What is Dystopian Fiction?

[meaganspooner]

Just tonight, a brand new twitterfriend asked me, “What is a dystopian novel?” I’m guessing that she read my bio on Twitter, which says I’m working on a dystopian novel, and was curious about the term. I answered her as best I could within 140 characters, but as I lay wide awake in bed trying to sleep, I kept thinking of everything I wanted to

Comments

[lnbw]

A writer friend (unfortunately I can't remember who) recently asked an interesting question about dystopias: to qualify, do the citizens of the dystopia have to think their society is perfect?

I'd never considered it before, but it's true that most works of dystopian fiction I've read star characters who are becoming disillusioned about their "perfect" world -- Nineteen Eighty-Four and Fahrenheit 451 fit into this mold, as does The Giver. Katniss certainly isn't deceived about the Hunger Games world, but people in the Capitol are.

[snowscythe]

There's often a spectrum of "buying into" the perfection of the world, yeah? In 1984, for instance, some characters--the duller people in the world-- appear to be taken in with the whole sham, while others are obviously playing along in fear of their lives. Others are in the middle, just riding along. It's similar in the Mockingjay books. And in The Time Machine, the Eloi think it's all good but the Morlocks (and the main character) obviously know the world isn't a utopia. The Giver is more slanted towards utopia, but there are still characters aside from the Giver, such as the Council and the people who perform "releases", who know that things aren't as they seem. I feel like for a dystopia to present itself fully, there have to be people on both sides: those who buy into it, demonstrating to the reader their failing autonomy, and those who see it for what it is.

[meaganspooner]

Totally. To me, a good dystopian novel is scarier than any horror novel could be. Yes, a thriller/etc. is all about the worst things a human being can do to another, but dystopian fiction is about the worst things a society can do to itself. A whole MASS of people committing atrocities, who don't necessarily have something broken in their heads--it's just What's Done. And no one thinks to stop it.

[snowscythe]

Dystopian stories often make me feel utterly incredulous, for just this reason. How can people be this awful, I ask myself.

... And then I read about Nazi Germany. :\

[meaganspooner]

When I think about genre I think about what pleasures each has to offer, and I think dystopian fiction, like horror, gives us the chance to rehearse our fears. It gives us a chance to look at all the worst things humanity is capable of, but then it also often provides us with the answer: it just takes one person to start a change.

[hhhiryuu]

great post! speculative fiction is also a favorite of mine. what do you think drives people to want to write/read stories set in future dystopias rather than modern or historical ones?

snowscythe, if you want to experience more feelings along this line, go watch "National Geographic: Inside North Korea" (on Netflix Streaming). the most fascinating thing to me was how the average folks have so completely bought into their own oppression. when they sing the praises of their Great Leader, you get the feeling them that most of them aren't acting at all. they really mean it. the power of half a century of misinformation... chilling.

[meaganspooner]

Thanks! Personally, I think the drive comes from wanting to show people VISCERALLY what could happen if we don't shape up now. That's where it comes from for me. I mean, yeah, you could say "Hey guys, we gotta do xyz," but no one's going to listen. Show them a world in which children are forced to kill each other while the rich watch on TV, and people are horrified.

[snowscythe]

Maybe I will. North Korea is a really curious and scary case.

When I went to Beijing 2 years ago, I met a friend of a friend who grew up there. I was talking to him about learning some words in Mandarin from Taiwanese friends in the US. His immediate reaction: "Oh, Taiwanese people don't speak Mandarin. They can't."

I tried to tell him, well, actually, I've heard them speak the same language as you're speaking now, I promise I'm not making it up, and he replied "You must have been mistaken. Taiwanese people just can't speak Mandarin. They probably were speaking some wrong weird language."

And after a few more questions, I learned that he had never met a Taiwanese person, but he had learned in school and such that they were crazy and rebellious and weird, nothing like Chinese people. It was creepy seeing his utter and complete belief in what he was taught.

I almost don't want to know what happens when a country does that on an even more insular and oppressive style.

[meaganspooner]

You make a really good point with "The Giver" (one of my all-time FAVORITE BOOKS). There are those complete innocents, like Jonah at the beginning, who think the world is perfect and know nothing beyond the surface. But then there are those like Jonah's dad, who perform horrific atrocities every day--and yet don't seem to realize that something's wrong.

To take your point one step further, of those people who know the world for what it is, there are those who perpetuate it knowingly, and those who go along because they know nothing else. President Snow, for example, as compared to Katniss's prep team.

[meaganspooner]

Ooh, what an interesting point. I do think in most dystopias, its citizens "buy in." But at the very least, the defining characteristic of citizens living in a dystopia is not necessarily that they buy in--but that they don't believe there's any other way of living. Nobody thinks they can change it. And then, in turn, the defining characteristic of the protagonist is that he or she, over the course of the book, decides to try. I think it can be argued that THG is all about Katniss deciding to change her world.

[immortalpadfoot]

One could qualify Don Quixote as a kind of dystopian story... Except the dystopian society was contemporary and the hero models how life should be on cheap Romance (whoa-oh-oh-oh-ooooooooh, caught in a cheap Romance...). Not to mention that the Don Quixote refused to simply accept what the people around him accepted as objective fact: this woman is a whore, that windmill is a windmill, etc. The real lesson of Don Quixote is that dystopia is in the eye of the beholder! 8D Although... that would place Sancho in the middle of the dystopian tension. And Dulcinea... Since they have knowledge of both the "objective" world and Don Quixote's world...

P.S. As far as I'm concerned all of Terry Gilliam's films are variation on Don Quixote, and he is no stranger to dystopian fantasy! The moral of the story: Caitlin likes the things she likes. 12 Monkeys: are you crazy or is everyone else? How do you know?

Sweeney Todd is a dystopian story! Charles Dickens... Kafka, 95% of Russian lit... I could go on and on. So I'll stop. OH!

[meaganspooner]

Only you would write about Lady Gaga and Don Quixote in the same paragraph.

This is a reaaally good point. Not all dystopian fiction has to be set in the future. I love the idea of Don Quixote as the dystopian protagonist, wow.

Yeah. Caitlin likes the things she likes. Truer words, etc.