Not all literary works that win major awards continue to be widely read and influential, years or decades later. Yet, from Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four to Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” those that do are worth noting, for they often reflect important aspects of our era’s intellectual currents and popular culture.
In that context, the number of Prometheus-winning works that commonly are referenced by prominent columnists, essayists and authors continues to be impressive.
Of the more than 100 novels, stories, films and other works of fantastical fiction that have won a Prometheus award for Best Novel or Best Classic Fiction (our Hall of Fame) since the first prize was presented in 1979, more than a dozen are written about frequently in magazines, newspapers, Substack columns, books or referenced in movies, plays and other realms of popular culture.
Among the many Prometheus-winning authors most commonly written about – sometimes with a purely literary focus but more often used as resonant reference points for 21st century commentary – are George Orwell, Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut, Ayn Rand, J.RR. Tolkien, Neal Stephenson and Hans Christian Andersen.
Orwell, of course, is frequently mentioned for both of his Prometheus Hall of Fame inductees: Nineteen Eighty-Four, with its searing depiction of a harsh communist system of thought control that denies facts and reality, and his cautionary fable Animal Farm, an ironic critique of how egalitarianism and seeming good intentions can end in evil and tyranny.
Bradbury is almost always referenced for his anti-censorship, pro-literacy novel Fahrenheit 451, inducted with 1984 into the Hall of Fame in 1984.
Vonnegut is most frequently referenced for his satirical story “Harrison Bergeron,” inducted in 2019 into the Hall of Fame and sadly prescient in its depiction of radical egalitarianism taken to a coercive and monstrous extreme.
Rand is mostly referenced for her warnings of collectivism and statism leading to socioeconomic collapse in Atlas Shrugged, one of the first two works inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame.
But Rand’s Anthem, also a Hall of Fame inductee, is also sometimes mentioned as one of the earliest 20th century dystopian novels, warning about authoritarian threats to individuality and liberty.
Tolkien is most famous, of course, for The Lord of the Rings, as well as its prequel The Hobbit. His tales of Middle Earth have not only sold nearly 200 million copies worldwide, but have become even better known through the Oscar-winning films and other screen adaptations.
As its title evokes, The Lord of the Rings, inducted in 2009 into the Prometheus Hall of Fame, dramatizes resonant libertarian and anti-authoritarian themes about how power tends to corrupt, symbolized by the terrible lure of the one ring to rule them all.
Stephenson is often hailed for his prescient sf visions of a transformative high-tech future with both positive and negative aspects, in novels that subtly contrast the downside of politics with the more positive, social and incremental benefits of pursuing voluntary and non-coercive means to solve or ameliorate socioeconomic challenges.
His Prometheus-winning novels The System of the World and Seveneves, both Best Novel winners, and Cryptonomicon, the 2013 Hall of Fame inductee, are less often referenced than some of his earlier novels, Snow Crash and The Diamond Age. Yet, all are worth reading, and incorporate insights relevant to the 2020s.
Perhaps one of the most beloved and deeply embedded piece of fiction in Western culture is Andersen’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” the oldest work of fiction so far inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame.
Ostensibly another one of the children’s fables written by Anderson (1805-1875), and ranking in popularity with “The Little Mermaid,” “The Snow Queen,” “The Ugly Duckling” and “The Princess and the Pea” (all of which have inspired popular movies and musicals and other retellings), “The Emperor’s New Clothes” resonates deeply with all ages. Its title, which inspired the common catchphrase “The emperor has no clothes,” aptly sums up its libertarian theme of Questioning Authority.
Other Prometheus-winning authors and works are occasionally also referenced in today’s books, magazines, newspaper and online publications but the above are the most common.
The Prometheus Blog highlights such authors and such contemporary commentary for several reasons:
* It’s interesting to see how their works and insights are applied to today’s life and culture
* It reflects positively on the authors and their works, not to mention the continuing relevance (and in some cases, prescience) of the Prometheus Awards and the Libertarian Futurist Society members who voted to recognize such classic works in the 1980s, 1990s or early 2000s.
* As fans of these authors and works, many LFS members are curious to see how they are interpreted (and in some cases, arguably misinterpreted) today
* Societies, attitudes and ideas are constantly evolving and shifting, so it’s instructive to keep track of how many of our favorite authors and works are finding new relevance as time goes on, including sometimes unexpected applications of their key narratives and insights.
* Bottom line: It’s news worth reporting – and news that’s relevant to the Prometheus awards.
That said, when a Prometheus Blog post highlights the latest reference to a Prometheus-winning author and their work, that doesn’t necessarily mean we endorse or even agree with the way that work is interpreted and applied to events, issues and commentary.
It simply reflects our ongoing curiosity and interest in how authors and works recognized over nearly half a century of the Prometheus Awards continue to influence and often inspire new generations of readers and thinkers – hopefully, to enhance our understanding of humanity and the world, and support human flourishing in a better and free-er future.
CHECK OUT THE BLOG’S LINKS TO AUTHORS
To get a better sense of the ongoing relevance of these and other Prometheus-winning authors and works, just click on the Prometheus Blog’s author links in the index on the left column of the blog page.
By clicking on a particular author’s name, you can easily read all the articles we’ve published about them – whether reviews of their works, author’s updates, awards-related news and more. That includes any blog posts highlighting mentions of their works in other publications in the United States, England, Canada, Europe and around the world.
Where are the author links? You can find them quickly and easily by scrolling down the left side of the Prometheus Blog until you reach CATEGORIES. Then search under AUTHOR UPDATES.
Besides Bradbury, Orwell, Rand, Stephenson and Tolkien, the 18 authors listed include such Prometheus favorites as Poul Anderson, Robert Heinlein, Sarah Hoyt, Ursula K. Le Guin, Ken MacLeod, Terry Pratchett, L. Neil Smith, Vernor Vinge, and F. Paul Wilson.
As other Prometheus-winning authors build up roughly 10 or more posts about their works, they will be added to the list, so stay tuned.
ABOUT THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS AND THE LFS
* Join us! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards and support a cultural and literary strategy to appreciate and honor freedom-loving fiction, join the Libertarian Futurist Society, a non-profit all-volunteer association of freedom-loving sf/fantasy fans.
Libertarian futurists understand that culture matters. We believe that literature and the arts can be vital in envisioning a freer and better future. In some ways, culture can be even more influential and powerful than politics in the long run, by imagining better visions of the future incorporating peace, prosperity, progress, tolerance, justice, positive social change, and mutual respect for each other’s rights, human dignity, individuality and peaceful choices.
* Prometheus winners: For a full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees – including in the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards – visit the enhanced Prometheus Awards page on the LFS website. This page includes convenient links to all published essay-reviews in our Appreciation series explaining why each of more than 100 past winners since 1979 fits the awards’ distinctive dual focus on both quality and liberty.
* Watch videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies, Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog’s Video page.
* Read “The Libertarian History of Science Fiction,” an essay in the international magazine Quillette that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.
* Check out the Libertarian Futurist Society’s Facebook page for comments, updates and links to the latest Prometheus Blog posts.
