Dystopia

A dystopia or anti-utopia is a fictitious society itself undesirable. The term, from the Greek, was created as a direct antonym of utopia, a term that In turn, it was coined by Saint Thomas More and appears as the title of his best-known work, published in 1516, where he describes a model for an ideal society with minimum levels of crime, violence, and poverty.

Dystopias are often characterized by dehumanization, tyrannical governments, post-war major conflicts (such as nuclear war), environmental disasters, or other features associated with a cataclysmic decline in society. Dystopian societies appear in many works of fiction and artistic representations, particularly stories set in the future. Some of the most famous examples are George Orwell's 1984, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. Dystopian societies appear in many subgenres of fiction and are often used to draw attention to society, the environment, politics and the economy, religion, psychology, ethics, science, or technology. Some authors use the term to refer to existing societies, many of which are or have been totalitarian states or societies in an advanced state of collapse.

Some scholars, such as Gregory Claeys and Lyman Tower Sargent, make certain distinctions between typical synonyms of dystopias. For example, Claeys and Sargent define literary dystopias as societies imagined to be substantially worse than the society in which the author writes, while anti-utopias function as critiques of attempts to implement various concepts of utopia. In their Dystopia: A Natural History (Oxford University Press, 2017), Claeys offers a more nuanced and historical approach to these definitions. Here the tradition goes back to the first reactions to the French Revolution. Its commonly anti-collectivist character is highlighted and the addition of other topics is also traced (the dangers of science and technology, social inequality, corporate dictatorship or nuclear war).

Etymology

In Spanish, the term comes from the modern Latin dystopiase and this from the ancient Greek δυσ- dys- 'dis-', meaning prefix negative, and utopia 'utopia'.

The term utopia was coined by Thomas More to describe an ideal society, and therefore non-existent: the term comes from the Greek in Greek, οὐ ("no") and τόπος ("place"), literally meaning "no-place&# 3. 4; or, as Quevedo glossed; "there is no such place". A related concept is eutopia, from the Greek ευ- (eu) "prefix indicating something good or favorable" and τόπος, meaning & 'good place', an imaginary, non-existent place where an idealized society lives.

Dystopia or cacotopia are antonyms of eutopia, meaning a «negative utopia», where reality takes place in antithetical terms to those of an ideal society, representing an undesirable hypothetical society.

History

The dystopia of The garden of delights by the painter El Bosco.

The first use of the term "dystopia" that exists documented to John Stuart Mill, in a speech of a parliamentary intervention in 1868. Although the term dystopia was relegated from the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy, it was added by one of its academics who describes dystopia as:

"(...) imaginary representation of a future society with negative features that are the cause of moral alienation."

José María Merino.

By consensus, we have the works: A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, 1984 by George Orwell and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury as the founding trilogy of the dystopian genre. Although there were works classified as dystopian before, it could be clearly deduced that the beginning of this literary genre began with the work We by the Russian writer Zamyatin (1924) whose This book could have strongly inspired the three famous writers mentioned above. There are those who point to Eugenia by Eduardo Urzaiz Rodríguez, as a precursor of dystopian novels; although the short novel The Machine Stops, by E.M. Forster, is earlier, published in 1909, and is obviously a proper dystopia, focused on a future society highly dependent on technology, to the point of dehumanizing people and moving them away from their social condition. However, it is probably the novel Lord of the World (Lord of the World, 1907) by Robert Hugh Benson that can be considered the first among the full modern dystopias, also influencing clearly both in 1984 and in Brave New World.

The film Metropolis based on a 1926 novel of the same name by Thea von Harbou can also be noted as an embryonic and cinematic work of the dystopian genre.

The separation of the terms utopia and dystopia occurs between the 18th and 20th centuries, with one of the elements that characterizes dystopia: the attack on the defects of society. In 1726, Jonathan Swift wrote a novel in a utopian mixture of satire and parody of society called Gulliver's Travels, using narrative resources from the travel novel. In 1741, Ludvig Holberg in his < i>Journey to the Underworld would introduce a traveler to the center of the earth, with a planet with a hollow center, which would be used later by multiple writers.

Theme and use

Big Brother watches you, 1984.

To portray the ills of a fictional society, dystopias are characterized by:

1. To possess a real nature: since they have a real foundation to reflect their plot;
2. Poseer unreal nature: utopian to describe illusory and imagined social and/or political states.

Most dystopias describe societies that are the consequence of current social trends and that lead to totally undesirable situations. They emerge as warning plays, or as satires, showing current trends extrapolated into apocalyptic endings.

Dystopias are closely related to the time and socio-political context in which they are conceived. For example, some dystopias from the first half of the 20th century or in the middle of the century warned of the dangers of state socialism, generalized mediocrity, social control, the evolution of liberal democracies towards totalitarian societies, consumerism and isolation.. Examples of this are: We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, Lord of the World by Robert Hugh Benson, 1984 by George Orwell, Merchants of Space by Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury).

Other more recent works of science fiction set in the near future and labeled as cyberpunk, which use a dystopian setting in which the world is coercively dominated by large capitalist transnationals with high degrees of technological sophistication and repressive character. An example of this type of novel is Snow Crash (1992) by Neal Stephenson, Betrayal (2005) by American author Scott Westerfeld or The Mechanical Girl (2009) by the writer Paolo Bacigalupi. Within Spanish fiction, The City of the Great King by Oscar Esquivias has a retro-futuristic and dystopian atmosphere.

Other dystopias are presented as utopias in their superficial vision, but as the characters delve into it, they discover that the apparent utopian world keeps hidden characteristics of dystopias that are essential for its operation. These dystopias are usually designed to warn about the risks of media or political manipulation.

