SUMMER READING
FOR-FUN READING
LOOK SMART ON THE BEACH
ENTERTAIN YOURSELF ON THE AIRPLANE
START THE SCHOOL YEAR WITH AN
A+ A B C ?
FUTURE FICTION
FUTURE FICTION
FAST FORWARD IN TIME.......
WHAT WILL LIFE BE LIKE IN THE YEAR
2050? 2100? 2500?
MANY WRITERS HAVE ANSWERED
THIS QUESTION IN CREATIVE—AND
SOMETIMES TROUBLING—WAYS.
THEIR WORKS FORM A SUBGENRE
OF SCIENCE FICTION:
FUTURE FICTION
WHY FUTURE FICTION?
• It offers escapist entertainment while still
delivering a message.
• Is it simply human nature to wonder what will
happen in the future?
• Technology & science play an ever-more
important role in human life.
• It deals with how changes in our world may
infringe on individual freedom & self-
determination.
DYSTOPIC VISIONS
Utopia: An ideally perfect place, especially in
social, political, & moral aspects
vs.
Dystopia: An imaginary state in which life is
extremely bad, from deprivation,
oppression, or terror
CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE
TEXTS TO CHOOSE FROM:
• BRAVE NEW WORLD
• 1984
• A CLOCKWORK ORANGE
• THE HANDMAID’S TALE
• ANTHEM
• DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF
ELECTRIC SHEEP?
• BLINDNESS
SUMMER ASSIGNMENTS
THE WORK TO DO
• GET THE BOOK (BORROW FROM THE
ALMACEN, BUY IT, BORROW FROM A
FRIEND)
• READ THE ENTIRE BOOK
• POST AT LEAST 4 RESPONSES ON THE
SUMMER READING FORUM
• PREPARE TO DISCUSS AT THE
BEGINNING OF THE SCHOOL YEAR
SUMMER READING FORUM
WHAT TO DO
• GO TO
fcaqsummerbooks.proboards106.com
• SIGN UP AS A MEMBER
• POST AT LEAST 4 TIMES ON THE
BOARD FOR YOUR BOOK
• BE SURE YOU SIGN EACH POSTING
USING YOUR COMPLETE NAME!
BRAVE NEW WORLD
• by Aldous Huxley
• published 1932, set in A.F.
632 (c.a. 2500)
• In a totalitarian scientific
state, humans are “mass-
produced” in factories.
• Scientific advances lead to
social engineering.
• Drugs & brainwashing keep
people passive.
• sanity, society, & stability
1984
• by George Orwell
• published 1948, set 1984
• In a totalitarian state at
constant war, not even
thoughts are free.
• Newspeak is Orwell’s new
language, in which
meaning is paradoxical:
WAR IS PEACE
• freedom & government
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE
• by Anthony Burgess
• published 1960, set 1972
• In a chaotic, morally
decadent society drug-
addicted youth gangs
commit “ultraviolence.”
• A new lexicon of words
called “nadsat” blends
teenage jargon & Russian.
• free will & society
THE HANDMAID’S TALE
• by Margaret Atwood
• published 1985, set in “near
future”
• In a totalitarian state, most
women are infertile; those
who can must bear children
for all.
• A caste system places
people based on their social
function, allowing no
freedom.
• feminism & reproduction
ANTHEM
• by Ayn Rand
• published 1938, set after the
“Great Rebirth” (a sort of
reverse Renaissance)
• The collective totalitarian
state forbids individuality,
as symbolized by the use of
“WE” rather than “I.”
• The state determines every
stage of people’s lives.
• freedom and individualism
DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC
SHEEP?
• by Philip K. Dick
• published 1968, set in 2021
• After worldwide wars leave
Earth devastated, most
humans move “off-planet.”
• Humans crave contact with
any living creatures and
fear androids that are
almost indistinguishable
from humans themselves.
• humanism & technology
BLINDNESS
• by Jose Saramago
• published 1998, set in an
unnamed city in the present
• A city experiences a sudden
plague of blindness.
• An eye doctor and his wife
are main characters. The
doctor’s wife is one of the
only people who can see.
• freedom, faith, & society