Dystopian, weird, post-apocalyptic media
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Topic: Dystopian, weird, post-apocalyptic media
Posted By: Logan
Subject: Dystopian, weird, post-apocalyptic media
Date Posted: June 07 2013 at 12:56
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Hi, I know we've had similar topics, but I'm always on the look-out for dystopian, post-apocalyptic, surreal, mind-bending, quirky, or bizarre speculative, sci-fi, or fantasy books and films. I seem to like a lot of films about genetic engineering, cloning.... Probably my favourite writer is Philip K. Dick, and I've read most everything of his that I could get my hand on. I guess Orwell (1984), and films such as Brazil and A Clockwork Orange set the stage for my passion whilst a teen. I also love Vonnegut. Some of my favourite modern novels that I've read over the last few years are The Road (Cormac McCarthy), Blindness, Oryx and Crake and it's follow-up (Margaret Atwood), Blindness (Jose Saramago), and Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro). I think my favourite film of the last few years is The Bothersome Man -- a Norwegian black comedy film about a superficial Ikea-like world. Transfer (Germany) is another of my modern favourite films. I've seen and read a great deal, and wouldn't try to list much of what I've seen. Just throw out your favourites inspired by this rather vague, or perhaps too open, opening post. I know a lot of the older ones (be they classic or not so classic, I have a particular thing for Zardoz, but also ones like A Boy and His Dog and David Cronenberg films) so try to mention some fairly recent ones as well. In film, this was a list I found rather helpful before (Visioneers I liked, Idiocracy not so much): http://www.imdb.com/list/kMPQ_BhJL5k/" rel="nofollow - http://www.imdb.com/list/kMPQ_BhJL5k/ And this: http://www.listal.com/list/best-weird-movies" rel="nofollow - http://www.listal.com/list/best-weird-movies And this (though I've seem most of them): http://snarkerati.com/movie-news/the-top-50-dystopian-movies-of-all-time/" rel="nofollow - http://snarkerati.com/movie-news/the-top-50-dystopian-movies-of-all-time/ And many others. I usually read more than watch films these days, but looking for both. Oh, one films that I'm on the look-out for now is Carre Blanc (2011). I'm used to watching a lot of art house/ international cinema. |
Replies:
Posted By: HolyMoly
Date Posted: June 07 2013 at 13:09
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The Firesign Theatre's albums were often set in some surreal parallel dystopia. Even as comedy albums, the best of them are as deep and rewarding as a good novel, and sometimes even harder to untangle the story and fully understand what's going on. Listen to "Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers" carefully in a dark room and it'll take you out there. ------------- My other avatar is a Porsche It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle if it is lightly greased. -Kehlog Albran |
Posted By: Icarium
Date Posted: June 07 2013 at 13:10
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Try thiz guy, his first serirs is fantasy, but bleak amd realy intersting, about gods, gisnts and peoplwøe whos only head is still alive
try his dystopisn, sci-fi seroes starting with, Lushons Plates, anout a european contineny ruled by an islamic califate http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._Andreas_Bull-Hansen -------------  
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Posted By: Icarium
Date Posted: June 07 2013 at 13:20
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End-Game by Samuell Bechett and JM Coetze are two really good authers of surreal, dystopian worlds -------------
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Posted By: Logan
Date Posted: June 07 2013 at 13:20
Thanks, Steve. Heard of the Fireside Theatre before, and might have haerd one of those before as a kid. A friend's dad had a lot of comedy albums -- Monty Python, Bill Cosby etc. Will look for those.
Sounds intersting, thanks. Incidentally, the last movie I watched was from Norway -- Trollhunter (Trolljegeren). |
HolyMoly wrote:Posted By: Icarium
Date Posted: June 07 2013 at 13:23
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Thats a good movie , try king of the Devil idland, very cool and BLEAK -------------
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Posted By: ExittheLemming
Date Posted: June 07 2013 at 13:39
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Themroc from 1973, a French http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_France" rel="nofollow - film made on a low budget with
no intelligible dialog, It tells the story of a blue collar worker who rebels against modernity by regressing into an urban troglodyte who demolishes his urban apartment into an improvised cave. The movie's scenes of incest http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incest" rel="nofollow - and cannibalism earned it's adults-only ratings. I loved it, but then I'm openly weirdo.... ------------- 
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Posted By: dr wu23
Date Posted: June 07 2013 at 13:42
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dystopian_films" rel="nofollow - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dystopian_films
http://bestsciencefictionbooks.com/best-dystopian-science-fiction-books.php%20" rel="nofollow - http://bestsciencefictionbooks.com/best-dystopian-science-fiction-books.php http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dystopian_novel#Dystopian_fiction" rel="nofollow - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dystopian_novel#Dystopian_fiction Sounds like you have a good handle on the genre but I really liked the Gene Wolfe; Shadow of the Torturer series, Books Of The New Sun....set far in the future.
