Line #66 SpiritualAntithesis/Literature


1	SpiritualAntithesis in {{Literature}}.
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3	* Myth/RobinHood was intended to be this to Myth/KingArthur. Compared with the latter appearing in the 6th century A.D. and representing the aristocracy in post-Roman Britain, the former would be created around eight centuries later to serve as a contrast to King Arthur, [[JustLikeRobinHood namely by stealing from a corrupt aristocracy and giving to the impoverished peasantry in 11th century Anglo-Norman England]].
4	* The ''Creator/JackLondon'' short story ''Batârd'' is this towards his more famous novel, ''Literature/TheCallOfTheWild''. The "Rule of Club and Fang" from the novel isn't at all useful in training dogs of any kind, which is a criticism of the book. However, in ''Batârd'', it's the exact opposite. Being horribly mistreated his whole life turns Batârd into a hostile, rage-filled dog that [[HateSink only stays with his abusive owner out of a desire to kill him.]] The short story is practically a [[DeconstructedTrope deconstruction]] of ''Call of the Wild''.
5	* ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies'' is this towards the children's book ''Coral Island''. ''Coral Island'' has young boys living on an island after their ship's catastrophe and working together to fight "the savages". Golding, having an issue with racist undertones and savagery being presented as an outside threat and not something that lies in human nature, wrote a book in which young British boys end up abandoning their civilized ways and trying to kill each other. The ''Lord of the Flies'' characters Ralph, Jack and Simon were named after the ''Coral Island'' main characters Ralph, Jack and Peterkin (as in Simon Peter, disciple of Jesus).
6	** Oddly enough, another writer, Creator/RobertAHeinlein, took issue with that portrayal and wrote ''Literature/TunnelInTheSky'', which served as an opposite to ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies'': Boys end up on an alien world and work together for their survival. Some try to go the same way as characters from Golding's book, but end up quickly killed.
7	** Mira Lobe's ''Literature/{{Insupu}}'' is another spiritual opposite to ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies''.
8	* Creator/JohnLeCarre's ''George Smiley'' [[SpyFiction spy novels]] (of which ''Literature/TheSpyWhoCameInFromTheCold'' is the most famous) are known for being the complete antithesis of Creator/IanFleming's ''Literature/JamesBond'' novels, which were still being written when Le Carré began his career. Le Carré intentionally avoided glamorizing espionage with his portrayal of the Cold War, and his novels frequently examined the perils of government bureaucracy and [[GreyAndGreyMorality the moral ambiguity]] of the fight against communism. Unlike Bond, Smiley rarely acted as a field agent or physically confronted his foes, instead relying on his intellect to unravel mysteries and beat Britain's enemies.
9	** Also notable, in that Fleming and Le Carré had very [[WriteWhatYouKnow remarkably similar careers in MI6 prior to becoming writers]], but chose to draw on their experiences in completely different ways.
10	* Creator/FrankHerbert wrote ''Literature/{{Dune}}'' partly in response to Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/FoundationSeries''. He found the elitism in the latter grating, and questioned the assumptions about science, human behavior, and how the control of history by scientific prophets is seen as a good thing. So he took the same premise and elements--the [[TheCycleOfEmpires decay]] of a [[GalacticSuperpower galactic]] VestigialEmpire, a SecretCircleOfSecrets seeking to shape the future, an extremely powerful [[HumansArePsychicInTheFuture psychic]] acting as an OutsideContextProblem to ThePlan--and restated it in a way that draws on different assumptions and suggests radically different conclusions. Notably, the psychic is now ''the hero'' instead of the antagonist, although this is also [[ItSucksToBeTheChosenOne Deconstructed]].
11	-->"History [in the ''Foundation'' books] … is manipulated for larger ends and for the greater good as determined by a scientific aristocracy. It is assumed, then, that the scientist-shamans know best which course humankind should take. This is a dominant attitude in today's science establishment all around the world… While surprises may appear in these stories (e.g., the Mule mutant), it is assumed that no surprise will be too great or too unexpected to overcome the firm grasp of science upon human destiny. This is essentially the assumption that science can produce a surprise-free future for humankind."
