Utopian and dystopian fantasies, have often intrigued our society since we’ve developed complex literature. During the 19th and 20th centuries our society was amazed by the Utopian views of the future and what our growing technological capabilities could help us achieve in the future. This view changed however, in recent decades the dystopian view of our future has become more popular and our obsession with it has slowly taken over Sci-fi literature. But where did this Obsession start? well we have to go back to a time when Beach boys took over radio stations, Beatles invaded North American soil and the message was love not war. The Cuban missile crisis was, an event involving the placement of nuclear weapons near the US in Cuba by the Soviet Union, which cause panic among the population and also contributed to the creation of posters like this below.
This “Red Scare” or fear of communism may have directly contributed to the development of our obsession with dystopian futures. Once we were faced the looming fear of total destruction on a global scale, and once that, fear subsided I believe we started to become obsessed with dystopia. You could also say that, the invention of Nuclear weapons led to the obsession as well, as humanity finally developed a way to destroy themselves. Sci-fi authors took these events and, crafted worlds based off the fear of total global destruction which the public became obsessed with ever since.
Terrific summary of the change in the public’s view about utopia and dystopia. Although we strive to live in the best world possible, our world is imperfect. There are always those who suffer too much and those who cause too much suffering. I guess reading about a society that is clearly worse than what I know about my world can make me feel better.
And when I consider the popularity of dystopic literature and films with teens, the connection I make is the tendency of both teens and the genre towards rebelliousness. Do you think that teens like the genre because it in someway emulates their lives or is it because the stories tend to be action-packed and exciting?
I strongly agree with both of those ideas, I think dystopic literature is very popular amongst teens because it reflects their own rebelliousness through a different lenses while also conveying a message throughout the story. The action can also be used to display this rebelliousness in the story too, and is kind of a “seasoning” to our already full course meal.