Look, while I know we have theory to read. I kinda want to start reading some more fictional stories. What would you lot say are the left wing versions of both Atlas Shrugged and the T****r Diaries?

Both books (ESPECIALLY the latter) are just objectively terrible stories that are just mental masturbation at best where you self-insert as the Mary Sue protagonist and just GG ez everything. Surely the left can write something better.

Please don't tell me the closest we have are YA novels.

  • Coca_Cola_but_Commie [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I'm not here to say LOTR good or bad. I've never actually read the books. But one thing I do think is funny is author Michael Moorcock's enduring hatred of them. Which, Moorcock is an interesting figure, being a self-described anarchist who seems to have good politics (from the handful of interviews of his I read. Note that I've never read his work). Anyway, for your consideration, here's an essay " Epic Pooh"(PDF link) where Moorcock decries Lord of the Rings as reactionary. Also, here's an interview I skimmed where he calls Tolkien a crypto-fascist.

    I have no idea if Moorcock's opinions on Tolkien or his work should be taken seriously, he might just be some weirdo contrarian or envious of LOTR's acclaim for all I know.

    • bananon [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Speaking of LOTR, there’s the unofficial Russian retelling called The Last Ringbearer. It’s an alternative account of lotr from the perspective of a Democratic Mordor that fights against an imperialist Gandalf and racist elves.

    • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Read the books. They aren't really anything politically. It's like trying to apply Marxist analysis to the Illiad, you could but you won't really get anything out of it

    • Des [she/her, they/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Moorcock's stuff is the origin of all the weirder, more D&D type fantasy and definitely has an anarchic bent to it. It's very law vs chaos over everything else. Good and evil are irrelevant.