The purpose of this article is to show the Utopian roots in the formation of a Dystopia, to reveal the foundations of dystopian fiction, and display the depiction of dystopian societies in various authors works
From Utopia to Dystopia
Foundations of Dystopian Fiction
Critical Review on Huxley, Vonnegut and DeLillo’s Dystopian Fiction
Conclusion
First Utopia was Plato and his Republic
1500s, Sir Thomas More, coined term Utopia
Dystopian writing almost criticized Utopian thinking (anit-utopian)
Vieira, in 2010, described Dystopian novels as novels that “denounce the irrelevance and inconsistency of utopian dreaming and the ruin of society might entail"
The idea that humans were moving toward a future where there is mass human manipulation, and negative technological advances
M.H. Forster
After writing The Machine Stops, pioneered dystopian literature that focused on a hell created bytechnology
Credited to writing first modern dystopia
Inspired writing of We, Brave New World, and 1984, which are all critical dystopias
We, is criticism of the faith of humans
Brave New World is a reaction to capitalism and the bourgeois society
1984 is the criticism of Stalins totalitarianism
The idea a Utopian could be made, but was abused by the people in power
Fahrenheit 451, where reading is made an illegal activity
Player piano, where a tech based consumer world destroys the human value
The Handmaids Tale, where female totalitarianism is satirized
One of the purposed of dystopian literature is to make the reader aware of the truth in their lives and to not be deceived by the lies they are told
Aldous Huxley
Shows a conflict between science and the humanities
His works reveal the true nature of science and technology while arguing the claims of the science and technology as well
Brave New World is best work
Written during American and European political, social, and economical crisis
Introduced the idea of a mass social media takeover to control the human race
The ideas that were introduced in his works of technological advancement were so scary, because it seemed possible that all of the ideas could have been made relatively soon
Kurt Vonnegut
Has works that depict events that happened in his real life such as imprisonment and death
Focused a lot on the destruction of humanity through the use of advanced technology, I. e . the Atomic Bomb
Human dignity is ruined when machines take the place of people
Payer Piano
Slaughterhouse-Five, serves as a criticism of war and by some a criticism of America
Attempts to create a union with space and time, offering the character to time travel to provide different viewpoints
The idea that man himself will become a machine rather than be replaced by them is a central idea Vonnegut contained
Don DeLillo
Writes in many different styles and has congrued various criticisms on his works
Shows the difficulty of thinking back toward history when our ideas are shaped by media and technology
White Noise
Often addresses paradoxes and contradictions of postmodern culture
Raised awareness for ideas of a strong takeover by mass media and television
Huxley, Vonnegut, and DeLillo, have contributed to many fundamental conditions surrounding the human society
They Help people to realize that technology can lead to the degradation of the human society and leave people without dignity
Technological advances can make people less aware and reliant which can lead to the defeat of the human people