While not 'dystopian' per se the 'Culture' series by Ian Banks is superbly crafted literate sci-fi about a group of AI's that control the known universe and many of the stories are set in what could be called dystopian planets.
------------- One does nothing yet nothing is left undone. Haquin |
Posted By: HolyMoly
Date Posted: June 07 2013 at 13:50
------------- My other avatar is a Porsche It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle if it is lightly greased. -Kehlog Albran |
Posted By: Triceratopsoil
Date Posted: June 07 2013 at 16:51
| Every read Farnham's Freehold by Heinlein? |
Posted By: A Person
Date Posted: June 07 2013 at 17:35
| If you're okay with watching anime, Texhnolyze is a great series with dystopian/cyber punk/post-apocalyptic themes and is very dark and surreal. |
Posted By: Windhawk
Date Posted: June 07 2013 at 17:54
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Couldn't find the regular trailer, so this one with latin subtitles have to do. ------------- Websites I work with: http://www.progressor.net http://www.houseofprog.com My profile on Mixcloud: https://www.mixcloud.com/haukevind/ |
Posted By: Evangelion2014
Date Posted: June 07 2013 at 21:08
Seconding this. One of the few shows on myanimelist that I have rated as 10/10. The entire series is told in a minimalist tone set in a decaying city that looks like it belongs in the 50's but has bits of advanced technology lying around. Threads is definitely something you should watch, though only part of it is about post apocalyptic, the rest is how the apocolypse happens. Basically, it was the british version of 'the day after' with all the hollywood touches and any rays of hope scrubbed clean. It looks at the effects of a nuclear bomb on a small english town in the middle of a cold war WWIII. At times a documentary like narrator will describe part of the story. It's up on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MCbTvoNrAg |
Posted By: Logan
Date Posted: June 08 2013 at 12:34
Will look for it, thanks.
That's one I've been wanting to watch for quite a while. I had found it on youtube (but lacking English subtitles the unintelligible dialogue seemed even more unintelligible, -- not that they would bother with subtitling gibberish anyway). ;)
Think I've been through all those lists before. I will definitely look for those books. I once borrowed one of those Gene Wolfe's, but didn't get down to it.
It's actually one of the books I borrowed from the library a week ago, and is what I'm reading now. Its dialogue-heavy style didn't immediately appeal, so I read a couple of others I had taken out first -- including a, I thought good, though a little too prediactable at times and a little too dated, James Blish novel that was somewhat reminiscent to me of a favourite Heinlein book of mine, Stranger in a Strange Land and of A Canticle for Leibowitz due to its religious themes. The book was A Case of Conscience, but though I liked the writing of A Case..., the story didn't quite work for me, but I digress.
I love anime, and have seen a number of great ones that would fit this topic. I will look for the series; sounds excellent.
I plan to watch Dredd at some time. I saw the Stallone version when it came out in the movie theatre; I'm sure this one is better.
Texhnolyze really does sound excellent. I know about Threads, and started on it at one time, but perhaps was feeling too depressed at the time to watch it. It's high on my list for some time. |
Posted By: Tapfret
Date Posted: June 08 2013 at 16:56
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^Me too. Definitely want to watch it but need to be in the right frame of mind. I don't know that there is much dystopian fiction that is more dystopic than most peoples' realities at this point.
A good friend of mine (who is incidentally on his death bed at the moment) gave me the first in the series to read. I found it tedious and put it down about halfway through. But that was in my flippant 20's. Might try it again. ------------- https://www.last.fm/user/Tapfret" rel="nofollow">  https://bandcamp.com/tapfret" rel="nofollow - Bandcamp |
Posted By: Tapfret
Date Posted: June 08 2013 at 17:00
edit: I double derped the post....oops ------------- https://www.last.fm/user/Tapfret" rel="nofollow"> https://bandcamp.com/tapfret" rel="nofollow - Bandcamp |
Posted By: dr wu23
Date Posted: June 08 2013 at 17:21
Give it another try...it takes a while for him to set up the premise and characters....and there are others in the series. ------------- One does nothing yet nothing is left undone. Haquin |
Posted By: dr wu23
Date Posted: June 08 2013 at 17:29
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A very good one.....this was well written and strange. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perdido_Street_Station" rel="nofollow - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perdido_Street_Station ------------- One does nothing yet nothing is left undone. Haquin |
Posted By: Tapfret
Date Posted: June 08 2013 at 18:18
Its funny how a thing that I demand in a movie, character development, wears me out in a book. *sigh* 21st century attention span. ------------- https://www.last.fm/user/Tapfret" rel="nofollow"> https://bandcamp.com/tapfret" rel="nofollow - Bandcamp |
Posted By: Knobby
Date Posted: June 08 2013 at 19:05
| I agree on the Gene Wolfe - I rarely, if ever, put down a fantasy novel but that "Shadow of the Torturor" was just mind-numbingly...uninteresting. One of the very few I never bothered to finish. |
Posted By: Windhawk
Date Posted: June 08 2013 at 19:13
Yeah a very nice read....even if you kind of had the feeling that the dirt and grime kept pouring out from the pages and on to your fingers while reading it. Apparently inspired by Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast, another novel that probably merits mentioning here. ------------- Websites I work with: http://www.progressor.net http://www.houseofprog.com My profile on Mixcloud: https://www.mixcloud.com/haukevind/ |
Posted By: Windhawk
Date Posted: June 10 2013 at 17:06
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Oh, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warday" rel="nofollow - here's another book that is actually well worth reading , despite the later weirdness of at least one of the authors.
