Dystopia
[3][4] It is often treated as an antonym of utopia, a term that was coined by Thomas More and figures as the title of his best known work, published in 1516, which created a blueprint for an ideal society with minimal crime, violence, and poverty.[22] In the same vein, Vicente Angeloti remarked that "George Orwell's emblematic phrase, a boot stamping on a human face – forever, would aptly describe the situation of the denizens in Dante's Hell.Conversely, Dante's famous inscription Abandon all hope, ye who enter here would have been equally appropriate if placed at the entrance to Orwell's "Ministry of Love" and its notorious "Room 101".[26] In the film What Happened to Monday the protagonists (identical septuplet sisters) risk their lives by taking turns onto the outside world because of a one-child policy place in this futuristic dystopian society.[34][35] Theo James, an actor in Divergent (originally a novel by Veronica Roth), explains that "young people in particular have such a fascination with this kind of story [...] It's becoming part of the consciousness.An earlier example is Jules Verne's The Begum's Millions with its depiction of Stahlstadt (Steel City), a vast industrial and mining complex, which is totally devoted to the production of ever more powerful and destructive weapons, and which is ruled by the dictatorial and totally ruthless Prof. Schultze – a militarist and racist who dreams of world conquest and as the first step plots the complete destruction of the nearby Ville-France, a utopian model city constructed and maintained with public health as its government's primary concern.The economic structures of dystopian societies in literature and other media have many variations, as the economy often relates directly to the elements that the writer is depicting as the source of the oppression.[citation needed] Some dystopias, such as that of Nineteen Eighty-Four, feature black markets with goods that are dangerous and difficult to obtain or the characters may be at the mercy of the state-controlled economy.[41] In Tanith Lee's Don't Bite the Sun, there is no want of any kind – only unabashed consumption and hedonism, leading the protagonist to begin looking for a deeper meaning to existence.[42] Even in dystopias where the economic system is not the source of the society's flaws, as in Brave New World, the state often controls the economy; a character, reacting with horror to the suggestion of not being part of the social body, cites as a reason that works for everyone else.This is seen in the novels Jennifer Government and Oryx and Crake and the movies Alien, Avatar, RoboCop, Visioneers, Idiocracy, Soylent Green, WALL-E and Rollerball.Corporate republics are common in the cyberpunk genre, as in Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash and Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?But over a long time period, the roles were eventually reversed – the rich degenerated and became a decadent "livestock" regularly caught and eaten by the underground cannibal Morlocks.[47] In C. S. Lewis's That Hideous Strength the leaders of the fictional National Institute of Coordinated Experiments, a joint venture of academia and government to promote an anti-traditionalist social agenda, are contemptuous of religion and require initiates to desecrate Christian symbols.[48] In the Russian novel We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, first published in 1921, people are permitted to live out of public view twice a week for one hour and are only referred to by numbers instead of names.In some dystopian works, such as Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron, society forces individuals to conform to radical egalitarian social norms that discourage or suppress accomplishment or even competence as forms of inequality.In Brave New World, the lower class is conditioned to be afraid of nature but also to visit the countryside and consume transport and games to promote economic activity.E. M. Forster's "The Machine Stops" depicts a highly changed global environment which forces people to live underground due to an atmospheric contamination.[53] Excessive pollution that destroys nature is common in many dystopian films, such as The Matrix, RoboCop, WALL-E, April and the Extraordinary World and Soylent Green, as well as in videogames like Half-Life 2.
Dystopia (disambiguation)Kowloon Walled CityAncient GreekantonymutopiaThomas Morehis best known worktyrannicalenvironmental disasterpropagandapolice statefictional workshistorical fictionA Tale of Two CitiesCharles DickensQuo Vadis?Henryk SienkiewiczA Man for All SeasonsRobert Boltalternate historyRobert HarrisFatherlandRobert Hugh BensonLord of the WorldYevgeny ZamyatinAldous HuxleyBrave New WorldGeorge OrwellNineteen Eighty-FourRay BradburyFahrenheit 451environmenttotalitarianJohn Stuart MillHansardJeremy BenthamAnthony BurgessA Clockwork OrangeGregory ClaeysLyman Tower SargentFrench Revolutionanti-collectivistInfernoMinistry of LoveRoom 101Zbigniew Liberametropolisessociopoliticalsocial studiesWhat Happened to Mondayone-child policyFrank Kermodeyoung adult literatureend of capitalismMark Fishercapitalist realismCapitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?Children of MenP. D. JamesTheo JamesDivergentVeronica Rothour planet warming upsub-genrealternative historyNazi Germany won the Second World WarmockumentaryBen WintersUnderground Airlinesslavery in the United StatesKeith RobertsPavaneInquisitionWhen the Sleeper WakesH. G. WellshedonisticThe Iron Heelidealisticfatal flawpessimisticfascist or communistresistanceAlan MooreV for VendettaParable of the SowerDarkness at NoonThe Handmaid's TaleThe Hunger GamesMetropolisBrazilBattle RoyaleSoylent GreenLogan's RunThe Running ManJules VerneThe Begum's Millionsmilitaristracistarchetypesplanned economiesfree marketAyn RandAnthemHenry KuttnerNorman JewisonRollerballblack marketsKurt VonnegutPlayer PianoTanith LeeDon't Bite the SunprivatizationcorporatismcapitalismJennifer GovernmentOryx and CrakeAvatarRoboCopVisioneersIdiocracyWALL-EcyberpunkNeal StephensonSnow CrashPhilip K. DickDo Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?