Dystopia - an appalling glimpse in the future?
Welcome to part two of our edition "Fantasy". Today we want to introduce you to the mystical, intriguing world of Dystopia. The name "Dystopia" originates from the Greek and consists of δυσ- "bad" and τόπος "place; meaning a bad place. Generally spoken there could be one or more features that are labelling the place as "bad". For example social, religious, technological, political or economical rulership and misbehaviour. Hop on our small trip, showing you around the different conceiving and threats of a foreboding future.
Dystopia in religion
In religion the Dystopian place is an antonym of heaven - for example in Christian mythology hell - everyone, who does not live according to Christianities' rules is sent there; often these places have a cruel ruler in charge - with Christianity it is the devil, a fallen angel. Another example for those places is the Tartarus in the Greek underworld Hades. A "prominent" Greek mythology person, that was sent there, was called Tantalus. After committing hideous crimes to the Gods he was punished with temptation, without satisfaction, namely drinking standing in a river, where water flows with a fruit tree nearby. When he tried to grasp a fruit out of hunger the branches would bound higher, so he can't reach them, when he was thirsty the water would flow around him; in that manner he was punished eternally.
Great books covering the topic
It is almost impossible to speak about Dystopian artwork without mentioning Nineteen-eighty-four by George Orwell; as well as Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. In the following subtopic I want to give a short introduction to those and two more books, which I definitely recommend to anyone interested in this particular topic. Enjoy!WE - Yevgeny Zamyatin
Already written in 1921 Zamyatin brought forward one of the first political, technological utopias of his time, which has still a big influence until today. Did you know the 1984 and Brave new world were directly influenced by this novel? The work has influenced other writers too, it was also later redirected as a movie, theatre and musical performance.
The story plays in the future in "One State", which is a totalitarian regime spying on the citizens through the secret police. All apartments are made out of glass, so there is limited privacy and the whole system is ruled by straight logic. All people are being referred to as numbers. Every hour in ones life is registered by a table. In this setting a person D-503 is trying to revolt against the system. How will he do it? Can he succeed? Find out more yourself. Btw: This novel, written by a Russian writer was forbidden in the Soviet Union until 1988!
The story plays in the future in "One State", which is a totalitarian regime spying on the citizens through the secret police. All apartments are made out of glass, so there is limited privacy and the whole system is ruled by straight logic. All people are being referred to as numbers. Every hour in ones life is registered by a table. In this setting a person D-503 is trying to revolt against the system. How will he do it? Can he succeed? Find out more yourself. Btw: This novel, written by a Russian writer was forbidden in the Soviet Union until 1988!
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
This novel published only in 1932 counts itself among the best Dystopian fictions. The story begins in the World State city of London in 632 AF (After Ford), which equals 2540 A.C. In the society citizens are engineered in artificial wombs and indoctrination programs to fit into predetermined classes, according to intelligence and labour.Bernard Marx, a psychologist and Lenina Crowne, a hatchery worker go on holiday in the reserves of New Mexico, where they find Linda, an outcast of the world state and her son John, who live with the Native people there. Those tribes don't accept John, who was only read from Shakespeare and thus has his whole language and moral compass adopted to Shakespeare. Marx decides to bring him to the new world, which is totally different from the one he knows. How will their adventure go on? What else is there to discover behind the mystical World state? Find out yourself!
This written story is often to referred the most when speaking about Dystopian pieces. Without exaggerating, you can say that it is one chilling ingenious work of art, published in 1949. The main themes as lack of privacy, propaganda and governmental surveillance are brilliantly worked out. In the Novel Great Britain (referred to as"Airstrip One") has become a province of the superstate Oceania. There are three superstates in total, which divided the whole world amongst them. Oceania is ruled by "The Party, who employ the "Thought
police" to prosecute individualism and independent thinking. The protagonist of the novel is Winston Smith, a rank-and-file party member, who secretly hates the party and tries ways to revolt against them and Big Brother, the alleged mysterious head. He then enters a forbidden relationship with his fellow employee Julia. Together they try to trick the party and to engage in underground revolt activities. Will they succeed? And how are they going to do it? A real interesting novel about might and surveillance. One of the most interesting themes is blackwhite, which means to an opponent to claim that black is white, without acknowledging the fact, that is now- This should break the opponents will. Applied to a party member it should express that by blindly confessing that black is white, they show their loyalty towards the party.
1984 - George Orwell
This written story is often to referred the most when speaking about Dystopian pieces. Without exaggerating, you can say that it is one chilling ingenious work of art, published in 1949. The main themes as lack of privacy, propaganda and governmental surveillance are brilliantly worked out. In the Novel Great Britain (referred to as"Airstrip One") has become a province of the superstate Oceania. There are three superstates in total, which divided the whole world amongst them. Oceania is ruled by "The Party, who employ the "Thoughtpolice" to prosecute individualism and independent thinking. The protagonist of the novel is Winston Smith, a rank-and-file party member, who secretly hates the party and tries ways to revolt against them and Big Brother, the alleged mysterious head. He then enters a forbidden relationship with his fellow employee Julia. Together they try to trick the party and to engage in underground revolt activities. Will they succeed? And how are they going to do it? A real interesting novel about might and surveillance. One of the most interesting themes is blackwhite, which means to an opponent to claim that black is white, without acknowledging the fact, that is now- This should break the opponents will. Applied to a party member it should express that by blindly confessing that black is white, they show their loyalty towards the party.
THE CIRCLE - Dave Eggers
This novel, that has just been published in 2013 is a technological Dystopia and expresses one of the biggest threats to nowadays society. The plot starts with May Holland, the main character, who gets a job at the most influential Internet company in the country, who organizes itself almost as a small city for its members. The company provides everything: health service, employment, social occasions, relaxation and free time offers. They are also providing all those information about everyone in a big cloud online, so that everyone can get quicker and better information, because "sharing is caring". Secretly the company tries to remake the world in its image. A wonderful, horrific social media Dystopia, which is tailored exactly on our time, we live in and makes us think, if we really want to get more and more connected. A must read for everyone!
What do you think about Dystopian novels from different times- can they all be applied to nowadays? What is your biggest fear of what might happen in the future? Do you want to share your advices? Feel free to comment!
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