"The Iron Heel"

[pnorman]

When I was 18 (many years back), I read the above novel by Jack London. I felt it then, to be unrealistic and somewhat overdrawn, but it still left a lasting impression on me. I'm not sure now, looking at the Darth Vader like apparatus behind BushCo, if that dystopian novel IS so "unrealistic", or even overdrawn. Here it is on-line, complete with concordance: http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/Writings/IronHeel/

Judge for yourself. And while you're there, check out London's other writings at: http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/Writings/ . "Martin Eden" is generally considered to be semi-autobiographical, but "John Barleycorn" probably comes a lot closer.

pnorman

[ConsAreLiars]

1. Also read "It Can't Happen Here"

by Sinclair Lewis http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301001h.html
It seemed a bit alarmist or overwrought at the time, and history proved it premature -- we stopped them once -- but the threat remains.

[pnorman]

2. Yes that belongs on that list also,

although it's a lot less "imaginative" than the others. I found that on the web and downloaded it into my PDA (Sony TH-55). Also in that device is "1984", as well as "The Iron Heel".

By comparison, "Brave New World" and "Fahrenheit 451" seems to me, almost superficial. Another dystopian novel, and one that directly influenced Orwell was: "We", written in 1920-1921 by Yevgeny Zamyatin. I have a copy of it somewhere. I was just making a Google-search of it, hoping to find it on-line. No luck, so far.

pnorman

[pnorman]

3. I just found and downloaded "Brave New World"

Here it is: http://memoware.com/ (The complete URL didn't come through properly, so go to that site and Search for: Huxley)
Like most of the other good books I've found so far, it's available only for Palm OS. Also found there were Orwell's "Animal Farm", and "Down And Out In Paris And London". I'm hot on the heels of a few others. (DAMN!! I'll NEVER get to sleep!). I've paid mucho $$$$ for other eBooks and gladly, but I NEVER pass up quality freebies.

pnorman