12	--->-- '''Frank Herbert''', in his essay "Men on Other Planets" (1976)
13	* ''Literature/HarryPotter'' and ''Literature/EndersGame''. They're two of the defining young adult sci-fi/fantasy series of the Millennial generation, and they have nearly identical premises--but they ultimately bring their premises to vastly different conclusions, and they lie on completely opposite ends of the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism. In both, a bullied ChildProdigy with an unhappy home life receives an offer to leave home and enroll in a special school hidden from the rest of the world, where he learns that he is destined to [[MessianicArchetype come to the world's rescue]] in the latest chapter of an decades-old struggle against a malevolent evil (a DarkLord in one, an AlienInvasion in the other), leading to a years-long TraumaCongaLine while he prepares for an inevitable FinalBattle while bonding with a loyal group of TrueCompanions; there's also an ongoing series of highly contested school games ("football on flying broomsticks" in one, zero-gravity laser tag in the other) that everyone takes ''really'' [[SeriousBusiness seriously]], and the story repeatedly points out how much it can suck to be the ChosenOne. The difference? One ends with an upbeat EarnYourHappyEnding where evil is vanquished through ThePowerOfFriendship and the TrueCompanions remain inseparable for life, with the protagonist revered as a hero. The other has far more of a BittersweetEnding, where we learn that [[spoiler: the whole conflict was based on a cultural misunderstanding]], the protagonist is remembered as [[spoiler: a monster who destroyed an entire alien race]], and he ultimately [[spoiler: leaves his friends and family behind to wander the universe in search of a way to atone for his crimes]]. Politically, one is also far more idealistic, ending with the heroes forming a LaResistance against their corrupt government, and ultimately reforming it through unabashed determination. The other ends with the heroes unwittingly causing the ''rise'' of a corrupt government, with one of the most unsympathetic characters attempting to become a benevolent dictator.
14	* An antithesis to ''Literature/HarryPotter'' can be seen in ''Literature/TheScholomance'', which is clearly a next-generation response to the piece.
15	** Both of them are urban fantasies about a secret magical wizarding world, set an an AcademyOfAdventure where our school-age protagonists need to master their magical abilities. The Harry Potter series treats the Wizarding World in general- and Hogwarts specifically- as a space full of genuine wonder, and while there are some bigotries and dangers, ultimately worth it. In contrast, while Scholomance's magic isn't without its beauty, surviving to adulthood is an incredibly fraught experience. Deaths at the school are distressingly common occurrences, and heavily driven by the systemic inequalities in how the magical society operates.
16	** Houses vs. Enclaves. Hogwarts students are sorted into one of four school houses based on their personalities. While there's some talk throughout the series about how this system causes division and strife, at the end of the day, the vast majority of the protagonists are Gryffindors (with a few supporting members from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff), most Slytherins are evil or at least self-serving, and ultimately no changes are made to the system. In contrast, the Enclave systems are highly elite groups of wizards who leverage their generational wealth and power to take advantage of the less well off wizards, both within the Scholomance and outside it. The protagonist, El, initially has her main goal to join an Enclave for the protection it offers, but ultimately rejects the system. A significant part of the trilogy's resolution is creating a coalition between a variety of enclaves, while also working to build a healthier long-term system.
17	** Both Harry and El are talented, albeit sometimes angry and asocial, wizards with prophesized magical destinies. While some speculated that Harry's prophecy meant he might become a dark lord, many interpreted it as meaning he'd defeat Lord Voldemort and save the world. By contrast, El's prophecy said that she'd become one of the darkest, evilest sorcerers ever known. While Harry was embraced by the wizarding world, El was deeply mistrusted and hated, and had to fight to prove her kindness and good intentions.
18	** The Harry Potter series often received a great deal of criticism for its vague world building, with questions regarding what poverty even means for beings who can magic up food, houses, clothing, etc. By contrast, the Scholomance series puts heavy focus on how the magical economy works, with the main resource everyone competes for being protection from monsters. Additionally, while the Harry Potter series kept its focus almost exclusively focused on the United Kingdom- with its depictions of other cultures, both in the original book series and its later supplemental material often accused of being shallow, inaccurate, or stereotypical, the Scholomance series set out to show a truly global magical community, with the protagonist being half-Welsh, half-Indian, forming close allies with people from a wide variety of backgrounds and cultures.
19	* Creator/ChinuaAchebe found ''Literature/HeartOfDarkness'' to be racist and historically dubious. He was tired of it being used as a reference point by many readers and academics when discussing Africa. One of the reasons he cited for writing ''Literature/ThingsFallApart'' was to show that native Africans from traditional societies were intelligent and highly complex individuals and to show that Africa is not a dark place meant for European decadence but a place where people lived lives just like anywhere else.
20	* Creator/CSLewis has one in the form of Creator/PhilipPullman's ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'', which is explicitly intended as an atheist counterpart to the Christian ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia''. In a similar manner, astrophysicist and atheist Fred Hoyle wrote ''Ossian's Ride'', which was meant to be the antithesis to ''[[Literature/SpaceTrilogy That Hideous Strength]]''.
