It's been many years since I read it (back when I taught "The Giver" to my fifth graders), but Lois Lowry's "Gathering Blue" has been coming to mind a lot lately. The trepidation Kira felt when taking care of her cot (house), wondering whether it would be taken over by a hostile neighbor; the shifting alliances of neighbors, and their authority to report each other to the state; the idea of "disappearing" people who don't toe the line; the repetitive recitation of the ruling class's version of the history of the country...all of these things have parallels in current America. Lowry's later book in the same series, "Son," has salient themes as well: the desire of the villagers for the shiny new distraction(s) to the exclusion of their own lives and families, and the blind adoration of the evil character (who reeks of Musk, no pun intended) are pretty stark reflections of what we're all experiencing now. Children's books are often dismissed as simplistic (and some are), but many have incredibly deep insights that most adults overlook.
That particular series (The Giver, Gathering Blue, Messenger, and Son) need to be read in that order. They can all stand alone as novels, but they will all make sense as a cohesive story when you read the last one.
God to know! Thank you! What’s a good age to start? My older kids are too old to suggest anything too :) But I read nightly to my youngest. She’s six right now.
I'd read them yourself first and make a decision about what your particular child can handle. I personally think *all* children's books are PG, in the sense that reading a book together (or in tandem) is a great way to bond with your children, but some books are actually PG, in the sense that they will require some discussion and possibly some contextualization. I mentioned that I taught The Giver in fifth grade, but it did require a ton of Socratic discussion. Lowry's books can be enjoyed on a slew of different levels, and, as with any book, you get more out of them as you get older and wiser. So, short answer: read them yourself and make a judgement call on your particular kid.
Another series that comes to mind that is in keeping with the theme of your post is Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials." It's a three-part series, and it definitely has some insights that are useful in our current world. Again, a "children's" series (well, YA), but it is waaay deep! :D
It’s more contemporary, but rereading The Hunger Games collection feels eerie these days. The propaganda, the media manipulation, king-like president calling the shots and simultaneously empowering his supporters and treating them as expendable tools for power and control… while manipulating the people to fight within and amongst themselves with only the bare minimum for their survival in their “specialized” districts.
'A Series of Unfortunate Events' by Lemony Snicket.
But in all seriousness, some real life scenarios aren't found in books, unless it's the Bible - certain political leaders lately are strongly reminiscent of Nabal ("he is such a worthless fool that nobody can talk to him!" II Samuel 25:17) and Absalom ("If only someone would appoint me judge in the land... I would make sure he received justice." II Samuel 15:4). Have you ever lived in a country ruled by a megalomaniac president-for-life with a highly feared spy network, but said country was so poor that most people still cooked over open fires, slept in mud brick huts, and drew water in buckets from community wells? I did, for over a year (N.B. the megalomaniac is no longer in charge of said country). It puts things into perspective. People were born, lived, and died completely unknown to any but their family and neighbours - no online directory contains their names, few photos of them exist. So it has been for most of history. The dystopian regimes come and go, but humans live on.
Hi Joel. Thank you for this excellent article. I cannot help but think of CS Lewis’s “That Hideous Strength,” in this context. So prophetic. I have never read Shirley Jackson, but you keep mentioning her, so I think it is time. I have read The Movie Goer and think I will read Love in the Ruins next. I am slowly becoming a Flannery OConnor fan. I have read almost all of her short stories. Find it harder to get through the novels. Flannery is good medicine!Thank you for widening my horizons!
I loved this! As a connected thought, I have always felt like contemporary society (since the late 1800s, actually) has done a poor job of passing down wisdom and knowledge from older generations to younger generations. It's been especially bad in recent years, where young people often have no knowledge at all about important events that occurred even during their parents' generations, let alone their grandparents.
In certain ways, this emphasis on forward-thinking and innovation protects us from the harms of being trapped by too much tradition. But in other ways, it also prevents us from learning from past mistakes, recognizing known risks and avoiding repeated mistakes.
In that way, I don't know that these authors were predicting the future, or if they were simply relaying the reality of human nature, which seems to have been the same since the beginning of time.
It can help just to think of sci-fi as fully realized thought exercises, in which the author imagines some trend or idea they see looming and then running it to the nth degree. It can be very insightful!
I think Bulgakov's science fiction novels are pretty apt for today. In his science fiction, anyone with any power is at least somewhat incompetent (though not necessarily stupid) and malevolent. People do things without thinking them through and this leads to disastrous outcomes. Attempts to solve problems just cause more problems. I'd argue this combination of incompetence, malevolence and not bothering to think things through sums up the past ten years of American politics and life, except less funny than in Bulgakov's work.
