Reading for the Current Moment

By Victoria Fortune

March is National Reading Month, an ideal time to start a new book. I’m in the middle of one now—an historical novel set during the Vietnam War—but I can’t seem to get into it, because it isn’t speaking to my anxiety in the current moment.

In her novel-writing guide Story Genius, Lisa Cron points out that, from an evolutionary point of view, human beings are “wired for story,” because stories help us prepare for the unknown. “Stories let us vicariously try out difficult situations we haven’t yet experienced to see what it would really feel like, and what we’d need to learn in order to survive.” The cave men who listened to stories about encounters with lions were more likely to survive such an encounter themselves.

That may be why, when Covid began, I was drawn to Geraldine Brooks’ Year of Wonders, an historical novel based on a true story of a 17th century English village that was struck by the plague. The preacher convinced the villagers to quarantine themselves, risking near-certain death to avoid spreading the plague to others. The book prepared me, as the Covid pandemic unfolded, for the public reaction, which played out in similar ways: people became wary of others and formed factions, they lashed out at public health figures who were trying to help them, they needed a leader to unite them and help them maintain courage and humanity in times of crisis. (In the book they had such a leader; we did not.)

Now, we find ourselves in another moment of crisis. According to renowned experts on authoritarianism like Anne Applebaum and Timothy Snyder, we are seeing all the warning signs that our country is moving in that direction. (Snyder’s book On Tyranny is a great read for more on this.) Some friends and acquaintances have dismissed my concerns, claiming that I’m overreacting. I fear they are underreacting. Perhaps that’s because I’ve read enough depictions of authoritarian regimes in history and literature to recognize the tell-tale signs and to understand just how ruthless and inhumane such regimes are.

Any of these classics are excellent reading for a glimpse of life under such a regime.

•  The Handmaid’s Tale provides a horrifying worst-case scenario for women under a right-wing authoritarian regime that asserts the right to control their bodies.

• 1984 gives a chilling view of a surveillance state that monitors its citizens’ every move and suppresses any truth but the one it dictates.

• The Giver (YA) offers a glimpse of a world where human feeling, expression, and freedom are sacrificed for the sake of efficiency and order.

• Farenheit 451 depicts a bleak future America, where books are burned to destroy all literature and knowledge, and the masses are subdued through the mindless chatter of television.

I finally settled on my next book—a classic that I’ve, shamefully, never read--Brave New World, about a society that genetically engineers its population to be the ideal consumers and serve the needs of the regime. (The link is to a free online version—you don’t even have to buy it!)

This list has more good suggestions: https://antiauthoritarianplaybook.substack.com/p/learning-about-fascism-from-novels

I’m drawn to dystopian novels right now because our current march toward authoritarianism, in the context of a technological revolution, truly puts us in uncharted territory. These books are warnings about potential dangers, which we should all take seriously when the man who appears to be running our government believes empathy is “the fundamental weakness of Western civilization.” Most, while speculating about the future, are inspired by reality. Margaret Atwood says there is nothing she depicted in The Handmaid’s Tale that hasn’t happened in real life.

Books like these not only help us imagine worst-case scenarios but, hopefully, inspire us to fight against tyranny. The heroes are those who resist the regime, offering courage and hope as we face the unknown.

 If you prefer realistic fiction set in actual totalitarian regimes, here is a list of suggestions:

https://www.hammockmag.com/recommendations-lists/8-books-about-living-under-authoritarianism

For nonfiction about authoritarianism, here is one professor’s reading list: https://politicalorders.substack.com/p/an-authoritarian-reading-list)