21	* Creator/StevenErikson has stated that the impetus to [[AscendedFanfic fictionalize]] his and his friends' home brewed TabletopRPG campaign as the ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'' came from having a very visceral reaction to opening the first TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms boxed set, in essence saying "This is not what {{fantasy}} is supposed to be."
22	** The entire series is an antithesis to Myth/RobinHood. The rangers' weapons and tactics are very similar to that of Robin's Merry Men, but they fight for the government, and often against insurgents.
23	* Creator/JohnSladek's satirical ''Literature/{{Roderick}}'' series features a robot who views a corrupt world through innocent eyes. Sladek then turned the idea on its head in the novel ''Literature/TikTok'': the world is just as corrupt, so its robot AntiHero decides to exploit it by being even more corrupt.
24	* ''Literature/StarshipTroopers'' gets this treatment a lot, especially in the 1970s and 80s, with works like Haldeman's ''Literature/TheForeverWar'' and Steakley's ''Literature/{{Armor}}'' being the two most blatant. Even Drake's ''Literature/HammersSlammers'' could probably be listed.
25	** And ''Literature/EndersGame'' by Creator/OrsonScottCard.
26	* Creator/FriedrichNietzsche wrote ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None'' as an opposite philosophical story to [[Literature/TheBible the New Testament]].
27	* ''When the Windman Comes'' is an antithesis to ''Literature/BridgeToTerabithia''. In both cases a boy from a down-to-Earth family meets a girl with [[MrImagination very wild and colourful imagination]], who draws the boy into her world. Yet in BTT imagination is a liberating force, opening new horizons for the boy, and the girl is helping the boy to develop it , whereas in WWC, imagination is a '''destructive''' force, making the girl's life increasingly difficult and miserable (and even unnecessary dangerous), and it falls to the boy to help her [[spoiler: and her mother]] to "get real".
28	* According to WordOfGod, the ''Literature/RedRoom'' series began as this to Charles Stross ''Literature/TheLaundryFiles''. More specifically, ''The Jennifer Morgue.'' After an entire book about glamorous superspies fighting monsters being made fun of, Creator/CTPhipps wrote a book about glamorous superspies fighting monsters and played it dead straight. The hero even has a preference for redheads and a nerdy pair of lesbian tech support compared to Bob Howard's wife and nerdy gay men tech support. The author has also stated himself to be a Laundry Files fan, though.
29	* Creator/{{Robert E Howard}}'s two {{Barbarian Hero}}es, Literature/{{Kull}} and [[Literature/ConanTheBarbarian Conan]] are this to each other. Both are {{Blood Knight}}s who face a number of [[ReptilesAreAbhorrent serpentine adversaries]], and become kings by their own hands in nations not their own. Kull is older, introspective, melancholic, and completely [[UsefulNotes/{{Asexual}} uninterested in the pleasures of the flesh]]. Conan, while hardly TheBrute, has no time for philosophy, is joyous, and knows the company of [[ReallyGetsAround many young women]] in his stories. Becomes EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, as Conan started off as a line-for-line {{Expy}} of Kull.
30	* Conan himself has an antithesis in [[Literature/TheElricSaga Elric of Melniboné]], envisioned as such by his creator, Creator/MichaelMoorcock. Conan is a mighty barbaric warrior, shunning magic and hating sorcerers, growing from humble origins and rising into the king of the greatest empire of his time; Elric by contrast is a sick and frail sorcerer-king, ruler of the most corrupt and decadent civilization of his own world, then proceeds to lose everything and dies alone and unmourned.
31	* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' by Creator/GeorgeRRMartin was partially a response to ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' and its imitators. WordOfGod said he was always more interested in how Aragorn would [[WonTheWarLostThePeace win the peace]] after the War of the Ring (which is barely skimmed over in the epilogue) than how he won the war. He also wanted to know if fantasy could work if it had a more socially accurate examination of feudalism based on actual medieval history. Martin also said that it was also a response to HistoricalFiction noting that he was tired of the ForegoneConclusion nature of the genre, and wanted to use fantasy as a genre to explore history via various events and historical figures having their SerialNumbersFiledOff.
32	* Creator/RichardKMorgan intends ''Literature/ALandFitForHeroes'' to be this to ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings.''
33	* ''Literature/TheBlackCompany'' by Creator/GlenCook is this for HighFantasy genre - if one assumes that typical works of HighFantasy are propaganda of the winners, then this is closer to how those events really looked like.
34	* Creator/VoxDay wrote his novel ''A Throne of Bones'' (the start of his ''Literature/TheArtsOfDarkAndLight'' series) as a [[https://speculativefaith.lorehaven.com/on-the-throne-of-bones-a-q-and-a-with-vox-day/ "literary rebuke"]] to popular fantasy series ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''.
