#ninni holmqvist

[nusta]

In questi giorni ho letto un libro disturbante, L'unità di Ninni Holmqvist, tra l'altro molto rapidamente perché era in prestito dalla biblioteca di e-book che lo lascia solo 15 giorni ed era già prenotato da altri, quindi non avrei potuto rinnovarlo. Ma l'ho letto rapidamente anche perché volevo vedere come andava avanti, nonostante non fosse il mio genere e forse, se non fossi rimasta d'accordo con un'amica che poi l'avremmo commentato insieme, l'avrei interrotto dopo i primi capitoli. Speravo in un altro finale e, tutto sommato, non mi ha lasciata soddisfatta, anche se la conclusione è coerente con la storia. Però che frustrazione >_<

La storia è ambientata in un futuro distopico relativamente prossimo, quasi contemporaneo, in cui è stato stabilito democraticamente che le persone possono essere classificate come "dispensabili" nel caso in cui non abbiano legami familiari solidi, ovvero non siano in coppia o non abbiano figli (o anziani genitori di cui occuparsi), o non abbiano professioni di un certo tipo (ossia "utili" per la società). Passata una certa età, se si viene considerati "dispensabili", si viene inseriti obbligatoriamente in un programma di sperimentazione scientifica, in cambio di vitto e alloggio in una sorta di villaggio vacanze da cui sono impediti i contatti col mondo esterno, anche se si possono vedere film e TV. Praticamente si diventa cavie e fonte di organi da destinare alle altre persone, quelle considerate "utili".

Su questa premessa si innesta il racconto in prima persona della protagonista, che compone un memoriale molto dettagliato delle sue vicissitudini dopo il suo ingresso nella cosiddetta Unità, con alcune riflessioni e ricordi del periodo precedente della sua vita.

Ecco, io speravo in una svolta rivoluzionaria, esplosiva, incendiaria, catartica, perché la premessa è talmente disturbante che portarla avanti sino alla fine mi sembrava insostenibile. Invece mi sono dovuta accontentare di un accenno e la scelta finale della protagonista è in linea con tutto quello che viene raccontato prima. Triste, ingiusta, angosciante, ma in linea, proporzionale a quelle che sono le possibilità lasciate in campo.

È angosciante proprio perché non lascia alternative, ti trovi ingabbiato in una rete e non puoi scappare. Che senso avrebbe? Con quali mezzi? Cosa ti resta allora a disposizione? Nel suo caso la diffusione delle informazioni, senza nemmeno sapere se avrà seguito. La speranza che qualcuno mantenga la parola data. La speranza che qualcuno capisca la tragedia che si è compiuta e che si continua a compiere, quando si considera la vita umana come qualcosa di collaterale all'utilità, al ruolo sociale che ci viene attribuito, che ci troviamo a interpretare, volenti o nolenti.

Dove si ferma la responsabilità individuale, dove si mette il confine tra il singolo e il gruppo, quali diritti inalienabili possono essere concordati e quali sono invece i diritti revocabili in nome del bene collettivo?

In questo romanzo non c'è spazio per ragionamenti o polemiche, e forse per questo mi ha lasciato insoddisfatta, ci sono gli estremi delle situazioni raccontate, ma non si affrontano esplicitamente più di tanto le premesse, né sembra ci sia abbastanza frustrazione o insofferenza di fronte a queste situazioni. Si accetta che è così e al massimo si fa una battuta.

E forse la parte più angosciante è proprio rendersi conto che anche nella realtà le persone reagiscono così alle ingiustizie e alla violenza strutturale, quando sei all'interno di un sistema, anche se ti rendi conto di essere vittima di una forma di prevaricazione, non hai la forza o la possibilità di cambiare le cose. Di fare gesti estremi. Forse al massimo ti è concesso di parlarne, se nei hai tempo e occasione.

È una lettura scorrevole, ma troppo cronicistica e fotografica per me. Avrei volentieri scambiato alcune descrizioni con dialoghi e riflessioni che consentissero un cambio di prospettiva. Ce ne sono, ma troppo pochi per i miei gusti.

