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The Future Dictionary of America by Dave Eggers, Nicole Krauss, Eli Horowitz, Jonathan Safran Foer
otterno11's review
funny
slow-paced
3.0
I read this McSweeny’s publication featuring the work of hundreds of big names in US literature during the late summer of 2020 after it was on my to-read list for years, thinking that it would be an interesting companion to the 2020 election. Published to “benefit progressive causes” around the 2004 presidential election it was both unsettling and fascinating to look at the satirical entries included here from a point where some form of the fears they imagined for us happened.
A harrowing collection to read in the face of the looming election of that year knowing the results of 2004, The Future Dictionary of America felt like a time capsule of US “liberal” culture during that particular time and place. As such luminaries as Jonathan Franzen and Joyce Carol Oates attempted to “voice their displeasure with their current political leadership, and to collectively imagine a brighter future,” it was fascinating to see where they seemed any way prophetic, and where they were unable to anticipate the coming darkness. Framed as a dictionary for people of the far utopian future to understand the cultural origins of various terms from the dark ages of the early 21st century, including such dated items as “Ashcroftian,” “Bliar,” (a reference to Tony Blair) or more like “faction,” the work as a whole has the tongue in cheek, dry arch humor that McSweeny’s specializes in.
The political concerns cited by editors of The Future Dictionary as the target of their satire, “the Bush administration’s assault of free speech, overtime, drinking water, truth, the rule of law, humility, the separation of Church and State, a woman’s right to choose, clean air, and every other good idea this country has ever had,” also make it a useful comparison. It's a good reminder that things have been tense politically in the US for a while. While GWB might have had the more affable, avuncular evil of “compassionate conservatism” in place of Trump’s open hostility and indifference to standards, they each represented the forces of authoritarianism.
I discuss other works of post-apocalyptic literature focusing on our current US political climate at Harris' Tome Corner
A harrowing collection to read in the face of the looming election of that year knowing the results of 2004, The Future Dictionary of America felt like a time capsule of US “liberal” culture during that particular time and place. As such luminaries as Jonathan Franzen and Joyce Carol Oates attempted to “voice their displeasure with their current political leadership, and to collectively imagine a brighter future,” it was fascinating to see where they seemed any way prophetic, and where they were unable to anticipate the coming darkness. Framed as a dictionary for people of the far utopian future to understand the cultural origins of various terms from the dark ages of the early 21st century, including such dated items as “Ashcroftian,” “Bliar,” (a reference to Tony Blair) or more like “faction,” the work as a whole has the tongue in cheek, dry arch humor that McSweeny’s specializes in.
The political concerns cited by editors of The Future Dictionary as the target of their satire, “the Bush administration’s assault of free speech, overtime, drinking water, truth, the rule of law, humility, the separation of Church and State, a woman’s right to choose, clean air, and every other good idea this country has ever had,” also make it a useful comparison. It's a good reminder that things have been tense politically in the US for a while. While GWB might have had the more affable, avuncular evil of “compassionate conservatism” in place of Trump’s open hostility and indifference to standards, they each represented the forces of authoritarianism.
I discuss other works of post-apocalyptic literature focusing on our current US political climate at Harris' Tome Corner
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