Book list

[vilakins]

From communicator, China Mieville's list of 50 SF and fantasy stories a socialist must read (worth cheeking out for his comments). Three of my all-time favourites are on there:

Mikhail Bulgakov—The Master and Margarita
Ursula K. Le Guin—The Dispossessed
Mervyn Peake—The Gormenghast Novels

I've bolded the ones I've read.

Iain M Banks: Use of Weapons
Edward Bellamy—Looking Backward, 2000–1887
Alexander Bogdanov—The Red Star: A Utopia
Emma Bull & Steven Brust—Freedom & Necessity
Mikhail Bulgakov—The Master and Margarita
Katherine Burdekin (aka "Murray Constantine")—Swastika Night
Octavia Butler—Survivor
Julio Cortázar—"House Taken Over"
Philip K. Dick—A Scanner Darkly
Thomas Disch—The Priest
Gordon Eklund—All Times Possible
Max Ernst—Une Semaine de Bonté
Claude Farrère—Useless Hands
Anatole France—The White Stone
Jane Gaskell—Strange Evil
Mary Gentle—Rats and Gargoyles
Charlotte Perkins Gilman—The Yellow Wallpaper
Lisa Goldstein—The Dream Years
Stefan Grabiński—The Dark Domain
George Griffith—The Angel of Revolution
Imil Habibi—The Secret Life of Saeed the Pessoptimist
M. John Harrison—Viriconium Nights
Ursula K. Le Guin—The Dispossessed
Jack London—Iron Heel
Ken MacLeod—The Star Fraction
Gregory Maguire—Wicked
J. Leslie Mitchell (Lewis Grassic Gibbon)—Gay Hunter
Michael Moorcock—Hawkmoon
William Morris—News From Nowhere
Toni Morrison—Beloved
Mervyn Peake—The Gormenghast Novels
Marge Piercy—Woman on the Edge of Time
Philip Pullman—Northern Lights
Ayn Rand—Atlas Shrugged
Mack Reynolds—Lagrange Five
Keith Roberts—Pavane
Kim Stanley Robinson—The Mars Trilogy
Mary Shelley—Frankenstein
Lucius Shepard—Life During Wartime
Norman Spinrad—The Iron Dream
Eugene Sue—The Wandering Jew
Michael Swanwick—The Iron Dragon’s Daughter
Jonathan Swift—Gulliver’s Travels
Alexei Tolstoy—Aelita
Ian Watson—Slow Birds
H.G. Wells—The Island of Dr Moreau
E. L. White—"Lukundoo"
Oscar Wilde—The Happy Prince and Other Stories
Gene Wolfe—The Fifth Head of Cerberus
Yevgeny Zamyatin—We

Comments

[matildabj.livejournal.com]

That's really interesting, especially in the light of the 'Utopias and Dystopias' module I'm taking at the moment. There's a few stories there that are on the reading list.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Which ones? Any I've read?

[matildabj.livejournal.com]

Of the ones you've read: The Dispossessed and Woman on the Edge of Time. Also on our list from this list are Edward Bellamy (dull) William Morris (so dull I lost the will to live) and Charlotte Perkins Gilman - Herland rather than The Yellow Wallpaper. I've read the latter, and I'd be interested to know why it makes the socialist reading list, and why even it's viewed as SF/fantasy - I always thought of it as a work about post-natal depression (if you want to read it, it's a short story and the full text can be found online in several places including here (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1952)).

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Post-natal depression? Eh. I read SF and fantasy because it's outside ordinary depressing boring everyday life.

The Dispossessed is wonderful. I've read it twice and recommend it to people who say they don't like SF. I didn't like Woman on the Edge of Time much; I very much prefer other Marge Piercy works like He, She and It, also known as Body of Glass in the UK. I've only read one William Morris--Well at the World's End. It was a fairly forgettable fantasy but the illos were absolutely gorgeous. :-)

[matildabj.livejournal.com]

That's just what *I* think it's about. You should read it and see if you agree with me!