Il tema è interessante, ma l'insistenza sulla questione dei figli a scapito di altre motivazioni usate in questa realtà per la classificazione degli "utili" mi ha lasciato ancora più amarezza. Forse sono io, anche, a non essere nel momento giusto della mia vita per leggere questo tipo di considerazioni, forse ne soffro più di quanto mi sarebbe successo 10 anni fa e magari di quanto ne soffrirei tra 10 anni. È abbastanza chiaro che la morale sottintesa sia di condanna alla premessa della storia, ma l'aspetto relativo alla prole e alla necessità di fornire il proprio contributo alla crescita demografica passa alla fine più indenne di quanto mi sarebbe piaciuto leggere. È un messaggio talmente pericoloso, trattandosi di un argomento intrinsecamente intimo e potenzialmente molto doloroso, che avrei voluto una narrazione più drastica ed esplicita nel rigetto di questa logica. Non mi basta cercare tra le righe, ora come ora. Ma forse sono io, sono io ora come ora.

Non so, nel complesso, se lo consiglierei. È una premessa interessante, ma forse avrei voluto una storia diversa. Magari con una bella rivoluzione finale.

[105nt]

Finished The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist. A curious dystopian tale.

The narrator is imprisoned in a community for dispensable people - those who are not essential to the outside world by virtue of having children or being otherwise notably productive. Residents have access to food, housing, sports, creative and leisure facilities only limited by the requirement that they participate in clinical trials and donate tissues and organs on demand, up to their final donation, when their body is harvested beyond the point where they can survive.

To begin with, I felt we were being set up for something wonderfully gruesome. The narrator is so calm about what his happening to her, it seemed like an emotional dam would have to break and the story would end with breakdown or breakout.

In fact this was something very different. The calm goes on and on. She meets someone and embarks on what we're told is a passionate affair, but she's never impassioned ... her sexual encounters with her new partner are described in the same way as what she had for breakfast or the exercise she took.

On the end she has the chance to escape but does not take it. She bargains for minor privileges instead. This is an ending I cannot admire. It may be that the world is going to end with a whimper and not a bang, but this is fiction - why not have some fun?

[alemicheli76]

L’Unità, Ninni Holmqvist, Fazi Editore. A cura di Barbara Anderson

Direttamente dalla Scandinavia grazie a Fazi Editore che ce lo presenta in una traduzione eccellente; un romanzo che vi terrà letteralmente incollati alle sue pagine, che vi farà pensare, che vi provocherà sdegno, inquietudine e anche orrore ma soprattutto che vi farà comprendere quanto nella vita sia di fatto essenziale e necessario essere socialmente utili. Ognuno di noi anche oggi…

[mediaevalmusereads]

The Unit. By Ninni Holmqvist (trans. Marlaine Delargy). Other Press, 2006 (English 2008).

Rating: 2/5 stars

Genre: science fiction, dystopia

Series: N/A

Summary: One day in early spring, Dorrit Weger is checked into the Second Reserve Bank Unit for biological material. She is promised a nicely furnished apartment inside the Unit, where she will make new friends, enjoy the state of the art recreation facilities, and live the few remaining days of her life in comfort with people who are just like her. Here, women over the age of fifty and men over sixty-single, childless, and without jobs in progressive industries--are sequestered for their final few years; they are considered outsiders.

In the Unit they are expected to contribute themselves for drug and psychological testing, and ultimately donate their organs, little by little, until the final donation. Despite the ruthless nature of this practice, the ethos of this near-future society and the Unit is to take care of others, and Dorrit finds herself living under very pleasant conditions: well-housed, well-fed, and well-attended. She is resigned to her fate and discovers her days there to be rather consoling and peaceful.

But when she meets a man inside the Unit and falls in love, the extraordinary becomes a reality and life suddenly turns unbearable. Dorrit is faced with compliance or escape, and...well, then what?

***Full review below.***

CONTENT WARNINGS: suicidal thoughts, sexual content, ableism

OVERVIEW: I don't remember how I came across this book, but it has been sitting on my shelf for a long time. I decided to pick it up and plow through it, and boy, did I need to plow. While the premise is interesting, this book was somewhat hard to read because the writing style felt inexeprienced and uninteresting. I don't know if that's because the prose in Swedish is constructed that way or because the translation doesn't capture the feeling of the original, but regardless, I struggled to enjoy this book, so it only gets 2 stars from me.

