I abhor the idea of a perfect world. It would bore me to tears.
Imagine you walk into your friend’s apartment on a dark, cloudy evening – head bowed and hands trembling. You sigh softly and say, “Friend, I have some good news and some bad news. Which would you like to hear first?” Now, people have their different ways of approaching this kind of question. To most people, it’s best to hear the bad news first. That way, the coming good news can soften the blow and cheer them up. Smart, right? Well, others belong to a different school of thought. Depending on the specific context, some people believe that hearing the good news first can help motivate them to overcome the coming bad news. Fair enough!
Let’s get back to your imaginary friend. 😉 What if his response is: I want the bad news! “The bad news first?” you attempt to clarify. “No, the bad news ONLY!” he retorts. If you’re like me, you’ll probably spend the next few seconds picking your jaw from the floor, thinking about your life’s choices – or better still, friend choices.😯😂
Here’s the shocking part: we are all collectively that weird friend. We’re obsessed with the bad news! Before you unsheathe your swords and pick up rocks to haul at me, ask yourself this: where are all the utopian fiction stories nowadays if we actually like good news? Since fictional works are a near-limitless way for our subconscious to express itself, why don’t more authors create perfect worlds or paradises in their writing? With the chaotic state of the world we presently live in – pandemics, wars, global warming – shouldn’t authors be working harder to give us some ESCAPE through fantasies of an ideal world? 🔆 Why are fictional utopias so few and far between today, even though most people can list a large number of contemporary dystopian fictional pieces? Not to take anything from dystopian fictional works; many of them are indeed creative masterpieces. George Orwell’s novel ‘1984’ or Asimovs ‘Nightfall’ comes to mind amongst many others. But such is the rivalry between the speculative fiction siblings – utopian fiction and dystopian fiction – it’s tough not to take notice of the inequality in their respective representations. At this moment, dystopian fiction remains the favorite son! And it’s not shy in making its presence felt…
Before we go much further, why don’t we explore the origins of both genres – surely, we’ll find some clues. Utopian fiction has existed for a long time and has had a remarkable evolution through the centuries. The very term “utopia” was first coined by Sir Thomas Moore in his 1516 book of the same name. The word is from the Greek word eutopia, which means “good place”. Before you smile, imagining such a “good place”, I’ll have you know that the word is a pun that also inculcates the Greek word outopia, which literary means “NO PLACE.” This is presumably because no place so perfect can ever realistically exist. I see what you did there, Thomas Moore… having us going on wild goose chases, huh?
While it would seem that Sir Moore is simply a proverbial zoo keeper dangling an elusive carrot at the animals, what if his coinage was designed to be a warning to humanity? What if he’s speaking as a prophet and saying:
We would never have UTOPIA!
It doesn’t exist, fools!
History would suggest that he’s right. Through the passage of time, many national leaders have sought earnestly for utopias, and just as Thanos found out – too late – in the Avengers movie series, such effort often come with complexity and chaos. Several times in the past, the very efforts at creating utopias have so disturbed the fine balance of things such that dystopias have been formed. Perhaps, through the centuries, people have learned to react fearfully to promises of utopia. After all, the devil you know is better than the angel you don’t.
Dystopia, which means “bad place”, came about a few hundred years after utopia. Like the newborn younger sibling who suddenly begins to get all the attention from the family, dystopian writing became steadily popular. By the mid-1920s, it had gained traction: writers loved it and found more utility in the genre. It was a way to highlight real-life issues, to warn about problems that might happen in the future if humans neglected to deal with existential threats. In his classic novel titled 1984, George Orwell masterfully painted a grim picture of a possible future, highlighting the dangers of governments being in complete control of the people. Another possibly underrated advantage of dystopian fiction over its utopian sibling is the amount of armory it provides the writer. The best fictional pieces create lasting imagery and evoke emotions. What better way to achieve that than to write on chaos and the natural yearning for survival! It’s no wonder that more people can relate to it on an emotional level. Also, dystopian writings can sometimes be comforting… especially when they realize that their present world isn’t as terrible as the one they see on the pages of the novels.🤔😬
So dystopian writers aren’t necessarily hateful sadists who churn out writings of a gloomy world from the dark corners of their basements.☝️Many of them write from a place of urgency and social responsibility! Others prefer to take their readers on a grim roller-coster rather than a trip to paradise. The bigger question is a philosophical one.
