As you watch the leaves of summer’s past dance and spin and twirl from the sky, here are a few dystopia reads to accompany your autumn’s day.
Now one may ask, why dystopia fiction? Well, as we say our farewells to Halloween and welcome in the holidays, diving into a dystopia world may give us that one extra thing to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.
The Buried Giant
Clothed in darkness, their only company the unpleasant cold, and the only words they ever hear: “NO FIRE”; this is the life of Axl and Beatrice in Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel, The Buried Giant. The novel takes place around the Renaissance era and is focused on the lives of Axl and Beatrice, an elderly couple living amongst a community of people who are supposed to be loving, caring, and embracing of all walks of life within their area, qualities they are far from. The hypocritic nature of the community unearths the question of what it means to live within a world that continues to oppress, ignore, or mistreat those who have the most wisdom, experience, and knowledge to provide- the elderly. What is more, this wonky and ill lead community is not the only aspect of the novel that raises questions. The characters themselves are raising questions in hopes of understanding who they are and or what happened to them. Mysteriously, everyone within the setting of the novel is losing their memory, most notably, Axl and Beatrice. And the strange thing is, no one knows why. So, Axl and Beatrice set out on a quest to not only find and reunite with their son but to also regain their knowledge of who they once were and what their love once encompassed. This novel is full of events that build upon each other and create complex and intricate layers in the novel that ask questions pertaining to truth, memory, and ultimately, what it means to be alive and to what power does memory give to our lives? The Buried Giant is a newer dystopia novel that will send you down and into a dark rabbit hole, and as you descend, your mind spiraling into an abyss, it will make you question truth…just wait till you reach the bottom.
Brave New World
Imagine being born into a system where every sense of your autonomy and identity is stripped away from you, and you only know how to be productive for the sake of the great world order. Welcome to Brave New World and welcome to the World State. Written by Aldous Huxley, this novel focuses on a society that genetically engineers and births their citizens to ensure high production. These citizens are essentially placed into “caste” systems that inform them of their place within society, who they may socialize with, and their job; Huxley has given us a society where the big dogs eat at the top and the little dogs remain at the bottom, content with the scraps they are blessed to have. And, no one asks questions…maybe apart from Bernard Max and John, the savage. As one ventures throughout the novel, they will see that life in the World State is much darker and oppressing than one could have ever imagined. This novel pushes the question of identity, conformity, capitalism, and ultimately, what it means to be human, especially when one is deemed a savage. So, push your boundaries and take a dive into this read; just make sure you’re being productive because if you accidently slip into the World State, those considered unproductive are discarded…that goes for technology and people.
1984
Big Brother is always watching. Don’t try to run, don’t try to hide, and whatever you do, never seek the truth. This is 1984. Written after Brave New World, 1984 by George Orwell is another dystopia novel except, unlike BNW, the citizens in 1984 are bred differently. Citizens in 1984 are under the control of Big Brother, a totalitarian governmental system that uses the panopticon, or an all-seeing eye to instill fear and thereby order into the lives of its citizens. Frozen by fear, citizens within the novel become complacent and never seek to question authority, all except for Winston. Winston, who works for the ministry of truth (that is the ministry that controls the narrative of history and flow of truth), is what we may call- a rebel. Winston’s efforts throughout the novel are directed towards liberation from Big Brother and to discover “truth”. His suspicions of his environments, people, and the government all fuel his need for answers. Winston understands that there is truth beyond the façade that has been constructed and fortified for not just him, but also the rest of society. This dystopia classic is highlighting how truth is often disguised or misconstrued in order to oppress a particular group of people and maintain power. But, be careful, because whenever truth is sought after, finding it just might bite.