List of stories that break the status quo

This is a list of stories about breaking the status quo of real life society in order to improve society.

Criteria

Several qualities mark stories that break the status quo:

• The stories consider breaking contemporary taboos or ethical norms of the author in order to effect changes to improve society.
• Members of the resulting society are anathema and unacceptable to the previous society.
• The stories are readily made into supervillain plots.
• The stories are treated as serious thought exercises by the author.
• If typical Marvel or DC Comics superheroes were to appear, would halt the plots and return social conditions to the norms of their respective publication eras.

Literature

• 1932: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley: Enforce societal happiness through genetic engineering!
• 1957: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand: Destroy corrupt bureaucracy!
• 1973: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin: “Iʼm going to the one place that hasnʼt been corrupted by capitalism. Space!”
• 1986: Engines of Creation by K. Eric Drexler: Give all the humans all the tools, including the dangerous ones!
• 1994: Permutation City by Greg Egan: Kill yourself to explore the digital afterlife!
• 1995: The Great Simoleon Caper and Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson: Break up all nation-states via cryptocurrency!
• 2005: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro: Use human clones for organ harvesting to prolong lives!
• 2006: Daemon (novel) by Daniel Suarez: Replace capitalism with an MMORPG!
• 2006: The Three-Body Problem (novel) by Cixin Liu: Kill all outsiders immediately, ask questions later!
• 2009: Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett: Orcs are people too!
• 2015: So I'm a Spider, So What? by Okina Baba: Destroy humanity to save the planet!
• 2015: Children of Time (novel) by Adrian Tchaikosky: Destroy human colonists!
• 2017: New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson: Destroy Wall Street!
• 2018: Educated (book) by Tara Westover: Cut all toxic family ties!
• 2023: The Lost Cause (novel) by Cory Doctorow: Break NIMBY laws to build refugee communitees!

Film

• 1995: Neon Genesis Evangelion by Studio Gainax: Break all barriers of consciousness between people!
• 2007: Gurren Lagann by Studio Gainax: Break the Fermi Paradox!

Further reading

• The Utopia of Rules (2015) by David Graeber.

External links

• bk4, reboil.com