Yeah, Dick was on to something. I know when one of my siblings and I get together and talk, if the topic stumbles into politics, it becomes CNN/MSNBC (him) arguing with Newsmax/FOX (me.) I recognize this, and try to bring us back, to disengage, but sometimes he cannot and it ends up causing a lot of bad feeling. Dick's dystopian worlds usually involved unseen controllers. I think we're seeing this a lot now. And with the march of technology--AI, surveillance, it will only get worse.
The first ones to come to mind was Metamorphosis and The Trial by Kafka. But then comes along The Lottery, shocking in its day. But today’s generation these stories are child’s play. Let’s bring in The Hunger Games. Each generation has to up the level of evil to make palatable to the current generation. For those that read, Cloud Cuckoo Land, your payoff was read all the way to the end and realize that all was not as it seemed. As in The Wizard Of Oz, the curtain was pulled back. There is no place like home as long as we keep pulling back the curtain on the evil that tries to wipe out the good in this world or Kafka’s world, Shirley Jackson’s world and that The Hunger Games over take the reality that is slipping away even in our current circumstances.
Matter of fact reading a Joan Didion book now, Political Fictions. Reading one of the essays, I don’t think she had a lot of faith in the bob woodwards
Dick is at least concise- I don't think he ever wrote a novel longer than 200 pages. Plus enough stories for a multi-volume collection. And like most good SF writers, he was very ahead of his time. Even if you take into account that he was a massive drug addict in his later years, he warned us about where capitalism in America was going.
Jackson suffered from mental illnesses, and you can't read her work without noticing how that it is a major part of her work. Not merely in her novels but also in her short stories.
You mentioned Ray Bradbury. In a slightly different vein, I just finished reading Dandelion Wine. It is a wonderful story that reminds us to hold on to everyday beauty around us, felt sort of like the anti-Farenheit 451 (remember what you have, so you don't give it up easily).
It's been many years since I read it (back when I taught "The Giver" to my fifth graders), but Lois Lowry's "Gathering Blue" has been coming to mind a lot lately. The trepidation Kira felt when taking care of her cot (house), wondering whether it would be taken over by a hostile neighbor; the shifting alliances of neighbors, and their authority to report each other to the state; the idea of "disappearing" people who don't toe the line; the repetitive recitation of the ruling class's version of the history of the country...all of these things have parallels in current America. Lowry's later book in the same series, "Son," has salient themes as well: the desire of the villagers for the shiny new distraction(s) to the exclusion of their own lives and families, and the blind adoration of the evil character (who reeks of Musk, no pun intended) are pretty stark reflections of what we're all experiencing now. Children's books are often dismissed as simplistic (and some are), but many have incredibly deep insights that most adults overlook.
I’ve never read The Giver, nor any of Lois Lowry. Thanks for mentioning her.
That particular series (The Giver, Gathering Blue, Messenger, and Son) need to be read in that order. They can all stand alone as novels, but they will all make sense as a cohesive story when you read the last one.
God to know! Thank you! What’s a good age to start? My older kids are too old to suggest anything too :) But I read nightly to my youngest. She’s six right now.
I'd read them yourself first and make a decision about what your particular child can handle. I personally think *all* children's books are PG, in the sense that reading a book together (or in tandem) is a great way to bond with your children, but some books are actually PG, in the sense that they will require some discussion and possibly some contextualization. I mentioned that I taught The Giver in fifth grade, but it did require a ton of Socratic discussion. Lowry's books can be enjoyed on a slew of different levels, and, as with any book, you get more out of them as you get older and wiser. So, short answer: read them yourself and make a judgement call on your particular kid.
Another series that comes to mind that is in keeping with the theme of your post is Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials." It's a three-part series, and it definitely has some insights that are useful in our current world. Again, a "children's" series (well, YA), but it is waaay deep! :D
It’s more contemporary, but rereading The Hunger Games collection feels eerie these days. The propaganda, the media manipulation, king-like president calling the shots and simultaneously empowering his supporters and treating them as expendable tools for power and control… while manipulating the people to fight within and amongst themselves with only the bare minimum for their survival in their “specialized” districts.
'A Series of Unfortunate Events' by Lemony Snicket.
