The Family Experiment

Final Strife

Saara El-Arifi2022

In a caste system based on blood color, three women compete in trials to become the next Wardens. It follows a fallen rebel and a high-born outcast.

pace0·prose+1·bleak0

Against the Day

Thomas Pynchon2006

A massive ensemble cast navigates the globe between the 1893 World's Fair and WWI. The plot spans airships, math, and secret societies.

propulsive → playful

pace-1·prose+3·bleak0

Naked Lunch: The Restored Text

William S. Burroughs

A series of nonlinear vignettes follow a drug addict's hallucinations and travels. The prose is fragmented and satirical.

propulsive → sardonic, still dystopian

pace-1·prose+3·bleak+1

Dhalgren

Samuel R. Delany1975

An amnesiac wanderer enters Bellona, a city cut off from the world where time and geography shift. He joins a gang and writes poetry.

propulsive → dreamlike

pace-2·prose+3·bleak0

As a Man Thinketh

James Allen1902

A short 1903 essay arguing that a person's character and life circumstances are the direct result of their internal thoughts.

propulsive → earnest

pace-1·prose+1·bleak-2

The Naked Sun

Isaac Asimov1954

A detective from Earth travels to a planet where humans live in total isolation, served by robots. He must solve a rare face-to-face murder.

propulsive → clinical

pace0·prose+1·bleak-2

Mere Christianity

C.S. Lewis1943

A series of radio transcripts explaining the core tenets of the Christian faith. It uses logic and analogy to define common moral ground.

propulsive → earnest

pace-1·prose+1·bleak-2

The Running Man

Richard Bachman

A man enters a deadly reality show to fund medical care for his daughter. He must survive thirty days while the entire world hunts him for money.

Same propulsive register, still dystopian

pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1

The Long Run

Daniel Keys Moran1989

A genetically engineered outlaw with the ability to interface with computers runs from a global police force. He attempts a final heist.

Same propulsive register, still dystopian

pace+1·prose+1·bleak-1

The Test

Sylvain Neuvel2019

An immigrant takes a British citizenship test that turns into a high-stakes psychological simulation. It is a short, dialogue-heavy novella.

propulsive → tense, still dystopian

pace+1·prose+1·bleak0

Beelzebub's tales to his grandson

Georges Ivanovitch Gurdjieff1950

An extraterrestrial being explains the history and strange behaviors of humanity to his grandson during a long space voyage.

propulsive → meditative

pace-2·prose+3·bleak-1

Translated Accounts

James Kelman2001

Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.

propulsive → bleak, still dystopian

pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1

Gödel, Escher, Bach

Douglas R. Hofstadter1979

An exploration of how cognition emerges from hidden neurological patterns. It uses math, art, and music to explain self-referential systems.

propulsive → playful

pace-2·prose+3·bleak-2

Watchmen

Alan Moore1986

Retired masked vigilantes investigate the murder of a former teammate. The story takes place in an alternate 1985 on the brink of nuclear war.

propulsive → bleak, still dystopian

pace0·prose+2·bleak+1

A Clockwork Orange

Anthony Burgess1962

A teenage gang leader is imprisoned and subjected to state-mandated psychological conditioning. The story is told in a slang called Nadsat.

propulsive → sardonic, still dystopian

pace0·prose+3·bleak+1

A Scanner Darkly

Philip K. Dick1977

An undercover narcotics agent in a near-future California becomes addicted to the drug he is investigating and begins to spy on himself.

propulsive → bleak, still dystopian

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1