A Dystopia is defined by Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary as “an imaginary place where people lead an often dehumanized and fearful existence.” When envisioning a dystopian science fiction book, one can imagine a world filled with anything from a totalitarian regime to a viral pandemic that decimates or zombifies humankind. On the surface, dystopian sci-fi books are horrific in nature, but underneath the horror, a powerful message is delivered.
Totalitarianism and Thought Control in Dystopian Science Fiction Books
In 1932, Aldous Huxley published a science fiction novel about a dystopian future of supreme societal thought control. Huxley’s classic sci-fi novel, Brave New World, provides an in-depth glimpse into a future world where humans are technologically conditioned to believe that religious thought, artistic expression, and scientific inquiry, are non-essential; and therefore, outlawed. In Huxley's classic sci-fi imagining, sexual promiscuity and lack of true emotion abound.
Post-Apocalyptic Themes in Dystopian Science Fiction Books
At 73, Cormack Mccarthy published a sci-fi book about a post-apocalyptic dystopia where humankind is nearly obliterated by an unidentified catastrophe. McCarthy’s 2006 novel, The Road,* focuses on a dying man and his young son as they journey through a harsh landscape in order to find a civilized existence. In the dystopian world of The Road, Earth’s atmosphere is only tolerable with gas masks, and people are reduced to cannibalism.
* The Road is slated to be released as a film starring Viggo Mortensen, Guy Pearce, Charlize Theron, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Robert Duval in the fall of 2009.
Pandemic Plague in Dystopian Science Fiction Books
Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel, I Am Legend is an impressive dystopian sci-fi story that has inspired three cinematic versions*. The book tells the story of a scientist as he struggles to stay alive in a lonely world inhabited by vampirishly, infected humans who inhabit the night. The key to human survival is tied to the book’s title, and the ultimate fate of the protagonist.
* The Last Man on Earth, 1964, starring Vincent Price, The Omega Man, 1971, starring Charlton Heston, and I Am Legend, 2008, starring Will Smith.
What Can Be Learned from Dystopian Science Fiction Books
Huxley’s Brave New World reflects the danger of allowing over-reaching State control. These types of dystopian sci-fi books warn us to pay attention to political issues and speak out against policies that threaten our civil liberties.
Cormack McCarthy’s The Road, offers a glimpse into a post-apocalyptic world where humanity completely breaks down and the natural environment becomes inhospitable. The message in The Road gives no warning about preventative methods, as no source for the responsible disaster is named; instead the book studies what people can become when stripped of their humanity.
In Matheson’s I am Legend, the message is sobering because of its likelihood. Given biohazards, and the threat of toxic warfare, a plague could surface, or be engineered, which could render its victims to a grotesque state before death. The lesson here is to be aware that patient zero could be the next person who coughs in your direction.
The lessons learned from dystopian science fiction books are not specifically meant to instill fear, instead they are mainly geared to enlighten and perhaps jolt readers into action. Hopefully, one will take away from these sci-fi books a desire to pay closer attention to the often overlooked, but greatly important issues of the day; this is the common thread of all dystopian fiction.
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