Science Fiction Literature Midterm Notes

Definition of Science Fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction in which the stories often tell about science and
technology of the future. It should not be completely unbelievable, because it then ventures
into the genre fantasy. It is important to note that science fiction has a relationship with the
principles of science—these stories involve partially true- partially fictitious laws or theories
of science.

The plot creates situations different from those of both the present day and the known past.
Science fiction texts also include a human element, explaining what effect new discoveries,
happenings and scientific developments will have on us in the future. Science fiction texts are
often set in the future, in space, on a different world, or in a different universe or dimension.
Imaginative Fiction
“Imaginative fiction based on postulated scientific discoveries or spectacular environmental
changes, frequently set in the future or on other planets and involving space or time travel”.

Science Fiction, a literary genre developed principally in the 20th century, deals with
scientific discovery or development that, whether set in the future, in the fictitious present, or
in the putative past, is superior to or simply other than that known to exist.

Here the word “imagination” has been used to contrast Science Fiction with the “real” in
fictional forms like novels and short stories.

These forms deal with day-to-day life and characters and are characterized as realistic modes
of fiction instead of fantastic. The expression “postulated scientific discovery” refers to
inventions such as the Submarine, which was postulated in Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand
Leagues Under the Sea (1872), where we, for the first time, come across Nautilus, the
prototype of the modem Submarine.

The aspects of “spectacular environmental changes” can be seen in the Science Fiction like
Frank Herbert’s Dune (1965).

Since most of the Science Fiction deals with strange laws and people, who are situated either
in future or on some other planet. The space-travel has also long been a “postulated scientific
discovery”.

The idea of travel through Time has been made popular by H.G. Wells’ Time Machined8951.
Darko Suvin's Criterion:
These definitions do not tell us precisely how we can differentiate Science Fiction, proper
from other imaginative fiction. For example, fairytales are imaginative fiction dealing with
either a fictitious present or a putative past. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rina, which deals with
imaginative land and the people in the putative past, is also imaginative fiction. In Kafka’s
novel, Metamorphosis (1915), the hero is transformed into a giant insect. Can this be called
Science Fiction? Similarly, in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekvll and Mr.
Hvde (1886) by Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll transforms himself into a chemical. Can we say this is
Science Fiction?

Darko Suvin (1979) has provided a criterion to distinguish Science Fiction from
Scientific Romance like Frankenstein, Dr. Jekvll and Mr. Hvde. He has coined the term
“novum” (new or new thing) to bring out the point of difference between Science Fiction
and Scientific Romance. According to him, Science Fiction is based on one “novum”,
such as the device like the Time Machine in the novel by H.G. Wells, in which the hero is
enabled to travel through Time. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, a corpse is reanimated
to become a monster. But how this monster is manufactured in the laboratory is only a
matter of speculation. There are no details about how this was achieved. It is true that
Frankenstein exerted great influence on later Science Fiction. But essentially, it is a
Gothic Romance, in the tradition of the 19th-century Gothic novel, which can be the
forerunner of the Science Fiction, but non Science Fiction proper. Similarly, Kafka’s
Metamorphosis (1915) does not explain how its protagonist was transformed into a giant
insect. Besides, in this novel, Kafka is mainly interested in the alienation of his hero, who
suffers and not in the agents of physical transformation he undergoes.

Suvin’s idea of “Novum” tells us that Science Fiction can be distinguished from other
forms of imaginative fiction. There can be more such “novum”- the novas-which can
explain the particularities of Science Fiction. There are definitions of Science Fiction by
well-known critics like Darko Suvin, Robert Scholes, and Darrien Broderick that have
greatly influenced the study of Science Fiction. For example, Darko Suvin defines
Science Fiction as: A literary genre whose necessary and sufficient conditions are the
presence and interaction of estrangement and cognition and whose primary formal
device is an imaginative framework alternative to the author’s empirical environment.
The term “estrangement”, “cognition”, and ‘alternative’ are the key terms in this definition.
“Estrangement” refers to the element of difference in Science Fiction, which alienates us from
our day-to-day world. “Cognition” is a rational, logical understanding of the landscapes and
people of a strange world, totally unfamiliar to
the readers.

Cognitive estrangement was defined as an “imaginative framework alternative to the author's

empirical environment” (48). This separates the readers from assumptions we have about our
society and allows us to see it through a new context.

