Dystopia: Difference between revisions
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A dystopia is a social commentary literally in the background, as is a [[utopia]]n setting. The two settings share a problem in sometimes being a little too one-note. The author is thinking "capitalism sucks!", for instance, and everything wrong with the world turns out be clearly the fault of nasty [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]s and their nasty, greedy [[Mega Corp|megacorporations]]. Conversely, it could be "governments suck!" and the corporations are the last line of defense against the evil, totalitarian [[Obstructive Bureaucrat|bureaucrats]]. The author could believe that [[Love Hurts]], and thus there is [[No Sex Allowed]] and [[Emotions vs. Stoicism|feeling Emotions]] is a punishable offense. Whichever, it is just one note - often [[The War on Straw|a straw note]].
While the exact nature of dystopias vary in fiction, the typical Dystopia has the following features, A) a highly militarized police force to keep the citizenry in line, B) a strong restriction on the rights of speech and thougth to fit the agenda of the government, C) regular public shows of force ''from'' the government to enforce their image and quash any thoughts of rebellion before they begin, D) restriction of information given to the populace in an attempt to keep them ignorant, and E) insistence by the government that they are actually a utopia, or at least that they are better than any alternative.
The better dystopias seem to be about how a multitude of things have gone wrong, and now here we are, surviving with as much grace as possible. It is also a practice in literature to create a dystopia through the [[Deconstruction]] of an earlier creator's [[Utopia]], showing how horrible it is to live in one. Another use is to serve as a [[Big Bad]] for [[The Hero]] and his friends to revolt against; these are more likely to be toppled, or at least escaped from, than others.
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