35	* Creator/StephenRDonaldson is most famous for writing ''Literature/ChroniclesOfThomasCovenant'', a HighFantasy story about a man from Earth who is forcibly transported into another world and spends most of his time [[AllJustADream refusing to believe that anything he sees is real.]] An indication that he might be right is that the story is described mainly in cerebral terms, with things and people often coming across more as the personification of ideas than as real things. Donaldson later wrote ''Literature/MordantsNeed'', a LowFantasy story about a woman from Earth who accepts an invitation to go to another world, where she is told (and almost convinced) that she and her own world has no reality of its own but is purely the creation of Mordant's magic. The story is told in very naturalistic, sensual terms, with much emphasis on physical sensation and practical constraints, and characters are generally messy, flawed and very human.
36	* Lavie Tidhar's novel ''The Violent Century'' is a Spiritual Antithesis to ''ComicBook/{{Uber}}'', whether consciously or not. Both are very dark horror-tinged AlternateHistory stories that deconstruct neo-[[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] "World War II would have been really cool with superpowered people" comics. However, ''Über'' has Nazi Germany developing supersoldiers in 1945 and coming BackFromTheBrink, launching a whole new escalation of horror, while in ''The Violent Century'' all the great powers already have superpeople at the start of the war due to a MassSuperEmpoweringEvent, and the horror for the reader comes in how little history is actually changed, demonstrating how powerless even superheroes and villains are compared to the real-world horrors.
37	* ''{{Literature/Matilda}}'' for ''{{Literature/Carrie}}''. Both stories feature school girls as their protagonists who come from abusive homes and eventually develop telekinetic powers that they eventually use to punish people. Carrie White is a loner who gets bullied relentlessly and eventually breaks after being tormented too much -- using her powers to get revenge on all her classmates, and eventually her entire town. Matilda Wormwood meanwhile is an IronWoobie who tries to make the best of her situation, similarly to how Carrie does at first. But in this case, Matilda uses her powers to punish her tormentors in ways that get rid of them forever and prevent them from hurting other people (non-fatally of course, since this is a children's book). Both stories feature a CoolTeacher who stands up for the girl. Carrie's Miss Desjardin [[spoiler: makes things worse for her - as punishing the bullies pisses off the AlphaBitch so much she organises a prank that ends up starting Carrie's rampage]]. Matilda's Miss Honey [[spoiler: eventually adopts Matilda to free her from her rotten parents, and they live happily ever after]].
38	* ''Literature/TheUnexploredSummonBloodSign'' is this to [[Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex several]] [[Literature/TheZashikiWarashiOfIntellectualVillage other]] [[Literature/TheWeaknessOfBeatriceTheLevelCapHolySwordswoman series]] by Creator/KazumaKamachi. The protagonist Kyousuke tries to save others regardless of the personal cost, like [[Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex Touma]], [[Literature/TheZashikiWarashiOfIntellectualVillage Shinobu]], [[Literature/TheWeaknessOfBeatriceTheLevelCapHolySwordswoman Beatrice]] and [[Literature/MyVampireOlderSisterAndZombieLittleSister Satori]]. However, Kyousuke is a OneManArmy capable of beating most opponents with only his own skills, whereas most of Kamachi's protagonists need to rely on others. Similarly, while the other protagonists generally grew up in normal and loving families, Kyousuke's family only appeared normal - his father saw him as no more than a tool and carefully controlled his life to teach him his unusual skills. The main antagonists are also different. Most of Kamachi's other antagonists are [[WellIntentionedExtremist Well-Intentioned Extremists]] with impersonal goals (like saving the world) who spend most of their time scheming from behind the scenes. [[spoiler:The White Queen]] is active right from the beginning and has the entirely personal goal of [[spoiler:making Kyousuke love her again]].
39	* While in the level of dark themes presented one is SpiritualSuccessor to another, Creator/JackLondon's ''Literature/WhiteFang'', a story of a wolf slowly becoming domesticated, is the opposite of his earlier work, ''Literature/TheCallOfTheWild'' - a story of a dog slowly becoming feral.
