. Kurt Vonnegut would go on to write more famous novels, but none would be as chillingly relevant to 2017 as this one.
8. We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
If you’ve ever picked up a dystopian novel, you’ve caught a glimpse of We. Released in 1924, We influenced writers like George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, and Kurt Vonnegut. Its themes resonate through the works of authors from Ray Bradbury to Ayn Rand. But We is more than just a blueprint for dystopian fiction—it’s one of the most uncannily prescient books ever written.
Set in the 26th century, human drone D-503 lives on a world where surveillance is constant and equality reigns supreme. The beautiful are surgically altered to level the playing field. Art is considered heresy because of its personal nature.
Everyone is confined to glass apartments, perpetually under surveillance, while machines and mathematics dictate every aspect of life. For modern readers, its similarities to everything from big data to the omnipresent surveillance of the NSA are eerily striking.
Zamyatin was a Russian socialist who faced persecution under the Soviet regime. Though he aimed to satirize life under Stalin, he inadvertently captured a glimpse of the 21st century.
7. The War With The Newts by Karel Capek
Czech author Karel Capek is credited with coining the term 'robot.' That alone marks him as a significant figure in sci-fi, but his 1936 novel, War with the Newts, truly solidifies his legacy in the genre.
In the near future, humanity discovers and subjugates a species of intelligent newts. Humans exploit them, degrade them, and impose legal restrictions on them... until the newts finally rebel. The newts take over the planet, and before long, humanity finds itself on the brink of extinction.
Capek’s novel is intentionally absurd, yet it’s also deeply serious. The notion of an oppressed underclass rising up against its wealthy, complacent oppressors resonates strongly today, adding a layer of urgency to the book.
What else were the Brexit and Trump votes, if not a working-class revolt against a small, affluent elite? Alternatively, one could interpret the newts as representing America’s minorities, still contending with the remnants of slavery and colonialism.
Capek wrote his novel as a sharp warning about the oppressed Weimar Germans sparking a continent-wide war. Thanks to his brilliance, the book continues to offer new interpretations, remaining relevant to this day.
6. Amusing Ourselves To Death by Neil Postman
Let’s start by saying this: While this is an essay, not a novel, it’s an essay that we’re pretty sure our readers will find disturbingly relatable.
Written in 1985, it predicts a near future where the need for constant entertainment overshadows everything else. A world where politics, religion, education, and daily life are all reduced and viewed through endless screens, all filtered to be approved or disapproved by a passive populace. A world where a celebrity could leverage his entertainment knowledge to become the most powerful person alive.
In essence, reading Postman’s work feels like reading a 2017 hot take that happily concludes “we’re all doomed.” He foresees a world where context disappears, clickbait headlines prey on our instincts, and decisions are based on how fun or simple an option seems.
Remember, this was written over 30 years ago. The fact that it still rings true today is incredibly unsettling.
5. The Atrocity Exhibition by J.G. Ballard
British author J.G. Ballard was so dismal about the future that you could show him a headline from 2025 reading “All Diseases Cured!” and he’d write a book about why that was the worst thing that could happen. He created apocalyptic tales about climate disasters, consumerism gone mad, and even dystopian worlds where buildings drive people to kill. He also penned a bizarre experimental novel that could be about today’s America, and he called it The Atrocity Exhibition.
Reading The Atrocity Exhibition feels like flipping through a series of short stories that even Frank Zappa would consider “too far-out,” but its central theme remains strikingly relevant. The protagonist (whose identity constantly shifts) exists in a world where violence is constantly broadcasted by the media. This unrelenting stream of atrocities pushes him to the brink of insanity, causing him to act out the most extreme violence in real life.
Much like a school shooter or an ISIS jihadist who’s inspired to kill by the toxic content flooding the Internet, Ballard’s antihero is a man warped by the brutal culture being continually fed to him. We’re not saying this is the world we live in, but this is the world we live in.
4. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
The core concept of Fahrenheit 451 is a world where books are burned, and that’s the part most people remember. The protagonist is a fireman, but in Bradbury's dystopia, a fireman’s role is to set books on fire rather than extinguish flames.
Though this basic premise is well known, the novel goes much deeper. Beyond being a passionate defense of free thought and a sharp critique of censorship, it also passionately critiques television and pop culture, so much so that it may make you want to throw your device out the window.
Bradbury's work offers a message for everyone. Whether you’re concerned about the religious right or the politically correct left limiting free speech, the novel's stance on anti-censorship will resonate. And if you're disturbed by how trivial entertainment and political memes are dulling our capacity for deeper understanding, its criticism of the numbing effects of television will feel eerily relevant.
Taken as a whole, Fahrenheit 451 depicts a society where the fear of offending others has led to full-scale censorship, while consumerism and mass media have pacified the public to the point that they no longer care enough to resist. In many ways, this apathy is more dangerous than the most oppressive government.
3. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
Imagine a future where truth is irrelevant. A world where history is rewritten based on the desires of those in power. Where every action is monitored by an omnipotent government constantly waging pointless wars on the other side of the globe. Where lies are the truth, censorship is liberation, and surveillance is freedom. Welcome to Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Since the election of President Donald Trump, Nineteen Eighty-Four has experienced a resurgence in popularity, with many drawing comparisons between the administration's use of 'alternative facts' and Orwell’s vision of a controlled society. But upon reading the novel, it's clear that these parallels have been emerging for much longer.
What were the ongoing Middle East wars under George W. Bush and Barack Obama if not an embodiment of the Party's mantra 'War is Peace'? What was the revelation during the Obama era about the NSA's surveillance of citizens if not a glimpse of America's very own Big Brother? One could even view the existence of Guantanamo Bay as the American equivalent of Room 101.
The parallels are not flawless. Orwell’s vision was of a Britain oppressed by Communism, ruled by a dictatorship as ruthless as that of the Soviet Union. However, anyone keeping up with recent news will find many of Orwell's warnings chillingly relevant. We can only hope that we heed the lessons of these dystopian tales before it’s too late.
2. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Earlier, we pointed out that a dystopia driven by public apathy can be more dangerous than one that’s a direct nightmare. Aldous Huxley’s 1931 novel Brave New World takes this concept even further. It imagines a horrific future, where perversion, totalitarian rule, and genetic engineering are the norm. But, unlike typical dystopias, the citizens are so content that they don't want change. In fact, they are actively pleased with the world as it is.
This is mainly due to a substance called Soma, which is constantly promoted to the citizens. Many contemporary critics have drawn comparisons between Soma and the types of drugs that Big Pharma routinely dispenses, but there are additional modern-day similarities as well.
Brave New World represents a society where critical thinking has been abandoned in favor of shallow entertainment and the constant numbing of minds through new products or experiences. It's a world where people are more concerned with what’s happening in their TV serials than with the government’s manipulation and exploitation of their lives.
1. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Released a year after George Orwell’s dystopian vision, The Handmaid’s Tale takes the concept of a terrifying future and amplifies it into something even more chilling. The narrative depicts a world where half of the population endures unspeakable horrors, while the other half experiences a seemingly perfect, utopian existence.
In this world, women have been stripped of all their rights and reduced to mere property, while men have gained dominance, becoming the ruling class. Not only are America’s women virtually enslaved, but they receive little to no empathy from their male counterparts.
The truly unsettling aspect of The Handmaid’s Tale is how it draws from real historical events. Every injustice faced by the women in the novel has been legitimized at some point in human history, from women being treated as property to being forced to carry the children of men for their wives.
As the horrific events unfolding in Syria demonstrate, history has a way of repeating itself. The Handmaid’s Tale envisions a future where the anti-women movement takes a dangerously dark turn.