But in all seriousness, some real life scenarios aren't found in books, unless it's the Bible - certain political leaders lately are strongly reminiscent of Nabal ("he is such a worthless fool that nobody can talk to him!" II Samuel 25:17) and Absalom ("If only someone would appoint me judge in the land... I would make sure he received justice." II Samuel 15:4). Have you ever lived in a country ruled by a megalomaniac president-for-life with a highly feared spy network, but said country was so poor that most people still cooked over open fires, slept in mud brick huts, and drew water in buckets from community wells? I did, for over a year (N.B. the megalomaniac is no longer in charge of said country). It puts things into perspective. People were born, lived, and died completely unknown to any but their family and neighbours - no online directory contains their names, few photos of them exist. So it has been for most of history. The dystopian regimes come and go, but humans live on.
Hi Joel. Thank you for this excellent article. I cannot help but think of CS Lewis’s “That Hideous Strength,” in this context. So prophetic. I have never read Shirley Jackson, but you keep mentioning her, so I think it is time. I have read The Movie Goer and think I will read Love in the Ruins next. I am slowly becoming a Flannery OConnor fan. I have read almost all of her short stories. Find it harder to get through the novels. Flannery is good medicine!Thank you for widening my horizons!
I loved this! As a connected thought, I have always felt like contemporary society (since the late 1800s, actually) has done a poor job of passing down wisdom and knowledge from older generations to younger generations. It's been especially bad in recent years, where young people often have no knowledge at all about important events that occurred even during their parents' generations, let alone their grandparents.
In certain ways, this emphasis on forward-thinking and innovation protects us from the harms of being trapped by too much tradition. But in other ways, it also prevents us from learning from past mistakes, recognizing known risks and avoiding repeated mistakes.
In that way, I don't know that these authors were predicting the future, or if they were simply relaying the reality of human nature, which seems to have been the same since the beginning of time.
So insightful. Not a sci-fi fan, but these times, and your post, compel me to think that perhaps I should be.
It can help just to think of sci-fi as fully realized thought exercises, in which the author imagines some trend or idea they see looming and then running it to the nth degree. It can be very insightful!
I think Bulgakov's science fiction novels are pretty apt for today. In his science fiction, anyone with any power is at least somewhat incompetent (though not necessarily stupid) and malevolent. People do things without thinking them through and this leads to disastrous outcomes. Attempts to solve problems just cause more problems. I'd argue this combination of incompetence, malevolence and not bothering to think things through sums up the past ten years of American politics and life, except less funny than in Bulgakov's work.
Yeah, Dick was on to something. I know when one of my siblings and I get together and talk, if the topic stumbles into politics, it becomes CNN/MSNBC (him) arguing with Newsmax/FOX (me.) I recognize this, and try to bring us back, to disengage, but sometimes he cannot and it ends up causing a lot of bad feeling. Dick's dystopian worlds usually involved unseen controllers. I think we're seeing this a lot now. And with the march of technology--AI, surveillance, it will only get worse.
The first ones to come to mind was Metamorphosis and The Trial by Kafka. But then comes along The Lottery, shocking in its day. But today’s generation these stories are child’s play. Let’s bring in The Hunger Games. Each generation has to up the level of evil to make palatable to the current generation. For those that read, Cloud Cuckoo Land, your payoff was read all the way to the end and realize that all was not as it seemed. As in The Wizard Of Oz, the curtain was pulled back. There is no place like home as long as we keep pulling back the curtain on the evil that tries to wipe out the good in this world or Kafka’s world, Shirley Jackson’s world and that The Hunger Games over take the reality that is slipping away even in our current circumstances.
every truly great artist is a prophet, to a degree
we live in many books.
and many books live in us
Robert A. Heinlein's *Orphans of the Sky* has the elite priest class that calls itself Scientists.
Matter of fact reading a Joan Didion book now, Political Fictions. Reading one of the essays, I don’t think she had a lot of faith in the bob woodwards
Kafka's 'The Trial' fairly soon I think given the decisions AI will be making and the back boxes we won't understand
Roland Merullo’s Breakfast with Buddha series foretells mindfulness inside of the madness.
Frederick Backman is a master at showing a multitude of perspectives with great empathy and understanding.
Lessons in Chemistry foretells the empowerment of women — without having to drag men down.
Dick is at least concise- I don't think he ever wrote a novel longer than 200 pages. Plus enough stories for a multi-volume collection. And like most good SF writers, he was very ahead of his time. Even if you take into account that he was a massive drug addict in his later years, he warned us about where capitalism in America was going.
Jackson suffered from mental illnesses, and you can't read her work without noticing how that it is a major part of her work. Not merely in her novels but also in her short stories.
You mentioned Ray Bradbury. In a slightly different vein, I just finished reading Dandelion Wine. It is a wonderful story that reminds us to hold on to everyday beauty around us, felt sort of like the anti-Farenheit 451 (remember what you have, so you don't give it up easily).