Future Survivors, the Apocalypse Group discussion

I see dystopian as an alternative reality possibly political or some other major change to society so an oppressive political system would do it for me. I prefer mine to be grounded in reality (hence the sci bit with the fiction) rather than some flights of fantasy, but each to their own.

I've always thought of dystopia as being more about the themes that are being dealt with. I reckon that it would be possible to write a dystopian novel set in the present, without substantial changes to our world.

Emilie wrote: "I've always thought of dystopia as being more about the themes that are being dealt with. I reckon that it would be possible to write a dystopian novel set in the present, without substantial chang..."

Yes I think that's possible, but would you have a catastrophe to trigger it or would the changes be more subtle?

the dystopian genre was created in the wake of the crash of the utopistic systems that were basically castles in the sky built at the end of the 19th century where the government was to be a perfect machine for a perfect problem free society. The first world war, genocide of Armenians, economic collapse, creation of the Soviet Union, rise of fascism in Italy and National Socialism in Germany, the Second World War - all these events undermined the notions of perfect states and brought forward that other "perfect" systems which are in fact perfect in what they do with the only problem being the fact that what they do is horrible. And thus the Dystopia was born! Thus, the work can be considered dystopian when it takes the individual and places them in a situation where individualism is suppressed and someone of something else is determining the course of action for the society as a whole. The society itself will usually include omnipotent secret police and security services, diminishing of the rights to privacy and private property as well as a general collectivism that does not obstruct the creation of a wealthy, bloated elite and the suppressed and voiceless worker class.

This is a good discussion. I am new to this forum and much of what was discussed seemed to be about zombies.... I like a good zombie as much as other readers of this forum, but I also like to see dystopian novels based on possible projections of today's trends. This makes for both entertaining and thoughtful stories that are grounded in today and help us consider 'What if?'. My first dystopian novel is based in a decaying west ravaged by the increasing power of global companies combined with smart technologies.

A dystopia is a utopia gone wrong. What is supposed to be an ideal society constructed to rid the world of its problems creates problems of its own, usually in the form of suppression of the individual.

I agree with Mirkat's explanation that a dystopia is a utopia gone wrong.
However, sometimes it is difficult to distinguish one from the other.
One person's utopia may be another person's hell.

Jim wrote: "One person's utopia may be another person's hell."

Oh, this is quite true. Much of the tension from dystopias, I think comes from this issue.