40	* Creator/JamesJoyce's ''Literature/{{Ulysses}}'' is widely known for being a loose parody/retelling of Creator/{{Homer}}'s ''Literature/TheOdyssey'', but it's also largely an antithesis of it. Much of the book's subtle humor comes from Joyce essentially zigging everywhere Homer zagged. The ''Odyssey'' is a story about the Ancient World that unfolds over the course of an entire decade, while ''Ulysses'' is a story about the Modern World that unfolds [[ExtremelyShortTimespan over the course of a single day]]. The ''Odyssey'' is about heroic feats, while ''Ulysses'' is about [[MundaneMadeAwesome the minutiae of everyday life]]. The ''Odyssey'' takes place in the aftermath of the momentous events of the Trojan War, while ''Ulysses'' takes place in the early 1900s--just before the momentous events of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Where Telemachus is TheDutifulSon who honors and respects his father and strives to live up to his example, Stephen Dedalus is a melancholy artist who rebels against his father and tries to escape his influence. Where Odysseus is a larger-than-life hero who's [[{{Determinator}} determined to get back home to his family]], Leopold Bloom is a RidiculouslyAverageGuy who spends his day wandering the streets and ''avoiding'' going home to his family. Where Penelope is a chaste and innocent woman who [[SeductionProofMarriage stays faithful to her husband no matter what]], Molly Bloom is a sassy and insatiably curious woman who [[SympatheticAdulterer casually sleeps around]].
41	* Creator/GeorgeOrwell's ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'', Creator/AldousHuxley's ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'', and Creator/RayBradbury's ''Literature/{{Fahrenheit 451}}'' are arguably the most famous and influential {{dystopia}}n novels ever written -- and all three have been noted as being utter antitheses of one another in the nature of their broken societies and the real-world influences behind them.
42	** ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''[='=]s Oceania is a world where the regime [[DayOfTheJackboot stamps its boot on the faces of the underclass]], controlling them through [[BigBrotherIsWatching state surveillance]], [[ForeverWar endless war]] against foreign countries, and [[PropagandaMachine omnipresent propaganda]] that makes them [[{{Doublethink}} question what is even real]].[[note]]As if to signify the book's enduring legacy, it is the {{Trope Namer\|s}} for ''two'' of the tropes potholed in the last sentence.[[/note]] First published in 1949 in the UK, it reflected both the freshly-exposed horrors of UsefulNotes/NaziGermany and the emerging [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar division of the world into two hostile power blocs]], both of which were at least somewhat dystopian (the East being outwardly totalitarian and the West risking falling down the same rabbit hole) in the eyes of the democratic socialist Orwell.
43	** ''Brave New World''[='=]s World State, on the other hand, doesn't need to take such measures to crush dissent, instead having bred such ideas out of the populace through a mix of eugenics, GovernmentDrugEnforcement, and BreadAndCircuses, all while having long ago conquered the world. First published in 1931 in the UK, it reflected early 20th century concerns over the rapid advance of science and industry, from the assembly line to biology, and how those advances might reshape human society and sweep aside all those who tried to resist.
44	** Finally, ''Fahrenheit 451'' envisions a future America where [[NewMediaAreEvil mass media]] has [[StupidFuturePeople dumbed down the populace]] and caused them to decide that books were not only unnecessary, but actively harmful to society due to the dangerous ideas they spread. Published in 1953 in the United States, Bradbury was writing chiefly about censorship coming not through top-down state power, but from the ground up through [[MoralGuardians public moralism]] and a culture of AntiIntellectualism fed by the emerging mass culture of the postwar years, all while most people are [[ApatheticCitizens too glued to the empty pablum coming from their television screens to care]].
45	** In short, Oceania maintains control through fear, the World State maintains control through pleasure, and ''Fahrenheit 451''[='=]s America maintains control through apathy.
46	* Huxley later wrote his own antithesis to ''Brave New World'', the SpiritualSuccessor ''Literature/Island1962''. Whereas ''Brave New World'' was his envisioned dystopian society, ''Island'' was his envisioned {{utopia}}, with multiple elements of life on the island of Pala serving as direct counterpoints to elements of the World State.
47	* Orwell's Literature/HomageToCatalonia and Peter Kemp's ''Mine Were of Trouble''. Both are about Englishmen who volunteer to go to Spain to fight in the [[UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar civil war]], but that is where their similarities end. Orwell journeyed to fight with the Republican side and drifted toward the Trotskyist POUM militia, which was mostly made up of [[RagTagBunchOfMisfits half-trained and badly equipped civilians]]; the presense of he and others like him [[HopelessWar ultimately makes no difference to the Republic's war effort]], [[WeAreStrugglingTogether which was wracked with infighting]], and he barely survives the Stalinist purge of the POUM and their stamping out of the Catalan Republic; he returns to England disillusioned and heartbroken. Kemp meanwhile joins the Nationalist side and while he at first joins the Carlist faction, which military wise was barely any different from the POUM, his battlefield prowess earns him a spot in the much more professional and better equipped [[BadassArmy Spanish Foreign Legion]]. He takes part in several battles and while he sees several atrocities, he maintains belief in the cause he fought for right to the end; while Orwell was forced to flee the Stalinists, Kemp was allowed to leave freely after taking battlefield wounds. After returning to England, he would proceed to enlist in the British Army to fight in UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo.
