So difficult to find sympathetic fiction online. Currently looking at a book called The Sympathizer by a Vietnamese author about a pro-Vietnamese double agent living in Amerika, seems interesting. Every other search result is anti-communist piss splattered over pages and sold as “gripping, realistic, startlingly accurate”.
Even if it’s bad writing or whatever, I’m curious if any of y’all know some explicitly or implicitly communist fiction worth checking out.
mmm i’ve been looking for communist fiction for some time now. I wonder what a futuristic fiction commie book seems like :).
Well LOOK NO FURTHER! I present to you The Noon Cycle. It is a series of books by the Strugacky brothers, set in the XXII century where socialism has won. You get wholesome space exploration, moral dilemmas (tackled cleverly and thoughtfully, without Hollywood clichés). You get actually alien aliens and space humans. All kinds of stuff.
where can I get a hold of these?
thank you!
Hope you like them! Unfortunately, I can’t vouch for the translation quality, but rest assured - if you notice anything anti-com, it was probably added in translation.
Why thank you :). This sounds like quite a series!
Happy to help!
In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck, it starts with the main character joining the communist party and then going with another party member to start a union and orchestrate a strike among some agricultural workers, and follows how they do that and what happens after, how they manage repercussions from the media, cops, vigilantes, etc. It reads kind of like a how-to guide for preparing for and maintaining a strike.
The author wrote it by interviewing a guy who more or less is one of his main characters irl, so although the author is not necessarily pro-communist in his own position, his portrayal of the main characters and the strike is very well-done and honest imo
It’s not a book, but I would highly recommend Disco Elysium. It’s basically an interactive book. I was a little let down by the ending, but everything else is fantastic.
The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin
Seconded! This is a really interesting piece of sci-fi and it’s a really good allegory of USSR and US relations during the time it was written. It’s a pretty balanced take IMO considering that it was written in the 1970s.
I totally agree! I’m currently working on something of a world-wide intrigue thing based in a global war between the “west” and a global communist bloc. About a an anarchist boy that becomes a communist guerrilla leader in the imperial core. My goal is to make it a bit satirical, but also delving into insurrection and geopolitics. Know of any good books on guerrilla warfare? I should do some research.
I haven’t read it, but considering his success, I’d wager Che’s “Guerrilla Warfare” is good
Really excited to see your work!
Haha, don’t hold your breath. As a writer, I must procrastinate! But thank you. I’ll be sure to share it on lemmy.
I dont. I do like the recent X-Men reboot because they have a “revolutionary” vibe but thats pretty much it.
Do any of you writes/draw comic books/manga? Do you have any ideas? Maybe we could start something ourselves
Speaking of comics, I heard that “Immortal Hulk” is interesting (anti-capitalist, pro-revolution), which is very weird for a Marvel property. (I haven’t read it yet, so it might have a shit ending)
I absolutely loved Immortal Hulk and recommend it. It’s more eco-socialist than anything, but it deals with very heavy subjects like abuse, forgiveness, love and hate, climate change, etc. It’s wonderful and actually made me give a shit about a Marvel character lol
on comics: Don’t bother with Superman Red Son. Garbage as hell.
Don’t bother with Superman Red Son. Garbage as hell.
This. Ultras, trots and radlibs of course love it.
Bro no way someone who calls themselves socialists can like that shit. Not even ultras or trots, the comic is a giant “what about human nature tho?” How tf do they like it??
Maybe they just like that it shits on their imagined version of the USSR
Cringe as usual
It shits on USSR and especially Stalin. Ultras, trots and anarkiddies, etc. will always eat that up even if there’s “CIA” written on the trough.
It ends up praising capitalism anyway
Why are these people this way? It is fucking detrimental to them too!
Nice, I’ll have a look. Any other comics you’d recommend?
(Yeah, I’ve heard as much, which is unfortunate, because a communist Superman could be very interesting)
Not sure if you’re into manga at all but right now I’m hyper-fixated on Berserk and I absolutely adore it. It deals a lot, arguably too much, with sexual violence though, so it’s a very cautious recommendation – I’m a survivor and it’s more cathartic than anything so far, for me personally, especially its deconstruction of toxic masculinity and dealing with trauma in constructive ways.
Junji Ito’s work is fun. I read through Uzumaki and enjoyed it a lot, it’s a very surreal and interesting thought experiment in some ways, and a story about obsession and community collapse. The art is gorgeous and horrifying.
I read quite a lot of manga. Berserk is very good and it’s sad that Miura never got to finish it. I’ve also read most of Junji Ito’s (horror) works, I think (Uzumaki is definitely the best one)
Unfortunately, I’ve found very few anti-capitalist series. The only one I can think of is “Destroy and Revolution”, and it’s infuriatingly awful past the halfway point (very disappointing because the premise was really interesting)
I’ve been recommended it before, I think Im gonna read it after I ffinish one-punch man
Do any of you writes/draw comic books/manga? Do you have any ideas? Maybe we could start something ourselves
Now that sounds interesting, i can kind of draw and definitely have some ideas, maybe we could brainstorm something
I draw a lil bit too, maybe we coukd try doing a quick one-shot or smth 🤔
Made a server in case someone wants to join, something interesting may come out of it https://discord.gg/dquBrGMf
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In my country is not asking for that, fuck discord. New to matrix, don’t know if it’s working but there is the link to the server I just made https://matrix.to/#/!JBHDJBFJBponJQrcAC:matrix.org?via=matrix.org
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I found a really obscure
animemanga called “Shonen Revolution” by pen name, Daddy Goose. I saw it a long time ago before I was a commie in Japan. I cant read Japanese yet, lol. Anyone have any more info?This video was the only thing I could find :0
Red mars by Kim Stanley Robinson is about theterraforming of Mars but takes on an explicitly anti capitalist stance as it charts the characters struggles with forming a new political order separate from the capitalism that has destroyed earth.
I recently read Red Star and Engineer Menni by Alexander Bogdanov. They were written before the Russian Revolution, so they are pretty old. I liked Engineer Menni better than Red Star. I honestly didn’t enjoy them that much, but they had their moments.
I also read Red Star this year. I thought it was quite forward thinking despite the time period in which it was written. You can tell Bogdanov was really interested in the new developments taking place in atomic physics.
It was interesting for sure. I really liked when he first got to Mars. My interest waned when the story became about his love interests, but that’s probably on me.
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Thank you comrade, I’ll give it a look!
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I absolutely love the idea of Isabel Allende’s fiction.
Unfortunately I’ve not been able to get into any of it. This could be because I’ve gone for the Spanish translations and my Spanish just isn’t there yet. But I don’t think it’s that as I’ve had a look at the English versions and just can’t get into the writing style.
A real shame, because historical fiction is one of my favourite genres, and her themes are based.
Edit: I’ve not tried the English Long Petal of the Sea, so maybe that’s my way in to her work.
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My daydreams. No wait you said good
Red Rising is a sci-fi series about a universe where humanity is split in a caste system enforced through genetics and brutality, and the lower castes rebel against the upper castes. It’s a great series, but the ending of the first series is a bit… liberal.
What kind of fiction do you want? Historical? Sci-Fi?
bertolt brecht wasn’t fiction