WRITING: As I mentioned above, the writing in this book feels extremely inexperienced. The sentences don't vary much in length or construction, and there's a lot of telling over showing. There's also a lot of hedging and filter words, and descriptions are so straightforward that the author fails to create any sort of emotion or atmosphere. I know that all seems very harsh, but I can't describe the writing in any other way: it doesn't feel affective.

On top of that, the style didn't quite read in a voice that I would associate with a 50 year old narrator. This is not to say that the sentences or vocabulary should be archaic, but I felt like the voice was somewhat young.

Lastly, the level of unnecessary detail was a bit hard to absorb. Holmqvist appears to flesh out her world by adding a lot of lists: the various food items on order, the plants in the garden, the tests our protagonist undergoes. These lists are inserted into scenes that seem to have little or no purpose, perhaps only existing to show what life is like in the Unit. Personally, I didn't think all this detail didn't make the world feel any more real, nor did I get the sense that the author was trying to convey a sense of being overwhelmed by luxury. It instead just felt like a poor attempt to show how much thought Holmqvist put into imagining this place, and frankly, she doesn't do a good job creating a sense of subtle threat or dark undercurrent to all that's going on.

PLOT: The plot of this book follows Dorrit Weger, a single childless woman who is whisked away to a "Unit" when she turns 50. In Dorrit's world, law states that childless, unmarried persons must submit to these Units, which use their populations to conduct "humane" scientific testing and organ donation. As Dorrit begins to settle into life on the Unit, she falls in love with a man named Johannes, and after something impossible happens, the two must decide whether to accept their fates or try to escape.

The worldbuilding of this novel is somewhat confusing. Dorrit seems to live in a world in which gender abolition has seeped into law. Gender roles, for example, seem to be illegal, and men aren't allowed to do things that "improperly" show off their strength. Dorrit is also encouraged from childhood to refuse to submit or be dependent on a man, and putting off childbearing until one's career is established is praised. At the same time, however, there are laws that designate unmarried, childless people over a certain age as unneeded, and Dorrit fetishizes being a feminine woman and submissive partner. As a result, I wasn't sure what Holmqvist was trying to critique - was it overzealous feminism? The idea of "usefulness" to society? It was never clear, and the politics seemed to contradict what I understand of feminism, leftism, and so on.

On a similar note, I felt like there was a lot of potential that simply didn't get utilized. For example, Dorrit thinks a lot about her dog, who was her closest companion before arriving at the Unit. Such a bind could have been an excellent opportunity to explore the value of relationships that aren't between married people or parents and children, but Holmqvist doesn't seize this opportunity, so Dorrit's pining feels repetitive. The same is true of the friendships Dorrit forms inside the Unit; before, Dorrit struggled to make friends because she always felt like a third wheel, but in the Unit, she finds more people like her. Again, Holmqvist doesn't seize this opportunity.

Lastly, I wasn't sure if the ending was narratively satisfying. Without spoiling anything, I will say that I can kind of see how it fits with the story. However, the author doesn't really dwell much on why Dorrit makes the decision she does, so it doesn't fully resonate with the narrative as a whole.

TL;DR: The Unit tries too hard to be a dystopia about the "usefulness" of human life but ultimately fails to be a thoughtful commentary on feminism, reproductive rights, parenthood, or any other theme it touches. Because the prose is more focused on telling than showing, it's difficult to feel invested in the protagonist and her world, and without a coherent message, it's unclear what readers are supposed to take away from the plot.

CHARACTERS: Dorrit, our protagonist, isn't exceptionally compelling, but there are some aspects to her character that make her more interesting than some. She had this strange fetish for being submissive and feminine in a world that seems to be structured against those things, but I couldn't tell what Holmqvist was trying to do with the situation. I also was never quite sure of Dorrit's beliefs. One minute, she seemed to resent being considered disposable and sneered at the concept of parenthood; the next, she seemed to fully believe that people must have a "use" for society. By the end of the book, I wasn't sure what I was supposed to get out of Dorrit's story, whether it was supposed to be a tragedy, a triumph, or something completely different.