48	* Whether by coincidence or by intention, the ''Literature/BaileySchoolKids'' books are essentially ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' in reverse. They're both about [[FourTemperamentEnsemble four mismatched friends]] tangling with monsters--but instead of being about [[ScoobyDooHoax ordinary people posing as monsters]], they're about monsters posing as ordinary people. Additionally: while [[OncePerEpisode every episode]] of ''Scooby-Doo'' famously ends with the kids [[DramaticUnmask unmasking the monster]], most of the ''Bailey School Kids'' books end far more [[TheUnreveal inconclusively]], nearly always leaving it [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane ambiguous]] whether the monster was ''really'' a monster. And while nearly all of the "monsters" in ''Scooby-Doo'' are unscrupulous criminals, most of the ''Bailey School'' monsters turn out to be [[DarkIsNotEvil perfectly nice]] and [[NotEvilJustMisunderstood harmless]], and they usually have mundane jobs and hobbies.
49	* ''The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan'' by Thomas Dixon Jr. was intended to be this to ''Literature/UncleTomsCabin'' by Harriet Beecher Stowe, with Dixon having described his book as a sequel. Both were novels about plantation slavery in the [[DeepSouth Southern United States]] that inflamed public opinion, especially after they were turned into stage plays and, in the case of ''The Clansman'', a feature film adaptation in ''Film/TheBirthOfANation1915''. ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'', however, was Stowe's condemnation of the horrors and barbarism of slavery, dehumanizing everybody involved with it and grotesquely undermining traditional values of faith and family, while ''The Clansman'', by contrast, was about what Dixon saw as the horrors and barbarism of the ''end'' of slavery, shredding the fabric of Southern society and plunging it into chaos. In particular, the main slave characters in each are a study in contrasts: while Stowe presented Uncle Tom as a noble hero and a symbol of why slavery was incompatible with Christian morality, Dixon presented Gus in ''The Clansman'' as a violent rapist who never should have been freed and is given a [[VigilanteExecution righteous punishment]] by TheKlan.
50	* The work of English historian Christopher Henry Dawson can be seen as this to that of another English historian, Edward Gibbon. Both English historians converted to the Catholic faith at one point in their lives, but Gibbon was pulled from Oxford to be taught under a French Calvinist minister, where his Catholic faith was extinguished, and he eventually wrote ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', wherein he also accuses the Christian religion of being a factor for the fall of the Roman Empire. On the other hand, Dawson remained a Catholic his entire life, based his work on exploring the role of religion in Western Culture, and was much more sympathetic to the Christian faith.
51	* Creator/RogerZelazny's ''Literature/CreaturesOfLightAndDarkness'' is the antithesis of his previous novel ''Literature/LordOfLight''. The latter is a science fiction novel that reads like a fantasy novel -- aliens are exclusively referred to as "demons", and the "brainwave transfer" technology is presented as indistinguishable from reincarnation, yet the "gods" are still regular humans abusing ClarkesThirdLaw to present themselves as holy. The former, meanwhile, feels like a science fiction story, including all the trouble involved in keeping a spaceship working, yet the characters in the crew really ''are'' gods, and their journey is eventually revealed to be supernatural.
52	* Ernest Cline's ''Literature/ReadyPlayerOne'' can be read as this to Creator/CarltonMellickIII's ''Literature/{{Cybernetrix}}'', in that both are stories about virtual worlds that have a basis of sorts in '80s nostalgia but sit on opposing ends of the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism with regards to such. Mellick's novel is set in a world where TheEighties never ended, culturally speaking, and society has grown creatively stagnant as a result, with '80s film franchises still getting sequels despite [[FranchiseZombie having long since been run into the ground]]. The titular virtual world at the center of the story is where people go to escape the stodginess of mainstream culture. In Cline's novel, on the other hand, the OASIS is itself rooted in '80s nostalgia, and serves as a place where people can escape the bleak prospects of the real world by traveling back to a [[NostalgiaFilter more idealized past]].
53	* The second part of ''Literature/GulliversTravels'' is this to the first part. Lilliput is a land of tiny militant people who go to war for the silliest reasons, while Brobdingnag is a country of giants who are much more peaceful and enlightened.