------------- Websites I work with: http://www.progressor.net http://www.houseofprog.com My profile on Mixcloud: https://www.mixcloud.com/haukevind/ |
Posted By: JJLehto
Date Posted: June 10 2013 at 18:30
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When I get my dystopia novel up, will any of you read it (or at least write nice things) when I whore myself here? thanks bye  |
Posted By: Logan
Date Posted: June 11 2013 at 12:58
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^ I might if it's a Nineteen-Eighty Whore[ish] story. And thanks to people for the recs so far. Much to look for. Right now I'm in the mood for black comedyish/ really quirky dystopian[ish], or not so dystopian, works. One of my favourite recent films I've seen that I really liked was Branded (has a bad rating at imdb). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQ5p7l1hNuQ" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQ5p7l1hNuQ It's a bit of The how to Get Ahead in Advertising kind of thing. Another fairly recent favourite of mine was One Point Zero: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw3V_VnRoaA" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw3V_VnRoaA I'd love to find some more films of the Delicatessen, City of Lost Children and Brazil ilk. |
Posted By: dr wu23
Date Posted: June 11 2013 at 13:21
You might find the new sci-fi television series 'Defiance' interesting....it has some dystopian and even 'steam punk' elements imo.
http://www.defiance.com/en/" rel="nofollow - http://www.defiance.com/en/ ------------- One does nothing yet nothing is left undone. Haquin |
Posted By: Windhawk
Date Posted: June 11 2013 at 18:27
I don't know how similar one might say it is, but the 1997 flick CUBE does offer a rather unreal experience in a highly unusual escape from the prison scenario. Eden Log also seems promising in that unreal kind of feeling way ------------- Websites I work with: http://www.progressor.net http://www.houseofprog.com My profile on Mixcloud: https://www.mixcloud.com/haukevind/ |
Posted By: Logan
Date Posted: July 29 2018 at 15:48
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Don't know why I failed to respond before, but better late than never. Saw Cube when it was still quite a recent film, and seen the sequels, but I haven't seen Eden Log. Seen many good ones since I made this topic. One of my favourite more modern ones is High-Rise, which I have brought up in other threads. |
Posted By: micky
Date Posted: July 29 2018 at 17:16
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interesting topic.. there has been one movie that really set me back a loop. Made me go WTF and I literally spent days, weeks with this movie at the forefront of my consciousness. Coincidently the only modern movie I put in my top 10 alltime favs. but that isn't the thread for that.. it is for the other other media. There was a book that did the same for me. Completely emotionally shattering experience to read, and spent days, weeks and I couldn't get out of the forefront of my consciousness what I had read. Cormac's The Road. A simply shattering emotional experience to read.. yet one could not put it down. I remember a friend gave it to me to read. I started reading it at work, was so... emotionally invested I-turned my work phone off and parked the work van in a cul-de-sac and read till quiting time, got back home and hardly with a word to Raff I plopped down on the couch and read until I finished the book.
------------- The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip |
Posted By: Logan
Date Posted: July 29 2018 at 17:34
| The Road is really powerful -- one of the best and most harrowing novels that I have read. I did get nightmares for some time after reading it. My wife got me to read it after she finished reading it as she thought the father/son relationship would make it all the more poignant to me. I read it one sitting too. |
Posted By: The Dark Elf
Date Posted: July 29 2018 at 18:52
I loved the book and the movie was just as jarring. Viggo Mortensen is really good in it. I'm not sure how many of you saw this movie, but it's a New Zealand produced time travel movie called The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey. The movie takes place during the Black Death in 14th century Cumbria (northwest England), and involves a time travel quest to the 20th century in order to save a village doomed by the plague. Great use of black and white to mirror the dreary plague years of the 14th century, changing to vibrant color (borrowed from medieval stained glass and the painted miniatures found in period Books of Hours) and an almost Bosch-like feel as the villagers strive in a strange land to fulfill their mission. Surprisingly entertaining. ------------- ...a vigorous circular motion hitherto unknown to the people of this area, but destined to take the place of the mud shark in your mythology... |