What ever happened to those good old Dystopian Society books?

[Brigitte]

Call me old-fashioned, but I'm a big fan of Fahrenheit 451 and 1984. I got to thinking about them this past weekend after catching the movie "Equilibrium". After that movie, I thought to myself, "Hey, they sure don't come out with very many unique Dystopian Society stories like Fahrenheit 451 or 1984 anymore." It seems that the ones I've seen are built off of either one of those two, or both in some cases.

Is this true? Did Ray Bradbury and George Orwell really set the bar so high that no new masterpiece can be made?

 

[gully_foyle]

Not at all. Think Children of Men by P.D. James or The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Attwood. Admittedly minor classics rather than majors like 1984, Fahrenheit 451 and (don't forget) Brave New World.

 

[Curt Chiarelli]

Why bother reading about dystopian societies when we live in the midst of one?

Besides, our lickspittle government toadies and their corporate puppetmasters have deemed it in their best interest to systematically dismantle and otherwise enslave what remains of the middle class with usurious interest rates, mounting debt, longer working hours for lower pay/no health insurance, runaway inflation and a host of other tactics.

I think you'll find that many of our finest authors, artists and intellectuals are culled from middle class backgrounds. So goes the class, so goes our dark dreamers . . . .

 

[gully_foyle]

One wonders what Orwell would make of 2007. Certainly in the UK you're pretty much guaranteed to be filmed doing anything (or at least that's the sense I get from watching The Bill!).

 

[Winters_Sorrow]

I do think that we are missing some 'fresh blood' in this field.
The works already mentioned are such lauded works that they seem to spawn imitators than true successors as such. Although I haven't read much of his work, isn't China Melville supposed to be doing good work in this subgenre though?
Perhaps it's just not such a good seller in these times of war, terrorism and 'democratic' police states we have created.
We need another "Whoops, Apocalypse!" movie I think

 

[Vincent Tauscher]

I agree with Children of Men being a newer work in that area, though I cannot recall when it was published (I'm assuming well after 1984 and Fahrenheit 451).

 

[Connavar]

Hehe having borrowed Children of Men just today from the library have to get back to you about this

 

[dwndrgn]

Well some of the books by Octavia Butler could be put in this category but I suppose due to their age would not be considered as current. Hm. How about Jeff Noon's Vurt?

 

[j d worthington]

Dystopian futures were a staple of the 1940s through the 1970s at least, and some very good books came out of that (often blending dystopias with ecological disasters, but sometimes just depicting the societies). Here's the list Wiki has of dystopian novels:

Categoryystopian novels - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And I'd certainly say Kafka's work fits well into the category (especially things such as "In the Penal Colony"). The New Wave writers of the 1960s had this as one of their main concerns, and such as Thomas Disch, with Camp Concentration and 334; John Brunner's "dystopian trilogy", Stand on Zanzibar, The Jagged Orbit, and The Sheep Look Up; quite a bit of Robert Silverberg's writing of the period; not to mention a large amount of Harlan Ellison's work (short stories and novellas), would be among some of the stronger tales from that period. A Clockwork Orange is certainly a dystopian novel, for that matter. J. G. Ballard's work is full of the idea, handled in different ways, from Vermilion Sands to The Atrocity Exhibition to the trilogy formed by Crash, Concrete Island, and High Rise... and beyond (in fact, one could argue that this is one of Ballard's main points of focus throughout his work).

And then there are the Cyberpunks, with their own brand of dystopia....

EDIT: All right, now that (the link) is just perverse .....

 

[Allegra]

Hey J.D., I don't know you can laugh in the middle of a link. Will give a try next time.

Oh and thanks for the link. I don't know there are so many Dystopian books while only one Utopia - if you don't count Karl Marx.

 

[Connavar]

Dystopian futures were a staple of the 1940s through the 1970s at least, and some very good books came out of that (often blending dystopias with ecological disasters, but sometimes just depicting the societies). Here's the list Wiki has of dystopian novels:

Categoryystopian novels - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And I'd certainly say Kafka's work fits well into the category (especially things such as "In the Penal Colony"). The New Wave writers of the 1960s had this as one of their main concerns, and such as Thomas Disch, with Camp Concentration and 334; John Brunner's "dystopian trilogy", Stand on Zanzibar, The Jagged Orbit, and The Sheep Look Up; quite a bit of Robert Silverberg's writing of the period; not to mention a large amount of Harlan Ellison's work (short stories and novellas), would be among some of the stronger tales from that period. A Clockwork Orange is certainly a dystopian novel, for that matter. J. G. Ballard's work is full of the idea, handled in different ways, from Vermilion Sands to The Atrocity Exhibition to the trilogy formed by Crash, Concrete Island, and High Rise... and beyond (in fact, one could argue that this is one of Ballard's main points of focus throughout his work).