This is generally done through giant leaps in science within the text. The Science Fiction
genre itself holds a very unique position. It grounds itself in reality and is within the realm of
possibility whilst also being fantastical enough to utterly different from the world it is written
in. It’s unlike the fantasy genre; very few readers truly believe Elves or Dragons have or ever
will exist. However, it is also unlike historical fiction, which adheres entirely to the
established facts and laws of our world. The most celebrated and “classic” Science Fiction
novels use Cognitive Estrangement as a tool to make a commentary or criticism of society.
Elements of Science Fiction
 Realistic and fantastic details
 Grounded in science
 Usually set in the future
 Unknown inventions
 Makes a serious comment about the world
 Often contains a warning for humankind

Science Fiction Settings

 Another planet
 Under the oceans
 Another dimension of existence
 May be a utopia or dystopia
 May be in the future
 May time travel to the past (or future)
 May take place in present, but alternate reality

Science Fiction Characters

 Protagonist (Hero)
 Antagonist (Villain)
 These characters may be a being (human or other) or may be a force
 Protagonist or Antagonist may be society’s laws, a disease or
other problem, technology, etc.
 Creatures, robots, aliens, etc

Function of Science
 Advanced technology
 Genetics
 Disease
 Exploration
 Special powers or senses as a result of science
 Science can be the savior or the root of the problem Message or Warning for Humans
 Science Fiction stories often contain a message or warning
Science Fiction Genres and Themes
 Utopia/Dystopia/Anti-Utopia
 The Others (Aliens, ETs, Robots, Cyborgs, etc.)
 Apocalypse/post-Apocalypse
 Time Travel
 Alternative Histories
 Superhumans & Others
 Military and Conquest
 Space Operas and Space Westerns
 Space Westerns
 Steampunk
 Cyberpunk
 Feminist SF
 Socialist & Communist SF
 Paleo Fiction Castaways and Robinsonades
 New Wave Turkish & Other culture’s SF
Utopia / Dystopia / Anti-Utopia
“If you want to build a ship, don’t herd people together to collect wood and don’t assign them
tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupery Definitions & Discussion

Read: “Utopias, past and present: why Thomas More remains astonishingly radical” by Terry
Eagleton

"A utopia is the fictional representation of an ideal polity. It is political in nature, narrative in
form, literary only in part." (Bammer, 1991:13)

A dystopia is defined as an inverted utopia, "An imaginary place or condition in which

everything is as bad as possible” the Oxford English Dictionary

A dystopia does not pretend to be utopian, while an anti-utopia appears to be utopian or was
intended to be so, but a fatal flaw or other factor has destroyed or twisted the intended utopian
world or concept.
The Others
“Science fiction plucks from within us our deepest fears and hopes, then shows them to us in
rough disguise: the monster and the rocket.” W. H. Auden

Artificial Beings
Read: Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus , Literary Sources of Frankenstein
Terms: Homunculus, Golem, Tulpa, Robot, Android, Cyborg, Clone, Mutant, Aliens, E.T.,
Zombie

Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics:

A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm

A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to
harm

A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would
conflict with the First Law

A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the
First or Second Law
The Others
Science fiction aliens are both metaphors and real possibilities. One can probe the nature of
humanity with aliens that by contrast illustrate and comment upon human nature. Still, as
evidenced by widespread belief in alien visitors (see UFOs) and efforts to detect
extraterrestrial radio signals, humans also crave companionship in a vast, cold universe and
aliens may represent hopeful, compensatory images of the strange friends we have been
unable to find. Thus, aliens will likely remain a central theme in science fiction until we
actually encounter them.

Gary Westfahl

Issue for Discussion: Othering, Alienation, Minorities, Immigrants, Cultural anti-

thesis, Paranoia, Imperialism, Nationalism & Fascism, War, Gender

Time Travel
“Science fiction is, in essence, a time travel genre. Events either open in the altered
past, the transformed present, or the possible future, transporting the reader or
viewer to another age, place, dimension or world.” Sean Redmond

Issues: Paradoxes, Time Loops, Causality, Mechanisms, Alternative Histories and

Universes, Fate & Religion, Predestination
Apocalypse and Post-Apocalypse
"I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be
fought with sticks and stones" Albert Einstein

“We accept the lure of annihilation, only to discover that it is a temporary condition, a
gateway
to renewal and rebirth. This is perhaps the most pervasive theme in all the world's religious
myth and ritual. It may also be the most pervasive theme in the symbolism of nuclear
weapons.” Ira Chernus, Dr. Strangegod

Issues: Armageddon, disaster, Atomic bomb, Environmental catastrophe, “The End is Near”,
Millennialism/Chialism, Eschatology
 Myths, Legends, Fairy Tales and Jungian Reading

