A Dystopia of Our Own Design
Are Dystopian Novels Contributing to Our Dystopian World?
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever. –George Orwell, 1984
More and more often, I look around and find that the themes of my favorite dystopian novels have come to life: separatism/division, erasure, controlling the past to control the future, the rich stamping on the poor while the poor take it out on each other, using technology to control and monitor our lives, etc. It is everything that we have been warned against, especially in literature—time and time again.
If we have been warned so often, how exactly did we end up here?
I believe that those who aimed to warn us may partly be to blame for the future we have found ourselves in. They did their best to warn us, to show us where we could go with technology and sociopolitical policies if we did not clean up our acts, and that is exactly the problem. They showed us exactly which way to go, and some people took up the torch not to avoid that future but to head straight for it.
Think about it: we assume that everyone takes away the same lessons from books, but we also know that books are often considered up for interpretation. What might be seen as a warning to one person, might be considered a blueprint for another—a means to their own ends, as it were. Whether their ends are for the betterment of humanity or not is up for debate, as is whether they justify the means they use to get there.
Perhaps this has to do with when we are being introduced to dystopian novels. The earliest I remember being introduced to a dystopian novel was when I was in the eighth grade, at just thirteen years old, when we read Lois Lowry’s The Giver. Now, I was considered rather mature for my age, so the themes were not lost on me. The ideas behind the book horrified me, in fact. I am not so sure if it affected the rest of my classmates as strongly, though. That could partly be due to the fact that we were listening to an audio book that was not particularly well-read. I remember during a part when the main character was crying—after an especially traumatic scene regarding a baby being killed—and the voice was acted out so horribly that almost my entire class laughed (I might have been the only one who did not).
Tell me, how can we expect people still young enough to laugh at something like that to grasp the complexities of a dystopian novel and comprehend that it is meant to warn you against what could come? No, this is not enough to expect that any of them would become the next dictator using 1984 as their blueprint. Still, starting students on dystopian novels when they are too young to understand what they are reading could cause issues with how they remember and treat those lessons later in life.
There is nothing wrong with trying to tell people to wake up and pay attention to what is going on in the world. If we do not, then we will continue down the path that we are already on and destroy society as we know it. However, we must be careful with how we handle our warnings once we produce them. We must get them into the hands of the right people and make sure that they understand what is being said, rather than twisting it to satisfy their own needs.
It all boils down to these three lessons:
Be careful what you write.
Be careful how you read.
Be careful how you teach.
Otherwise, the world will pay for it.
About the Creator
Stephanie Hoogstad
With a BA in English and MSc in Creative Writing, writing is my life. I have edited and ghost written for years with some published stories and poems of my own.
Learn more about me: thewritersscrapbin.com
Support my writing: Patreon
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Comments (7)
This was so thought provoking Stephanie!! It really hit home with that note of "up for interpretation" bit... "some see a warning and others see a blue print". I know this was more of a cautionary tale, but my brain veered left and took away "you never know how your work will impact those that read it" Congrats on Top Story, Stephanie!!
I agree. Just like movies have a rating system, some books perhaps shouldn’t be read until you reach a certain age. Interesting article, Stephanie. And congrats on TS!
good
Your reflection on interpretation is spot on. Stories don’t land the same with every reader and you explain that complexity so clearly.
Congrats on top story! I think an important detail to teach when teaching these books was what my junior year English teacher hammered into my head: dystopian books do not attempt to predict the future, they are commentary on the present.
There’s a lot here to unpack. Forewarning: for the sake of discussion I will be honest here. First I want to say that your writing, and the detail you put into it, is immaculate. You are an exceptional writer. Most things you said I agree with. There are a few things I don’t agree with. You made a comment about where we could go with technology (I am singling out technology for my point) if we didn’t clean up our act. I am very much about technology. I consider myself forward thinking and progressive when it comes to technology. Advancements in technology thrill me. I love to read about it, I love to discover it, I love to use it. I am of the belief that technology does better our lives. I believe that advancements in technology are for the most part a good thing. But it’s, we the human beings, that make our choices to use the technology for good or for bad. So it’s not technology that destroys our society. It can sometimes just be a handful of people that destroy an entire society or even world by using technology for evil. Which that leads to politics and governments because they are usually the ones who control the technological advancements. Look at how Elon Musk and Donald trump used technology in 2024 to sway millions of young voters and Latino voters not to vote with targeted misinformation campaigns on social media. Musk and trump used the combined technologies of social media, demographics, marketing strategies, mind control, brainwashing, hypnosis, and other methods. They were successful in integrating these technologies to trick people. You stated that we should, “Be careful what you write.” I believe as writers we should always write what is in our hearts no matter what it is. Can you imagine if George Orwell went into writing 1984 with the attitude of playing it safe and being careful about not writing something that could potentially harm society? He would have, most likely, written a boring white washed story that nobody would have bought. When Orwell wrote 1984 the seed of evil had already sprouted in humankind many times over through humankind. The things that Orwell wrote about were going to happen anyway - even if he never wrote about them. I say this because they had already happened - Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin and even earlier Shaka Zulu, The Win Dynasty, Julius Caesar, and others. That being said I found what you wrote here to be fascinating and obviously thought provoking. I hope that you don’t mind that I expanded in detail in the two incidences in which I have a differing viewpoint - my aim is not to discount anything you wrote as your viewpoints are all very valid and well thought out. Once again I respect your talent as a writer and your philosophies. You are one of my favorite Vocal creators.
I agree. Some things need to be taught when children are older. They don't fully understand at such a young age. I remember reading Bridge to Terebithia in 4th grade. I remember being the only child in tears. Everyone else didn't understand what happened, I guess. It's not dystopian, but some younger minds just aren't ready for such heavy lessons. Great work, Stephanie.