And a few of my favourites
There’s something about the dystopian genre that really speaks to me, beyond the suffering and torturing of people, beyond the injustice and totalitarianism, it’s the imagination of the people that create these post-apocalyptic glances into the future, showing us just enough of what goes on inside their askew minds, that help forge some of the most chilling, and terrifying possible pathways man could take.
I have watched, and read many dystopian fabrications, layers upon layers of fragmented realities, each one more harrowing than the next, and during this time I’ve come to realise that it is the destruction of social order that I become completely enthralled in. We live in a world that seemingly protects our freedom, our rights to vote and speak our minds, yet there are rules all around us; to keep us protected, to keep things fair and just, or to immediately bind and gag us when we stray from them. Dystopian visions are not too far from our current future; they are probable, there is potential in each and every one of them to become a reality, and with every dystopia, it begins with a utopia — somebody’s ideas, and dreams for a new and better world that seem almost too idealistic, however these utopias have a counterpart; hence the dystopia. Distorted ideal visions for a perfect future often come with compromises to a particular group of people; children, the elderly, the poor, ethnic minorities, women and so on.
We as a world have experienced our own utopia/dystopia, when Hitler ruled over Germany, he had his own idea as to what a perfect world looked like, and in turn a group of people suffered the horrific consequences.
What I enjoy about this genre, is the defiant act of rule breaking. It seems that no matter which one I read or watch, there is always a character, usually the main one, that stands up against it all and says no. This sacrificial reaction to the injustice that is set upon them, becomes beyond moving; from a psychological perspective seeing how these two juxtapositions interact with one another is what I find the most fascinating, and often the characters aren’t just your basic good vs. evil, but instead offer much more complexity to them.
We are all living in very tense times and it only reinforces my belief in a potential dystopian world that could come sooner than we think.
Some would say that horrors, thrillers and all the gore that comes with them are scary, but true fear lies undetected in the stories that build, that have fragments of believability in them. Dystopias have the power to make you believe that it could, one day, be a possibility.
The Matrix
I have written a few pieces on this particular franchise before, but it was my first taste of a warped and unfathomable dystopia. One where our world no longer truly exists, but instead is created to keep us, the human race, as slaves to machines. Now many of you probably have seen and know the story very well by now, but it still encapsulates me even now. It is a love affair that will last my lifetime, I have spent years trying to decipher all of its hidden meanings, and philosophical one liners, but with our current obsession with technology, and as it develops through the years, it isn’t a future any of us can rule out.
The Handmaid’s Tale
No dystopian tale has crippled me quite like this one. I was extremely late to the game when it comes to ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, the novel was written back in 1985 by Margeret Atwood, and the T.My love affair with dystopias
And a few of my favourites
There’s something about the dystopian genre that really speaks to me, beyond the suffering and torturing of people, beyond the injustice and totalitarianism, it’s the imagination of the people that create these post-apocalyptic glances into the future, showing us just enough of what goes on inside their askew minds, that help forge some of the most chilling, and terrifying possible pathways man could take.
I have watched, and read many dystopian fabrications, layers upon layers of fragmented realities, each one more harrowing than the next, and during this time I’ve come to realise that it is the destruction of social order that I become completely enthralled in. We live in a world that seemingly protects our freedom, our rights to vote and speak our minds, yet there are rules all around us; to keep us protected, to keep things fair and just, or to immediately bind and gag us when we stray from them. Dystopian visions are not too far from our current future; they are probable, there is potential in each and every one of them to become a reality, and with every dystopia, it begins with a utopia — somebody’s ideas, and dreams for a new and better world that seem almost too idealistic, however these utopias have a counterpart; hence the dystopia. Distorted ideal visions for a perfect future often come with compromises to a particular group of people; children, the elderly, the poor, ethnic minorities, women and so on.
We as a world have experienced our own utopia/dystopia, when Hitler ruled over Germany, he had his own idea as to what a perfect world looked like, and in turn a group of people suffered the horrific consequences.
What I enjoy about this genre, is the defiant act of rule breaking. It seems that no matter which one I read or watch, there is always a character, usually the main one, that stands up against it all and says no. This sacrificial reaction to the injustice that is set upon them, becomes beyond moving; from a psychological perspective seeing how these two juxtapositions interact with one another is what I find the most fascinating, and often the characters aren’t just your basic good vs. evil, but instead offer much more complexity to them.
We are all living in very tense times and it only reinforces my belief in a potential dystopian world that could come sooner than we think.
Some would say that horrors, thrillers and all the gore that comes with them are scary, but true fear lies undetected in the stories that build, that have fragments of believability in them. Dystopias have the power to make you believe that it could, one day, be a possibility.
The Matrix
I have written a few pieces on this particular franchise before, but it was my first taste of a warped and unfathomable dystopia. One where our world no longer truly exists, but instead is created to keep us, the human race, as slaves to machines. Now many of you probably have seen and know the story very well by now, but it still encapsulates me even now. It is a love affair that will last my lifetime, I have spent years trying to decipher all of its hidden meanings, and philosophical one liners, but with our current obsession with technology, and as it develops through the years, it isn’t a future any of us can rule out.
The Handmaid’s Tale.
No dystopian tale has crippled me quite like this one. I was extremely late to the game when it comes to ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, the novel was written back in 1985 by Margaret Atwood, and the T.V series aired back in 2017. It is 2021 and I have only just completed season 3, but, this isn’t the kind of easy watching rom-com we’re used to; it is so difficult to watch at times I ended up limiting myself to only one per week. It sees the world going through a fertility crisis, and a group of religious radicals decided to take matters into their own hands and create their idea of utopia; Gilead. Women are enslaved, raped, tortured, and stripped of their rights in this new world, all so they can provide children to the elite totalitarianism government. It is heart achingly sad, yet eerily haunting. It was a series I could not shake off for a very long time, due to its close to reference nature. Everything that happens in the book, has happened in our own history. Now that’s scary.
See.
A newer, and more unique take on a dystopia, See is about human evolution; a virus breaks out and leaves all mankind blind, only 2 million of us remain, and it seems that we retreat back into a more tribal, animal like nature. The story follows a family that ends up having children with the power of sight and it goes from there, but the reason this concept entrances me so much is that it plays on the fear of regressing, our DNA has changed, and sight is nothing more than witchcraft and heresy, we have evolved in the opposite way. It seems that democracy and government are all but a Queen living in a dam who’s a little unhinged, but I won’t give much more away than that. It’s an extremely new and interesting concept to me, and with everything that happened with COVID, I can see how man may one day be debilitated in some way.
Whilst there are many others that I enjoy, these were the ones that are nightmarish, in terms of how closely their realities intertwine with our own.
Never say never.
