Books With A Predictive Function

Hello all! Just a quick post today as I thought I’d share what I think are the most prophetic books ever written. Cos sometimes all I want to do is plug some of my favourite books and hail authors as geniuses. And no, these are not my spooky predictions for the future, because the events of these books have already come to pass. So I promise that none of this will happen again… (I hope).

1984 – Yes, yes, I basically created this list because I finally wrote my review for this book the other day and the thought of this coming true is still fresh in my mind. Of course, Orwell’s novel in part relates to the tragedy of communist experiment unfolding at the time of writing, which somewhat takes away its “predictive function”, yet the fear that this could re-emerge in the future is evident in how many times lately we’ve heard the phrase “it’s like 1984”. *Shudders all round*.

War of the Worlds – Whenever I think of “author turned prophet” I think of H G Wells, because man I’m not kidding, you can find *a ton* of his predictions online that came true (including the atom bomb). The reason why I’m including this one is mainly cos it’s the only one I’ve read and I enjoyed it so much that I thought now would be a good time to recommend it- but Wells did manage to predict Lasers in this book (published in 1898) which is pretty darn cool if you ask me.

Notes from the Underground – Did he define the 19^th century man or undermine it? Is Dostoevsky foretelling the collapse of humanism or simply bearing witness? Hard to tell- but one can be certain that there is an eye to the future in all of Dostoevsky’s works. Not least in the way he (using Nietsche as a guide) practically predicted the Soviet Union- however there is a better example of that in…

The Trial – It’s *freaky* how similar the surreal world Kafka presents is to Solzhenitsyn’s real life descriptions. I swear that before I began reading Gulag Archipelago I did not see an ounce of realism in this story. Oh how I wish that was still the case. And speaking of reality…

Fahrenheit 451 – Okay, so I’m cheating with this one, because this book is more reflective of Nazism than reinventing the wheel. However, I cannot help but praise its genius for the way it captures elements of history and transposes them onto the future. The possibility of this happening again is, horrifyingly, all too real.  If you want to hear more of my thoughts on this a-m-a-z-i-n-g book, you can check out my review here.

Phew! That was a pretty gloomy post! Have you read any of these? Do you have any more suggestions for eerily prophetic books? Let me know in the comments!

Fahrenheit 451 Gave Me the Chills

Every so often there’s a book that’s so profound it brings you to your knees. This is one such book.

In every sense, this book is a work of art. The writing is so incredible it made me shiver and shake. This was undoubtedly one of the most beautifully written books I have ever read. It’s not dense though- it’s perfectly balanced prose.

This book was centred on book burning and so the colour imagery of Nazi Germany that is put forward- the red, yellow and black- is so clever.. It’s so powerful, using writers that are so familiar like Faulkner to illustrate his point.

Above all, though, this is an indictment against collectivism. Not only is there imagery of literally plumbing people like machines, but the whole book is about loss of individualism and personality. No one has an identity of their own- they are merely entities obsessed with their own pleasure and so-called “happiness”. Everyone is allowed to think they’re smart, consider themselves individuals, believe they’re happy- but it’s all a lie- it is just a way to control people.

So ultimately this is one of the darkest books I’ve ever read- and yet it is so, so amazing. The main criticism I’ve heard of Fahrenheit 451 is that it’s so broad in its scope that it can be applied to almost anything. But I think that is one of the books greatest strengths. Because the broadness in its scope I feel allows you to apply it to totalitarianism across the board. It is not just about a single threat- but about the degradation of mankind in the face of collectivism in any form. And that is what makes it so universal.

I really recommend this for everyone- this gets 5/5 bananas from me:

Have you read this? Do you plan to? And what’s the most profound book you’ve read lately? Let me know in the comments!