About Proles
Q & A
Q. What is PROLES about?
A. PROLES is about a future society divided on class lines between Thelites and proles. Thelites are the enlightened global leaders who have advanced science to optimize the living conditions of humanity. They seek to enlist the proles into a unified, global Best Society.
The proles have disparate attitudes about the Best Society. Some welcome Thelite culture, but many are reticent. Some proles communicate through their dreams, which confounds Thelites. Based on Thelites’ culture and edited genetics, Theliltes don’t dream. They consider dreaming and spiritual practices to be disorders that should be eradicated from humanity.
The main character, Julianna, is a Thelite scientist. Her unique heritage and situation enable her to begin dreaming. The more she dreams, she becomes increasingly suspicious of the sanctity of Thelite science. The story also develops several strong characters who are proles with life experiences that are important to the story.
Q. Where did the title PROLES come from?
A. The word prole
is a contraction of the word proletariat
. In Marxist doctrine, the proletariat
are the working-class citizenry. In the context of this novel, proles
is deliberately referential to George Orwell's 1984, where it referred to the citizens of Oceania who were not members of the Party.
Q. Do I need to read 1984 to appreciate PROLES?
A. No. The story is entirely independent. Like 1984, it is a cautionary, utopian tale. It envisions technology and society 100 years further advanced. Unlike 1984, PROLES is set in the United States, but imagines a global society.
Book Description
“Proles - a novel about 2084, is a sci-fi lovers dream. I have read many stories about the perfect world going bad, but nothing so sinister as this one. Lorentzen’s writing draws in the reader from page one and doesn’t let go. By page thirty I was beyond hooked, I was a bit frightened... I am really glad this is just a novel, or is it?”
TBR topbookreviewers.com
See the entire review here
“Lorentzen presents some disturbing possibilities if technology should come to rule us rather than us ruling technology. What Orwell has started, Lorentzen has continued, and in a very moving and frightening way.”
Des Moines Register
See the entire review here.
“Lorentzen excels at leading readers to question the benefits of a happy world if it demands conformity from all in order to define and reflect that feeling of success.
Lorentzen's story asks hard questions about values, control, freedom, and smoothing out differences between people in society. It leads readers to consider their own answers as technology and culture clash in this futuristic story.
Proles: A Novel About 2084 is highly recommended not just for sci-fi readers, but literature and social issues classes looking for discussion material about managed societies and the outcome of a controlled search for human perfection.”
D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
By 2084, Thelites have designed the perfect society. They finally have virtual, scientific models for everything. They live and work in harmonious, anxiety-free, blissful happiness, running models to guarantee safety and equality to each member of their society. They want more than anything to bring these benefits to the PROLES, their less enlightened neighbors. But why do they resist?
Meet Julianna, a passionate scientist who is tasked with plotting infinitesimally small, stellar threats to mankind hundreds of years in the future. She loves her life as a Thelite. But when her father dies unexpectedly, she uncovers secrets about him, about herself, that unravels the fabric of her beliefs.
Now Julianna must navigate a mortal duplicity. She discovers things that her fellow Thelites can’t know. The more she learns the truth, the more she fears what a perfect society
does to the people who dare to question it.