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leftist mindfuck books?
(lemmygrad.ml)
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this post was submitted on 27 Dec 2024
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Maybe the best thing I've encountered like what you're describing is maybe The Fever by Wallace Shawn. It's a one-man theatre performance about a guy truly beginning to understand the truth and consequences of imperialism for the first time.
Other recommends would be:
The first chapter of The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson, read as a standalone short story. It's a climate horror about a wet-bulb event (where at a certain temperature in combination wity 100% humidity means the body can no longer cool itself by evaporative cooling) in Mumbai leading to a massacre that kills tens of millions.
The Semplica Girl Diaries by George Saunders, a short story about a hapless suburban mother trying to make ends meet who, for her daughter's birthday, irresponsibly spends a windfall on a set of ornamental Vietnamese girls who you suspend by a wire through their skulls on your lawn to display your wealth.
Those Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Leguin, a short story about a town whose prosperity depends on the unending suffering of a single girl.
Some other George Saunders stories might include Ghoul, about a worker/prisoner in a demented prison in which everyone is trapped in a deteriorating theme park and goes to work every day but it is enforced by capital punishment that no one can talk about the fact that no one will ever attend the park.
Brad Carrigan, American (this one is kind of wild) about a guy living inside a perpetually filming television show that has continued ad absurdum the ratchet of delivering increasing amounts of product to consumers while supports are continually stripped away.
Hello fellow Saunders-head :)
@MF_COOM@hexbear.net
what y'all think about Lincoln in The Bardo
Libshit haha
Yep... I read it when I was 17 and I was like woaaahhhhh, and then I re read it recently and had to accept Saunders is a giant lib
it was quite big for me in understanding just how bullshit history can be though, when Saunders compares the different accounts and all that
Had pretty strong issues with it on a first read. It felt like there was far too many location specific plot points with characters needing to align themselves just so (to the point it almost felt slapstick).
That said, I just found my copy over the holidays and plan to give it another shot
Brad Carrigan, American, is awesome. I love it, its so absurd, but among the absurdity are all these threads of thoughts and feelings that seem so familiar. This feeling of hopelessness that accompanies you're growing awareness of the horrors just outside your vision. The sudden change in perception of the people you thought you knew as they clash against your growing concern for the horrors just outside your vision, and your desire to provide any meaningful change you can muster. The desperate attempts to salvage the relations you had, foolishly believing that if you just explained it well enough, the horrors, your concerns, they would change too. Realizing just how vapid and materialistic these people we're, and seeing them for the hedonistic zombies they are. Ultimately, being painted as the villain, always being a downer, never grateful for your position, to good to accept life as it is, and willing to ruin the good life for everyone else for a people they all view as backwards. In the end, the only hope you can hold on to is the hope that, whatever comes after you, is imbued with your convictions and sees it through.
Its simply Incredible.
It's my favourite Saunders story, from my favourite of his collections. I agree, and I've never encountered another person who's read it except my partner!
Semplica girl diaries is a wild read...