So difficult to find sympathetic fiction online. Currently looking at a book called The Sympathizer by a Vietnamese author about a pro-Vietnamese double agent living in Amerika, seems interesting. Every other search result is anti-communist piss splattered over pages and sold as “gripping, realistic, startlingly accurate”.

Even if it’s bad writing or whatever, I’m curious if any of y’all know some explicitly or implicitly communist fiction worth checking out.

  • i_must_destroy@lemmygrad.ml
    12·
    2 years ago

    It’s not a book, but I would highly recommend Disco Elysium. It’s basically an interactive book. I was a little let down by the ending, but everything else is fantastic.

    • Laplacian@lemmy.ml
      4·
      2 years ago

      Seconded! This is a really interesting piece of sci-fi and it’s a really good allegory of USSR and US relations during the time it was written. It’s a pretty balanced take IMO considering that it was written in the 1970s.

  • i_must_destroy@lemmygrad.ml
    9·
    2 years ago

    I recently read Red Star and Engineer Menni by Alexander Bogdanov. They were written before the Russian Revolution, so they are pretty old. I liked Engineer Menni better than Red Star. I honestly didn’t enjoy them that much, but they had their moments.

    • ZarathustrasApe420@lemmygrad.ml
      3·
      2 years ago

      I also read Red Star this year. I thought it was quite forward thinking despite the time period in which it was written. You can tell Bogdanov was really interested in the new developments taking place in atomic physics.

      • i_must_destroy@lemmygrad.ml
        2·
        2 years ago

        It was interesting for sure. I really liked when he first got to Mars. My interest waned when the story became about his love interests, but that’s probably on me.

        • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
          6·
          2 years ago

          I absolutely love the idea of Isabel Allende’s fiction.

          Unfortunately I’ve not been able to get into any of it. This could be because I’ve gone for the Spanish translations and my Spanish just isn’t there yet. But I don’t think it’s that as I’ve had a look at the English versions and just can’t get into the writing style.

          A real shame, because historical fiction is one of my favourite genres, and her themes are based.

          Edit: I’ve not tried the English Long Petal of the Sea, so maybe that’s my way in to her work.

  • Samubai@lemmygrad.ml
    9·
    2 years ago

    I totally agree! I’m currently working on something of a world-wide intrigue thing based in a global war between the “west” and a global communist bloc. About a an anarchist boy that becomes a communist guerrilla leader in the imperial core. My goal is to make it a bit satirical, but also delving into insurrection and geopolitics. Know of any good books on guerrilla warfare? I should do some research.

  • Genie@lemmygrad.ml
    9·
    2 years ago

    Red mars by Kim Stanley Robinson is about theterraforming of Mars but takes on an explicitly anti capitalist stance as it charts the characters struggles with forming a new political order separate from the capitalism that has destroyed earth.

  • redshiftedbrazilian@lemmygrad.ml
    8·
    2 years ago

    I dont. I do like the recent X-Men reboot because they have a “revolutionary” vibe but thats pretty much it.

    Do any of you writes/draw comic books/manga? Do you have any ideas? Maybe we could start something ourselves

      • SovereignState@lemmygrad.mlOP
        12·
        2 years ago

        I absolutely loved Immortal Hulk and recommend it. It’s more eco-socialist than anything, but it deals with very heavy subjects like abuse, forgiveness, love and hate, climate change, etc. It’s wonderful and actually made me give a shit about a Marvel character lol

        on comics: Don’t bother with Superman Red Son. Garbage as hell.

          • SovereignState@lemmygrad.mlOP
            7·
            2 years ago

            Not sure if you’re into manga at all but right now I’m hyper-fixated on Berserk and I absolutely adore it. It deals a lot, arguably too much, with sexual violence though, so it’s a very cautious recommendation – I’m a survivor and it’s more cathartic than anything so far, for me personally, especially its deconstruction of toxic masculinity and dealing with trauma in constructive ways.

            Junji Ito’s work is fun. I read through Uzumaki and enjoyed it a lot, it’s a very surreal and interesting thought experiment in some ways, and a story about obsession and community collapse. The art is gorgeous and horrifying.

            • ☭ 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗘𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 ☭@lemmygrad.mlM
              8·
              2 years ago

              I read quite a lot of manga. Berserk is very good and it’s sad that Miura never got to finish it. I’ve also read most of Junji Ito’s (horror) works, I think (Uzumaki is definitely the best one)

              Unfortunately, I’ve found very few anti-capitalist series. The only one I can think of is “Destroy and Revolution”, and it’s infuriatingly awful past the halfway point (very disappointing because the premise was really interesting)

    • Socialisminmind@lemmygrad.ml
      5·
      2 years ago

      Do any of you writes/draw comic books/manga? Do you have any ideas? Maybe we could start something ourselves

      Now that sounds interesting, i can kind of draw and definitely have some ideas, maybe we could brainstorm something

  • OrnluWolfjarl@lemmygrad.ml
    6·
    2 years ago

    Red Rising is a sci-fi series about a universe where humanity is split in a caste system enforced through genetics and brutality, and the lower castes rebel against the upper castes. It’s a great series, but the ending of the first series is a bit… liberal.