March 2026
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    I know talking animals being the protagonists in some sci-fi fantasy realm is fairly common, but I'm curious about novels where the author is an anarchist or the book is meant to be read in a way that paints an anarchist communitarian society as a positive direction to experiment with heading in.

    I'm not really asking because I think this form of writing is an ingenious way of advocating anarchy, I'm just kind of curious about the history of what literature has been produced in this regard.

    Tolkien talked about considering himself a philosophical anarchist, and eco-activists have taken on his talking tree characters like Treebeard as nicknames.

    There's obviously Animal Farm which was meant to deride totalitarianism of all kinds, Orwell fought in a leftcom/anarchist-ish militia and wrote positively about anarchist Catalonia. So, I imagine he would have liked a less dogmatically zealous revolution that didn't result in the kind of dictatorship in animal farm.

    Then there's Anarchist Farm, which is a play on Animal Farm with Earth First themes.

    There's also Quest for Faradawn which an old Earth Liberation Front person seemed to like: "For all those who despise academic environmental magazines and like a good bit of inspiration, read the fictional book, Quest for Faradawn. It basically sums up what we are fighting for."

    Finally, I recently came across this book called Dogs of Orninica. I'm not sure I'll ever read it though as it doesn't look super appealing.

    Oh and there's Ishmael about a talking gorilla laying the blame for everything wrong with society on technology, though there's likely some good take aways on cultures of tech over-consumption and disregard for wilderness.

    by WildVirtue

    2 Comments

    1. elcuervo2666 on

      The Dispossed by Ursula Leguin would be the best of this type of thing. Edit: nevermind no talking plants or animals but you should read this if you haven’t.

    2. IIRCIreadthat on

      I think you might get a lot out of Watership Down! There’s one section in particular that has a lot to say about the structures of society pulling us away from the natural order.

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