any works of literature that portray us all as unwitting pawns working on behalf of some larger force? idea has been on my mind lately and i'm interested in what the greats may have written about it.
not necessarily looking for something conspiratorial involving an illuminati-like group, though i'm not necessarily opposed to those either. ideally the 'force' would transcend humanity in some way.
Das Kapital
The trial
Any history book.
the Bible?
you might be interested in reading ricoeur in time and narrative when he starts talking about first, second, and third order entities, the different levels of narrativization of humanity and human destiny, including the subsumption of humans under great "forces" and "processes" and structural strata etc.
Where to begin?
This + Fanged Noumena by Nick Land.
The Iliad kind of
Society of the Spectacle
Gravity's Rainbow. Not meming.
brave new world, maybe
much of JG Ballard's work involves human behavior altered radically by changes in the media/technological landscape or physical environment. seems pretty relevant to this.
All classical greek literature. Its entire purpose was to reaffirm and celebrate the rule of the gods over humanity. Start with Oedipus for example.
you are a unique and immanent thinker. Nobody has ever had such deep insights as this. Certainly not the extent that they have become perfectly mundane.
>something conspiratorial involving an illuminati-like group
Check out The Crying of Lot 49, Flannery O'Connor's Hazel Motes (different, but interesting), Umberto Eco's Numero Zero.
They don't necessarily relate to the pawn aspect but they all cultivate a sense in the reader of anxiety or tension related to an unseen force.
Bump
I think you'd like the works of Shane Carruth. Watch Upstream Color and read the script" A Topiary", they both focus on that theme.
1984; Player Piano; The Dice Man; The Third Policeman; Thus Spake Zarathustra
>ideally the 'force' would transcend humanity in some way.
here, replace Player Piano with Sirens of Titan in that case.