Uploaded January 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
2026: what a time to be alive, and if you've read any of these books, you probably saw it coming.
Whenever people talk about books that predicted a dystopian future, the two that always get brought up are 1984, and Brave New World.
Great books for sure, and eerily accurate, but here are some books that you may not have read, that in my opinion, are just as chillingly clairvoyant as anything Orwell or Huxley wrote.
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin: on its surface it's a comical sci Fi where everyone seems innocent enough, but it's a powerful allegory about how people in positions of power exploit technology and the labor of others to reshape the world in the way they think is best.
The Melancholy of Resistance by Laszlo Krasznahorkai (translation by George Szirtes) is about a small Hungarian town with a power hungry citizen who manufactures violence to use as as a pretext for gaining power.
Paranoia by Victor Martinovich (translation by Diane Nemec Ignashev) shines a spotlight on how governments use technology to surveil and control citizens. This one has a forward by Timothy Snyder so that should tell you all you need to know about why you should read it.
Last but certainly not least is Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, a book that people will tell you is funis about Tennis, or about addiction, and while all of those things are true, it's really about how corporations have enslaved us through training us to be good consumers.
Which book do you think best depicted the **** storm we're currently living in?
2026: what a time to be alive, and if you've read any of these books, you probably saw it coming.
Whenever people talk about books that predicted a dystopian future, the two that always get brought up are 1984, and Brave New World.
Great books for sure, and eerily accurate, but here are some books that you may not have read, that in my opinion, are just as chillingly clairvoyant as anything Orwell or Huxley wrote.
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin: on its surface it's a comical sci Fi where everyone seems innocent enough, but it's a powerful allegory about how people in positions of power exploit technology and the labor of others to reshape the world in the way they think is best.
The Melancholy of Resistance by Laszlo Krasznahorkai (translation by George Szirtes) is about a small Hungarian town with a power hungry citizen who manufactures violence to use as as a pretext for gaining power.
Paranoia by Victor Martinovich (translation by Diane Nemec Ignashev) shines a spotlight on how governments use technology to surveil and control citizens. This one has a forward by Timothy Snyder so that should tell you all you need to know about why you should read it.
Last but certainly not least is Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, a book that people will tell you is funis about Tennis, or about addiction, and while all of those things are true, it's really about how corporations have enslaved us through training us to be good consumers.
Which book do you think best depicted the **** storm we're currently living in?