Johannes, Dorrit's lover, was not entirely compelling either. While he was kind and gave Dorrit the sex she desired, I didn't feel like the two had an exceptionally strong emotional bond. Their relationship thus felt very surface level.

Dorrit's various friends around the Unit seemed kind, but many of them lacked depth. Elsa was probably the best written of all them, but even she was a little confusing because of her attitude towards people with children.

Even the staff at the Unit didn't make much sense to me because of the sheer number of people who were willing to bend the rules and help Dorrit. It was difficult to me that something like the Unit could exist when its own staff seemed morally opposed to its operations, and it just reinforced my belief that this story had no coherent vision.

[hellocoraco]

"That's all it was,... the dream was just you and me and the beach and the sea and the sky and time passing by, and that was all, there was nothing else. And that was happiness." 💙

-  Ninni Holmqvist

[lenskij]

The StoryGraph's Translation Challenge 2021 - a reflection

Today I just finished this 10 prompt reading challenge! I had so much fun doing it, especially since I’ve for years wanted to expand my reading beyond the same old and familiar I’ve been reading until now, but I didn’t come around to actually do it until I came across The StoryGraph's Translation Challenge 2021.

The rules are: pick a book for each prompt that has been translated from a language that isn’t English. For myself, I added another rule - it can’t be translated from any language I speak, either. I also wanted to find an individual book for each prompt - if there was a book that would fit in two prompts, I counted it for only one of them and chose another for the other.

I wanted to share my little translation journey with everyone here, hence this post. The prompts, what book I chose for each, and my thoughts on them are below the cut!

Also: I’m always on the lookout for non-English books! Bonus points if they’re from outside of Europe ^w^ Hit me up with your recommendations!

1. A translated fantasy or sci-fi novel

Stanisław Lem: Солярис (Solaris) Translated from Polish to Russian by Д. Брускин

This book has been living on my sister’s bookshelf for years, and while I was visiting her I read it. It didn’t impress me in any way, it felt like any regular old sci-fi, although a bit creepy (and just a lil dash of sexism).

2. A book written by a Black woman in translation

Marie NDiaye: La Cheffe (La Cheffe) Translated from French to Swedish by Maria Björkman

This is a lovely novel, even if it focused on French food - and the detailed descriptions reminded me that French food is overrated. I loved the character la Cheffe, it was highly enjoyable to read about her relationship to people and her profession, and the narrator had sweet heart eyes that shined through the text.

3. A translated book originally published before 1950

Choderlos de Laclos: Farliga förbindelser (Les Liaisons dangereuses) Translated from French to Swedish by Arvid Enckell.

This prompt was the easiest to fulfill, and I had several choices for it. I've spoken about this book elsewhere on this here blog - it's morbidly fascinating to read about terrible, terrible people.

4. A translated non-fiction book

Romaric Godin: Klasskriget i Frankrike (La guerre sociale en France) Translated from French to Swedish by Johan Wollin

For this prompt, I went to a local bookstore and asked the seller for help. She had to dig around for a while before she found something that wasn't originally written in English - like she pointed out, most academics choose to write in English, even if they're not native speakers.

I picked this one because I've seen snapshots of the yellow wests in the news, but I know barely any of the context. Although the book is short, it's a pretty detailed overview of recent French economic history, with an emphasis on explaining why and how French neo-liberalism ended up looking like it is today (and why French neo-liberalism is different from the neo-liberalism in the rest od Europe). This tickled my inner economics nerd.

5. A translated novel 500 pages or longer

Isabel Allende: Andarnas hus (La Casa de los Espíritus) Translated from Spanish to Swedish by Lena Anér Melin

Another book that has been sitting on my sister's shelf! I absolutely loved it - a family saga, in a time of social change. Look, my favourite part about any book is when the characters feel like humans, even if they're not relatable, I can still understand them.

6. A book translated from Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish or Icelandic

Vigdis Hjorth: Arv och miljö (Arv og miljø) Translated from Norwegian to Swedish by Ninni Holmqvist

In my case, it meant a book translated from either Danish, Norwegian or Icelandic (I do have to pepper in the fact that I'm a polyglot, after all). It's my sister who recommended it to me, and she was right when she said this was good! I loved the three separate timelines, the prose, and the family drama.

