At the B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog
Jeff Somers tagged five dystopian societies that might actually function. One title on the list:
The World State (Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley)
Huxley is one of the few creators of a dystopia to have addressed the wide-ranging difficulties faced in running a large-scale society predicated on complete control. Whereas many dystopias amount to a single concept that supposedly rules everyone’s lives, back in 1932 Huxley figured out that it would take constant effort to reshape the way people think and behave. His society uses medical, pharmaceutical, and educational techniques to ensure compliance, and the detailed examination is convincing in its thoroughness—possibly because even eight decades later you can still see the seeds of that society in our own.
Read about
the other entries on the list.
Brave New World is among
Annalee Newitz's seven utopias that changed the future and
Matt Haig's top ten novels influenced by Shakespeare.
--Marshal Zeringue
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