dystopian fiction

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 YA Avalanche

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