I've read The Dispossessed - don't remember thinking it was wonderful, but have to read it again so may revise my opinion now I'm a bit more educated. I've also read He, She and It and I'm looking forward to the other Piercy as everyone seems to think it's essential reading!

You're fine without the William Morris. Really...

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

Huh. I wouldn't call some of these authors all that socialist, but yeah, there are a few ones here that seem interesting. And dude, there should be more boks from Ursula K. LeGuin on that list!:)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

OK, I read it, though it really isn't my thing. I think you're right, though she's also oppressed by a condescending and controlling husband who regards her as little more than a silly child so it's no wonder she escapes into insanity. I don't think it's SF or fantasy though and I have no idea why it's on a socialist list.

Everything Piercy writes is different in style and subject, and those are her only two SF novels to my knowledge. I particularly loved the one she wrote about three women, including a homeless woman cleaner who lived in wealthy clients' houses when their owners were away: The Longings of Women. Moving and memorable and a fascinating glimpse into other people's worlds.

[communicator.livejournal.com]

I think he's put some of them in there becuase they offer political insights - in the case of Ayn Rand he says 'know thy enemy' - though I wouldn't read her even for that reason

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I suppose Mieville didn't want to put more than one per author. He does say:

This is not a list of the “best” fantasy or SF. There are huge numbers of superb works not on the list. Those below are chosen not just because of their quality—which though mostly good, is variable—but because the politics they embed (deliberately or not) are of particular interest to socialists. Of course, other works—by the same or other writers—could have been chosen: disagreement and alternative suggestions are welcomed. I change my own mind hour to hour on this anyway.

I have no idea why some are there though, as they're not what I'd call SF or fantasy (e.g. The Yellow Wallpaper which I just read; yes, it's about oppression of women--written in 1892--but more about insanity than fantasy.)

Sorry. Kept stuffing up my HTML.

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

The Yellow Wallpaper was in my son's GCSE anthology, there were doing American women authors that year (1994) I didn't think much of it then and I still prefer H.P.Lovecraft for that type of "horror".

Two years later, my daughter and her friends rebelled, refused to do that set and were allowed To Kill a Mockingbird instead. For a major essay she drew the parallels between George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm, Piers Anthony's work and contemporary politics.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I didn't care for The Yellow Wallpaper it either but I suppose it was unusual for that era. I should go and bold it now.

I'm glad we didn't have to do To Kill a Mockingbird (though another class did) as it meant I could enjoy it without strings. I adore Scout.

Your sister's essay sounds very interesting. :-)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's SF or fantasy though and I have no idea why it's on a socialist list.

Gilman was also well-known for her feminist economic writing; as such, I guess, the story is a criticism of the social conditions that can generate such a breakdown, where women are denied access to the public sphere and are kept within the private sphere, without access to meaningful work. It's also a critique of the medical profession's 'cures' which don't in fact alleviate suffering but serve rather to maintain the social arrangements (the 'pattern') that bring about the sickness in the first place. TYW is a personal account of Gilman's own depression and her disastrous experience of Weir Mitchell's rest cure. IIRC, after abandoning the rest cure described in TYW, Gilman left her husband and supported herself through her writing. That's my tentative reading, anyway.

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

Daughter, not sister. It was, she always believed that you find another source for almost any information just to confuse the examiners. For A level psychology the text book used quotes from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest so she used Clockwork Orange in all essays and exams.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Oh, I could see it was feminist (I wanted to kill her smug patronising husband) but I saw the wallpaper as part of her breakdown and her desire to escape, but a real SF or fantasy element.

And good for her that she did escape in RL.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

LOL! I bet she always used real sources though! At high school, I used to review books that existed only in my head and never got found out. It was so much more fun making them up, characters and all, than reviewing something real. It was my way of getting back at them for not allowing us to write stories after the 4th form; from then on it was essays only.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

For an SF list, it's not the one of hers that springs to mind. Perhaps he was thinking of it in terms of it being gothic horror (I suppose it's a reversal of the madwoman in the attic theme).