Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle

Lord of the Rings.

The Grapes of Wrath - future generations needs to know that f*cking up is in our nature and we do so repeatedly.

The Holy Bible! It's the only book that matters anyway.

The Animal Farm.... If you've read it you'll understand why and if you haven't you really should.

The Sirens of Titan. Human history reduced to:
Salo needed a replacement part for his starship.

Kurt Vonnegut, survivor of the fire bombing of Dresden, experienced how the world might end.

If we want to show what mankind can do - then it's "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking.
If we want to show what mankind was - "The Complete Works of Mark Twain".

Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan.　I think it would be the most humbling and accurate record of our place in the universe if other beings were to read it.

Too many to decide on...probably turn the Library of Congress into a fortress & defend it to my death.

Of Mice and Men. It’s the epitome of an American life style. It’s short so it doesn’t take long to read. It’s been made into several movie versions for those who can’t or won’t read. And it’s a story about two men on the run: one that thinks he’s smart who leads a man that knows he’s not, both getting into trouble for a perceived aggression. When in reality, they both overreact because of a fear of losing what little they have.

If that’s not the American story, I don’t know what is. Oh and spoiler alert, there’s a gun involved.

ke6tao wrote:The Animal Farm.... If you've read it you'll understand why and if you haven't you really should.

Great choice. And with the attention span of the average American, they might actually read it. Just wish that same American would realize we've become that Orwellian society that we were fighting so hard against.

purplediamond wrote:The Grapes of Wrath - future generations needs to know that f*cking up is in our nature and we do so repeatedly.

Nice choice, but I perfered "Of Mice and Men". The dust bowl was more of a back drop to the story and it was the human condition and man's treatment of his fellow man under the bleakest of conditions that was more of the underlying theme. Change the dust bowl to our mortgage crisis and Steinbeck could have told the same story.

chuckfiely wrote:Ditto

Ditto to the Bible!

Lord of the Rings Trilogy

to kill a mockingbird

The bible would be a great choice. When I conquer all in the dark, post-apocalyptic future, it gives great advice on the rules of slavery. "Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves." And I can make them obey me, because it says they must, else suffer lashes.
Great choice. For a dictator.

On second thought, maybe we need a cautionary tale, like Walter Miller's "A Canticle for Leibowitz".

Ender series by Orson Scott Card

bacalum wrote:Woot's choices are either stultifying or silly popular pap. So far, readers are mostly opting for single-author literature or an anthology of history, myths, legends and poetry.
My vote: who cares? If we're all dead, how will some other race determine what the printed words mean - assuming they're even recognized as words? If the ETs manage to catch some of our broadcasts, especially language instruction shows, they might be able to match sounds and printed markings to their meanings. Without context, markings on papers would be almost impossible to interpret.

With the technology necessary to reach us given the closest star, it wouldn't be too far beyond E.T.'s capabilities to mesh audio, video and the written word to interpret our primative form of communication. The use of the original Rosetta stone gave modern humans a great insight into ancient languages. Today we quite literally have the electronic version of that through the audio/visual medias that any technologically advanced society would easily absorb.

bacalum wrote:Woot's choices are either stultifying or silly popular pap. So far, readers are mostly opting for single-author literature or an anthology of history, myths, legends and poetry.
My vote: who cares? If we're all dead, how will some other race determine what the printed words mean - assuming they're even recognized as words? If the ETs manage to catch some of our broadcasts, especially language instruction shows, they might be able to match sounds and printed markings to their meanings. Without context, markings on papers would be almost impossible to interpret.

But in Star Trek every alien race speaks English?

Iliad.......

bw2001 wrote:I got about halfway through Midnight's Children before I couldn't take it anymore. I would pick Catcher in the Rye.

Solid choice

What's a book???

I don't think a work of fiction would show what mankind can accomplish (and that goes double for THB).

Hawking - 'A Brief History of Time'

Fahrenheit 451

"Lord of the Flies."

It's not a favorite book...it just might explain a few things about us to a future society, assuming they can find their own "Rosetta Stone" with which to decipher the language.

angela522 wrote:The Holy Bible

Likewise

Gone with the wind by Margaret Michelle. A classic and a good relic that would be proof of humankind's great literature.

1984. Orwell had an uncanny ability to predict the future. He just missed by about 30 years

I'd put the Bible at #1 and I'd give a close #2 to some kind of comprehensive history book... if we're leaving it for posterity then we might as well make it as informative as possible.

My Shakespeare collection. I've said for years that's what I'd bring to a desert island.

I agree with you. All the above works are man designed and all have met with disaster. Following the path that God designed (regardless how "old fashioned" people claim Biblical morals to be), always turns out better for people.

Quimby: Watch it, you walking tub of donut batter!
Wiggum: Hey, I got pictures of you, Quimby.
Quimby: You don't scare me. That could be anyone's ass!

and later...

Wiggum: [reading the town charter] Hey, it says here I get a pig every month, as well, as "two comely lasses of virtue true"
Quimby: [suddenly interested] Keep the pig. How many broads do I get?

The Bible.

If it's true: it's obvious why it should be the one to keep.

If it's false: a handful of people have used it to be the single most deluding piece of literature in the history of mankind leading billions of people over the years to believe its falsehood.

I'd say that shows what mankind can accomplish. Accomplishments don't have to be positive.

jankowdf wrote:I agree with you. All the above works are man designed and all have met with disaster. Following the path that God designed (regardless how "old fashioned" people claim Biblical morals to be), always turns out better for people.

Ever hear of the Crusades?

I would say The Lorax about sums it up.

Definitely the Bible. If that's not an option, maybe Les Miserables then.

Farenheit 451.

Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

Atlas Shrugged

Proof of what mankind can accomplish? Read 'Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth' by R. Buckminster Fuller. That will give you a great idea of what mankind is really capable of...or depending on how you look at it, incapable of.