Saw a post here that mentioned Michael Moorcock as an anarchist 😎

My man moorcock is unapologetic.

I recommend The Land Leviathan (Black Attila conquers racist America) and The Champion of Garathorm (Hero becomes a woman to fulfill destiny and save the day) not because they are good but because they broach taboo topics decades ahead of the curve.

    • Random Dent@lemmy.mlEnglish
      5·
      2 days ago

      Iain M. Banks is a favourite of mine, especially the Culture series. To give an idea of where his head was at, from his essay A Few Notes On The Culture:

      Concomitant with this is the argument that the nature of life in space - that vulnerability, as mentioned above - would mean that while ships and habitats might more easily become independent from each other and from their legally progenitative hegemonies, their crew - or inhabitants - would always be aware of their reliance on each other, and on the technology which allowed them to live in space. The theory here is that the property and social relations of long-term space-dwelling (especially over generations) would be of a fundamentally different type compared to the norm on a planet; the mutuality of dependence involved in an environment which is inherently hostile would necessitate an internal social coherence which would contrast with the external casualness typifying the relations between such ships/habitats. Succinctly; socialism within, anarchy without. This broad result is - in the long run - independent of the initial social and economic conditions which give rise to it.

      Let me state here a personal conviction that appears, right now, to be profoundly unfashionable; which is that a planned economy can be more productive - and more morally desirable - than one left to market forces.

      • A_norny_mousse@feddit.org
        2·
        2 days ago

        Lovely. However, every description of the Culture - even his own - falls short of what his books are about: how the search for meaning never ends, and how even a society like the Culture can never be perfect.

    • MalikMuaddibSoong@startrek.websiteOPEnglish
      2·
      2 days ago

      That’s way harder.

      There’s always his iconic anthihero Elric, or the modern incarnation Geralt of Rivia. I like The Vanishing Tower (Elric IV I think) as a standalone in-media-res story.

      I personally enjoy the really weird stuff in Blood: A Southern Fantasy.

      Behold the Man won him an award and I thought it was a thought provoking novella, at least for its time.