Sunday May 5, 2013
Politics on the page
By SHARMILLA GANESAN
star2@thestar.com.my
No, we’re not talking about dry academic tomes. These are powerful fictional tales that make telling political points.
DESPITE being fictional, novels can often make as strong a statement about life as their non-fiction counterparts. As our nation goes to the polls today for our 13th general election, we look at some defining works of fiction that deal with politics, governance and society (arranged in no particular order)
1984 by George Orwell (1949): This classic dystopian novel talks about a society where compliant citizens are subjected to omnipresent government surveillance and mind control, and independent thought is criminalised. Though penned in 1949, Orwell’s story feels ever-more plausible in our age of social media, electronic surveillance and online personal data collection.
All The King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren (1946): Often touted as one of the best novels ever written on American politics, this Pulitzer Prize-winning work traces the dramatic political career of Willie Stark, who is said to resemble the real-life Huey “Kingfish” Long of Louisiana. An unvarnished look at how politics can alter one’s convictions, Stark starts off as an idealistic “man of the people”, but soon becomes corrupted by success.
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie (1981): An allegorical novel that uses the story of its protagonist, Saleem Sinai, to examine India’s transition from British colonialism to independence and the subsequent Partition of the country into India and Pakistan, this book was awarded the Booker Of Bookers Prize in 1993. Born at the stroke of midnight at the very moment of India’s independence, Saleem finds that his life is mirrored in events that happen to his country, and remarkably, that he is linked with all the other children born in India at that same time.
Wag The Dog by Larry Beinhart (originally published as American Hero, 1993): This conspiracy novel uses satire to examine the role media propaganda can play in aiding the political process. Suggesting that Operation Desert Storm, the 1991 US invasion of Iraq, was scripted and engineered in order to get George H.W. Bush re-elected to a second term as US president, the book makes what initially seems like an improbable premise increasingly likely.
Blindness by Jose Saramago (1995): In this story by the Nobel Prize-winning Portuguese author, a mysterious mass epidemic of blindness strikes the citizens of an unnamed city, creating a rapid breakdown of social order. The fractured government responds by quarantining more and more people. Mirroring the horror of many real-world events, this is a searing look at oppressive governing systems.
V For Vendetta by Alan Moore & David Lloyd (comic book series, 1982-1989): This celebrated graphic novel depicts a post-nuclear Britain, where a fascist party called Norsefire rules the country as a police state. Working to bring down this totalitarian government is a masked revolutionary known as V, who starts a violent yet highly theatrical campaign. Widely regarded as one of the best comic books ever written, this is an excellent examination of anarchy and freedom.
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift (1726): The book recounts the voyages of ship surgeon Lemuel Gulliver, who lands on four fantastical lands, each with its own races of people with unique systems of government and societies. This political parody uses fantasy and humour to examine themes that continue to be relevant today, such as government systems, corruption, discrimination and religious divides.
Big Breasts And Wide Hips by Mo Yan (2012): Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his stories that use magical realism to reflect on very real issues, Mo Yan traces China in the 20th century through the story of one person in this book. This tale of an ineffectual man who cannot wean himself from his mother’s milk, is faced with constant bad luck and poverty, finds himself incarcerated, and then finally in the midst of a capitalistic society, is highly symbolic yet painful in its realities.
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1961): Set during World War II, this satirical historical novel follows a US army captain as he and his squadron struggle to keep their sanity amidst war and fulfil their duty so that they can return home. A darkly funny critique of bureaucratic reasoning and spurious legal processes, the book has also made “Catch-22” an oft-used phrase in the English language.
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960): This Pulitzer Prize-winning classic is renowned for its themes of racial injustice set against the backdrop of a small town in the American Deep South during the Great Depression. Seen through the eyes of the six-year-old Scout, the story examines the trial of a black man accused of raping a white woman, and Scout’s father Atticus who defends him. Besides laying bare issues of prejudice, the book also gives us, in Atticus Finch, one of the most famous fictional heroes ever written.
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