The Lord of the World by Robert Hugh Benson

Published in 1907, The Lord of the World was one of the first dystopian novels. The action takes place in the early 21^st century where established religion has all but been abolished. Catholicism has been confined to the Vatican and its surrounding cities, but by the novel’s end, faith of any kind has been outlawed. Two young priests, Father Franklin and Father Francis, play key roles as these changes take place.

 I was fascinated by Benson’s prescience about the devastating effects that socialism and communism would have on societies that embraced them. He mentions Karl Marx and Gustave Hervé (still living at the time Benson wrote) as key influencers. In the book, Esperanto is the main language and Euthanasia is widely accepted as a way to escape physical and emotional pain. Humanitarianism (as expressed through the teachings of freemasonry) is the new world religion since superstition and progress were irreconcilable enemies.

Oliver Brand, a leading figure in this future society is happy in the knowledge that men and women had learnt at least the primary lesson of the gospel, that there was no God but man, no priest but the politician, no prophet but the schoolmaster. He explains to his wife that the precepts of Christianity were nice, but not true… My dear girl, if I had told you in your cradle that the moon was green cheese, and had hammered at you ever since, every day and all day, you’d very nearly believe it by now.

In spite of the government’s best efforts to abolish Christianity, people must worship something and a messiah figure comes on the scene. I can’t tell much more without spoilers. Needless to say, the premise of the book is fascinating and many quotes are a hundred years ahead of their time. Sometimes the writing was uneven, but when the story dragged, I could count on the audio version by the excellent Simon Vance to keep me going.

This novel should not be avoided because it is “too Catholic.” There is a lot of rich food for thought in its pages.

Blessings,

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

The nicest thing about re-reading a favorite book is that you are not in a hurry to find out what happens and can savor the beautiful passages. It was a great pleasure, therefore, to read Fahrenheit 451 after a 15 year break. I loved it the first time because, as a bibliophile, I could identify with the horrors of a world without books where everyone is numbed by mindless entertainment. 

This time around my satisfaction was doubled as I thought more deeply about each of the characters and their (often painful) journeys toward self-awareness. Guy Montag, an official book burner, is the central figure and the novel recounts his awakening from his cultural stupor and his road to redemption. 

Listening to the comments on the Literary Life podcast enhanced my reading even more as the hosts pointed out themes I would never have noticed such as the fairy tale motifs and Bradbury's nods to Dante. I'm glad I had them as "reading buddies" this second time through.

Books were only one type of receptacle where we stored a lot of things we were afraid to forget. There is nothing magical in them, at all. The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us. (p. 79)

Blessings,

Son by Lois Lowry

A lot of bloggers were disturbed with the ending of The Giver because it did not tell what happened to Jonas. I was okay with the open-endedness of the book since its main impact for me was in its powerful ideas. But because I enjoyed Giver so much, I was glad when a friend loaned me, Son, the the final book in the series.

To prevent spoilers, I will just say that the fourth book continues with the theme of the high cost of love. It creates a character from the first book and weaves a story around the search for her missing son. In the midst of her story we find out what happened to Jonas and Gabriel.

It does not have the same "wow" factor as the first book, but for those who need a satisfying conclusion to the series, this should fit the bill.  The interim books (Gathering Blue and Messenger) are only loosely connected to Book One, but Son is THE sequel to Giver. (You can even skip the middle two books and not miss a whole lot.)

Some critics complained that the first book stretched the limits of belief. I didn't feel that way, but there were definitely moments in Son, when I was wrinkling my forehead and saying, "Really?" Still, it is worth reading if you like a compelling story of the pain and pleasure of loving deeply.

The Giver by Lois Lowry

I was recently given a copy of Son, Lois Lowry’s conclusion to The Giver. It has been six years since I read (and loved) Giver, so I decided to give it a quick re-read before delving into the newer book. Would having read two classic dystopian novels (1984 and Brave New World) in the mean time diminish the pleasure and impact of Giver the second time around? Not a bit.

Jonas lives in a highly structured future society where husbands and wives are matched up  by the government and each family unit is assigned one male and one female child (not related in any way to the designated parents). Jonas is almost twelve and awaiting the big day when all the "Twelves" receive their job assignments, which are career paths chosen for them by city officials according to their natural gifts. He is surprised to be chosen as the "Receiver of Memories," a very unique position in the community.

As soon as children reach puberty they are given a pill to control their "stirrings." This medication also serves as an equalizer for all emotions. Love and anger are barely recognizable as such. Jonas is allowed to stop taking the medicine since his assignment requires him to feel joy and pain. He feels threatened by this at first and then comes to believe that the colorless, safe world in which he lives is actually more dangerous and diabolical than the one that freedom would bring.

Common dystopian themes surface throughout the story: Government mandated families, and motherhood as a function vs. a vocation. Sexuality is something to be repressed. Books (and free thinking) are off limits. A substandard life is the norm since pain and risk cause too much chaos.

