Dystopia: Why Are People So Passionate About Dystopian Literature?

Definition of Dystopia

According to About.com,

“A dystopia is society that is broken down, unpleasant, or in an oppressed or terrorized state. Unlike a utopia, a perfect world, dystopias are grim, dark, and hopeless. They reveal society’s greatest fears. Totalitarian governments rule and the needs and wants of individuals become subordinate to the state. In most dystopian novels, a tyrannical government is trying to suppress and control its citizens by taking away their individuality…. Dystopian governments also ban activities that encourage individual thinking.”

Utopia vs. Dystopia

 Giver Quartet (4 Book Series)

A utopia is an ideal place.

“An imaginary island described in Sir Thomas More's Utopia (1516) as enjoying perfection in law, politics, and so on.”

The word dystopia is a combination of the prefix dys, which means faulty and bad, with utopia.

 Dystopian Literature

George Orwell’s 1984 was the first dystopian literature that I read. At the time, I didn’t know there was a name for that genre of literature. I know that the book made me angry, and I was upset that the people who lived in the society didn’t fight hard enough to win their freedoms. But what do I know really?

Recently, I have been reading more dystopian novels. In the Young Adult grouping, I have enjoyed The Hunger Games trilogy (The Hunger Games (Review), Catching Fire and Mockingjay (Review)), Divergent trilogy (Divergent and Insurgent (Review) so far), Dustlands trilogy (Blood Red Road (Review) and Rebel Heart (Review) so far), A Wrinkle in Time, the first of the quintet, and the Giver quartet (The Giver, Gathering Blue, Messenger and Son).

And for adults, I have enjoyed Anthem (Review) by Ayn Rand and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (Review).

All these books are set in a future time, which is disturbing for people who are living today because the government controls people’s lives. People are told when to go to bed and when to arise. In some of the literature, people have no choice in what they eat. You are not able to choose your own romantic partners, and you procreate at a time specified by the government.

In The Giver, the people are given pills to suppress feelings and emotions, and people are selected for the purpose of having babies.

When reading dystopian literature, readers find themselves asking the three questions:

1. What does it mean to be human?
2. What does it mean to be free?
3. What does love mean and what does it mean to love?

Can you be fully human if you have no control over your life – there is no free will? Many died on our behalf so that we might have liberty, what would we be willing to do to keep our freedom? Have you ever been in love, and what lengths would you go to, to be able to love whomever you choose? These are very difficult questions that are worth thinking about. People fight harder to prevent losing something they already have, than they would do to acquire something new. What does this say to us?

What I like about the dystopian literature that I have read over the past four years, is that you have strong heroes and heroines who fight for what they believe it, and the novels often end well – not always – which gives us hope. The other important aspect of these dystopian novels is that the heroes and heroines embark on the heroes’ journey on our behalf. The dystopian novels are mythical, and set in a future time, but can the scenes they paint become a reality in our time? What can we do to prevent that from happening?

Utopian Society vs Dystopian Society

 By Madeleine L'Engle Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quartet Box Set (A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting P [Paperback]

Neither a utopian society nor a dystopian society works. We have to try and work with what we have. Sameness is boring and stifles creativity, what are your thoughts?

1. The Hunger Games Trilogy Boxed Set
2. Divergent, Insurgent (Divergent Series Box Set)
3. Blood Red Road (Dustlands, Book 1), Rebel Heart (Dust lands)
4. The Worlds of Lois Lowry 3-Copy Boxed Set (The Giver, Messenger, Gathering Blue), Son
5. The Wrinkle in Time Quintet Boxed Set (A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, An Acceptable Time)
6. Anthem
7. Fahrenheit 451: A Novel

 Hunger Games Trilogy (3 Book Series) The Dust Lands Trilogy: Blood Red Road; Rebel Heart; Raging Star Fahrenheit 451 Anthem Divergent Series Four-Book Paperback Box Set: Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant, Four