DYSTOPIA

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DYSTOPIA

• Prepare to take notes, please.

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Lets start with Utopia

• Utopia - is an ideal community or society
  possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system.
  
• The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas
  More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a
  fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean.

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Utopia (continued)

• The term has been used to describe both
  intentional communities that attempt to create an
  ideal society, and fictional societies portrayed
  in literature. It has spawned other concepts,
  most prominently dystopia.

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Utopia (continued)

• Utopia
• noun 1. an imaginary island described in Sir
  Thomas More's Utopia  (1516) as enjoying
  perfection in law, politics, etc.
• 2. ( usually lowercase ) an ideal place or state.
  
• 3. ( usually lowercase ) any visionary system of
  political or social perfection.

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dystopia

• A dystopia is a fictional society, usually
  portrayed as existing in a future time, when the
  conditions of life are extremely bad due to
  deprivation, oppression, or terror.
• Science fiction, particularly post-apocalyptic
  science fiction and cyberpunk, often feature
  dystopias.

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Post-apocalyptic

• apocalyptic
• "pertaining to the 'Revelation of St. John' in
  the New Testament,"
• Meaning "pertaining to the imminent end of the
  world"
• of or like an apocalypse  affording a revelation
  or prophecy.
• 2. pertaining to the Apocalypse  or biblical book
  of Revelation.
• 3. predicting or presaging imminent disaster and
  total or universal destruction the apocalyptic
  vision of some contemporary writers.

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dystopia

• Social critics also use the term "dystopian" to
  condemn trends in society they see as negative.
• In most dystopian fiction, a corrupt government
  creates or sustains the poor quality of life,
  often conditioning the masses to believe the
  society is proper and just, even perfect.

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dystopia

• Most dystopian fiction takes place in the future
  but often purposely incorporates contemporary
  social trends taken to extremes.
• Dystopias are frequently written as warnings, or
  as satires, showing current trends extrapolated
  to a nightmarish conclusion.

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Traits of dystopian societies

• a hierarchical society where divisions between
  the upper, middle and lower class are definitive
  and unbending (Caste system)
• 2. a nation-state ruled by an upper class with
  few democratic ideals
• 3. 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

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Traits (continued)

• 4. strict conformity among citizens and the
  general assumption that dissent and individuality
  are bad
• 5. a fictional state figurehead that people
  worship fanatically through a vast personality
  cult, such as 1984s Big Brother
• 6. a fear or disgust of the world outside the
  state
• 7. a common view of traditional life,
  particularly organized religion, as primitive and
  nonsensical

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Traits (continued)

• 8. a penal system that lacks due process laws and
  often employs psychological or physical torture
• 9. constant surveillance by state police agencies
• 10. the banishment of the natural world from
  daily life

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Traits (continued)

• 11. a back story of a natural disaster, war,
  revolution, uprising, spike in overpopulation or
  some other climactic event which resulted in
  dramatic changes to society
• 12. low standard of living among the lower and
  middle class that is generally poorer than in
  contemporary society
• 13. a protagonist who questions the society,
  often feeling intrinsically that something is
  terribly wrong

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Dystopia

• Because dystopian literature takes place in the
  future, it often features technology more
  advanced than that of contemporary society.
• Authors can use a dystopia effectively to
  highlight their own concerns about societal
  trends.

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• To have an effect on the reader, dystopian
  fiction typically has one other trait
  familiarity.
• It is not enough to show people living in a
  society that seems unpleasant. The society must
  have echoes of today, of the reader's own
  experience. If the reader can identify the
  patterns or trends that would lead to the
  dystopia, it becomes a more involving and
  effective experience.

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Utopia vs. dystopia