Dystopias in Literature

[Rudhe]

We studied Animal farm in English, I suppose the novel was interesting especially having a look at the context and the politics involved. Overall I don't like reading books with dystopia theme.  

[Ayame-Yukari]

It's a bti young, but The Giver was a very good example of a dystopia. In trying to be a utopia, they were very much a dystopia.  

[5 to midnight]

Ayame-Yukari

It's a bti young, but The Giver was a very good example of a dystopia. In trying to be a utopia, they were very much a dystopia.

Oh, yeah! That was a good book...  

[Malakoi]

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a classic cyberpunk novel set in a dystopian future. The movie Blade Runner was an adaptation of the novel.

In 2015 (it was written in the 70s), the larger portion of mankind has moved off-planet, leaving behind the diseased, criminal convicts, and those too poor to afford an off-world ticket. Androids were created to carry out slave labor on certain colonies and trouble begins when some of them develop self-awareness and rebel against the government.  

[the howie]

Ayame-Yukari

It's a bti young, but The Giver was a very good example of a dystopia. In trying to be a utopia, they were very much a dystopia.

All right, I'll be the dumb one here. I've read the giver, and I understand the premise of Brave New World and 1984. However, one question remains for me: what exactly is a dystopia?  

[penandpaper67]

the howie

Ayame-Yukari

It's a bti young, but The Giver was a very good example of a dystopia. In trying to be a utopia, they were very much a dystopia.

All right, I'll be the dumb one here. I've read the giver, and I understand the premise of Brave New World and 1984. However, one question remains for me: what exactly is a dystopia?

First of all, dictionary.com is your best friend. Second of all, it's basically a society that uses base tactics to create a following and becomes the opposite of an ideal. It's the opposite of a utopia, a perfect society.  

[Hlessirah]

I absolutely love dystopian fiction. Gotta be my favorite genre out there...
Let's see...Off the top of my head, there's "Animal Farm", "1984", "Ember", "Ferinheit 451", "The Giver", "Gathering Blue", "The Messenger"... All amazing books. And don't forget "Logan's Run", an okay book, but a better movie that fits nicely into that category.

I do have to say, and I apologize to the person who wrote about this one, but I read Ayn Rand's "Anthem", and I thought it was probably the worst book I've ever read...

There's just soooo much you can learn from dystopias, and it's cool to see how scary a well-written one can be.  

[Shinokamen]

Anthem was great, for a novella. (In general, I enjoy longer books far more than short stories or novellas.)

Rand's other books (The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged) are more about society falling into dystopia, rather than already existing in that state. I have not read We the Living.

I really enjoyed 1984 and Animal Farm. I have not read Brave New World.

Novels which speak of Dystopian societies remind us of what we must fight against. If you don't "strike at the root," the vines will strangle everything.  

[Byouki]

I'll be really lame and mention Stephen King's The Stand.

On Ayn Rand -- I read Atlas Shrugged and was bored senseless. I actually skipped the majority of the big radio speech. It was so GODDAMN BORING.  

[Shinokamen]

I have to admit that I did skip the speech the first time I read it. It isn't entirely essential to the plot, anyway. I went back and read it a year later.

The rest of the book wasn't boring to me at all. I need to read it again though, as it has been like 5 years since I read it back in 8th grade....  

[Colonel T-Bone]

Right along those same lines would be This Perfect Day by Ira Levin. It talks about the new future. Everything is regulated, from names to sex. They administer drugs to everyone in the culture to supress their feelings of independence. They even have regular scanners to scan a barcode bracelet so they know where everyone is. The entire thing is "programmed" by a group of people who live in seclusin from the rest of society. Read the book!  

[wampus-kitty]

I liked The Electric Church by Jeff Somers (and sequels The Digital Plague and The Eternal Prison), pretty hardcore scifi.

Also, how do we feel about comics? 'Cause Transmetropolitan's a pretty dystopic future, and Spider's awesome heart (yeah, I'm a big geek)