Decade Dissonance: Difference between revisions

* ''[[Oryx and Crake]]'' (by [[Margaret Atwood]]) is set somewhere late in the 21st century, and shows present day trends of inequality taken to the extreme. The privileged few live in gated communities in comfortable settings, the majority live in the "Pleeb Lands" which are disadvantaged, violent (or at least perceived by the privileged as such), drug fueled and dependent on mass-produced technology that trickles down from the upper echelon.

* In ''[[Old Kingdom|The Old Kingdom]]'', people are using swords and riding horses while in neighboring Ancelstierre they're using guns and shooting bombs at things. This is because most technology fails in the presence of magic (this also means that the Perimeter Guards have guns ''and'' swords, because any magical creature that gets close enough will make their guns fail).

* Invoked deliberately in ''[[The Ear, the Eye and the Arm|The Ear the Eye And The Arm]]''. In the year 2194, Resthaven is an independent country within Zimbabwe that was designed to emulate tribal African culture. Outside of Resthaven people use [[Flying Car|hovercars]] and all sorts of futuristic technology, while inside they herd livestock on foot and don't use technology much more advanced than a saddle.

* In ''[[Time Scout]]''{{'}}s depiction of [[Victorian London]]., Neighborhoodsneighborhoods of opulent wealth are right next those of absolute squalor.

* ''[[Wheel of Time]]'': implied in in Towers of Midnight, in {{spoiler|Aviendha's vision: the descendants of the Aiel are reduced to little more than savages, while the Lightmakers, descendants of the Seanchan, have "high-tech" equipment (they are building a railway through the desert and have some kind of shotgun). Justified because the Seanchan could benefit from the technological improvements that were popping up in Rand's academies, while the Aiel were almost hunted to extinction.}}