Carl Jung, Myths Fairy Tales and Legends

 Psychologically significant
 Therapeutic value and potential
 Offer insights into the workings of the human psyche
 Express collective unconscious
 Contain universal symbols, patterns and archetypes
 Represent fundamental aspects of human consciousness
 Rich in universal symbols
 Allegorically Reflect the process of individuation (psychological journey towards the
self)
 Cross-cultural, similar myths, tales legends

Definition of Fairy Tales

• Fictional story
• Simple Plots
• Magical Elements
• Magical Creatures like
• Fairies, witches, Dragons
• Takes place in a fantastical world
• Follows the protagonist’s adventure

Elements of Fairy Tales

• Magic and Supernatural
• Good vs. Evil
• Hero/ Heroine
• Royalty and Castles
• Moral or lesson
• Formalitic structure
• Repetition
• Transformation
• Talking animals and objects
• Universal Themes

Some examples
• The Dragon, wisdom
• The witch, threat to young girls
• Fairies, tricksters

Jungian Archetypes
• The Hero, individual’s journey, self discovery, transformation
• Cindirella
• The Frog Prince
• Luke Skywalker, Star Wars
• Harry Potter
• Neo, Matrix

Common Elements of Hero’s Journey

The Hero’s Journey is a narrative structure commonly found in fairy tales and movies, and it
follows these key stages (outlined by Joseph Campbell’s monomyth theory):

Call to Adventure: The Hero is called to leave their ordinary world and embark on a journey.

Refusal of the Call: The Hero may initially resist the call due to fear or doubt.

Supernatural Aid/Helpers: The Hero receives help from a mentor or supernatural entity (e.g.,
Gandalf, Obi-Wan Kenobi).

Crossing the Threshold: The Hero leaves the ordinary world and enters a world of adventure.

Trials and Tests: The Hero faces various challenges and adversaries along the way.

The Abyss/Ordeal: The Hero confronts their greatest challenge or darkest moment, often
facing death or inner turmoil.

Transformation and Revelation: The Hero emerges transformed by the experience.

Return with the Elixir: The Hero returns to the ordinary world, bringing knowledge, healing,
or balance

Jungian Archetypes
• Shadow darker, hidden aspects of the psyche
• Darth Vader, Star Wars
• Gollum, The Lord of the Rings
• The Joker
• Evil Queen, Snow White
• The Big Bad Wolf, Little Red Riding Hood
• Anima female characters who help or hinder the male hero’s journey
• The Fairy Godmother
• Rapunzel
• Trinity, Matrix
• Leia, Star Wars
• Animus, male characters serving as guides, protectors, or antagonists for female protagonist.
• The Prince, Sleeping Beauty
• The Huntsman, Snow White
• Neo, The Matrix
• Han Solo, Star Wars

Utopia
“An imaginary place or a state in which everything is perfect.” - Thomas More

Thomas More
§ Born in London on 6th Feb. 1478
§ Studied at Oxford
§ Studied law & practised
§ In 1504 became the Member of Parliament
§ “Beardless M. P.” (at the age of 26)
§ Later became the Speaker of the House of Commons
§ A good friend of King Henry VIII
§ Misunderstanding between King Henry VIII and Thomas More
§ King Henry VIII divorced Catherine Aragon and married Anne Boleyn
§ Church Law did not allow divorce.
§ King Henry VIII established his own church – The Church of England
§ More refused to take oath as Anglican – imprisoned in the Tower.
§ Beheaded on 6th July, 1535
§ Pope Pious XI canonized More in 1935
§ Good friend of Erasmus (a Danish scholar & Priest
§ “ Did nature ever create milder, sweeter or happier than the genius of Thomas
More?” – Erasmus
§ “ In More’s death I seem to have died my: we had but one soul between us” -
Erasmus

Utopia: The Purpose

§ Utopia gives direction to rulers how to govern their states

§ The main theme of Utopia is the best state and the best structure for a society in which
man may live happily with his fellow beings

§ It presents a picture of an ideal society and also a dramatic portrayal of contemporary

society

§ “Sparta, Athens and Rome would not now be lying in ruins if they had known and
followed the laws expounded in Utopia” – Jerome Busleyden

§ Inspiration was Plato’s Republic & Laws

Utopia: Characters
• More – the narrator, an ambassador of England (Henry VIII) to Flanders to mend the
relationship with Charles of Castile (More is identified with Thomas More)

• Cuthbert Tunstall – another ambassador who travels along with More

• Peter Giles – More befriends him during his travel. Giles Introduces Hythloday to
More (Giles is a real figure, an intellectual friend of More, who helped More to
publish Utopia)

• Raphael Hythloday – a philosopher and world traveller – lived 5 years in Utopia – he

narrates his Utopian experience – Hythlody (Greek) means “talker of nonsense”

