Book Recommendations about Society

basketkase543

basketkase543

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This is inspired from the other book recommendation thread going on. I didn't want to put my question there so here it is.

Anybody know of any good novels that involve society, the formation of it, and/or the things that happen in its absence? I know that is obscure but I read The Stand and Lord of the Flies recently and I've been loving how they depict the reformation of society in different ways. Anybody know of any good novels that deal with these themes?
 
Is House of Leaves recommended by anyone? It's one of the influences for later Silent Hills, apparently, and it's supposed to be pretty cool, but I'm not sure I trust books that have bits where you have to put a mirror to them to read.
 
[quote name='jmcc']Is House of Leaves recommended by anyone? It's one of the influences for later Silent Hills, apparently, and it's supposed to be pretty cool, but I'm not sure I trust books that have bits where you have to put a mirror to them to read.[/QUOTE]

I recommended HoL in the other book Rec thread. It's an incredible read with layer upon layer (upon layer...) of substance.
 
Ringworld, the short story HARRISON BERGERON by Vonnegut
Alive, Running With Scissors (nonfiction)
Leviathon- Hobbes
Atlas Shrugged/Fountainhead - Rand
 
Animal Farm, 1984, and Brave New World are the best suggestions I've read. You almost have to read them before you read anything else.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I'm especially looking forward to the canonical texts that I've yet to read like animal farm, 1984, and Brave New World. The other books look interesting too, i haven't heard of many of them.

Keep em coming if know anymore!
 
I just finished reading Brave New World. Overall I thought the ideas about the future society were still incredibly fresh and haunting, despite the book being about 75 years old. It was fascinating to see how this society manufactured its class-based heirarchy (alphas, deltas, gammas, and epsilons) and while there is a lot of mind control happening, I was surprised at the very hedonistic approach of their life styles. Go ahead and grope somebody. Have sex with whomever you want. Everybody belongs to everybody else. Fascinating and incredibly complex stuff.

My only problem with it, however, was the narrative itself. I thought the characters were pretty unlikeable and inconsistant. It felt like Huxley had these incredible ideas about society but just didn't know how to translate it into a story. The "plot" itself doesn't really go anywhere and is brimming with plotholes. But again, the plot is simply the fabric that holds all of the fascinating ideas together, and in that respect, the weak plot is entirely acceptable.

My next book will probably be 1984.
 
[quote name='basketkase543']
My only problem with it, however, was the narrative itself. I thought the characters were pretty unlikeable and inconsistant. It felt like Huxley had these incredible ideas about society but just didn't know how to translate it into a story. The "plot" itself doesn't really go anywhere and is brimming with plotholes. But again, the plot is simply the fabric that holds all of the fascinating ideas together, and in that respect, the weak plot is entirely acceptable.
[/quote]

I think the weak nature and lack of a gripping plot really was the point of the whole novel, that you could create a near perfect society but it would lack purpose.
 
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