Dystopian
depictions are always imaginary. They may borrow features from reality, but the
purpose is to debate, criticize or explore possibilities and probabilities.
Dystopia
is not really about tomorrow, but rather about today. Nevertheless,
dystopian stories take place in the future in most cases. The year 1984 may
have past, but George Orwell's horror story described a plausible future
scenario when it was published for the first time in 1949 and it may still come
true in a not too distant future.
Dystopias have always been a
powerful rhetorical tool. They have been used and abused by politicians, thus
making dystopian stories controversial. The anti-totalitarianism in Nineteen Eighty-Four is explicit, but
the anti-Reaganism in Neuromancer is
implicit.
All dystopian societies have some
common features. A dystopian society usually exhibits some of the traits from the following list, thought
not necessarily all of them:
-an
apparent Utopian society, free of poverty, disease, conflict, and even
unhappiness. Scratching the surface of the society, however, reveals exactly
the opposite. The exact problem, the way the problem is suppressed, and the
chronology of the problem forms the central conflict of the story.
-social
stratification, where social class is strictly defined and enforced, and social
mobility is non-existent
-a
nation-state ruled by an upper class with few democratic ideals
-state
propaganda programs and educational systems that coerce most citizens into worshipping
the state and its government, in an attempt to convince them into thinking that
life under the regime is good and just
-strict
conformity among citizens and the general assumption that dissent and
individuality are bad
-a state
figurehead that people worship fanatically through a vast personality cult,
such as 1984's Big Brother, We's The Benefactor, or Equilibrium's Father
-a fear or
disgust of the world outside the state
-a common
view of traditional life, particularly organized religion, as primitive and
nonsensical
complete
domination by a state religion, e.g. the Sisterhood of Metacontrol in FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions or
the Technopriests in The Incal
-the
"memory" of institutions overriding or taking precedence over human
memory
-a penal
system that lacks due process laws and often employs psychological or physical
torture e.g. Alan Moore's V for Vendetta
-a lack of
the key essentials of life for many citizens, like food shortages
- absence
or else total co-option of an educated middle class (i.e. teachers,
journalists, scientists) who might criticize the regime's leadership
-constant
surveillance by government or other agencies
-militarized
police forces and private security forces
-the
banishment of the natural world from daily life
-construction
of fictional views of reality that the populace are coerced into believing
-сorruption,
impotence or other usurpation of democratic institutions
-fictional
rivalries between groups that actually operate as a cartel
-insistence
by the forces of the establishment that it provides the best of all possible
worlds and all problems are due to the action of its enemies
-an overall
slow decay of all systems (polical, economic, religion, infrastructure. . .)
resulting from people being alienated from nature, the State, society, family,
and themselves. Yesterday was better, tomorrow will be worse.
- in
dystopian societies, the economic system is one that centers around stability
and is structured so that the government or the economic system is immune to
change or disruption. Usually, the industries operate at maximum efficiency and
capacity, and then the excess products or currency is absorbed in some way by
the state. In Nineteen Eighty-Four
people are put on rations and the excess that is produced is absorbed in the
"war" that is always occurring with either Eurasia
or Eastasia. In Brave New World the
excess produced is sucked up in the extreme consumerism of the population,
encouraged by the government. In We the
One State there is no currency or exchange
whatsoever, either inside or outside the walls of the society, but everything
is provided to the people.
к практикеAlan Moore "V for Vendetta"
Kurt Vonnegut "Welcome to the Monkey house"/"Player Piano"/"Slapstick"
Margaret Atwood "Oryx and Crake"
John Brunner "Stand on Zanzibar"
Ira Levin "This perfect day"
George Orwell "1984"
Anthony Burgess "A Clockwork Orange"
Aldous Huxley "Brave New World"
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03.04.2009 в 15:07все нормально с работой, распечатала без изменений. прикольно, что ты три раза прислала.
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03.04.2009 в 18:32оно пересылало меня на страницу входа в мыло, а не на "ваше письмо было отправлено", поэтому пришлось экспериментально проверить, дошло ли *)
хз, у меня в книге Хаксли про нее пишет Маргарет Этвуд =))