• Cardinal John Morton – Hythloday met Marton and shared his views on the condition
of England (Morton was a real figure who was the actual Chancellor to Henry VIII
helped More to further his education)

• Lawyer – Hythloday meets him in England

• General Utopus – founder of Utopia

Book I
 • More’s Travel
-More and Huthbert Tunstall are sent by Henry VIII to Flanders to mend the relation with
-Charles of Castile
-More visits Antwerp & befriends Peter Giles
-Giles introduces Hythloday to More

• Hythloday
-A mariner – a Portuguese
-Knows Latin and Greek
-Travelled with Amerigo Vespucci
-Had various adventures & experience

Hythloday’s Refusal to Join the Government

- Giles & More request Hythloday’s service to the king
- Most of the king’s like flatterers & sycophants
- The interests of the king’s are different from his
- Bitter memories of his meeting with Cardinal Morton and a Lawyer
- The French king’s ambitious plan to expand his kingdom & the privy council’s approval
- Increasing king’s coffers from people’s property

Hythloday’s Views on Governments

Capital Punishment
- Against killing of thieves
- Causes for theft
- Jobs to people will stop death
- Arable lands becoming pasture cause theft
- Men become idle & thieves when they have no job
- Revival of husbandry, tillage & wool industry
- Banning gambling (dice, cards, etc)

Book II
Geography of Utopia
- A crescent shaped island with a large bay
- A huge harbour
- Submerged sharp rocks
- Good for internal shipping & bad for external
- Utopians remain isolated in the island
- Earlier name – Abraxa – with rude people
- Utopus conquered & changed
- At present 54 cities with same structure, architecture, language, customs and law
- Oneday’s walk to the nearest neighbour.
- Amaurot is the political centre – every year 3 representatives from each city meet here

Agriculture & Cities in Utopia

 - Farmland around each city
- Everyone does 2 years agricultural work
- Surplus is shared with neighbouring cities
- Extra men are sent from cities for harvesting
- All the cities are connected to Amaurot by water
- All the cities have good source of drinking water
- Thick walls around every city
- Well planned & well-maintained cities
- 2 doors in every house but no locks – 3 stories

Government in Utopia
-Houses are split into groups of thirty
-These 30 houses choose a phylarch
-Every 10 phylarch operate under a senior phylarch
-Senior phylarchs meet in a committee chaired by chief executive to make decision
-Never take any haste action

Occupations & Workload in Utopia

- A work in farm – theory in school practical in farm
- Other trades are spinning, weaving, masonry, blacksmithing and carpentry
- Young learn the trade from fathers
- No forced occupation of the father
- Work only for 6 hrs – 3 before lunch 3 after
- 8 hrs average sleep
- Rest of the time intellectual pursuits & hobbies

Education & Belief in Utopia

-Thorough education for all the children
-Education for molding
-They do not believe in astrology
-Utopian philosophy is the nature of happiness
-Belief in the existence of soul afterlife
-Distinction between true & counterfeit pleasure
-True pleasure – knowledge, exercise, eating well
-Counterfeit pleasure – pride, appearance, wealth, titles

Practices
1. Slaves
- Never bought
- Captured by the Utopians in battle
- People committed horrible crime
- Slaves were forced to work constantly
- Their children were treated well

2. Sick & Ill

- Sick receive tremendous care
- Seriously ill are visited by priests, doctors & government officers
- If they are a burden – euthanasia was recommended
- Those who wanted to live were permitted
- Treated kindly & tenderly

3. Marriage
- Woman at 18 – men at 22
- Premarital sex not allowed
- Bride & groom shown naked to each other before the marriage
- No divorce except for adultery
- Cosmetics & tools of enhancement were prohibited

4. Laws
 - No campaign for public office
- Officials should be seen as fathers
- No lawyers in Utopia
- No bribery because money does not exist

5.War
- Utopians avoid war at all costs
- They find no glory in killing
- Engage in warfare only to protect themselves
- Strength belongs to animals & intelligent to humans
- Propaganda in other countries
- While fighting careful about enemy countries property

6.Religion
- A number of religions exist in Utopia
- Worship of animals, ancient hero, the sun, etc
- Hythloday’s preaching of Christ
- No atheism
- Different religious people meet in the same church
- Priests were of high moral & religious caliber
- Priests had the highest power

Conclusion
- Utopia show the greatest social order in the world
- No private property
- Richer than European countries
- Next meeting among the 3 to discuss the merits
- More’s desire to employ Utopian rules in Europe

Utopias Past and Present

What is a perfect society, and what’s the best kind of utopianism? Terry Eagleton looks at
future thinking and concludes that our system is run by dreamers who call themselves realists

Thomas More’s Utopia, a book that will be 500 years old next year, is astonishingly radical
stuff. Not many lord chancellors of England have denounced private property, advocated a
form of communism and described the current social order as a “conspiracy of the rich”.
Such men, the book announces, are “greedy, unscrupulous and useless”.

