On Dystopian Fiction

[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).