And then there are the Cyberpunks, with their own brand of dystopia....

EDIT: All right, now that (the link) is just perverse .....

Agree about cyberpunks several cyberpunks i have read have had dystopian Societies. The difference they dont focus on that part as a dystopian book wouldd.

 

[Daenerys]

It's not too dystopian, or maybe it is and I am just too calloused to notice, but Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro is something that I think fits and it's relatively new.

So is Divided Kingdom by Rupert Thomson.

Never let me go is pretty topical. But because of the narrating voice, that is sweet and not bitter, it doesnt feel dystopian until the last pages. And even then, it is simple human drama that draws your attention, not the horrors of the society they live in.

Divided kingdom is sometimes so silly, it makes you laugh. But as soon as you do, you feel chills down your spin, because no matter how silly the premise is, you know people use the same types of excuses and reasons for hating and separating groups in our world. It makes you wonder if it's so ingrained in human nature to think in terms of us and them. Maybe it is.

Anyway, both relatively new books. They wont make the same impact as say 1984 o brave new world, but they are worth reading.

 

[dustinzgirl]

I think the good old books started falling away when people began to realize that the majority of the elements in F 451 and 1984 were NOT, in fact, Science Fiction, and thus no longer psychologically SAFE.

 

[j d worthington]

Agree about cyberpunks several cyberpunks i have read have had dystopian Societies. The difference they dont focus on that part as a dystopian book wouldd.

I think I'd agree with that... it's more the milieu in which they're set, rather than the focus... however, I would say that (as with the settings of the old Gothics) because they form the background and are present throughout, they almost form a distinct character of their own in the dramatic action, often providing the underlying motivations and personalities of the characters.

Oh, and Dustie... I'd say that's why they're less popular, yes; but I'm very much of the opinion that, to use a familiar quote, "It is the business of the future to be dangerous"... which is also the business of vital art, in my opinion....

 

[Vincent Tauscher]

Arguably, the movie in 2001, A.I., could be considered dystopian. It was not as messed up as Fahrenheit 451 or 1984, but things were a little backwards. Can anyone else see my point?

 

[Curt Chiarelli]

Arguably, the movie in 2001, A.I., could be considered dystopian. It was not as messed up as Fahrenheit 451 or 1984, but things were a little backwards. Can anyone else see my point?

Certainly. And what am I basing my agreement upon? The emotionally vacuous nature of the characters and the sterile environments they inhabited which reflected (even amplified) this inner state. The world of 2001: A Space Odyssey was a technological paradise reduced to a banal, hermetically-sealed tomb of compacency because during the process of achieving mastery of his world man had lost his humanity.

 

[Dave]

I think the announcement of their death is premature. They are still alive and well. Just recently I have read:
Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins.

All are published after 2010.

JD's list is a good one, but I'm currently reading:
The Long Walk and The Running Man by Stephen King writing as Richard Bachman. They are a little old now, but still post-1970.

 

[Finnien]

Jack Womack's Random Acts of Senseless Violence, Ambient, and the books that follow are heavily corporate-dystopian. There also seems to be a movement of dystopian literature in the young adult category. I was thinking of Hunger Games, Wither, Inside Out... and came across a list devoted entirely to recent young adult dystopian novels - it seems it's a developing subgenre: http://prettybooks.tumblr.com/dystopian1

A little further searching shows this rather interesting analysis of the path of dystopian literature: http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/351-the-dystopian-timeline-to-the-hunger-games-infographic

I may look into this more later, when I'm not starving and horribly behind on schoolwork.

 

[dask]

Like Dystopian? You might find this worth checking out:

Not a great cover but super good book.

 

[Dave]

I also remember now that I read The Book of Dave by Will Self, and Blind Faith by Ben Elton last year. Neither of those were YA fiction. I know that this is an old thread that I revived, and maybe there was a golden age for them in the 1940's-1970's as JD proposed, but they certainly are not dead. Maybe this is the start of a new dark age?