DahlgrenDahlgrenDahlgrenDahlgrenDahlgrenDahlgren
DahlgrenDahlgrenDahlgrenDahlgrenDahlgrenDahlgren
DahlgrenDahlgrenDahlgrenDahlgrenDahlgrenDahlgren
DahlgrenDahlgrenDahlgrenDahlgrenDahlgrenDahlgren
DahlgrenDahlgrenDahlgrenDahlgrenDahlgrenDahlgren.

Dahlgren.

quote:

Originally posted by Bravus:
Epic Fail: No "Random Acts of Senseless Violence"

and I am Bravus.

I think there is some confusion here between "dystopian" and "post apocalyptic." (for some reason my dash key won't work)
1984 is true dystopia. "The Road" is post apocalyptic. Of the latter form, my favorite is Edgar Pangborn's "Davy."

quote:

Originally posted by John Maddox Roberts:
I think there is some confusion here between "dystopian" and "post apocalyptic." (for some reason my dash key won't work)

Here, have some of mine - - - - - - -

quote:

1984 is true dystopia. "The Road" is post apocalyptic. Of the latter form, my favorite is Edgar Pangborn's "Davy."

What's interesting is the general lack of utopian novels; in fact, I'm having trouble thinking of even one. Perhaps it's the old thing about everybody being happy in the same way?

I'd nominate Oryx and Crake, which manages to be both dystopian and post-apocalyptic. Watch out for those pigoons...

(oh, and the central sections of Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell).

quote:

Originally posted by John Maddox Roberts:
I think there is some confusion here between "dystopian" and "post apocalyptic."

Can't a post apocalyptic society be dystopian?

Top 50 Dystopian Movies of All Time

Arguably post-apocalyptic stories are usually dystopian, because there are not many worse places to be than a world which has already ended.

Idoru is an interesting pick, great book but still interesting on this list. I just gave up on listening to hard wired, I hate audio books! It didn't help that I couldn't get into the book either.

If the apocalypse were self-inflicted, then it could also be argued that the outgoing society was at least dysfunctional.

"Consider for a moment Mr. Henry Beemis..."

I think of dystopian as a depiction of society gone bad, while post-apocalypse is about life after the destruction of society. Probably not anything official, though, but I like the distinction.
Hey! My dash came back! ---------

Those are Blakkandekka's dashes. Use them wisely. Use them in peace.

This is why I think the huge Nigerian slum attached to Lagos (Makoko) is ripe as the setting for a neuvo-cyberpunk-dystopian novel or short story.

It's an amazing place. Tech-Trash recyclers, people selling stolen cell minutes on the streetcorner, totally corrupt police... cyber-cafes that are mostly cyber and very little cafe, where most of the Nigerian email and fax cyber-schemes come from.

In no particular order:

V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd

The Handmaid's Tale by Maragaret Atwood

1984 by George Orwell

Brave New World (technically utopian, according to Huxley) by Aldous Huxley

Come Luck April by Jean Ure

The last one I read as a teenager and it might not be as good as I remember. It was unusual in that it was a misandronist dystopia, I think written in response to feminist-separatism and so-called "political lesbians", addressing the issue that misandrony was just as bad as misogyny. I tried to find it on the author's website, but it looks like she's pretending that things she wrote in the eighties totally don't exist.

Question: So would you guys say any novel that is set today, is somewhat descriptive of society and is above all realistic is necessarily a dystopian novel?


And as long as we're also talking post-apocalyptic: Russel Hoban's Riddley Walker

*fangirl whoop*

quote:

Hey! My dash came back! ---------

30% interest! Thanks.

quote:

Question: So would you guys say any novel that is set today, is somewhat descriptive of society and is above all realistic is necessarily a dystopian novel?

I see from Wikipedia (so it must be true) that the word Utopia was originally a pun on Eutopia, Greek for 'a happy place'. 'Utopia' literally translates as 'no place'. Seems that Thomas More may have intended the whole thing as a sort of early literary irony.

I think you're right though - 'hey, isn't it great here, lets not change a thing' never sold a book.

quote:

I think you're right though - 'hey, isn't it great here, lets not change a thing' never sold a book.

Sir, I have two words for you.
Literary Erotica.

quote:

Originally posted by John Maddox Roberts:
I think there is some confusion here between "dystopian" and "post apocalyptic." (for some reason my dash key won't work)
1984 is true dystopia. "The Road" is post apocalyptic. Of the latter form, my favorite is Edgar Pangborn's "Davy."

After having thought about this, I now agree. The Road is post apocolyptic, and not a dystopian novel. I think colin's comment is specious. A line must be drawn between the genre's.