Politics

Political dystopias like George Orwell's 1984, published in 1949, deal with the dangers of totalitarianism, this one in particular put its emphasis on Stalin's regime, narrating about a single Big Brother who all sees it, but although it was not published with the intention of being classified as science fiction, it ended up being a classic of the genre. In this subdivision one can also add We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, published in 1921, a novel that clearly criticizes the Soviet regime and it is believed that it may also refer to Mussolini's fascism.

Contrary to this is Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed, published in 1974, which depicts an anarchist world called Anarres as opposed to the capitalist world of Urras. as stated in various fields, dystopia is not a political prediction, but a satire of the present.

Social control can be seen in Philip K. Dick's The Faith of Our Fathers, a short story published in 1967, describing hallucinogenic drugs diluted in water to sustain citizens. under alien rule.

The knowledge of individuals in dystopias can be through espionage or through such rigorous control that the State controls it through the system. The spies are predominant in 1984, with telescreens that broadcast the communiqués and also transmit even the smallest details of the homes. In Us, on the other hand, buildings are transparent, numbers become a social rule and canon of beauty, asymmetrical things will be ugly and dreams will be considered a disease. Thus, citizens are given a schedule to comply with, including to have sexual relations.

Technological or scientific

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, published in 1932, describes a world of caste based on genetics and discusses eugenics in depth. Thus he deals with issues such as the manipulation of embryos to create a conformist society.

La pianola by Kurt Vonnegut, published in 1952, recounts the automation of society, where engineers have been elevated to the highest level of society, and men have been left behind by machines.

Steins;Gate by 5pb., Manga based on a video game that tells the story of a group of friends who manage to create a machine capable of sending messages to the past, who end up being chased by a organization (CERN-based SERN) that intends to seize the Time Machine. It isn't long before they learn that the future is ruled by SERN, who rules a dystopia in which humans are enslaved.

The British television series Black Mirror warns of the unwanted effects that technology may have on human life in the near future based on the way users interact with current technological devices. The dystopian genre is clearly reflected in each of its chapters, which are not related to each other.

Humorous or satirical

Merchants from Space (1953) and its sequel, The War of the Merchants, by Frederik Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth describe an absurd world dominated by corporations and their advertising. Or Limbo by Bernard Wolfe, published in 1952 as a reflection of the Cold War.

Gender

There are also feminist or liberating dystopias, such as The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, published in 1985, dealing with a society under a theocratic and conservative regime, with women having as their only value her ovaries and being relegated to the background. Or Mother Tongue and The Rose of Judas by Suzette Haden Elgin with linguistics playing a very important role. Even earlier than these is Swastika Night by Katharine Burdekin, published in 1937 under the pseudonym Murray Constantine, with a prevailing fascism where Hitler is revered as a god, the Jews have been eradicated and the Japanese are the only remaining power. But above all a cult of masculinity and female marginalization prevails, it has been one of the "pioneering books in feminist criticism".

Ecological

Ecological catastrophes can be presented as part of the plot or as a central element, and is one of the most used subdivisions of dystopias. It is found as a central element in titles such as Greener Than You Think by Ward Moore, or The Death of the Grass by John Christopher.

In John Brunner's All About Zanzibar, published in 1968, he confronts pollution and overpopulation is such that people pay for alone time. A few years earlier, Harry Harrison's Make Room! Make Room!, published in 1966, recounted themes of overpopulation, famine, and depicted humanity recycling human corpses for food.

J. G. Ballard would create a trilogy of books with The Submerged World (1962), The Drought (1964) and The Crystal World (1966) addressing catastrophes resulting from technological abuse and environmental ignorance, dealing with issues such as the hole in the ozone layer, water pollution, the annihilation of plants and animals.

Space or involving outer civilizations

There is a new dystopian genre based on the struggle between civilizations. Author Cixin Liu has popularized a trilogy beginning with The Three-Body Problem, followed by The Dark Forest and The End of Death. The main plot is the struggle of a dystopian humanity from the sixties of the 20th century until beyond the 23rd century.

This dark and depressed society is very reminiscent of technological or scientific dystopias, although the additional component of extraterrestrial civilizations and space travel further expands the pessimistic vision of the human being and takes it to new dimensions at psychological levels and social.

Classifications of dystopian literature and cinema

We can classify the literature and cinema that take place in dystopian societies according to the role that society plays in itself:

• Pure: They are based on complex social, legal, economic, cultural or political systems against which the protagonist fights. Examples of this type would be WeYevgueni Zamiatin, 1984 of George Orwell, A happy world Aldous Huxley or V de Vendetta Alan Moore and David Lloyd.
• Indirect: The dystopic society is a backdrop where history develops. The plot described is not part of the protagonist's confrontation with the system. For example, in the film Blade Runner, led by Ridley Scott, is a personal conflict of identity. In Test on the blindness José Saramago's novel, later taken to the cinema, reflects the mezquinty, selfishness and cruelty of people. In this guy, all the postapocalyptic plots would be.

Nayibe Peña Frade classifies the dystopian literature and cinema that describes mass societies based on the type of political domination to which they are subjected:

• Polar societies: Formed by an elite owner of the means of production and a large mass of dispossessed who only have the labour force. Examples of this type would be Neuromante by William Gibson, Market laws Richard Morgan or Space goods by Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth.
• Religious societies: Power is exercised by a charismatic leader who is a supplier and absolute dominator of society. For example We of Yevgueni Zamiatin and Lovers by Philip José Farmer. You can also include the video game BioShock InfiniteKen Levine.
• Societies apparently dominated by science: They guarantee stability by eliminating the conflict by offering absolute well-being, already thanks to the psychic manipulation of its inhabitants. Examples: A happy world Aldous Huxley, The fugitive and The long march Stephen King and the Trilogy Matrix of the Wachowski sisters. There are also Ken Levine's "BioShock" video games.