Great Libertarian Novels That Aren't Atlas Shrugged

Started by MrBogosity, October 07, 2013, 07:24:35 PM

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October 07, 2013, 07:24:35 PM Last Edit: May 31, 2017, 08:41:35 AM by MrBogosity
It seems that more and more Ayn Rand's badly written and overlong Atlas Shrugged is, sadly, becoming the face of Libertarianism fiction. It seems to me that there are plenty of novels out there that are a) much better written and b) better at demonstrating libertarian principles without all the Objectivist baggage. I thought I'd make this thread to archive them.

These are novels, so please don't add nonfiction like Economics in One Lesson or The Road to Serfdom.

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller: Not only a fantastic anti-war novel, but one covering other issues as well. Listen to the 7 October 2013 podcast where FSBlueApocalypse and I quoted from it. It's really funny—if you like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, this is the same style of humor—while still leaving you with the impression of how dark and ugly war is.

For that matter, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and its sequels (as well as the radio series, TV series, and movie) by Douglas Adams. Apart from great quotables like "No one who wants to be president should under any circumstances be allowed to have the job" and "If they didn't vote for a lizard, the wrong lizard might get in", the whole thing starts with bureaucracy destroying the Earth and goes on to feature incompetent homicidal police and why the most evil race in the universe are civil administrators.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein: The Moon rebels against Earth and wins independence, setting up a libertarian government. But how long can they keep it? Lots of great ideas and quotes.

The Hunger Games (and its sequels, Catching Fire and Mockingjay) by Suzanne Collins: Okay, I know, they're pop teen novels. But they're excellently written with libertarian concepts running all the way through as the people of the Districts slowly grow their revolution against the Capitol and its tyrannical President.

No such list would be complete without Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

Of course I should also add 1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell.

Along the same vein as 1984 and Brave New World is The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.

And if we can add graphic novels to the list, of course there's Alan Moore's V for Vendetta.

What else should we add to the list?

From nilecroc: The Probability Broach by L. Neil Smith

If we're doing Graphic novels I have to mention, at the very least, the latter portions of Alan Grant's run on Anarky which admittedly DOES have basis in Neotech, an offshoot of objectivism.

Any Anarcho-Capitalist ones?  Well, ones that aren't V for Vendetta, I mean.
"When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world—'No. You move.'"
-Captain America, Amazing Spider-Man 537

Like I said Anarky. Neotech isn't reallyt hat different a philosophy. In the lit department though I hear good things about L Niel Stephanson. Though where I really feel we're under reperesented is in video games to be honest.

Quote from: tnu on October 07, 2013, 09:43:29 PM
Like I said Anarky. Neotech isn't reallyt hat different a philosophy. In the lit department though I hear good things about L Niel Stephanson. Though where I really feel we're under reperesented is in video games to be honest.
Fallout New Vegas

Yeah we have New Vegas and "sort of" BioShock though that just seems to be a strawman. But yeah I love New Vegas. I've been working on a sort of Superhero chracter for that lately.


More of a mix between V, Anarky, Batman, and Zorro

Quote from: tnu on October 07, 2013, 10:29:07 PM
Yeah we have New Vegas and "sort of" BioShock though that just seems to be a strawman. But yeah I love New Vegas. I've been working on a sort of Superhero chracter for that lately.
Ever notice how the NCR resembles the U.S. gov.


Can you link me to V's speech you talk about in the podcast?  It sounds familiar but I need my memory refreshed.
I recently heard that the word heretic is derived from the greek work heriticos which means "able to choose"
The more you know...

Quote from: Lord T Hawkeye on October 14, 2013, 06:09:35 PM
Can you link me to V's speech you talk about in the podcast?  It sounds familiar but I need my memory refreshed.

V: Hello, dear lady. A lovely evening, is it not? Forgive me for intruding, perhaps you were intending to take a stroll, perhaps you were merely enjoying the view. No matter, I thought that it was time we had a little chat, you and I. Ahh... I was forgetting that we are not properly introduced. I do not have a name. You can call me V. Madame Justice, this is V. V, this is Madame Justice. Hello, Madame Justice.

Justice: (V provides her lines) Good evening, V.

V: There, now we know each other. Actually, I've been a fan of yours for quite some time. Oh, I know what you're thinking... "The poor boy has a crush on me... an adolescent infatuation." I beg your pardon, Madame. It isn't like that at all. I've long admired you... Albeit only from a distance. I used to stare at you from the streets below when I was a child. I'd say to my father "Who is that lady?" And he'd say "That's Madam Justice." And I'd say "Isn't she pretty?" Please don't think it was merely physical, I know you're not that sort of girl. No, I loved you as a person, as an ideal. That was a long time ago, I'm afraid there's someone else now...

Justice: What? V! For shame! You have betrayed me for some harlot, some vain and pouting hussy with painted lips and a knowing smile!

V: I, Madame? I beg to differ! It was your infidelity that drove me to her arms! Ah-ha! That surprised you, didn't it! You thought I didn't know about your little fling, but I do! I know everything! Frankly, I wasn't surprised when I found out. You always did have an eye for a man in uniform.

Justice: Uniform? Why, I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about. It was always you, V. You were the only one...

V: Liar! Slut! Whore! Deny that you let him have his way with you, him with his armbands and jackboots! Well? Cat got your tongue? I thought as much. Very well. So you stand revealed at last, you are no longer my Justice. You are his Justice now, you have bedded another. Well, two can play at that game!

Justice: Sob! Choke! Wh-Who is she, V? What is her name?

V: Her name is Anarchy. And she has taught me more as a Mistress than you ever did! She has taught me that Justice is meaningless without Freedom. She is honest, she makes no promises and breaks none. Unlike you, Jezebel. I used to wonder why you could never look me in the eye. Now I know. So goodbye, dear Lady. I would be saddened by our parting, even now, save that you are no longer the woman that I once loved. Here is a final gift. I leave it at your feet.

(He puts a heart-shaped box at her feet and walks away. The Old Bailey explodes, taking her with it.)

V: The flames of Freedom, how lovely, how just. Ahh, my precious Anarchy... "O beauty, 'til now I never knew thee."

does Gravity's Rainbow count? It includes a philosophy called Sado--Anarchism proposing the BDSM lifesytle as a means to curb humans desires for dominance and submission.

Quote from: tnu on October 16, 2013, 10:28:17 PM
does Gravity's Rainbow count? It includes a philosophy called Sado--Anarchism proposing the BDSM lifesytle as a means to curb humans desires for dominance and submission.

I'll definitely have to reread it. Another one I haven't read since my '20s.

On a side topic Great Libertarian Mangas/Animes:

Library Wars
Attack On Titan

Okay maybe with libertarian/libertine themes in them but if anyone more ideas.
Working every day to expose the terrible price we pay for government.