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Decade Dissonance: Difference between revisions
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Every country is different thanks to culture and geography, and no two cities in any one country are alike either. However some worlds can take this to extremes, making two side by side cities as different as night and day. The differences can be purely cosmetic or go all the way to lifestyle, architecture, and even technology. You can have a [[Utopia]] city made of [[Crystal Spires and Togas]] sitting smack dab next to a ghetto...sorry, "quaint hamlet" that [[Medieval Stasis|never left]] [[The Middle Ages]].
The reason, if any is given, is that there's no technology trade between the countries, so any discoveries a country makes (from Agriculture to Zoology) never leave it. Other times it's a question of societal values, where the "savage" village has chosen not to develop technology in favor of peaceful agrarian lives; however you can expect them to have copious and advanced magic if it's a [[Magic Versus Science]] setting. It's almost never purely stylistic, like [[Batman|Gotham City]] and [[Superman|Metropolis]]. Both exist in the same year and country, but one is firmly entrenched in 1920's Gothic and Noir style, while the other is an Art Deco optimistic future.
More plausible is [[Used Future]], where one area is able to maintain a relative level of sophistication [[After the End|After]] or [[Just Before the End]] where others are reduced to tent villages. In these cases, advanced technology is ''known of'' by most, but becomes uncommon away from the advanced areas.
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* ''[[Oryx and Crake]]'' (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]]. Neighborhoods of opulent wealth are right next those of absolute squalor.
* In [[The Pendragon Adventures]], the Milago and Bedoowan live within spitting distance of each other: the Milago live in small huts and shit in holes in the ground, while the Bedoowan castle has running water and uses naturally glowing stones to provide artificial light.
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== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise|Star Trek Enterprise]]'' is a bit of a confused setting in this regard. The producers made a mighty effort to make the art, style, technology and costuming designs evoke a "Pre-[[Zeerust]]" feel much like that of ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|The Original Series]]'' while being "modern" and [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]] enough for contemporary audiences (while not breaking the Pre-Zeerust feel). Whether this tightrope act succeeds or not depends mostly on the viewers' tastes.
* ''[[Buck Rogers in The 25th Century|Buck Rogers]]'' is also a bit confused. In the pilot, New Chicago and other major cities were protected by domes, and a [[Mad Max]] atmosphere reigned outside them. That seems to have been dropped later in the series.
== Tabletop Games ==
* The ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' fantasy setting has this big time with Bretonnia (read Medieval France in a fantasy setting) and [[The Empire]] (the Holy Roman Empire in a fantasy setting). Bretonnia is typical Medieval fantasy fodder with a feudal system, knights, archers, etc... The Empire, on the other hand, has Renaissance era level technology that borders on the early Industrial Revolution era level with elements of [[Steampunk]] thrown in for good measure; including things like steam-powered tanks, primitive machine guns, ironclad warships, flamethrowers, and a few other things as well. This can make for some interesting battles in the series.
** Of course, Bretonnia is [[Justified Trope|justified...]]
*** And not much justification is needed at that. Poland was still using what amounted to knights and irregular horse archers (admittedly supported by more modern contingents) by the mid 17th century. See the battle of Warsaw for a good example.
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* Subverted in ''[[Guild Wars]]'' in that the African Elona and Nordic Norns is actually just AS advanced as the south American-seeming Krytans and European Ascalonians. Same with the Asian Cantha, and some even have their own technologies similar to others.
** In the case of Elona, the designers specifically tried to imagine what the old north African empires would look like had they existed for another few hundred years, and had magic. The results were [http://www.guildwars.com/products/nightfall/gallery/wallpaper/gw-wp083.php fairly badass].
* Arguably the Mushroom Kingdom in the '[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' series. You've got towns and villages like Toad Town set firmly in the middle ages equivalent, then shiny futuristic cities like Mushroom City, Twilight City and various cities from the Wario series games with modern technology equivalents.
* Also, ''[[Wario Land]] The Shake Dimension'' arguably does this. You've got the basic settlements shown in the first world and the intro cut scene that the Merfles lived in, then right in the middle of the wild west themed area, you've got Glittertown/Neon City which is basically some Las Vegas equivalent complete with modern technology, electricity and slot machines.
* Played extremely straight in ''[[The Spirit Engine]]''. On one end of the country, you have Homestead, a very rural area stuck in [[Medieval Stasis]]. On the other end, you have Silthea, which has ''tanks, high-tech copters, sentient [[A Is]], military-grade robots and a hundred levels tall skyscraper''. Semi-justified in that the Frontier Corporation, which is responsible for pretty much 100% of technological progress, is seated in Silthea, employs all known scientists and doesn't care one whit for anywhere else. And that it's run by {{spoiler|a scientist who used to live in our world but was dimension-shifted due to an accident with a particle accelerator}}.
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== Real Life ==
* This is very much present in [[Real Life]]. In many developing countries, farming is still done with bulls, and muscle-powered rickshaws are still very much in use. Millions still die from diseases whose vaccines were invented a decades ago; there are millions in the corners of Africa and Asia who are still not connected with the electrical grid; there are tribes in dank jungles of the Amazon, Indonesia and Andaman Islands who still live as hunter gatherers.
** Interestingly, however, cell phones are literally ''everywhere''; portable technologies have lesser infrastructure requirements, leading to cases of farmers riding donkeys to the rice paddy while chatting on their cell phones. Phones and mobile internet are also used for bill payment and tracking crops in developing nations.
** One group of Andaman natives, the Sentinelese, actively ''refuse'' any contact with the outside world, even resorting to violence sometimes. Nowadays Indian authorities just leave them alone and look around so that everyone else does the same.
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[[Category:Truth in Television]]
[[Category:Decade Dissonance]]
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
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