“Truth hasn’t been too popular these days.” (Arnold in The Running Man movie from 1987, Oh the irony is so painful.)

33. The Bachman Books: The Running Man – Richard Bachman

Sooooo…this book makes me uncomfortable now because I feel like it’s the near future rather than a dystopian nightmare – and not just because it takes place in 2025. Dude.

There’s a lot going on in this story but the main things that stay with me are how consistent the demonization of poverty, the covering up of scandal, and the ridiculous value system are with our current era. Yikes.

To calm myself, I watched the film version, which is a little more ostentatious than the book and features Dweezil Zappa (namesake of my second ever guinea pig) in a Che Guevara outfit. I really hope that we’re in the unitard/Richard Dawson phase by the time the Mueller investigation indicts that moldy orange who was mistakenly put in charge for, well, pick your poison at this point there seems to be a lot of it. Money laundering’s pretty much a given and since he likes the idea of being popular, him running from a variety of celebrities with weapons sounds like a fun trial. I think it would get good ratings, and apparently that’s all that’s important anymore.

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The running pig. Danger Crumples.