"not in front of the Klingons"

[eldritchhobbit]

Happy birthday to wildviolet4 and happy early birthday to savagedoc45. I hope you both enjoy excellent days and many, many more to come!

I will be heading out to Las Vegas tomorrow to present my research on the "H.P. Lovecraft-J.R.R. Tolkien Connection" at the 2008 APEE International Convention. (And yes, I do plan to make another pilgrimage to Star Trek: The Experience while I'm in town.) I will be online to a degree, but I may not be able to keep up with everyone until I'm back on Wednesday. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!


Thanks to everyone who responded to my request for young adult-specific dystopian novel recommendations. I'm in the process of getting my hands on those I don't already have, and I look forward to reading them. I promised to compile and share a comprehensive list of those titles suggested to me, so here you go! Those with asterisks I've already read and highly recommend. If I've missed anything, please let me know. Thanks again!


Recommended Young Adult Dystopias

Bad Faith by Gillian Philip
The Bar Code Tattoo by Suzanne Weyn
The Books of Ember by Jeanne Duprau
The Compound by S.A. Bodeen
The Declaration by Gemma Malley
The Far Side of Evil by Sylvia Engdahl
Feed by M.T. Anderson
The Fire-Us Trilogy by Jennifer Armstrong and Nancy Butcher
* The Giver Trilogy by Lois Lowry
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
I Am The Cheese by Robert Cormier
The Last Book in the Universe by Rodman Philbrick
Life As We Knew It and The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer
* Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
* The Missing Person's League by Frank Bonham
Rash by Pete Hautman
The Shadow Children Sequence by Margaret Peterson Haddix
* Surviving Antarctica: Reality TV 2083 by Andrea White
The Secret Under My Skin by Janet McNaughton
Sharp North and Blown Away by Patrick Cave
The Silenced by James DeVita
Stolen Voices by Ellen Dee Davidson
* The Time Quartet by Madeleine L'Engle (dystopian elements)
The Tripods Series by Samuel Youd
* The Tomorrow Series by John Marsden
The Uglies Series by Scott Westerfeld
Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien


"Please, Captain, not in front of the Klingons."
-Spock to Kirk, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Comments

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

Have a great trip!

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much! :)

[vyrdolak.livejournal.com]

If Professor Tolkien was familiar with Lovecraft's work, he probably appreciated it more than M.R. James reportedly did.

HPL died two years after The Hobbit was published, I think he would
have liked LOTR but I suspect The Hobbit was too juvenile to interest someone of his morbid temperament. Of course, I am unable to attend
your lecture or I would be delighted to be informed otherwise!

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

I think you're quite right about HPL liking LOTR (but not necessarily The Hobbit). I think he would've absolutely loved parts of The Silmarillion. It's very sobering to think of how tragically short HPL's life was, and how much more he might've accomplished if he'd been given the same number of years as an author that JRRT enjoyed.

It's interesting to think that there are actually some common influences on both authors, from Lord Dunsany back to the Icelandic sagas and Anglo-Saxon poets and the Nibelungenlied. I bet they could've gotten onto a great Anglophilic literary roll if they'd ever met up in a pub somewhere and sat down for a chat.

I honestly don't know if JRRT was aware of HPL's work. I need to look into that. Thanks as always for your thought-provoking post!

Incidentally, the article on which my lecture was based is now available here.

[sittingduck1313.livejournal.com]

Yeeeeerrrrrggggghhhhh!!!!! You quoted from the Film Which Must Not Be Mentioned. To atone, you must go and sit through a viewing of it.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Augh, I asked for that, didn't I? *headdesk*

[fungus-files.livejournal.com]

Hope the trip to LV is fun and frolicky. :) Been meaning to comment on a few of your posts but have been an epic fail (as the young ones say...lol).

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :) It was Trek-licious. ;)

[korg20000bc.livejournal.com]

Maybe you could add Lee Harding's Displaced Person to the book list. Not quite sure if it entirely fits dystopian writing.

Come, Hunt an Earthman- Pillip E High is another option.

Christopher Stasheff's Escape Velocity, Warlock in Spite of Himself and his Starship Troupers series may be good fits too.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Oh, excellent! Thanks a million for these great recommendations!

[korg20000bc.livejournal.com]

I missed Harding's- Waiting for the end of the World

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Many thanks!

[vyrdolak.livejournal.com]

Thank you(!), I read it last night.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much!