7. A translated book by a South American author

María Sonia Cristoff: Håll mig utanför (Inclúyanme afuera) Mariana Enríquez: Det vi förlorade i elden (Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego)Translated from Spanish to Swedish by Hanna Axén

What? Two books?? Yes, when I searched the library catalogue it spit out these two - because they have the same translator - and since they both seemed interesting I checked both of them out.

Unfortunately, these are the two books of this challenge that I liked the least. The first one didn't have a premise that worked with me - the main character chose to listen more than she spoke for a year as an experiment, and as an introvert, to whom this is how I've always lived my life, it was hard for me to understand what the big deal was.

The second was just my personal taste - these short stories had bloody ghosts, and ended abruptly without quite resolving the story - that creepiness just doesn't vibe with me.

8. A translated book by a Chinese author

Eileen Chang: Ett halvt liv av kärlek (Banshengyuan) Translated from Chinese to Swedish by Anna Gustafsson Chen

After quite a slow start I suddenly was drawn into this book. It's such a lovely read on when life doesn't always work out the way you want, and you still do your best to be happy. It felt very real, without being a 'happily ever after', or it's opposite of endless tears - that sweet middle ground spot.

9. A book translated from Arabic

Rajaa Alsanea: Flickorna från Riyadh (Banāt al-Riyāḍ) Translated from Arabic to Swedish by Tetz Rooke

I found this when messing around with the "similar books"-algorithm on Storygraph (I've just finished Unmarriageable, and liked it a so much I wanted to find something similar). When this one popped out I noticed the Arabic author name, and checked it out from the library. I've actually never read any book set in the Middle East, and I loved seeing a glimpse of life there (naturally, this isn't a comprehensive illustration - the main characters were all from well-off families). The most interesting thing was how the characters adjusted their behaviour as they travelled between Europe and Saudi Arabia - the social rules are different depending on where you are (and if you meet a fellow Saudi in London, your day is ruined - because suddenly you have to behave in accordance to Saudi rules).

10. A book translated from a language spoken in India

Vivek Shanbhag: Ghachar ghochar (Ghāchar ghōchar) Translated from Kannada to English by Srinath Perur; translated to Swedish by Peter Samuelsson

At first I was cranky about that this is a translation of a translation - but in the acknowledgements I read that it was the author's request that the book is to be translated from English. I assume it's because the English translator already has made the inevitable tradeoffs between language and form, which the author approved, and so the Swedish translator wouldn't have to make the decisions all over again.

This was a short book, just over a hundred pages. It barely had any plot, but it didn't need any - the description of the family members' relationship to each other was juicy enough.

In conclusion

This challenge was a great opportunity for me to also try genres I never would have tried otherwise - I was limited to what my library had, and especially for the smaller languages, it's a limited choice. I've been talking about this translation challenge to everyone I know because I've had so much fun! And the best part is - it's only ten prompts. That means I wouldn't need to scram to finish it in time, even while also reading the regular same old books I do still want to read. While I'm waiting for the 2022 challenge, I'll be doing another round for these prompts - I've already checked out a short story collection originally written in Tamil, and a nonfiction about Syrian resistance originally written in Arabic :)

[sapphiresandstars]

My book alphabet for 2021:

A: An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro

B: The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery

C: A Cat, A Man and Two Women by Jun’ichiro Tanizaki

D: Don’t Tell Alfred by Nancy Mitford

E: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

F: The Favorite Sister by Jessica Knoll

G: The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Society by by Mary Ann Shaffer

H: How to be Both by Ali Smith

I: I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron

J:

K: Kindred by Octavia E Butler

L: Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam

M: My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier

N: No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai

O: Other People’s Houses by Abbi Waxman

P: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

Q:

R: Rilla of Ingleside by Lucy Maud Montgomery

S: Slow Boat by Hideo Furukawa

T: Three Act Tragedy by Agatha Christie

U: The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist

V:

W: We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas

X:

Y:The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Z:

[spinsterofficial]

book recommendation: everyone should read the unit by ninni holmqvist to experience not only panic attacks, but also gnawing anxiety inbetween them. it's an excellent book but i have bitten off almost all of the skin of my lips and the inside of my cheeks

[irrationalityi]

'Life and existence have no value in themselves,' Dorrit’s friend Johannes tells her. 'We mean nothing. ... The only thing of any real value is what we produce.' The question readers might ponder is whether he’s talking about art, children, or both.

on Ninni Holmqvist’s The Unit (The Atlantic)

[nusta]

Stasera sono riuscita a fare una di quelle cose che rimandavo da tantissimo tempo, tanto che me lo ero dimenticato pure che lo volevo fare, e tutto questo in una sera in cui avrei dovuto fare un'altra cosa che sto rimandando da mesi! La vita di una procrastinatrice cronica riserva anche delle soddisfazioni, eh!

