I'm an MA student and I'm developing a video game based on Margaret Atwood's novel 'Oryx and Crake' as my final project.
Though this isn't a commercial venture as it's just an educational work, I find it particularly interesting that there haven't been any video games yet that have been appreciated or respected in the same way as literature is.
I was wondering if you had a second to answer a questionnaire to help me with my market research.
I was just wondering, what draws you to dystopian fiction? After reading Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451 I was somewhat sad but I love reading them anyway. Obviously I'm not the only one or you wouldn't have a community devoted to those books.
I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm a 27 year old female from the United States.
I typed in "dystopia" under interests and I was thrilled to actually find some communities. It's nice to see that other people have the same interests as me.
The only real dystopias that I have read have been 1984 and Brave New World. I am planning on reading Anthem tonight. I always lean towards those types of themes in movies as well.
Does anyone have any recommendations for books on writing these type of novels, film scrips, or short stories? Or any kind of books on writing that have helped you to get started?
I just joined a day ago and wanted to say hello. I've always love reading about dystopian/post-apocalyspe societies and topics. I'm almost done with 'Oryx and Crake' (which is how I found this group.) and it's really such a great, powerful read for me. Another writer who I think fits into the dystopian mold is William Gibson. It's not very blatant or a running theme, but the settings of his books are very bleak and have a sense of emptiness to them, even though his stories take place sometime in the near-enough future. Does anyone else see this?
Figured I'd introduce myself to the community. I am pretty much a panopticon junkie and cannot get enough of it (if you don't know what I'm talking about check out Michel Foucault's essay, so good). The beauty behind the panopticon is that it can serve as the device to create the ultimate utopia or could create the best dystopia this side of 1984. That's about all I got.
I accidentally packed the book whilst preparing to move. Ergo, book discussion to commence one week hence.
Possibly longer, since I have no idea what book box it went into, aside from it not being one of the twenty boxes I packed last year, so it has to be in one of the other 15.
Unless one of you would like to kick it off. I guess as a guideline and to prevent spoilers, if you would like to go ahead and post about the book, you can do so behind a cut; in the cut-tag, specify how far along in the book you're discussing. That way if I've only read to chapter 4 and you're on chapter 7, I know to hold off until I catch up with you; and that way also if people join up with the community later they can still participate. Or something.
Brave New World. Aldous Huxley. Coming soon to a dystopics board near you.
In other news, I watched the movie version of "Wrinkle in Time" last night, and although it's not a dystopian work, I don't think, I believe that Camazotz is a dystopia. I need to go back and reread the book, because I know the plot was changed significantly although not to its detriment, but given that an important theme in the story that "being alike is not the same thing as being equal," I think it merits dystopic study. I studied young adult/intermediate reader literature in college, and I think there's a lot of those YA books that use dystopia to put forward ideas. On the other hand, was Camazotz a dystopia, or a condemnation of communism? Either way, it's interesting to look at the Christian subtext of the book in light of what it does condemn.
Well, as recent entries in my personal journal have indicated, I'm writing again.
Which means I'm up for talking about writing again, and I see a few others have stopped in since my first post.
I want to reread "Brave New World." I last read it when I was in my mid-20s, and I think I would approach it with a different perspective now that it's a decade later. Anyone want to read along with me?
...to kick off this community. I came up with the idea while reading Oryx and Crake, and then, as I'm often wont to do, I put the book down and hadn't had a chance to finish it. I'm going to try to do that sometime this week.
Have any of you read it? It got a lot of buzz because people were talking about Atwood writing her second science fiction novel, but she writes dystopias. Her first one, as you all probably know, was Handmaid's Tale. Looking back on that one, I find her choice of setting really unsettling: she picked New England for her Republic of Gilead, and I believe she rationalized the choice by its Puritan heritage. I'd like to reread it and examine the similarities between Gilead and the evanglistic christians that largely populate the south, as well as in the context of the muslim oppression of women that I believe initially inspired the book.
