I'd argue (I didn't at the time, but would now) that BNW isn't a dystopia at all - it's an utopia. It's just that we recoil from utopia.

While I certainly like the idea of starting with a classic, I'm iffy on making the first three months such. Maybe we'd be best to mix things up for a few months, classic to contemporary to non-fiction to something else new- just to keep everybody in? I like the diversity of this list, and I think showcasing that in our first few months could keep everyone happy.

Two cents inserted.

Maybe we'd be best to mix things up for a few months, classic to contemporary to non-fiction to something else new- just to keep everybody in?

Seconded. It's best that the Book Club have an "any book can be chosen" feel. Especially since this is the result of people feeling that their books/styles were being slighted.

I'd argue (I didn't at the time, but would now) that BNW isn't a dystopia at all - it's an utopia. It's just that we recoil from utopia.

Dictionary.com disagrees with you. Explicitly.

dys·to·pi·a ( P ) Pronunciation Key (ds-tp-) n.

An imaginary place or state in which the condition of life is extremely bad, as from deprivation, oppression, or terror.

A work describing such a place or state: “dystopias such as Brave New World” (Times Literary Supplement).

eta...

Maybe we'd be best to mix things up for a few months, classic to contemporary to non-fiction to something else new- just to keep everybody in?

Seconded. It's best that the Book Club have an "any book can be chosen" feel. Especially since this is the result of people feeling that their books/styles were being slighted.

I'm putting my two cents with Lilty and Fred, for a total of six cents so far. We all want to be challenged and engaged, but if the club is accesible, the more likely it is to fly.

I'd like to see us give Wolfram, Heather, and brenda (because her post inspired Heather's idea, which inspired Wolfram's proposal) the choice for the first three months, and then go on Nova's suggestion to randomly select (out of a hat is fine) the selector. If we want, we can insist the selector work from the list.

I hope we pick our first book soon though, whatever it is and however we do it, because I'm going to be gone in a few days, and probably for at least a week, maybe more. I'd like to be able to get the book while on vacation.

I'd like to see us give Wolfram, Heather, and brenda (because her post inspired Heather's idea, which inspired Wolfram's proposal) the choice for the first three months, and then go on Nova's suggestion to randomly select (out of a hat is fine) the selector. If we want, we can insist the selector work from the list.

I like this. whatever we decide to do later, I would just as soon Wolfram picks the first book (today or tomorrow, maybe) and Heather picks the next one soonish, and we decide how to do the picking after that once we've got something to read.

Oooh, shiny thread title.

That cite is a total contradiction:

An imaginary place or state in which the condition of life is extremely bad, as from deprivation, oppression, or terror.

A work describing such a place or state: “dystopias such as Brave New World” (Times Literary Supplement).

Point to "the condition of life is extremely bad" or "deprivation, oppression, or terror" in Huxley's novel. Just because it's become a byword for dystopia, doesn't mean it actuall is one...

I'll add my two cents, for a total of...whatever that makes now. (Shudder...mathiness.) We have a great list of recs, but I'm eager to jump in, and I don't mind at all someone picking the first book (or the first couple).

After that, I thought the idea of picking a selecter (at random, from a pool of those who would like to be chosen, maybe?), who would then offer two or three books for the rest of us to consense on, sounded good.

And while I think an accessible, available classic or two might be appropriate in the first few months, I agree with Cindy that we should mix it up a little, too.

But in the end, however we end up choosing books is fine with me. I just want to begin.

Edited for a typo and to add a point.

Point to "the condition of life is extremely bad" or "deprivation, oppression, or terror" in Huxley's novel.

Show me where there wasn't oppression?!? It may have been kinder, gentler oppression through drugs and conditioning, but it was oppression, just the same, wasn't it? Heck. Human reproduction (natural pregnancy) was a grand disgrace, wasn't it? People were genetically engineered to be mentally deficient, so that they would be happy performing menial tasks.

I think I read BNW in tenth grade, and I'm 37 now, so I may be off. But even though on the surface everything was smooth in BNW, wasn't the whole point that these people were oppressed. Their fertility was not their own. Their genes and fates (that which they received from their parents, so that the government developed different socio-economic classes in the lab, to serve different purposes) were controlled by the government. Their moods were not their own (they were all on happy pills as a matter of course, and were conditioned to believe they were happy, weren't they?). They couldn't speak out. Didn't the choices amount to conformity or death?

Nope. Conformity or exile to the Island.

But the point is that they were happy (though not free). Yeah, to us - as to the Savage - it looks like an oppressive hell, but how can you call a society where 99.99% of the populace is blissfully happy, and the remaining .001% get to live in peac on a tropical island, anything but utopia?

As fascinating as the utopian discussion is, we haven't picked a book to discuss yet. Literary might be a good place to discuss dystopia/utopia as expressed in Orwell's books, though.