What do you want from your fiction?
Do you want the escapism and fantasy of a feel-good world OR you prefer the visceral emotions that are often evoked by human misery and oppression? Either option is fine. By now, the siblings are used to the rivalry.
P. S. from Ray: Personally, I recommend reading Utopia, by Merlin Coverley (non-fiction), 165 pages tiny book 📚 – about the concept of utopian worlds in classics, and the discussion ‘why Utopia is non-existent’?
#guestpost written by Laolu Ogundele
Next post – The Story of Harmless Bullet. Day 9
Indeed a great post. Perfect treat to eyes
Thank you :)) 🔆📚
It’s all my pleasure to do so. By the way, appreciating some brilliant talent like you make me happy 🤗
Wish to see you do great things like this even in the future
Don’t know if my last message sent, have had trouble writing from my phone. Just to say how much I love Nightfall and George Orwell’s masterpieces.
yes!! 👍📚
Nightfall is such a good story. Good article.
Got it 🙂 I changed the settings, each comment have to wait for my approval now 🙂 bcz some peeps are just way tooooo much 😶
plus, I’ll run all posts without comments this summer 🔆🤓
Ah ok, good to know 🙂
I want to live in Utopia and read dystopian books.
Yes, i know that I’m the bad news guy.
Haha 😂 now we know…
Great post Victoria. I am in the waiting room.
☀️☀️☀️thank you
Excellent post VR. I’ve never been one to consider a utopian outcome as a realistic alternative to real life. Hearing that utopia doesn’t exist is not a surprise.
Yep… ah, but wouldn’t it be wonderful to live in such place? 🤓🤩😌
Yes, it would. Maybe after I’m done with this place. 😊
Anything is possible… who knows 🙂 maybe we’ll move one ☝️ level up ⬆️- to the utopian land :))
I would hope after all this trouble we get a move up. 😂
Yes it would.
A lot of my flash fiction is dystopian so I’m glad I’m not “necessarily a hateful sadist” 🙂
Haha 😂 often, happy ppl r writing scary stuff…
I didn’t know about the link of utopia with the Greek “outopia” — that is a clever angle to say that such a place doesn’t exist in the real world. As for fiction, I would guess dystopia is more popular because fiction needs conflict. Maybe some people out there would like to read a book where people dance in a field of wildflowers and have no problems. Other people would find that boring. For them: introduce a bear who is sick of humans trampling his favorite sleeping spot. Or the lute musician gets mad because he’s the only one playing music and everyone else gets to dance. It’s not a utopia for him.
Yes, agreed about conflict :)) but even utopian worlds can deal with different social or relationship- issues: for example, who’s going to dance in a field today & who is going to wait until tomorrow lol
In any case, I think it would be fun to write “a happy story”- to tell the truth, I wrote synopsis yesterday evening (11 chapters) for utopian novel. Hopefully, it will see the light of the day next year 🙂 😅😅
That’s very cool you’re planning a utopian novel … something in a different direction from the dark dystopian stories.
I always loved Heinlein’s worlds. Not perfect, but generally happy and optimistic. I’m not sure I’d want to be Lazarus Long, though; I don’t grok that kind of longevity.
Yep, we need more happy & optimistic novels… I think to shift my attention to “utopia” next year :)) nuff crimes & violence!! 😛
I’m shaking my head at this new information (outopia means nowhere)! It makes so much sense this is the case and we’ve made it into utopia and searched for somewhere that doesn’t exist forever lol
Lol true! Looking & waiting for that “nowhere” or something that doesn’t exist …instead of fixing our lives where we r, in that moment :))
I’d like visceral emotions, human misery and oppression, please. Well, I’m that weir friend after all.
Awesome post!
Hello, weird friend!😂 mmm, don’t you wanna live in paradise? I thought this is everybody’s dream 🙂
Oh I would. I so would. To quote Top Gun, Take me to bed, or lose me forever. Paradise, I mean paradise.
I’d like to write utopia… “paradise valley” – no wars, no diseases, no sex, no hate, no ego… only eternal love & kindness. Who’d read that? That’s the question 😂
No sex? That’s not utopia, that’s hell.
Made me laugh 😹:))