Name:
Class:
Someone Might Be Watching — An Introduction to Dystopian Fiction By Shelby Ostergaard 2017
Dystopian stories are commonplace in our society today. In this informational text, Shelby Ostergaard discusses the characteristics of dystopian fiction and how the genre comments on society. As you read, take notes on themes commonly found in dystopian fiction. [1]
Walking through carnivals, we love to laugh at the versions of ourselves that appear in the funhouse mirror. We delight in taking selfies with filters that artificially bulge out our noses or shrink our 1 mouths. But sometimes these distortions take on a deeper meaning and force us to notice things about ourselves. You don’t notice that your nose is a little large until you take a picture with that filter and compare. The version of yourself in the mirror shows you things about yourself. Dystopias are usually constructed through this "One Nation Under CCTV" by Tom Blackwell is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0. type of magnification. But the subject matter goes far deeper than noses and lips. Authors take troubling aspects of their own society and imagine a world where they are taken to the extreme. The 2 21st century tendency to over-document through the use of technology becomes a compulsion acted out through a literal recording of our memories. An invasive state becomes one that criminalizes 3 thoughts. A love of reality television and a saturation of violence becomes a society where teens are forced to fight to the death for entertainment. Because of how they are constructed, dystopias are often seen as a desperate warning sign. The truth is, dystopian fiction presents a funhouse mirror of 4 our collective selves. It forces the audience to stare, transfixed, at the small flaws which, in the mirror, have become pronounced enough to produce a monster.
HISTORY OF DYSTOPIAS The term dystopia stems from another word: utopia. The English word utopia comes from the Greek “ou-” (οὐ) meaning “not” and “topos” (τόπος) meaning “place.” It translates literally to ‘no place’, or nowhere. Thomas More coined the term in 1516 when he published a book that described a perfect fictional island society. He titled the book Utopia to emphasize that he was describing a made-up place that he considered perfect. The perfection that More, and other philosophers who wrote about utopias, imagined was never intended to be real. Philosophers from More to Plato understood that the perfection they wrote about did not exist in reality, it was ‘no place.’ 1. 2. 3. 4.
Distort (verb): to twist something out of its original shape, form, or meaning Compulsion (noun): an irresistible urge to behave in a certain way Saturate (verb): to fill up completely with something Transfix (verb): to make someone motionless with awe or terror
1