Dystopia Sounds Quite Nice

[goldenapples]

Just how politicised* has sci-fi become? If focus groups have to like my dystopian vision before I can get it published, then it's not dystopia by definition.

*By 'politicised' I don't mean left-wing, right-wing party politics, I mean gaining mass approval using skill.

 

[HareBrain]

What gave you the idea that focus-groups have to like your dystopia? Surely they don't have to find your dystopia appealing, they just have to find your story gripping, your characters engaging and your ideas interesting. The worse the dystopia, the more likely readers are to root for a characters who's agin it.

 

[goldenapples]

Good point, but it does seem that many settings claiming to be something else are really just modern day US, especially New York, ie something recognisable. I feel there's no point imagining genuinely dystopian settings that are just too unrecognisable. Just go for New York in all cases.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Or London.

No, I am kidding. You need to look further afield in your reading. It is possible that you (and your focus group) may be confusing the dark urban stuff with dystopian.

Readers don't need to like a dystopia (in fact, they shouldn't, or it wouldn't be much of a dystopia), but they should find the place interesting and a place they really want to explore — from a safe distance, of course. If people say they don't like it, they may mean that the setting doesn't pull them in and make them want to know more, or ... well, they may mean a lot of things. What readers say and what they mean can be two different things. They've found a problem, but it is your job to identify it.

 

[Toby Frost]

Well, a lot of dystopias are intended as satire (most true dystopias) so they will inevitably resemble the things they parody. Oceania in 1984 is a mixture of stalinist and nazi ideas (and is just as applicable to the right as the left, which often gets forgotten). Similarly America in Farenheit 451 is an exaggerated version of empty-headed capitalism.

As Teresa says, I wonder if you're thinking more of grim, gritty urban drama? Most cyberpunk is in some way dystopian, as in grim, but isn't political in the direct, satirical way of 1984 or Brave New World. It's not a very precise term, but there are dystopias that have some sort of satirical purpose, and then there are just stories set in bleak settings.

 

[Sapheron]

"'Dystopia': An imaginary place or state in which the condition of life is extremely bad, as from deprivation, oppression, or terror."

Quite a broad meaning, if you ask me. By that, you could argue most of modern day Earth was a dystopia due to the deprivation of food, water, money, etc. The 'true dystopia' which is set in people's minds, my own included, is more about the latter two options, oppression and terror. 1984 would be the classic example. Yes, I suppose people aren't too well off physically either, but the dystopia is provided by the evil government and the constant fear of being spied upon. Have I a point in this little ramble? Not as of yet, so I shall change track. It has been a long day.

So, what do you mean by like? I like 1984 and its setting. As a setting. Like them as in would like to live there? No, thank you very much. Most definitely not. Even an environment like Mordor must appeal to an audience if you want them to like your book about it, and that's very different to them thinking it's a nice place because, as you yourself pointed out, that wouldn't then be a dystopia.

 

[goldenapples]

Thanks for the replies. My ambivalence towards so-called dystopia was brought into focus when I read a Nebula award winner which just turned out be another story about 9/11.

However, I do feel there's a lot to be gained by not being labelled if you can keep getting your writing out there.

 

[IainRichmond]

"'Dystopia': An imaginary place or state in which the condition of life is extremely bad, as from deprivation, oppression, or terror."

In my limited experience, if an author creates a world in which it touches on tangible feelings of the reader, you can go, do or create at will and have success or at least the opportunity of succeeding in drawing readers in.

Dystopia creates an uneasiness, fear or at least a level of loathing in readers that many of us find irresistible. Opposites attract, I guess?