For me, a good dystopian world follows the logic of this Leonard Cohen lyric:

There’s a crack / there’s a crack in everything

That’s how the light gets in

By their very definition, dystopian worlds are deeply flawed, dangerous, extreme and upsetting.  One thinks of the lottery system in Hunger Games, or the siloed society in Divergent (or the very complex, fantastically spot-on prognostications in Neal Stephenson’s Diamond Age). 

But, if you look at them closely, dystopian worlds have a few things in common:  

Class differences are stark – or non existent

Dystopian worlds highlight in new and startling ways the methods by which power is circulated. In our human society, that tends to involve class. 

There tends to be the extremely wealthy and powerful, or the extremely vulnerable, powerless and poor — with little or no “middle ground” between. Dominion City (in the True Born novels, and A Glamour of Blood) happily follows this trope. 

Sometimes class is virtually non-existent. Those societies tend to have the most extreme portrayals of dystopia, because the powerful have utterly and irrevocably conquered their prey. 

The classic Orwell novel,1984, is an example. The news feed in the novel tells the inhabitants of Oceania that they have “always been at war with Eurasia”; not long after, the feed informs citizens that they have “always been at war with Eastasia.” One message completely erases the other, and the citizens, in their fog, are helpless to resist this programming. 

 Regardless, both of these class models bring attention to power as a commodity, a tool and a weapon.  

Dystopian worlds always have a crack (or two)

As the song goes, ultimate power and corruption always has a crack in it somewhere — a point of entry that the narrative can leverage like a good old crowbar. Dystopian worlds are meant to not only future cast, but to depict the endless possibilities of resistance to what may appear to be a foregone conclusion. 

Dystopian worlds like to cast humanity as doomed, in other words, but there’s aways a way out. Why, of course there will be a robot apocalypse. Nevertheless: someone, maybe a retro fangirl who likes to visit scrapyards, will discover the ultimate kill switch. 

Rebels are necessary 

Dystopian worlds are founded on the dual concepts of conformity and rebellion. There can be no charismatic rebel without a society to keep them down. We need rebels — they are the spark of human creativity, survival, resistance. 

Katniss Everdeen (Hunger Games) is the epitome of the dystopian rebel. Her rebellion rises out of love and empathy — which puts her out of touch and out of bounds within her vanity-and- violence driven society. 

Dystopian worlds create rebels. In much the same way that difficult pasts turn ordinary folks into superheroes (Just look at Wolverine, for instance, while Dr. Manhattan is literally atomized in. a science experiment), the rebels of dystopian worlds give us a lens by which to see the world more clearly. Through their eyes, we gain perspective on these threads of power and comfort — who is pulling them, and who is suffering for them. 

 

 

What are some of your favorite dystopian worlds? Leave your thoughts in the comments.