Dystopian Novels & Films

I love the dystopian genre...not really sure why. It's just fun to speculate about how screwed up the world could/will be. Anyways, below are just some random scribblings by me about this genre. I'm a bit long winded. But yeah, for those with short attention spans, what are your favorite dystopian novels and films?



Dystopian Novels


Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
I read this over vacation in...basically a day. I couldn't put it down. It was just so incredibly clever, both funny and frightening at the same time. For instance, the dystopia is a post-Henry Ford world based on the assembly line, so there is a really freaky description of embryos of large numbers of twins being genetically engineered and mass produced. At the same time, however, people are walking around saying stuff like "Oh my Ford!" and making the sign of the T (for the Model T) and it just cracked me up. But yeah, this is a fast read and really fantastic.


Anthem by Ayn Rand
This is another super quick read. In fact, I read it in a couple hours one night. If you aren't familiar with objectivism or if you haven't read any of Rand's other novels, I wouldn't recommend this one as a starting point. Nevertheless, this is definitely one of my favorite books. It's truly a tribute to human intelligence and man's right to take pride in his talents.


1984 by George Orwell
Here is a perfect example of a dystopian novel. I really enjoyed reading it, but all in all I can't say that it had the unsettling effect on me that was intended. The dystopian world just didn't really shock me. This is more than likely because this novel has become such a huge part of pop culture that I went into it already having a conscious awareness of big brother and what not. I think my favorite part of the novel was the part in Room 101. Brilliant stuff.


The Giver by Lois Lowry
I read this in, gosh, 4th or 5th grade? I really don't remember, but I do remember really loving it. I don't want to give anything away, but Joshua's (that was his name, right?) actions at the end to bring back *spoiler* to the community was...super cool.


Paradise Lost by John Milton
Yargh, I remember suffering through this poem in Brit Lit. Actually, a lot of the imagery is quite gorgeous and the premise is fascinating when you think about it. The language was just...a bit of a pain.


Dystopian Novels on Espy's To-Read List:
Animal Farm by George Orwell
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Lord of the Flies by William Golding




Dystopian Films (most of which are based off dystopian novels)


V for Vendetta
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Seriously one of my all time favorite movies. The dystopian world is really well-developed and believable. V is also so incredibly awesome compared to a lot of other main characters in dystopian novels because he isn't just one of the masses who discovers "you know, something's not right." (Evey takes that role, actually). Instead, he's a man with a purpose, a man out to change the world. Hecka cool.


Children of Men
[image=http://www.sofacinema.co.uk/guardian/images/products/3/79333-large.jpg]
Okay, so this, like many of the others, is actually based off a dystopian novel, but I haven't read it and have seen the movie, so I'm putting this here. Very interesting premise in this movie. The scene that really sticks out in my mind is where they're shooting up the building but then suddenly everyone pauses when they see the baby. Very awesome.


Planet of the Apes
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I saw this a really long time ago, but I do remember the twist at the end oh so clearly. Frickin awesome.


Minority Report
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This

 

"Metropolis"

 

Duh, "Serenity!"

 

I had a course last semester on this exact subject. You forgot Snow Crash.

 

Check out the Dystopian Literature list on Wiki. There is literally like a thousand Dystopia novels.

 

does twelve monkeys count?

what is dystopian as opposed to utopian and plain sci-fi?

 

I rewatched V for Vendetta about 2 weeks ago and started reading 1984 a couple days afterwards on a complete coincidence and my opinion of the film took a huge nosedive. Originally I rather liked the movie, but having it fresh in my memory as I read 1984 made it clear that the world was basically that of 1984 and it had an average hero plot and happy ending superimposed over it. I ordered the comic series and I hope it's better because I've found most Alan Moore comics I've read to be rather outstanding.

I found 1984 to be refreshingly intelligent and nihilistic. I do agree with Espy that it felt familiar as it's been ripped off so many times, but nothing can match the orignal and the final sentence of the book is possibly the most spine chilling thing I have ever read or seen.

 

I don't think V for Vendetta is a dystopian story. Yes, there is an oppressive ruling minority, but there seems to be a large middle class in V for Vendetta. A dystopia has no middle class, only a super-rich ruling minority and a super-poor oppressed majority. The same goes for Minority Report. In fact, from what we see in the movie, we can't infer anything about the ruling class as we only see the poor, the middle class, and the police/justice system which I would classify as draconian, but not dystopian. Serenity's just a space western (I'm not belittling it, I promise) and not really thematically related to any of the dystopian stories mentioned, IMO.

To me, a dystopia is (like I stated above) characterized by two, polar opposite, classes of people: a super-rich ruling minority and a desperately poor oppressed majority. A utopia is a classless society where everyone is equally well-off. However, neither of these is mutually exclusive from "plain" science fiction.

 

I think you are way off.

link

As you can see 1984 had a middle class as well. The main character was a member of said middle class. And if 1984 isn't dystopia I don't know what is.

 

thank you...

the only means of definition i have is that the greek 'u' means non, so utopia is a non-place, really.

i think waht you are doing is boil differences down to political systems. i'm not sure that's applicable as such. if you think about it, how many films actually depict ruling class and oppressed masses?

 

I'd like to submit Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, which I found to be an unsettling dystopian story, partly because the premise of the novel is widely accepted by the characters. There's isn't a classic conflict like there is in something like 1984, and it's dealing with the realities of life in that setting that makes the story what it is.