There are a great number of noblemen, More complains, who live like drones on the labour of
others. Tenants are evicted so that “one insatiable glutton and accursed plague of his
native land” may consolidate his fields.

Monarchs, he argues, would do well to swear at their inauguration never to have more than
1,000lbs of gold in their coffers. Perhaps this is one reason why Utopia is not bedside reading
in Buckingham Palace. Instead of being worshipped, gold and silver should, he suggests, be
used to make chamber pots.

War is fit only for beasts, and standing armies should be disbanded. Labour should be reduced
to a minimum, though the TUC might balk at the suggestion that workers would use some of
their leisure time to attend public lectures before daybreak.

Not all More’s proposals would delight the heart of Jeremy Corbyn. The perfection of his
utopia is not tarnished in his view by the fact that it contains slaves.

On certain festive days wives would fall down at their husbands’ feet, confessing that they
have performed some domestic duty negligently. Adultery would be punished by the strictest
form of slavery.

One should recall that More, far from being the liberal-cum-existentialist portrayed in Robert
Bolt’s play A Man for All Seasons, showed not the slightest compunction in torturing and
executing heretics. In choosing one’s mate, men should be allowed to see their prospective
wives naked, since who wants goods that aren’t on show? Feminists, however, should note
that women would enjoy the same prerogative.
Brothels would be abolished, but so would alehouses. There would be no lawyers (a
generous-hearted proposal, since More was one himself), but no tolerance for those who
waste time, either.

More’s book, in some ways a work of early science fiction, gave rise to a whole new genre of
writing. Judging from that literature, there are really two kinds of utopia.

There are carnivalesque societies in which, instead of working, everyone will drink, feast and
copulate from dawn to dusk. In one such 18th-century fantasy, men and women bereft of all
body hair leap naked into fountains, while the progressively minded narrator watches on.
Whether his pleasure is entirely theoretical remains unclear.

There are also more austere utopias, in which everything is odourless and antiseptic,
intolerably streamlined and sensible.

In these meticulously planned countries of the mind, the natives tend to jaw on for hours
about the efficiency of their sanitary arrangements or the ingenuity of their electoral system.

Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe is in some ways an exercise of this kind, as Crusoe,
marooned on a desert island, potters about, chopping wood and staking out his enclosure as if
he were in the home counties.

It is reassuring to see him practising a very English rationality in such exotically unfamiliar
circumstances. More’s fantasy is an odd mixture of both visions, rational and libidinal. On the
one hand, his ideal society is a high-minded, fairly puritanical place, one likely to appeal to
the stereotypical Hampstead vegetarian; on the other hand, its inhabitants are genial, laid-back
and agreeably disinclined to do much work.

Alternative universes are really devices for embarrassing the present, as imaginary cultures
are used to estrange and unsettle our own. As such, they have been largely the product of the
left.
The finest of all such works in Britain is the Marxist William Morris’s News from Nowhere,
one of the very few utopian visions to offer a detailed account of how the political
transformation actually came about.

Meanwhile, a hard-nosed anti-utopian right has scoffed at the unreality of such proposals,
rather like the Daily Mail on the new Labour leader. The word “utopia” means “nowhere”,
but it isn’t clear whether this is because the place could exist but happens not to, or whether it
is nowhere in much the same sense that a humble Richard Dawkins or a coy Chris Evans is.

Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels is one such rightwing polemic. Tories like Swift, who regard
human beings as feeble and corrupt, fear that nothing but chaos and confusion can result from
the grandiose schemes of the progressivists.

If men and women are encouraged to hope unrealistically, they can only end up damaged and
disenchanted.

Gulliver himself is finally driven mad, seduced by an impossible ideal. In this satire of idle
dreaming, alien creatures from distant lands are shown to be depressingly like ourselves.

The natives of Lilliput are petty, vicious, quarrelsome and sectarian. When the hero finally
encounters a race of noble minded creatures, they turn out to be horses.

To portray the future in the language of the present may well be to betray it. A truly radical
change would defeat the categories we currently have to hand.

If we can speak of the future at all, it follows that we are still tied to some extent to the
present. This is one reason why Marx, who began his career in contention with the middle-
class utopianists, steadfastly refused to engage in future-talk.

