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Dystopian Literature
Bunnyman:
Unfortunately, Cyberpunk literature is generally far superior to Cyberpunk cinema, which is generally just bad sci-fi action. Blade Runner being a very notable exception.
Jennifer Government by Max Berry is an excellent comic dystopia. The attitude is quite reminiscent of Snow Crash. If that isn't enough to sell it, imagine that the entire planet is essentially stratified between two giant credit card companies, corporate employees take their employer's name as their last name, and corporate lackeys are told to kill teenagers to market sneakers, only to subcontract out to the police, who subcontract out to the NRA. And madness of the most inspired kind ensues. Yea, it was good.
KharBevNor:
Brave New World is my favourite just for the ending.
Since the classics have all been mentioned, some others you may want to consider, looking around my shelves. Almost entirely sci-fi here, and some are borderline:
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Philip K. Dick)
Time Out of Joint (Philip K. Dick)
The Game Players of Titan (Philip K. Dick)
Also pretty much everything Dick ever wrote, in some way or other. I'm trying desperately to think of the titles of some of his crucial short strories in this area. I'll search some compendiums later.
Stone* (Adam Roberts)
The Night's Dawn Trilogy [The Reality Dysfunction/The Neutronium Alchemist/The Naked God]** (Peter F. Hamilton)
Fallen Dragon*** (Peter F. Hamilton)
The Uncertain Midnight (Edmund Cooper)
Who Needs Men and Five to Twelve**** (Edmund Cooper)
The Cloud Walker (Edmund Cooper)
The Last Continent***** (Edmund Cooper)
Stand on Zanzibar (John Brunner)
Shockwave Rider****** (John Brunner)
Also, on a related note, you might want to consider a few alternative history novels, as they often explore similiar themes (indeed, 1984 is technically an alternate history):
The Man in the High Castle (Philip K Dick)
The Years of Rice and Salt (Kim Stanley Robinson)
Fatherland (Robert Harris)
As for movies, 'A Clockwork Orange' and 'Akira' are a must, and probably 'Ghost in the Shell' as well, come to that. And, though this sounds really geeky, there's some classic star-trek episodes that would be quite good to watch for this. I'm thinking of things like that Next Generation episodes where they visit a seemingly Utopian society where even the slightest crime is punished by death.
* Arguably it is Stones protagonist who is flawed, rather than the culture.
** Not classically Dystopian, rather a space opera, but several dystopian or semi-dystopian societies (future earth, Norfolk, Valisk etc.) are visited. It's extremely long and complex though, so you may wish to skip it.
*** As in Night's Dawn, not a strict dystopian novel, but the main character must escape several unsatisfying, dystopic worlds before the novels conclusion. Arguably worth reading under this subject merely for the conversations between Lawrence and the environmentalist protestor.
**** I still have no idea if these are a bizarre, chauvanistic but original critique of feminism or just a crazy pulp romp. Since this is the same man who wrote 'The Deathworms of Kratos', I would say more likely the latter.
***** Again, it's more a criticism of the Martians than of the culture they discover.
****** The first cyberpunk novel. So dated that the computer viruses the protagonist uses are called tapeworms because they're actual sections of magnetic tape.
zmeiat_joro:
I wouldn't call Neal Stephenson's books dystopian just because they share similar themes with 80's cyberpunk. Also, Khar, high five, you know your sci-fi :)
Inlander:
--- Quote from: KharBevNor ---As for movies, 'A Clockwork Orange'
--- End quote ---
. . . Uh, you do realise that this was a book first, right Khar?
zmeiat_joro:
The film is on par with the novel in therms of quality, I think.
Also, I can mention Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia here.
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