 

That has nothing to do with the definition of a dystopia. A dystopia is simply any hypothetical alternate society which is predominantly negative, oppressive, or horrific.

 

Feed, by M.T. Anderson

[image=http://frankwbaker.com/feed.jpg]

There's a great review at Slashdot.

This is a real gem of a dystopian novel that hasn't gotten to be as well-known yet. Basically, it's a really savage satire of consumerism. It's a society where everyone basically has the internet plugged into their skulls ("the feed"), and it's used as part of this whole immersive marketing environment. You kind of have to read it - it's a very nuanced critique of information technology and media saturation and the failure of the educational system, with really strong characterization and heartbreaking moments and a horrifying vision of the future.

Very, very good.

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The Prisoner, TV series, Patrick McGoohan, et al.

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"Where am I?"
"In the Village."
"What do you want?"
"Information."
"Whose side are you on?"
"That would be telling. We want information. Information! INFORMATION!"
"You won't get it."
"By hook or by crook... we will."
"Who are you?"
"The new Number Two."
"Who is Number One?"
"You are Number Six."
"I am not a number ? I am a free man!"
(Laughter from Number Two.)

A British spy tries to resign for reasons unknown. He is knocked out with gas and wakes up on a strange island called the Village, where he is informed that he will be kept until he gives up the information they want from him: the reason why he resigned.

The Village overtly looks like a quaint and fairly dorky British seaside resort town. It is entirely populated with people who at one time knew something that the powers-that-be wanted to know. Each prisoner is assigned a number and left to live an outwardly comfortable life. However, the Village is a paranoid society of total surveillance. Any of the other prisoners might be informants for the higher-ups, who often play elaborate mind games with individual prisoners (or maybe just with our hero Number Six) in order to break their will or trick them into revealing their secrets. The outskirts of the Village are patrolled by a mysterious white sphere named Rover which essentially absorbs people who try to flee and deposits them back in the Village.

It's a very simple set-up. The Village is run by a series of men assigned the designation Number Two. Our hero is assigned the designation Number Six. Each week a new Number Two tries some scheme or gambit designed to undermine Number Six's resistance. Meanwhile, Number Six tries to escape. Each episode is a battle of will and cunning between Numbers Two and Three, which basically ends in a stalemate: Six cannot escape, Two cannot break Six.

It's a very good drama which brings up all sorts of issues relating to the relationships between perception, reality, power, and free will.

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Seaguy, graphic novel, Grant Morrison and Cameron Stewart

[image=http://www.dynamicforces.com/images/seaguy-tpb.jpg]

Seaguy is a sort of a sweet, geeky guy who wears a wetsuit and hangs out with a floating talking fish named Chubby da Choona. He wants to be a hero to impress She-Beard, the warrior woman he's in love with, but all the world hasn't needed heroes since the superheroes won the uber-big final battle with evil years ago. Now all there is to do is ride the rides at the Disney-esque theme park and drink Xoo, the new beverage which no one can get enough of.

Of course, Xoo happens to be a sentient creature, the theme park is really sinister, etc etc.

Seaguy is to Number Six as Spider-Man is to Superman: the semi-bumbling everyman trapped in a candy-colored nightmare society. An incredibly strange and surreal future fantasy dystopia which I cannot recommend highly enough.

 

The producers that brought us Superman Returns have the movie rights to Paradise Lost. In an interview they said they were taking their time with it and when it finally comes together it just does, they are not rushing it.

[image=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Paradise_Lost_12.jpg]

 

"The Prisoner"! Great series.

 

Shouldn't Paradise Lost be public domain by now?

 

I have no idea how that works.

Personally, though I don't know the material thatwell, I think paradise Lost comes across more as a Tragedy story rather than a Dystopian tale.

 

most dystopian films were dystopian novels first.

 

Good choice. I've seen the movie and read the book. They are very different, plotwise, but both depict a very dark world.

EDIT: Yeah, the scene in the apartment building at the end is very powerful.

 

anything written by Richard K Morgan.

 

I liked Escape From New York in this genre, though the dystopia feeling is given more time in the sequal which is not as good though I find it watchable. The departure here is that generally in dystopia lit the protagonist is actually innocent but is oppressed, where in these Escape films Snake Plissken really is a criminal; he's a bank robber. He is probably that because of the dystopian government.

A short story of The Running man was a class asignment waaaaaaay back in high school, I loved it. I never read the novel but of course I've seen the Arnold film which I liked until the sloppy ending.

 

The novella of Running Man is great. it's so early 80s King-grim and unhappy and a pyrhic ending.

 

* We
* Player Piano (EDIT: Added this)
* Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

They are top-notch dystopian novels.

The original dystopia novel was We, followed by Brave New World and 1984 (which were seemingly at the same time - I forget which was published first).

Dystopia is a negative future society as deemed by the published time's ideals.

A utopian is the "perfect society", thus dystopia = a horrible, disgusting, terrible future.

Seriously, that list of all of the novels and such on Wiki will give you a tremendous start in any 'dystopia reading'.

 

There seems to be more fear of the future than longing for it.

 

The Time Machine featured a dystopian future. Read the book, avoid the recent movie. Guy Pearce, Jeremy Irons, you should have held out for better.