I don't think so. I think you can totally have a dystopian world without "big brother." In fact, big brother is overused! You're breaking out of the box. Dystopia can exist as urban decay, or an Ayn Rand like world with every man for himself.
In 1984, I taught a class on all the utopia and dystopian novels. I think a traditional theme in novels like 1984 (which is a great novel) is man's loss of control to a totalitarian government, but perhaps there are other interesting ideas.
Some people would view Skinner's Walden II as a utopian world (he did) but others might see a behavioral world as too planned and controlled, even though people have freedom of choice.
Remember that 1984 was describing what was happening in Europe and England before 1948. George Orwell took the things that were happening that worried him and by taking them to their limits, created a world that people recognized but could fear.
I think you can take any set of social practices and by extending them, make them the basis for a great story. Consider "The Crucible." The characters are helpless to fight against religion, superstition, and the law taken to an extreme, and of course it is a real story from the 1600s that keeps getting repeated.
I think dystopia is a matter of perspective. If the only world the characters know, ever have known, or have ever heard about is the dystopian one, then no matter how appaling that world might be for the reader, for the characters themselves it's just normal.
Even in 1984, Winston was fine until he somehow (I can't remember how, exactly) got the idea that the world didn't have to be that way, and perhaps shouldn't be that way. To a modern day person, life in europe circa, say, 1200 AD would probably seem pretty dystopic, but to them, that was just life.
I think there are two chief questions you need to address:
One, does everyone in the society percieve it as a dystopia, or do only the main characters see the problem?
Two, what is the nature of the dystopia? Is it governmental, environmental, or something else?
If you get a handle on those, you'll be fine. The first question directly bears on how your main characters interact with everyone else. If the dystopia is openly admitted, then probably they can talk about it openly. But if they're the only ones that know, then they have to be secretive and subversive. The second question bears on what the characters can or might potentially do in response to the situation--start an underground resistance? Advocate for green energy? Run for office?
It may even be that dystopia is merely the setting for the story, is just the backdrop against which the characters play out some completely unrelated plot. The movies "Mad Max" and "The Postman" are excellent examples of that; nobody's trying to undo the dystopic world, they just have to live in it.
I think the thing you need to remember about dystopia's is the people creating them genuinely feel like they're doing it for the greater good. Many will even claim they've created utopias unsurpassable by any future or past generations. I think it'd be a good idea to focus, at least in some part, on the willful ignorance of many, allowing the situation to go on much longer than it really should.
The human mind will see what it wants to. Utopias are a fallacy, in creating them, you're almost _always_ creating a nasty dystopia underbelly.
Other good books to read to get dystopian viewpoints are "A Handmaid's Tale" or "Oryx and Crake", both by Margaret Atwood. One is dystopia with insanely overreaching government(with religious overreach a key factor), and the other is pretty much the destruction of most of society. Really good books.
Study some dictatorships (PRC China/USSR/Nazis/ w/e) and their effects on the people they ruled. Try building a theme off of these people's mindsets, and have your MC have some conflict with his surroundings, enlighten to something, etc.
I'm writing a dystopian novel at the moment, actually, and it's a great deal of fun.
13,539 / 50,000
nov. 17, 2007 - 14 07
What sort of help do you need?
Personally, I'd recommend reading the classic dystopian novels: 1984, Fahrenheit 451, etc.
52,400 / 50,000
nov. 17, 2007 - 14 27
Haha- my research for this novel was Blade Runner actually, but I'm up for a rereading of 1984 once this is all over.
Here's my problem: is dictatorial government control a necessary factor?
13,539 / 50,000
nov. 17, 2007 - 16 20
Whoa! Deep question.
I don't think so. I think you can totally have a dystopian world without "big brother." In fact, big brother is overused! You're breaking out of the box. Dystopia can exist as urban decay, or an Ayn Rand like world with every man for himself.
Hope that helps!
52,400 / 50,000
nov. 18, 2007 - 10 56
Thanks, that really does
=]
54,009 / 50,000
nov. 18, 2007 - 12 44
In 1984, I taught a class on all the utopia and dystopian novels. I think a traditional theme in novels like 1984 (which is a great novel) is man's loss of control to a totalitarian government, but perhaps there are other interesting ideas.
Some people would view Skinner's Walden II as a utopian world (he did) but others might see a behavioral world as too planned and controlled, even though people have freedom of choice.
Remember that 1984 was describing what was happening in Europe and England before 1948. George Orwell took the things that were happening that worried him and by taking them to their limits, created a world that people recognized but could fear.
I think you can take any set of social practices and by extending them, make them the basis for a great story. Consider "The Crucible." The characters are helpless to fight against religion, superstition, and the law taken to an extreme, and of course it is a real story from the 1600s that keeps getting repeated.
52,400 / 50,000
nov. 18, 2007 - 15 22
How ironic, that you taught this class in 1984
40,458 / 50,000
nov. 18, 2007 - 19 00
Roger, that's great food for thought!
55,943 / 50,000
nov. 19, 2007 - 14 41
I think dystopia is a matter of perspective. If the only world the characters know, ever have known, or have ever heard about is the dystopian one, then no matter how appaling that world might be for the reader, for the characters themselves it's just normal.
Even in 1984, Winston was fine until he somehow (I can't remember how, exactly) got the idea that the world didn't have to be that way, and perhaps shouldn't be that way. To a modern day person, life in europe circa, say, 1200 AD would probably seem pretty dystopic, but to them, that was just life.
I think there are two chief questions you need to address:
One, does everyone in the society percieve it as a dystopia, or do only the main characters see the problem?
Two, what is the nature of the dystopia? Is it governmental, environmental, or something else?
If you get a handle on those, you'll be fine. The first question directly bears on how your main characters interact with everyone else. If the dystopia is openly admitted, then probably they can talk about it openly. But if they're the only ones that know, then they have to be secretive and subversive. The second question bears on what the characters can or might potentially do in response to the situation--start an underground resistance? Advocate for green energy? Run for office?
It may even be that dystopia is merely the setting for the story, is just the backdrop against which the characters play out some completely unrelated plot. The movies "Mad Max" and "The Postman" are excellent examples of that; nobody's trying to undo the dystopic world, they just have to live in it.
54,870 / 50,000
nov. 19, 2007 - 22 23
I think the thing you need to remember about dystopia's is the people creating them genuinely feel like they're doing it for the greater good. Many will even claim they've created utopias unsurpassable by any future or past generations. I think it'd be a good idea to focus, at least in some part, on the willful ignorance of many, allowing the situation to go on much longer than it really should.
The human mind will see what it wants to. Utopias are a fallacy, in creating them, you're almost _always_ creating a nasty dystopia underbelly.
50,841 / 50,000
déc. 6, 2007 - 20 38
Other good books to read to get dystopian viewpoints are "A Handmaid's Tale" or "Oryx and Crake", both by Margaret Atwood. One is dystopia with insanely overreaching government(with religious overreach a key factor), and the other is pretty much the destruction of most of society. Really good books.
13,312 / 50,000
janv. 1, 2008 - 21 47
Study some dictatorships (PRC China/USSR/Nazis/ w/e) and their effects on the people they ruled. Try building a theme off of these people's mindsets, and have your MC have some conflict with his surroundings, enlighten to something, etc.
I'm writing a dystopian novel at the moment, actually, and it's a great deal of fun.