I don’t think a dystopia and a Post apocalyptic story are the same. A Dystopia has some sort of Government and society but it is an undesirable one to the reader or audience. Whereas a post apocalyptic story has a disaster which removes Government and society and the story is those who survive and possibly build a new one.
Plato’s Republic was a dialog. Anyway, whatever form, calling it dystopian is clever Sophism.
Damnation Alley by Roger Zelazny is very good.
I disagree to the extent that so many stories are both. I see a dystopia as a place where it would really suck to live. How it got to that point is a separate issue.
‘Riddley Walker’ - Russell Hoban
The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway.
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell.
Ira Levin’s This Perfect Day (his tribute to 1984) is extremely dystopian. And Stepford Wives might fit in there too.
Gulliver’s Travels (1726) has some parts that take place in dystopias, like Luggnagg with its struldbrugs.
The government of Iran is largely based on Plato’s The Republic and I’d say it supports your contention.
Oh, those, book and movie both, really were truly awful.
I don’t think Gibson’s world is dystopian, either, but would also recommend the books.
The Dispossessed and The Lathe of Heaven both explore the nature of dystopia.
Children of Men, of course
Walk to the End of the World; I haven’t read it in ages, so I’m not sure how good it is.
Wow. These are loads. Thank you. There is this dystopian novel i forgot the title where parents can actually sell their kid’s body parts. Lol. Somebody please?
Quick Google search pulled up this:
Tuesday’s Final Jeopardy had Dystopian Authors as its category. A friend and I are both smart so during the commercial break we always like to try and ‘pre-guess’ the answer based only on the category. I pre-guessed Aldus Huxley, and was right*!* Even the winner didn’t get it. My thinking process was simply: The archetype dystopian author is George Orwell with 1984 so that’s too obvious. What’s the second most? Brave New World and Huxley*!*
Turns out, according to Trebeck’s explanation, Huxley was actually a mentor to Orwell (which I didn’t know).
Brave New World is one of my favorite dystopias because it is only terrible to an outside observer. Those living inside of it are very happy. In fact even some people outside the system wouldn’t even think of it as a dystopia at all (I don’t agree but I have seen the argument be made).
1984 is dystopian because, as O’Brien ultimately admits (or boasts) to Winston Smith, Oceanian Ingsoc is based ultimately on sadomasochism; it exists only so that Inner Party members can enjoy the power of making their prisoners suffer. BNW is a subtler dystopia – there is no cruelty in the World Controllers, they genuinely want everyone to be happy – the fatal flaw is that they have sacrificed freedom for stability. They’ve sacrificed everything for stability. The World State is a high-tech society, but come back in 500 years and practically no further scientific or technological progress will have been made.
Is that so awful? As dystopian author M. Simpson once said “I’ve dug myself a nice little rut here and I’m not about to hoist myself out of it”.
Okay, probably not a dystopia, but Lucifer’s Hammer by Niven (and Pournelle?) is a very good Post apocalyptic story. It does extend to the start of rebuilding Society.
Came in to mention The Gone Away World.
My work here is done.
Regarding Zamyatin’s We.
Indeed.
It was written in 1920, a mere 3 years after the October Revolution and more than a decade before Brave New World. Orwell readily admitted that it had influenced him when he wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Coincidentally, I’m rereading it at the moment. It’s really good. Say what you will about the political turmoil at the time but the cultural life in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century was visionary and fascinating.