54	* Astrid Lindgrens ''Literature/PippiLongstocking'' can be viewed as an antithesis to ''Literature/AliceInWonderland''. Both stories have little girls as protagonists who on occasion argue with themselves (Alice telling herself off, Pippi telling herself to go to bed), contains humorous version of nursery rhymes and old song lyrics (in fact, Ur-Pippi, Astrid's first draft, contained a lot more of these than the final book) and a lot of wordplay. Alice has "uglification", Pippi has "multikipperation". The major difference is that Alice is a normal girl interacting and clashing with eccentric characters in a fantasy-world while Pippi is an eccentric girl with fantastical powers interacting, and clashing, with the mundane, everyday world of the little town she has moved to.
55	* ''Literature/{{Nos4a2}}'' examines the disturbing implications of ''Literature/ThePolarExpress'', and plays it for pure horror.
56	* Naomi Alderman's ''Literature/ThePower'' is this to Creator/MargaretAtwood's ''Literature/TheHandmaidsTale'' -- incidentally, with [[ApprovalOfGod Atwood's full blessing]]. Both are feminist dystopian novels about gender roles being taken to their LogicalExtreme, but explore this concept from two completely different directions. ''The Handmaid's Tale'' takes place in a NoWomansLand where women are treated as chattel and breeding stock, presented as the logical conclusion of the aims of the contemporary [[TheFundamentalist Christian Right]], and one that is implied to eventually [[DystopiaIsHard collapse under the weight of its contradictions]]. ''The Power'', meanwhile, is a [[GenreDeconstruction deconstructed]] FeministFantasy where, thanks to a biological mutation, women now wield greater physical power than men -- but without an accompanying change in gender roles and stereotypes, women simply recreate the worst excesses of the patriarchy [[PersecutionFlip with themselves on top]]. What's more, this state of affairs is made even stronger by [[spoiler:[[WorldWarIII the collapse of civilization]] and a reversion to a barbaric Stone Age world where [[AsskickingLeadsToLeadership brute physical strength determined who ruled]], because that is how human society used to operate and what informs our socially-determined gender roles to this day]].
57	* Nathanael West's two most famous novels, ''Literature/TheDayOfTheLocust'' and ''Miss Lonelyhearts'', are considered opposite sides of the same coin: ''Locust'' takes place in sunny Los Angeles, with its spacious villas, wealthy retirees and movie moguls, artificial excessive decor that looks kitschy, and contrast with nature. ''Lonelyhearts'' takes place in crowded New York, in cheap apartments and bland-looking offices, with letter writers who are subjected to terrible disgraces. Yet, they're both critiques of the search for fame and wealth -- ''Locust'' focuses on the emptiness of a life of luxury, and ''Lonelyhearts'' on the despair of trying to achieve it.
58	* ''Literature/AfterTheRevolution'' versus ''{{Literature/Caliphate}}'' or ''{{Literature/Victoria}}''. Similarly set in future dystopias but from opposite perspective on liberties, religion, race and plans for the future.
59	* ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'' could be seen as this for ''Literature/HarryPotter'' and similar middle-grade UrbanFantasy that were becoming popular at the time. In those stories, a seemingly ordinary kid is told that he's actually part of some sort of secret magical society, and is usually TheChosenOne who needs to save it. Artemis, in contrast, is a {{Muggle}} but otherwise ''not'' ordinary (being a [[Fiction500 super rich]] ChildProdigy), discovers the secret magical society through his own initiative, and wants to [[VillainProtagonist exploit rather than help it]]. Granted, this mostly applies to the first book, before Artemis' HeelFaceTurn.
60	* In the foreword to ''Literature/TheSouthernBookClubsGuideToSlayingVampires'', Creator/GradyHendrix described it as this to his previous novel ''Literature/MyBestFriendsExorcism''. Both are supernatural HorrorComedy novels set in Hendrix's childhood hometown, the DeepSouth StepfordSuburbia of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, in [[ThatNostalgiaShow nostalgic time periods]] (TheEighties in ''Exorcism'', TheNineties in ''Book Club''), but whereas ''Exorcism'' was about teenage protagonists and took place in a world where AdultsAreUseless, in ''Book Club'' the parent is herself the protagonist trying to protect her family.
61	-->'''Hendrix:''' That novel was written from a teenage point of view, and so the parents seemed awful because that's how parents seem when you're a teenager. But there's another version of that story, [[PerspectiveFlip told from the parents' point of view]], about how helpless you feel when your kid is in danger. I wanted to write a story about those parents, and so ''The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires'' was born. It's not a sequel to ''My Best Friend's Exorcism'', but it takes place in the same neighborhood, a few years later, where I grew up.
