CSF:SYRI? Background
For the past couple years I’ve been working on my own little reading project. I love the sci-fi genre with my entire heart. I also went to a weird religious middle and high school and I missed reading a bunch of classics. A couple years ago I finally read Slaughterhouse 5 and y’all, it is great! What other classic sci-fi have I been missing out on, I wondered, and tried to research the best I could.
Of course the internet has all kinds of advice titled like “25, 50, 100 Classic Sci-Fi Novels EVERYONE MUST READ,” but I couldn’t find a list I was happy with. I couldn’t find a list, for example, that told me what I don’t need to read, or why I should or shouldn’t read it, or which works have aged poorly and whether or not that’s a dealbreaker. So, in the absence of the advice I want, I decided to read ALL the classic sci-fi and make my own list! That’s a normal and healthy response, right? I read Ringworld so you won’t have to! (Don’t read Ringworld.)
Entrance Criteria
- Classic: My classic cutoff is 1990. (Happy to hear arguments for a different year!)
- Science Fiction: The main genre should be sci-fi, or arguably sci-fi. For example, I consider The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde sci-fi, but the main genre for I am Legend is horror. (I read both; you don’t have to read them.)
- Likely to be on someone’s must-read list: I want to be able to answer someone else’s opinion about whether a book is a must-read. Like, everyone says you have to read Dune, so I read Dune. (Read Dune if you’re all hardcore, but otherwise just watch the movie.) But I’m also allowed to categorize whatever obscure title I want. I have never seen Planet of the Apes on any must-read sci-fi novels list, but it was great!
Considerations
I judge the books on how enjoyable they are to read and their influence on the genre. I also consider how the book treats race (or stand-ins for race), sexuality and gender, violence, and groups marginalized in the book universe or in ours.
Verdict Categories
I’m sorting the results into three categories:
- Classic sci-fi you should read
- Classic sci-fi you should read if you’re all hardcore about it
- Classic sci-fi you don’t gotta read
Do I also need “must-read” and “avoid at all costs” categories? I’m not sure. But listen, you must read 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, and please avoid Solaris.
1984
This dystopian future novel about surveillance, totalitarianism, and information control is on basically every “must read” list. The protagonist, Winston, lives in an oppressive surveillance superstate in perpetual war with other superstates and has a soul-crushing government censorship job at the Ministry of Truth. Winston’s small acts of resistance like keeping a journal soon lead to an illegal, clandestine affair in a secret before-times apartment with his colleague Julia, where they read banned books, wear make-up, and commit thought crimes like questioning the government. Winston and Julia are betrayed through a false-flag operation and taken to the Ministry of Love to be tortured. Winston and other prisoners are converted with the help of Room 101, which subjects people to their greatest phobias. Winston denounces Julia, professes his love for Big Brother, and is released back into society, where he becomes a productive tool of oppression again.
I don’t know how much dystopian literature is truly enjoyable, but 1984 is a slog at times. The dystopia is truly bleak, about a third of the book is dedicated to torture, and some of the markers for dystopia haven’t aged super well and are strange now (like society’s aversion to sex and use of the 24-hour clock). Like many classics, it is anti-conformity because conformity is a stand-in for communism. Also, can we talk about Julia? In the words of my 18-year-old cousin who read 1984 as part of her school curriculum like a normal person, “Sometimes you’re certain a dude wrote a book.” Winston is decidedly average (and this is by design; he is a literary everyman) and he has weird, sometimes violent fantasies about his super-hot coworker Julia. He hates Julia until, OUT OF NOWHERE, she professes love for him and decides to start a secret affair with Winston as a form of rebellion, because of course she does. We are very much meant to relate to Winston, not Julia, and Winston’s opinion of Julia turns on a dime a couple times during this story. Sometimes treatment of women like this is a dealbreaker for me, but in Orwell’s case, I can’t tell if Winston’s flakiness is part of his point–perhaps Winston is a bit of an unreliable main character, and is so caught up in his environment that even as a “rebel,” he doesn’t treat his lover right. Julia is also flakey, denouncing Winston at the Ministry of Love. Perhaps the reader is meant to want to be stronger and to better resist totalitarianism than both of these unlikeable characters succumbing to oppression. I’m inclined to give Orwell the benefit of the doubt. (If this bugs you, please read my upcoming review of Fahrenheit 451, in which I am fresh out of doubts for Ray Bradbury.)
It’s tough to argue that 1984 isn’t the most influential sci-fi book of all time. How many other authors have their last name turned into an adjective? Most folks know that Big Brother and thought police are 1984 concepts, but I didn’t realize doublethink, newspeak, and memory hole were also 1984-isms. These terms are still used (sometimes as rhetorical cudgels) as shorthand for Orwell’s ideas and fears. And as a consumer of sci-fi in all forms, I was unaware of the 1984 references in some of my favorite media and started understanding a lot of jokes and nods as I read. (“There are four lights!” isn’t Star Trek, it’s 1984.)
Verdict
1984 is not an enjoyable book and has not aged particularly well, but its vast influence eclipses the reading experience. This is solidly classic sci-fi you should read. Read it for a glimpse of post-war future fears. Read it to know which taking heads are using “Orwellian” and other terms correctly in political discourse and which are full of shit. Read it to understand foundational concepts about the genre. Read it to understand Star Trek.