Dystopian fiction
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Dystopian Fiction
Dystopia Defined
From Dictionary.com“An imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one.”
Word first used by JOHN STUART MILL
Utopias
“The Perfect World”
We – Yevgeny Zamyatin (1921)
• The Individual Human vs. The Collective State• D-503 a reluctant rebel• Precursor of 1984, but also…
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley (1932)
• World State citizens preconditioned to be happy• Safety, comfort and prosperity…but at what cost?• Contrast with “savage reservation”
1984 – George Orwell (1948)
• Doublethink – As shown in Four Ministries• Thoughts are controlled utterly• Eerily accurate with some of its predictions
A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess (1962)
• A world of “ultra violence”• Free will and the problem of Evil• The curious case of the final chapter
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Philip K Dick (1968)
• “Replicants” have surpassed humans• An environmental nightmare• Population controlled, albeit more subtly
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood (1986)
• Predetermined inequality• A critique of religious fundamentalism• A feminist tale?
Fatherland – Robert Harris (1992)
• Alternative History• Cover ups and conspiracy theories• Scarier than a futuristic story?
Some more notable examplesHG Wells – The Time Machine (1895) Humans have regressed by the year 802,701
Franz Kafka – The Trial (1924) An unseen authority punishes you for unknown crimes
Kurt Vonnegut – Player Piano (1952) Machines have completely replaced the need for human labour
Ray Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451 (1954) Books are burned; people only read what the Government wants them to
Ayn Rand – Atlas Shrugged (1957) What would happen if the strong refused to support the weak?
JG Ballard – High Rise (1975) Technology isolates people in a block of flats
Kazuo Ishiguro – Never Let Me Go (2005) Clones are bred to support the ‘normals’
Cormac McCarthy – The Road (2006) The aftermath of the end of civilisation
The one that started the craze…
• Violence as a tool for state control• Reality TV gone mad• Possible parallels with today’s ‘hyperreality’
Teenage Angst?
Body image issues
Five Factions = Society telling teenagers what’s best
Summary – Common themes in Dystopian Literature
• Individual Freedom vs. The State• Non-Heroic Heroes• Wariness of ‘progress’• Current affairs have influence
The Last Word