Lowry claimed in an interview that the book was not meant to be specifically Christian and that it should appeal to all religions. But as a believer, I found many of the themes fascinating, particularly the necessity of one person suffering for the sake of all the others.

Then there's the euthanasia theme. And the theme of naming as nurturing. Babies in the nursery are only given names once it is proved they will be healthy. Parents in the book will call a child by his birth number when they are cross with him (basically dehumanizing him.) The classic biblical example of valuing something in this way is found in Isaiah 43 when God tells Israel, "I have called you by name." This same theme was expertly done by Madeline L'Engle in the third book of her Wrinkle in Time series, A Swiftly Tilting Planet. 

The Giver is a well-written and thought-provoking book. I'll be reviewing its conclusion next week.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

I’ve been reading books about books for the last 30 years, so I thought I knew the storyline of most classics. But the surprises in Brave New World took my breath away.

Over and over again, I was stunned by Huxley’s perceptivity and prophetic power. How did he know that in the future “motherhood” would be a dirty word? How did he predict Viagra? And that promiscuity would be the new normal? Or that consumerism would be the driving force of future generations? He wrote this in 1931, for Pete’s sake!

In this new world all civilized men and women are sexually free, content in their social classes, and undisturbed by pain. The demise of conflict and suffering has brought on the demise of art and poetry because overcoming life’s obstacles is a primary source for the creation of greatness and beauty.

It’s a world devoid of pain partly because there is a pill one can pop to make it all go away.

And if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should happen, why, there’s always soma to give you a holiday from the facts. And there’s always soma to calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering. In the past you could only accomplish these things by making great effort and after years of hard moral training. Now you can swallow two or three half-gram tablets, and there you are. Anybody can be virtuous now. You can carry at least half your morality about in a bottle. Christianity without tears-that’s what soma is. (from Chapter 17)

Into this world comes John, the Savage, who was raised away from civilization (where barbaric practices like marriage and chastity still exist). The only book he had as a child was a moth-eaten copy of Shakespeare’s plays, which enables him to counteract each astounding new discovery of the civilized world with a contrasting quote from Shakespeare. (These wonderful quotes will whet your appetite for more.)

I don’t want to spoil your reading pleasure by giving any more details. Be forewarned that this is not a “curl-up-by-the-fire-with-a-cup-of-tea” sort of book. It’s a frank look at the “perfection” of society at a terrible price: the destruction of family and freedom. Easily the most powerful book I read in 2013.

1984 by George Orwell

1984 has been on my TBR list for years. It was only after I read it last week that I learned that it’s sales have risen 10,000% because of recent current events pointing to the NSA as a Big Brother-type organization.

Because the book is cited so often, most people know its basic premise: In a futuristic society all people are watched and controlled by a totalitarian government. The first half of the book was surprisingly engaging so I was taken aback by how dark the second half was. The novel was written in 1949 when much of the optimism of man had been dashed by both World Wars.

Winston Smith, the protagonist, works in the government records department where he and his colleagues are constantly re-writing records so that no falsification of the facts by the the Party can be proven. “All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and re-inscribed exactly as often as was necessary” so that nothing that the government officials reported as truth could be verified. (p. 40) Although Winston does his job faithfully and without question, he commits the worst crime possible by beginning to think his own thoughts (thoughtcrime) rather than accept the Party tripe that’s been pumped into him his whole life.

His colleague Syme works in the Research Department where he is constantly revising a dictionary of words called “Newspeak.” He tells Winston, “We’re getting the language into its final shape - the shape it’s going to be when no one speaks anything else... You think, I dare say, that our chief job is inventing new words. But not a bit of it! We’re destroying words - scores of them, hundreds of them every day. We’re cutting the language down to the bone.” (51) “The whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought.  In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. (52) Orthodoxy means not thinking - not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness." (53)

It’s impossible to read the book without making connections to our present culture: the re-writing of history books, texting as the new Newspeak, the perversion of sexuality, etc.  In the book the government makes a huge effort to erase any traces of “vaporized” criminals. But since most of our lives today (photos, diaries, documents, mail) are online, most proofs of our existence could be erased with a few clicks of a button.

As I mentioned, the book addresses sexuality.  Winston has a liaison with a prostitute and an affair with Julia (no unsavory details though). Since love and lust are out of the control of the Party, they are not permitted.  Conception and child bearing are done only as a duty to the State.

My favorite (albeit rare) thread in the book was the idea of love. Winston finds hope for living when Julia tells him she loves him. The Ministry of Love is a place where people are forced to recant their beliefs “for their own good” - because the government “loves” them. Winston argues with his torturer, “It is impossible to found a civilization on fear and hatred and cruelty. It would never endure... It would have no vitality. It would disintegrate. It would commit suicide.” (269)

Fascinating stuff! This is a dark, but important book.  I could write a lot more about Newspeak, but I’ll leave that for a future post.