On Dystopian Fiction

[Valora Crow]

Here's my question: Can you think of any work of dystopian fiction that is set on a planet other than Earth? And not a sci-fi, we're on Mars, but we're originally from Earth. Just purely set in a different universe.

I've been thinking on this for weeks, and I can't come up with any examples that are divorced from Earth. I'm wondering now if the nature of a dystopian work is rooted in our inhabiting the same space. Like, in Hunger Games, we know District 12 is in the Appalachians, and comparing its current condition to how it's portrayed in the book stirs a reaction in us. Is that the backbone of the genre?

[Blue]

Star Wars, the original sage, was pretty dystopian, and though it has humans, they're from another galaxy. Considering how oppressed all the aliens are, I can see the whole time as pretty shitty.

[Valora Crow]

Ooh, I didn't think of that. But is that dystopian or sci-fi? Part of my debate was was that as soon as the story moved off of Earth, it crossed that line. Or can it be both? :/

[Blue]

Why couldn't it be both? Most dystopian fictions take place in a relatively hi-tech future anyhow. Take Warhammer 40k, for example. You'd be hard-pressed to argue that anything going on in the 40th millenium isn't dystopic.

[Blue]

Hell, if you look into DBZ a bit, you realize the entire Saiyan history is based in dystopia.

[King B]

Why couldn't it be both? Most dystopian fictions take place in a relatively hi-tech future anyhow.

Interesting observation. I never really realized that.

Another one that is both dystopian and sci-fi, the Terminator series.

[Blue]

Don't forget Robotech. Or even Gundam. The future always seems to suck such balls.

[Super Buu]

That's because every almost every fiction needs conflict, and changing the setting (be it entirely, or to a future version of reality) simply gives more leeway for that. Harmonious worlds do not make for good stories. Not for long, anyway.

[Jonathan Meer]

Fantasy is full of this stuff. See the first Mistborn book by Brandon Sanderson, or Lois Lowry's The Giver.

[Mal Nova]

Ooh, I didn't think of that. But is that dystopian or sci-fi? Part of my debate was was that as soon as the story moved off of Earth, it crossed that line. Or can it be both? :/

I think you lose your debate.

Sci-fi doesn't have to leave a planet. It is, science-fiction, and can be many things.

And Utopia/Dystopia can be described on earth as things like heaven and hell. Just saying...

[Jonathan Meer]

I think Valora just been told.

[Valora Crow]

I think you lose your debate.

Sci-fi doesn't have to leave a planet. It is, science-fiction, and can be many things.

And Utopia/Dystopia can be described on earth as things like heaven and hell. Just saying...

Sci-fi can stay on Earth, sure. But can dystopian fiction leave the planet? That was more my question. To my thinking, a Dystopia is a state considerably worse than what it formerly was. In much of dystopian fiction as I know it, at least, we have only placed it on Earth (particularly in different places in the West (Oryx & Crake, Handmaiden's Tale, Divergence, Hunger Games, 1984, etc.)) because we can easily see how a terrible future is worse than our ooookkaaaay present. In a fictional world, it's harder to establish that context. It's harder to relate to that history and identify where those turning points are. You either have to already know the backstory (why settings on Earth are convenient) or have a very long saga (why I can now see Star Wars as fitting into that category).