What people talk about when the censors are watching
July 2, 2024 5:04 PM Subscribe
I'm looking for books that describe people living resiliently, honestly, and maintaining their sanity under dishonest autocratic rule.
For example, years ago I read a conversation between Lou Reed and Vaclav Havel, where Havel talked about the adaptations that he and other members of the Czech and Slovak intelligentsia took to stay honest to their moment and true to themselves when their writing was subject to strict and arbitrary censorship.
I'm looking for things like that, and other writings -- novels, plays, non-fiction -- describing people living resiliently and successfully under regimes that are fundamentally dishonest and corrupt. These could be works based on the lived experience of the author, or speculative fiction if it is done well.
I'd prefer these not be tragedies. I'm looking for inspiration. Optimism is a verb.
For example, years ago I read a conversation between Lou Reed and Vaclav Havel, where Havel talked about the adaptations that he and other members of the Czech and Slovak intelligentsia took to stay honest to their moment and true to themselves when their writing was subject to strict and arbitrary censorship.
I'm looking for things like that, and other writings -- novels, plays, non-fiction -- describing people living resiliently and successfully under regimes that are fundamentally dishonest and corrupt. These could be works based on the lived experience of the author, or speculative fiction if it is done well.
I'd prefer these not be tragedies. I'm looking for inspiration. Optimism is a verb.
Svetlana Alexeivich's Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets
It's not tragedy nor optimism. Also, it's an oral history, so be prepared to take people at their words (even if you disagree with it through a 21st century lens)
posted by fluttering hellfire at 5:43 PM on July 2 [3 favorites]
It's not tragedy nor optimism. Also, it's an oral history, so be prepared to take people at their words (even if you disagree with it through a 21st century lens)
posted by fluttering hellfire at 5:43 PM on July 2 [3 favorites]
The Lives of Others absolutely, although a film not a book.
posted by Wavelet at 6:11 PM on July 2 [3 favorites]
posted by Wavelet at 6:11 PM on July 2 [3 favorites]
It's been a long time since I read it, but How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed might fit.
posted by FencingGal at 6:42 PM on July 2 [2 favorites]
posted by FencingGal at 6:42 PM on July 2 [2 favorites]
Hear me out, because it doesn’t quite fit what you asked for, but The Master and Margarita always comes to my mind when thinking about this topic.
posted by matildaben at 6:42 PM on July 2 [3 favorites]
posted by matildaben at 6:42 PM on July 2 [3 favorites]
A Gentleman in Moscow. If optimism is a verb, this book optimisms hard.
posted by capricorn at 7:05 PM on July 2 [2 favorites]
posted by capricorn at 7:05 PM on July 2 [2 favorites]
My knee jerk reaction was (the already mentioned) The Lives of Others, but I don't think it ticks the optimism box. It is, however a fascinating film -- there's something going on with Brecht that I've never figured out. The other sense in which it's not what you're looking for is that it's written and directed by a member of the honest to goodness aristocracy. (Ulrich Mühe, who played the main character, did live in the DDR.)
posted by hoyland at 9:07 PM on July 2
posted by hoyland at 9:07 PM on July 2
My suggestions have already been made, so I’ll just second Stasiland and How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed.
posted by penguin pie at 5:23 AM on July 3
posted by penguin pie at 5:23 AM on July 3
I've finally got a copy [my Imgur, 400Kb] of Truth Is Concrete A Handbook for Artistic Strategies in Real Politics, "99 strategies". MIT Press say the have it for US $26.00.
One 'author' is the Steirischer Herbst Festival held in Graz annually since the 1960's.
It's more forward and now-looking and written as a manual for protest and activism, from very subtle and near-invisible .. to the other ends of the protest spectrum. A very positive helpful book with the ideas coming from a multitude of communities across the planet who have been forced to protest.
I've read it quickly and Post-IT_Count™ is already at 17, next the slower read.
posted by unearthed at 4:07 PM on July 3
One 'author' is the Steirischer Herbst Festival held in Graz annually since the 1960's.
It's more forward and now-looking and written as a manual for protest and activism, from very subtle and near-invisible .. to the other ends of the protest spectrum. A very positive helpful book with the ideas coming from a multitude of communities across the planet who have been forced to protest.
I've read it quickly and Post-IT_Count™ is already at 17, next the slower read.
posted by unearthed at 4:07 PM on July 3
Was just reading about this book about the lives of North Koreans
posted by bearette at 7:03 AM on July 4
posted by bearette at 7:03 AM on July 4
I liked Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng. Fiction but beautiful and poignant.
posted by fern at 1:23 PM on July 4
posted by fern at 1:23 PM on July 4
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Her essays and novels draw on her own life and the life of her friends and family in Romania under Ceausescu.
But perhaps they are too tragic, not sure
posted by 15L06 at 5:42 PM on July 2 [1 favorite]