Feminism and science fiction, on the surface, seem to be unlikely partners. However, science fiction allows the feminist writers to imagine a world completely of their own making—provocative and thought provoking. […]
The tensions that dystopian literature often underlines between security and free will isn’t one that resides only in the pages—or on the screen—of 1950s science fiction stories. It is a concern that’s relevant even today and appears even more draconian when some of that news includes technologies that use big data to predict and attempt to prevent crime. […]
In ‘Minority Report’, the protagonist, John Anderton, head of the Precrime Unit knows he is the predicted murderer. Yet, he’s never even heard the name of the man he is supposed to kill. However, ironically, the fear of being removed from society, of being accused of a crime he has not committed, makes him just like everybody else. […]
The McCarthy Era seemed extreme in the ways it curtailed personal liberties in the 1950s. Minority Report centers around this concern and deals head-on with the intersecting concerns of free will, criminality and the role of technology in keeping us safe. […]
In “Nineteen Eighty-Four”, there is a commitment to showing the potential of a totalitarian government to deliberately challenge the notion of the real. Maybe that’s why the book remains completely relevant even today. […]
‘The Chrysalids’, by John Wyndham, revealed that in a dystopian society, deviation was not acceptable. That’s why mutants were treated terribly. […]
There are four different dark narratives in science fiction literature that shows a society after, before, and within an apocalypse. The narrative of ‘The Chrysalids’ describes a society after an apocalypse that happened some 1000 years earlier. […]
In the book ‘The Chrysalids’, David Storm lives in a strict society where mutants have no place. He meets a girl named Sophie with extra toes on her feet. David is severely punished by his father for helping Sophie and her family escape. […]
In a dystopia, the citizens can grasp the mechanics of the society they live in, but not its underlying motives. They can understand the ‘how’ but not the ‘why’. Orwell, Arendt, and Zamyatin all try to find the answer to this ‘why’ by looking at the society through the lens of totalitarianism. […]
George Orwell explores in his writings if truth and reality are merely a social construct, often challenged and weaponized in a totalitarian society. […]
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