The most a revolutionary could do was to describe the conditions under which a different sort
of future might be possible. To stipulate exactly what it might look like was to try to
programme freedom.
If Marx was a prophet, it was not because he sought to foresee the future. Prophets – Old
Testament ones, at least – aren’t clairvoyants.

Rather than gaze into the future, they warn you that unless you feed the hungry and welcome
the immigrant, there isn’t going to be one. Or if there is, it will be deeply unpleasant.

The real soothsayers are those hired by the big corporations to peer into the entrails of the
system and assure their masters that their profits are safe for another 30 years. We live in a
world that seeks to extend its sovereignty even over what doesn’t yet exist.

Radicals thus find themselves under fire from opposite directions. If they refuse to debate
what kind of cultural policies might flourish under socialism, for example, they are being
shifty; if they hand you a thick bunch of documents on the question, they are guilty of blue
printing.

Perhaps it is impossible to draw a line between being too agnostic about the future and being
too assured about it. The Marxist philosopher Walter Benjamin reminds us that the ancient
Jews were forbidden to make icons of what was to come, rather as they were forbidden to
fashion graven images of Yahweh.

The two prohibitions are closely related, since for the Hebrew scriptures, Yahweh is the God
of the future, whose kingdom of justice and friendship is still to come. Besides, the only
image of God for Judaism is human flesh and blood.

For Benjamin, seeking to portray the future is a kind of fetishism. Instead, we are driven
backwards into this unexplored territory with our eyes fixed steadily on the injustice and
exploitation of the past.

Knowing exactly where we are going is the surest way of not getting there.

In any case, the energies we invest in envisaging a better world might consume the energies
we need to create it. Marx had no interest in human perfection.
There is nothing in his work to suggest that post-capitalist societies would be magically free
of predators, psychopaths, free-loaders, Piers Morgan-types or people who stow their luggage
on aircraft with surreal slowness, indifferent to the fact that there are 50 people queuing
behind them.

The idea that history is moving ever onwards and upwards is an invention of the middle-class
Enlightenment, not of the left.

Marx, however, was aware that there are two kinds of starry-eyed idealist. There are those
like the French 19th-century thinker Charles Fourier, who looked forward to a future in which
the sea would turn into lemonade, and whose ideal social unit consisted of exactly 1,620
people. Then there is the other bunch of wild-eyed idealists who hold that the future will be
pretty much like the present.

Those with their heads truly in the clouds are the hard-headed pragmatists who seem to
assume that Mars bars and the International Monetary Fund will still be with us in 500 year’s
time. Our system is run by a set of dreamers who call themselves realists. To expect the future
to be different is not of course to maintain that it will be better. It might be a great deal worse.

The point is that history is malleable enough for us to choose. No sooner had the political
theorists of the 1990s proclaimed that history was at an end than two aircraft slammed into the
World Trade Center, and a whole new historical narrative began to unfold. History may not
have been improved by this development, but it certainly didn’t stand still. All true utopianists
do themselves out of a job.

The only place where there is no need for utopian thought is in utopia, a country that Oscar
Wilde considered every genuine map of the world should contain.

There will be no need for feminists once patriarchy and sexism are dim memories of a
benighted past. Until then, critics of the present must remain properly otherworldly, despite
the taunts of their political opponents.
They must refuse the transparent falsehood that the world we see around us is the best we can
muster. Bad forms of utopianism simply tack a fantasy on to actuality, making an idol out of
the future. Conservatives, by contrast, are in danger of consecrating the present.

The best kind of utopian thought rejects both of these cases. Instead, it holds present and
future in tension by pointing to those forces active in the present that might lead beyond it. As
a man of his time, Thomas More did not think in such terms.

He did not share the modern conception of history as constant change, and looking back at his
great treatise one is tempted to suggest that in some ways he was right not to do so. For one of
Utopia’s most striking aspects is its contemporaneity – the way in which the greedy,
unscrupulous and useless are just as much in evidence now as in 1516. The conspiracy of the
rich has lasted an extraordinarily long time.
 Dystopia
What is a dystopia?

The etymology of the word dystopia (dis-TOE-pee-uh) describes these settings succintly but
perfectly. By combining the Ancient Greek dys, meaning “bad” + topos, meaning “place”,
dystopia literally means “bad place.”

An imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives (a worst-case
scenario for society)

What is a dystopia?
A dystopia is a hypothetical or imaginary society, often found in science fiction and fantasy
literature. They are characterized by elements that are opposite to those associated with utopia
(utopias are places of ideal perfection, especially in laws, government, and social conditions).