Comunque, la conquista principale di stasera è l'account sulla MediaLibraryOnline tramite il polo dell'Emilia che sta qui e siccome per fare una cosa di questo tipo succede che ne devi fare altre 5 o 6 per portare a termine il percorso, con l'occasione ho rinnovato la password dello spid (per accedere, dato che non so le credenziali della biblioteca a cui dovrei essere iscritta da millemila anni) e scaricato l'app su pc e tablet (perchè purtroppo il prestito online non è compatibile con il kindle, salvo che io non abbia ancora capito come - ma non credo perchè veniva indicato solo il kobo come lettore su cui leggere i prestiti). E ho pure aggiornato Calibre sul pc, anche se userò l'app su tablet, perchè volevo comunque vedere se si riusciva a leggere da lì.

Tutto questo per avere 15 giorni di tempo per finire il libro che ho trovato disponibile (Donna con libro, di Bianca Pitzorno) e attendere 9 prenotazioni altrui per leggerne un'altro (L'Unità, di Ninni Holmqvist) (e presumo di avere poi 15 giorni anche per quello? Forse comunque se non ci sono prenotazioni altrui si può rinnovare - devo controllare) e ne ho trovati già altri 4 disponibili che erano nella mia lista dei desideri da tempo...

Ora la sfida maggiore è evitare di procrastinare ulteriormente la cosa che ho rimandato stasera (perchè è urgente in realtà), ma con tutte ste letture che mi aspettano sarà difficile... me le dovrei tenere come premio per quando avrò finito... vedremo...

[105nt]

Finished The Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson. It was much more enjoyable. I loved the characters and the way she didn't overburden us with details at the end (Life After Life, at least the TV adaptation) was like that too. I would like to read something more about that period in-between the First World War and the Depression: not got much time for the bright young things, but this wasn't about them, it was about the people who made a living from them and fished them out of the river - much more interesting.

Moving on to this which is a charity shop find. Read two chapters last night and already hooked. Dystopian futures are my first literary love. 😁

[booknieci]

Nigdy nie ceniłam zdawkowych rozmów. Teraz zauważyłam, że takie pogawędki o niczym mają uspokajający efekt – są jak chłodzący okład na skręconą kostkę, zapobiegający opuchliźnie i zasinieniom.

Ninni Holmqvist, Jednostka

[newstfionline]

Word of the Day

succinct (adjective) suk-SINKT : marked by compact precise expression without wasted words

The history of succinct might not be short, but it’s a cinch to remember. Succinct traces to Latin succinctus (“tightly wrapped, concise”), which comes from the verb cingere (“to gird”), the word that gave us cincture and cinch. In its earliest uses succinct meant “confined” or “girded up,” and, as such, it was often used in reference to garments encircled by a band. Eventually, succinct was extended to the realm of insects, where it meant “supported by a band of silk around the middle” (as in “the succinct pupa of a butterfly”). Later, the word was applied to writings. A “succinct” piece of writing is “compressed” or “compact” and uses as few words as possible.

Example: “[Ninni] Holmqvist’s writing is spare in style, elegantly succinct, but the layers of the world she’s created are manifold.”--Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 25 July 2017

[asecondglassofcinnamonwine]

The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist

A book about a dystopian nursing home where disposable people are sent when they reach the age at which they can’t bear children, and somehow not as sad or as angry as I thought it would be.

Not the book to read while I’m already feeling a great deal of self pity, though.

