The golden age of dystopian fiction

In an age where we are better educated (more opportunities), more nourished (generally), and more tolerant (apparently) we should be wired more to the utopian way of thinking. Utopia is when we reside in paradise, for example Heaven, the Garden of Eden, Shangri-La, Hyperborea, Star Trek’s Federation, or Aslan’s Country in Lewis’s Narnia tales. 

We have never been more connected than we are today, provoking a convergence of politics, religion, race, gender, partisanship, virtual life, and reality. This ‘organising principle’ is touted as providing the ability and opportunity to be more aware and geared for optimism, yet the world is more comfortable fantasizing about a dystopian existence. Sir Thomas More used the word utopia to describe the perfect civilization in his work “Utopia” (1516), the term dystopia, the utopian antithesis, was believed to be first applied to describe a ‘bad place’ by English philosopher John Stuart Mill, when he was denouncing the government’s Irish land policy. Yet while our first world societies flourish, entertainment and literature are increasingly focused on the dystopian side of the dichotomy.

Some Utopias even hide dystopian truths like Orwell’s 1984, and Well’s pretty future paradise of the Eloi in “The Time Machine” (1895). Perhaps as society improves, it feels safer to imagine a truly hellish future.

The dystopian genre offers a speculative lens that can evoke a vision of decline and cataclysm in the future. The characters of these works battle environmental ruin, technological control, and government oppression. It’s a perfect vehicle for capitalising on our environmental concerns. It is a popular genre for young adults particularly and some of the more popular authors are: Suzanne Collins and her “Hunger Games” series, The “Divergent” series by Veronica Roth, “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood, Lynette Noni’s “The Medoran Chronicles”, the “Whisper” duology, and “The Prison Healer” trilogy to name only a few of those riding the examples set by their forerunners, H.G. Wells, C. S. Lewis, George Orwell and the like.

Mrs Denise Harvey
School Librarian
Denise_Harvey@shalomcollege.com