A dystopia is, therefore, a place in which humanity is dehumanized, and people live fearful
lives. Furthermore, governing these societies are totalitarian regimes and often are faced with
severe environmental catastrophes. Common elements of dystopias may vary from
environmental to political and social issues to politics, religion, psychology, spirituality, or
technology that may become present in the future.

A dystopia is a hypothetical or imaginary society, often found in science fiction and fantasy
literature.

They are characterized by elements that are opposite to those associated with utopia (utopias
are places of ideal perfection, especially in laws, government, and social conditions).

A dystopia is, therefore, a place in which humanity is dehumanized, and people live fearful
lives. Furthermore, governing these societies are totalitarian regimes and often are faced with
severe environmental catastrophes.

Common elements of dystopias may vary from environmental to political and social issues to
politics, religion, psychology, spirituality, or technology that may become present in the
future.
Characteristics of a Dystopian Society
• Propaganda is used to control the citizens of society.

• Information, independent thought, and freedom are restricted/ censored.

• Government is oppressive.

•A figurehead or concept is worshipped by the citizens of the society.

• Citizens are perceived to be under constant surveillance.

• Citizens have a fear of the outside world.

• Citizens live in a dehumanized state.

• The natural world is banished and distrusted.

• Citizens conform to uniform expectations.

• Individuality and dissent are bad.

• The society is an illusion of a perfect utopian world.

 Types of Dystopian Controls
Most dystopian works present a world in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of
a perfect society are maintained through one or more of the following types of controls:

• Corporate control: One or more large corporations control society through products,
advertising, and/or the media.

• Bureaucratic control: Society is controlled by a mindless bureaucracy through a tangle of

red tape, relentless regulations, and incompetent government officials.

• Technological control: Society is controlled by technology— through computers, robots,

and/or scientific means.

• Philosophical/religious control: Society is controlled by philosophical or religious

ideology often enforced through a dictatorship or theocratic government.

Dystopian Protagonist
• Often feels trapped and is struggling to escape.

• Questions the existing social and political systems.

• Questions the existing social and political systems.

• Believes or feels that something is terribly wrong with the society in which he or she lives
in.

• Helps the audience recognizes the negative aspects of the dystopian world through his or her
perspective.

• The protagonist wishes to restore people to a conventional life.

 Dystopian Narratives
Dystopian vs Utopian
• Dystopian is the opposite of utopian; it is often a utopia gone sour, an imaginary place
or state where everything is as bad as it could possibly be.

Dystopian Novels
• Dystopian novels usually include elements of contemporary society and are seen as a
warning against some modern trend.

• Writers use them as cautionary tales, in which humankind is put into a society that
may look inviting on the surface but in reality, is a nightmare.

Examples of Dystopian Novels

1984
Brave New World
Fahrenheit 451
A Clockwork Orange
Animal Farm
The Time Machine
1984
Totalitarian Government Control:

-The setting is the future world of 1984, where the head of government is the all-knowing Big
Brother. The Party holds the absolute power and allows no space for rebellion.

-The hero’s longing for truth and decency leads him to secretly rebel against the government.

-He is arrested by the “Thought Police” who torture the hero to “reeducate him” and force
him to love the Big Brother.

• “Telescreens” are used a a device to control the citizens monitoring their every action
and emotion.
• The Minister of Truth: Rewriting history, erasing people and events that contradicts
with the party’s doctrine.
• Destruction of the Truth: Newspeak: language designed by the party Doublethink: the
practice of accepting truths

Relation to the Real World

• 1984 serves as a cautionary tale against totalitarianism

• Totalitarianism - A centralized government that does not tolerate parties of differing

opinion and that exercises dictatorial control over many aspects of life

• The regime in the book could represent a futuristic England or United States, since
Orwell was worried about their increasing power during his lifetime.

• There are direct parallels between the book and the society at that time:

• Leader worship – similar to Big Brother, dictators Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler
were revered and followed absolutely

• Joycamps - a reference to Jewish concentration camps

• Thought police – a reference to the Gestapo, the secret police of the Nazis

• The Use of Propaganda – similar tactics were used in the totalitarian regimes of Hitler
and Stalin

• Governments throughout history have used various tools to maintain control over
society.

• Data Collection, social media monitoring, GPS tracking, face recognition, biometric
identification.

• Propaganda and Media Control: shaping narratives, controlling information, limit

citizens to global internet content, blocking social media, misinformation (false
information) and disinformation (deliberate falsehoods)

• Restrictive Laws and Policies such as laws that limit freedom of speech, assembly, and
association.

