Dystopias, first the comics, now in novels and films

1/13/2020
By Alex Ness

As I recently covered 4 great Dystopia Comics I was thereafter asked by a reader to give a similar account to the best books, and if I could films.  The main control point that I was aiming at is the dystopia doesn't come from the disaster or war humans face, but the government that is creating the dystopia by its actions.  Books however, have taken aim at the subject so often, in such detail it would take me a lifetime to write about.

BOOKS

We
1984
Brave New World
The Machine Stops
Moscow 2042
Love Among the Ruins
Fahrenheit 451
A Clockwork Orange
This Perfect Day
The Children of Men
Never Let Me Go
The Handmaid's Tale
The Sleeper Awakes
The Iron Heel
Anthem
Stand on Zanzibar
Make Room! Make Room!
Lanark
A Scanner Darkly
The City and the City
Infinite Jest
Paris in the 20th Century
Neuromancer
The Giver
Snow Crash
The Man in High Castle
Slaughterhouse Five
The Lathe of Heaven
The Trial
The Hunger Games

The common theme of these works is not heroic main character good protagonists or evil antagonists.  The enemy is rarely so defined.  In dystopia you find a enemy now and then, but what sets these works apart from the rest is that the setting itself is the real problem.  I've been writing a story and have been for decades where the government is trying to save mankind by its controls and efforts.  But, the reason it has taken so long to write, is that isn't an easy to portray world.  But what makes ever dystopia powerful to read, is watching the steps taken that establish the worlds the characters, good and evil, have to live within.  Utopia stories generally speak to the attempt to create it, or tear it down.  Dystopias are much different.  You can show the depravity of the human condition through life in a fallen state of human society.  You can show the rebellious rise against such.  But the thing that stands out for me, is how we can see the roots of the problems in our own world today.  

I think these are famous enough that you might pursue them and find it quick to acquire, and engrossing to read.  But beyond that, while there are various great dystopias, these are examples of how society will crumble with every grab by government of freedom.  We might think that we are so very important and free, but the truth of government is, any opportunity to steal our freedom, it will, and we become less free with each act.  And then ask yourself, have you ever seen government give back power or control once it has taken it?  The answer is no.

 FILM

THX 1138
Metropolis
Soylent Green
Blade Runner 
The Matrix
Brazil
The Hunger Games
Dredd
1984
12 Monkeys
La Cite des Enfants Perdus
Mad Max

There are far more dystopias to discover, but if you watch these movies and read all the books you'll have enough for a lifetime.