The 7 most subversive science fiction novels

Scifi scares authoritarians because it gives us the power to imagine new and better worlds.

The good thing about authoritarians is that they don’t read books.

It’s also the bad thing about authoritarians because it’s why they are ignorant, which is why they are sacred, which is why they authoritarian.

Authoritarians do tend to read a lot of other things. Official reports. Spread sheets. Glowing testimonials about their own greatness.

But not books. Especially novels.

Which means that novelists in authoritarian regimes can get away with a lot before anyone notices, because nobody who might be offended can be bothered to read anyway.

This is doubly true of science fiction novelists, who write books that most people can’t understand even after they have read them.

So wherever you find brutal, oppressive authoritarianism you’ll also tend to find a few science fiction writers taking potshots at the regieme under cover of stories about aliens with weirdly corrugated forehead ridges.

Not being taken seriously can be a real strength in serious times. The 7 writers in today’s video essay all said the difficult, unsayable things and lived to tell the tale.

Mostly.

WATCH THE VIDEO ESSAY HERE —