62	* ''Literature/TheGoblinEmperor'' to ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', as a fantasy series set in a historically-flavored world and much concerned with issues of succession, political scheming, and courtly intrigue, but with a much more optimistic stance on the issue of whether good men make good kings, and a gentler and more idealistic tone in general.
63	* Creator/HarryTurtledove's short story ''Literature/{{Vilcabamba}}'' is a spiritual antithesis to his ''Literature/{{Worldwar}}'' series. Both deal with an advanced alien race invading Earth and the humans attempting to resist, however, while the humans in ''Worldwar'' are able to fight the Race to a standstill and establish a negotiated peace, in ''Vilcamba'' the Krolp effortlessly roll over the world's militaries and TakeOverTheWorld. The major difference is that the Race are at a level of development roughly equivalent to TheNineties, so their technology is understandable and replicable by WWII-era scientists, allowing the humans to eventually get on a somewhat level playing field; meanwhile the Krolp have SufficientlyAdvancedTechnology which humans have neither the understanding or manufacturing base to copy.
64	* ''The Lost Causes Of Bleak Creek'' to ''Reaper's Creek''. Both have a plethora of similarities as books written by [=YouTubers=]: a retelling of the writer's youth but peppered with supernatural elements and focused on a character based on the writer himself, and quite a few thoughts on the theme of god and religion. The former, however, meditates much more on the effect that religion has on a small town community and how negative traits of it can become ingrained in people, as well as a less idealized protagonist (in the words of internet book reviewer Kappa Kaiju, who reviewed both books, the protagonists of the former are simply kinder versions of the people the writers were, whereas the protagonist of the latter is quite Sue-ish). The latter book, meanwhile, portrays god as an evil deity that the protagonist comes to defeat.
65	* ''Literature/OthersidePicnic'' is this to its main inspiration, ''Literature/RoadsidePicnic''. Beyond their superficially similar premises (explorers venturing into a dangerous, supernatural area and retrieving artefacts), the two are extremely different in pacing, style, tone and themes, occupying opposite ends on the [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism idealism-cynicism scale]]. ''Roadside Picnic'' is a short, self-contained book about a man [[SlowlySlippingIntoEvil slowly slipping into evil]] due to financial pressure and trauma, with a bleak atmosphere and explicit political undertones. ''Otherside Picnic'' is a long-running series of light novels about two girls having a slow-burn romance while going on exciting adventures in a parallel world, written with a relatively soft tone and complete political indifference.
66	** ''Roadside Picnic'' questions [[HumansAreSpecial anthropocentrism]]. The titular "roadside picnic" is an allegory for humanity's insignificance in the eyes of their alien visitors (Earth being the metaphorical ground on which the "picnic" was held). ''Otherside Picnic'' assumes anthropocentrism by having the Otherside's monsters mimic Japanese [[{{Creepypasta}} internet myths and urban legends]]. Kozakura even suggests that the Otherside might be trying to use fear to communicate with humanity.
67	** In ''Roadside Picnic'', the discovery of aliens has wide-reaching social implications, drastically affecting science, technology and politics. By contrast, the Otherside is a hidden parallel world only known to a few people and organisations, and consequently, has basically zero societal impact.
68	** ''Roadside Picnic'' centres heavily on the town of Harmont and the cultural shift taking place within it. The place is depicted as rapidly transitioning away from industry and towards a tourism-oriented service economy, with large construction projects causing an influx of migrant workers. ''Otherside Picnic'' focuses almost exclusively on Sorawo and Toriko, with the human world relegated to the background and treated mostly as an intermission between ventures into the Otherside.
69	** ''Roadside Picnic''[='=]s zone afflicts Harmonites with a [[TheJinx mysterious curse]], and the children of stalkers are at risk of being born with debilitating diseases. ''Otherside Picnic''[='=]s [=UltraBlue=] Landscape [[ClaimedByTheSupernatural gives Sorawo and Toriko superpowers]].
70	** Redrick's character arc is partially fueled by economical precarity, with him returning to a life of crime after his job [[JobStealingRobot becomes automated]]. In ''Otherside Picnic'', outside of a few mentions of Sorawo's student loans, money mainly comes up when the two heroines splurge on food, hotels and fancy equipment.
71	** In ''Roadside Picnic'', the idea of using guns to combat incomprehensible, reality-defying phenomena is openly mocked. The book's only proposed use for firearms in the zone is to kill other humans, or, if [[FateWorseThanDeath the worst]] comes to pass, [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled yourself]]. In ''Otherside Picnic'', guns are much more viable, with Sorawo and Toriko regularly using them to defeat monsters.
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Context SpiritualAntithesis / Literature