**Photo courtesy of @sacka her pictures are beautiful and haunting. Make sure to check her out! **
It was a question that was posted in one of my writing groups. A lot of people felt that the answer was because it's such a different look at a world then the one we live in.
Some of them thought it was a warning for us as dystopians are always set years away from our current time and they likened it to a wake up call of what could happen.
I disagree with them. Dystopians in literature isn't really some far off place or warning to us. We are a dystopian. We are not a great peace loving unified people. We are a post apocalyptic society simply to a lesser degree. But to me it's clear that we read dystopian literature not because of how different it is to us, but because of how similar it is for us.
Think about it. When you are looking for a new book to read, you tell people the type of books you like for them to give you suggestions. We, as a people, crave familiarity. The unknown is something that horror movies and sci-fi thrillers have used for decades to scare us away from the normality of our lives, if only for a few hours.
So why do people think dystopian societies are so far fetched from what we already have. Look at the world around you. Do you really see it as a good place. Now I'm not saying there isn't good in the world. That there isn't beauty and justice. We have that. But we also have an imbalance of power. A society on the brink of destruction....
It's pretty simple. We, the younger generations, no longer look at flying cars and world peace as our possible future. We are the future. And it's as far from harmony as you could be. We are a dystopian novel like the ones we love to read. Maybe now a days we are so attracted to them because they are us. And all we're trying to do is figure out how to stop it, how to turn it back into the future that everyone said we deserved. The one we were promised.
** I'd really like to hear everyone's thoughts on this. Feel free to comment. **
Couldn't agree more with ur sayings. Our world is hell of a dystopia. Though I feel like we are living in times were things are gonna change drasticly (hopefully for the good) ^.^
I'm hopeful of that too! But I'm also a realist...so I'm really afraid if wound be. :/
Its interesting to think about the state of society and if we are better off or worse off now than in the past. Maybe we just hear more about troubles in more places due to technology and 24 hour news channels and social media.
Maybe we're adrenaline junkies who actually get a buzz from the fear of society, much like we love our rides at the amusement park and action or horror movies. Maybe we're all being manipulated into being afraid so we are constantly monitoring the news and feeds to see what might be happening next. Maybe that causes inequality because we're dividing up into us vs them and if they are our enemies, we consider them unequal to us, usually inferior.
I really don't know. I'm just throwing out random thoughts inspired by your thought provoking article. Thanks for putting it out there!
Oh I like where you're going! And I do agree, it doesn't help how plugged in we are when it comes to certain things. My friends used to really question me when I said I don't watch the news because I can't handle how depressing it is, but this year a lot of them have told me I was right, they can't watch it either any more.
I just feel like we could be so much more, but instead of going left we went right and instead of a Disney fairytale we got a Stephen King horror novel.
Thank you so much for commenting! I loved what you wrote. ❤️❤️❤️