[techsciencebookclub]

Ŝ̶̲̍p̸̡̱̬̠͕̯̞̈́e̴̻͇͈͒͛c̷̨̦̗̎ư̷̡̞̌̆̋̎͋̂̽͆̕l̸̡̦͊̕a̵̲̲͓̳̱̞̝͔͉͔̔̓̇̊̔́̀͠t̶̢͎̣̖̺̤͈͕́į̶̡̡͕͎̩̯̳͎͇̉̓͑͒̈̃͠v̶̲̾̽̽̓͒̃̌̚ȇ̴̛̦͎͌̐̿̿͋͊̃͠ ̸͓̲̟̲̋̑̀̑̃͛͌́̋́ͅN̵̛̰̑̅͋̑͛̓̈͘o̴͚̗͆̅̑̋͆͌̈̏̌w̸̱̫̋(̶͚͈̉̄̈́͗͗̇ş̵̨̝͍̦̻̫͆̀̋͑̃̎̅̑̚)̶̺̞͈͙͍̻̮̘͂̊̌͛͆́̃̏̎͝ͅ

On September 7, we compiled a list of favourite sci-fi titles form the audience at our Tech Festival event, Speculative Now(s). Here is the list in its entirety:

Lilith’s Brood by Octavia Butler Parable of the Talents trilogy by Octavia Butler The Xenogenesis series by Octavia Butler Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin Earthsea trilogy by Ursula Le Guin The Dispossessed, Ursula K le Guin The Foundation series by Asimov The last question by Isaac Asimov I, Robot by Asimov The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem Solaris by Stanislav Lem The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson Count Zero by William Gibson Pattern Recognition by William Gibson A scanner darkly by Philip K. Dick The man in the high castle by Philip K. Dick The three-body problem by Cixin-Liu Dark Forest by Cixin-Liu Chronicles by Amber by Zelazny Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood Veniss Underground, Jeff Vandermeer Amatka by Karin Tidbeck The Story Of Your Life by Ted Chiang Supertoys Last All Summer Long by Brian Aldiss The Martian by Andy Weir The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester Hyperion by Dan Simmons Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson Gattaca by Frederic P. Miller Dark Matter by Blake Crouch Ghost ln the shell by Masamune Shirow The spirit circle by Satoshi Mizukami Snowpiercer by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand og Jean-Marc Rochette The Camille Stories: Children of Compost by Donna Haraway The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi Pengetræet – from the book: ”Form, relation, system, fiktion - en antologi om nutidige og fremtidige pengesystemer” by Ursula Andkjær Olsen Time machine by H.G. Wells Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel The Expanse by James S. A. Corey The Maze Runner and Leviathan Wakes The Gone Away World by Nick Harkaway They're made out of meat by Terry Bisson Enders Game (trilogy) by Orson Scott Card Devil On My Back by Monica Hughes Manna by Marshall Brain The Last Children of Tokyo by Yoko Tawada House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds Story of your life by Ted Chiang Blade runner by Alan E. Nourse Frank Herbert's Dune by Frank Herbert Hyperion by Dan Simmons 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C Clarke Tigerman by Nick Harkaway Delta-v by Daniel Suarez 1984 by George Orwell Battlestar Galactica by Glen A. Larson Roadside Picnic by Strugatsky Brothers Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut The many selves of Katherine North by Emma Green Brave New World by Aldous Huxley A Close and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers Watchmen by Alan Moore Frankenstein - Mary Shelley The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist Films and TV shows: Ex machina by Alex Garland Star Wars, George Lucas Black mirror by Charlie Brooker Other Authors: Svend Åge Madsen Other: Terra Series by Arthur Moewig Verlag I like the diversity of many shortstories over novels. When mixed with technical/nonfictional papers and contextualised it could be: Neil Spiller Cyber Reader: Critical Writings for the Digital Era ISBN-13: 978-0714840710, ISBN-10: 0714840718 http://beijingscifi.org/ Post colonialist speculative design cheat sheet https://medium.com/a-parede/cheat-sheet-for-a-non-or-less-colonialist-speculative-design-9a6b4ae3c465

[morecolorfulmetaphors]

idk if your post about translated books meant you're looking for recs, but i have one for you: the unit by ninni holmqvist, which was originally published in swedish. it's dystopian fiction and i really enjoyed it.

thanks, anon! i definitely appreciate book recs, always.