The wind piped drearily as Blunderbore approached the house.
One thought on “I’ll trade you for some beans.”
Ian Davey on February 17, 2012 Interesting piece. I’ve always eyjnoed (is that the right word?) dystopian fiction and have read most of the books you mention. It’s a genre that seems to have done quite well when it comes to film adaptations as well. I’ve never thought about Logan’s Run as a liberal dystopia but it’s an interesting idea. I guess it could be an implementation of that old maxim about being liberal when you’re young and conservative when you’re older, but the face there’s a bunch of old people behind it kind of scuppers that one. Are you talking about the book or film versions here, or both. I’ve yet to read the novel.I’d disagree with your reduction of Fahrenheit 451 down to the book burning is bad message. I’ve always seen that one as representing the fear that oppressive regimes often share. That of their people having access to non-official sources of information and thought. You can see it now with certain regimes obsession with controlling access to the internet. There’s also echoes of the destruction of the library of Alexandria where so much early written knowledge was lost. So I still rank it up there as one of the best, though the ending is a little silly. The Book of Eli seems to be a bit of an alternate spin on this one.Takami’s Battle Royale is another good recent one (he really needs to write another book!), I’ve not yet read the Hunger Games to see how it compares but I’ve heard its meant to be similar.
Ian Davey on February 17, 2012 Interesting piece. I’ve always eyjnoed (is that the right word?) dystopian fiction and have read most of the books you mention. It’s a genre that seems to have done quite well when it comes to film adaptations as well. I’ve never thought about Logan’s Run as a liberal dystopia but it’s an interesting idea. I guess it could be an implementation of that old maxim about being liberal when you’re young and conservative when you’re older, but the face there’s a bunch of old people behind it kind of scuppers that one. Are you talking about the book or film versions here, or both. I’ve yet to read the novel.I’d disagree with your reduction of Fahrenheit 451 down to the book burning is bad message. I’ve always seen that one as representing the fear that oppressive regimes often share. That of their people having access to non-official sources of information and thought. You can see it now with certain regimes obsession with controlling access to the internet. There’s also echoes of the destruction of the library of Alexandria where so much early written knowledge was lost. So I still rank it up there as one of the best, though the ending is a little silly. The Book of Eli seems to be a bit of an alternate spin on this one.Takami’s Battle Royale is another good recent one (he really needs to write another book!), I’ve not yet read the Hunger Games to see how it compares but I’ve heard its meant to be similar.