• Judical Control and Police Power: judiciary and law enforcement, Governments
can stifle opposition and intimidate citizens. Police may suppress protests or detain
activists

• Election: Manipulation manipulating the election processes, results, reducing the

effective ness of democratic mechanisms.
 Brave New World
• At first, the world it describes sounds like a utopia: humanity is carefree,
healthy, and technologically advanced.
• Warfare and poverty have been eliminated, and everyone is permanently
happy.
• However, all of these things have been achieved by eliminating family, cultural
diversity, art, literature, science, religion, and philosophy.
Relation to the Real World
• The issues raised in the book were influenced by the issues of Huxley’s time.
• The Industrial Revolution had brought massive changes to the world.

• Mass production made cars, telephones, and radios cheap and widely available.

• The effects of World War I and totalitarian regimes were still being felt.

• Huxley used his book to express the fear of losing individual identity in the fast-paced
world of the future.

• One event that influenced Huxley was an early trip to America.

• Huxley was outraged by the commercial-led cheeriness and selfish nature of

many of the people.

• There was a strong fear in Europe of worldwide Americanization.

• Therefore, in Brave New World, Huxley explores the fears of both Soviet communism
and American capitalism.

• Worse, he suggests that the price of universal happiness will be the sacrifice of
everything important in our culture: motherhood, home, family, community, and love.
 1984 vs Brave New World
• The major difference between the two books is in 1984 people are controlled by
constant government surveillance, secret police, and torture.

• In Brave New World humans are controlled by technological interventions that start
before birth and last until death, and actually change what people want.

Fahrenheit 451
• The story takes place in the twenty-first century, in an America where books
are banned.
• Society feels that “opinion” books contain conflicting theories which are
disruptive to society.
• The penalty for owning one is having one's house and books burnt by
"firemen."
• 451° F is stated as “the temperature at which book paper catches fire and
burns…”

Relation to the Real World

In the novel, Bradbury combined several issues of his contemporary society:

• The burnings of books in Nazi Germany.

• Stalin's suppression of authors and books in the Soviet Union.
• The explosion of a nuclear weapon.

• "I meant all kinds of tyrannies anywhere in the world at any time, right, left, or
middle," Bradbury has said.

• The author also addresses the concern that the presence of fast cars, loud music, and
advertisements creates a lifestyle with too much stimulation where no one has the time
to concentrate.

• He also addresses concerns about censorship at the expense of personal expression.

 Goals Methods Used Theme

Everyone equal, thinks the same Force, spying, secret Evils of totalitarianism

way police

Sacrificing culture for

No war or poverty, only happiness Change what people “happiness”
want

Book burnings, no Consequences of fast-

Absence of things disruptive to personal expression paced society
society

? ? ?
 Summary
• The dystopian literature of the period reflected the many concerns that resonated
throughout the twentieth century.
• The concept of a dystopia was introduced to help reveal the potential consequences of
a utopia turning against itself.

Examples of Real Life Utopian Societies

 Religious
 Communistic
 Agricultural

-War is Peace
-Freedom is Slavery
-Ignorance is Strength

Religious Utopias
• Freedom of religion attracted European groups to America who were persecuted in
their own countries.

• Some colonists hoped to form Utopian societies, self-containing religious

communities, removed from the perceived “vices” found in overcrowded cities.

• In these utopian societies, all aspects of people's lives were governed by their faith.

Example: the Shakers – a religious group who fled to the United States in 1774 to escape
persecution. They formed a tight knit community, which required celibacy (no sexual
relations) and the separation of men and women in daily life.

Their religious expression included productive labor, peace, the equality of the sexes, and
a ritual noted for its dancing and shaking.
Communistic Utopias
• The Soviet Union represented the creation of a political utopia on a larger scale than
had ever been attempted before.

• Communism was seen as the creation of a working society in which all give according
to their means and take according to their needs. This aspect promised the future
freedom of all people in a world free of oppression and inequality.

• By the end of the 1920s, the disadvantages of Communism in the Soviet Union were
evident.

• Joseph Stalin forced peasants to work on the land, forced intellectuals into prison
camps, burned books, and contributed to the death of millions.

• He used mass media to create a godlike image of himself, and any opponents were
executed or deported.
Agricultural Utopias

• In the 1960s, thousands of people formed communes in Europe and the U.S. in an
attempt to redefine the institutions of marriage, family and economy.

• People headed “back to the land”, questioning the benefits of a society based on
technology and competition.

• While most of those communities disbanded, many have survived, emphasizing

economic and social cooperation.

• Some communities are separate from the rest of society while others hope to serve as
an example of a better lifestyle to the rest of the world.
 The Giver
• When reading The Giver, think about whether the society in the novel has created a
utopia or dystopia.

• What are positive aspects of their society? What had to be given up in order to create
this society?