“Utopians believe in progress; dystopians don’t. They fight this argument out in competing visions of the future, utopians offering promises, dystopians issuing warnings.
[But there’s] one problem with dystopian fiction: forewarned is not always forearmed.”
—JILL LEPORE, THE NEW YORKER PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN HISTORY AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Chapter 4
Dystopias, Multiverses and Magic Realism
Dystopias are all about the end (or the impending end) of civilization—whether humanity realizes it or not. In many cases, the dystopian world is defined by lack of natural resources, contamination, lives lost, hardcore survival against insurmountable odds—and/or rampaging zombies; it’s kill or be killed.
In other cases, the dominant race or class is living in ...
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