# Why Is Dystopian Fiction Evergreen?



## LeeC (Jul 6, 2016)

Not sure just where to post this, but since it's generally about publishing directions, and after asking PiP, though I'd try here. If a moderator sees things differently, who am I to argue 

I thought it might be interesting to writers who want to keep up with publishing trends.

Anyway, this from Publishing Perspectives, an international group with articles on all things booky. This one, on dystopian fiction, features three different editors/publishers discussing the "evergreen" trend and what it means in Paris vs New York or the UK. 

http://publishingperspectives.com/2016/07/dystopian-fiction-trending-globally/#.V32hWVfneV6


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## Sam (Jul 7, 2016)

I'm not sure I'd say it's evergreen. 

Dystopian fiction gained prominence at the end of the nineteenth century, peaked during the first five or six decades of the twentieth, and then started to gradually recede until it was catapulted back into the mainstream this century by young-adult fiction that employs dystopian themes but isn't really hard core dystopia. Most of the dystopian work in the '70s and '80s was done by sf writers like John Brunner, William Gibson, Thomas Disch, Philip K. Dick, and Ursula K. Le Guin -- and it predominantly had a distinct cyberpunk theme, unlike the totalitarian-themed work of earlier decades. It's still dystopia from a different angle, of course, but from a dystopian perspective it's not as well known as _Brave New World _or _We _or _Nineteen Eighty-Four. _It had an almost underground following, which would also have been true of early twentieth-century dystopia during its time period as well.


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## escorial (Jul 7, 2016)

more sad stories are relatable than happy ones..just like sad songs...we all live with the same emotions and for some things run deeper but life is difficult and I reckon to read about the joys of life while sounding appealing from many angles the truth is we hurt for many reasons and look outside of ourselves as to why we feel this way and books that offer a downbeat side of life are often more relatable I think....it was self pity and depression that brought me to writing and reading and this is just my pov....


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## MzSnowleopard (Jul 7, 2016)

So, clearly the scope of dystopian works is different depending on the generation of writers?

Is _The Girl Who Owned a City_ considered dystopia? Aside from / in addition to being Post-apocalyptic

It's the only published novel by O.T. Nelson- first print 1975

A plague sweeps over the world killing everyone over 12 leaving the children to survive on their own.


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## afk4life (Jul 7, 2016)

If you create characters that the readers invest in, like bring them to life so much that readers care about them, and their world starts crashing down around them, that's going to cause a natural instinct to want them to be safe (unless it's done in ridiculous fashion like the movie _2012_ but even that still mostly worked). I wouldn't say it's a narrow genre at all, and I've not read _The Girl Who Owned a City _though that sounds a lot like SyFy show that they fortunately cancelled. But you've got a wide range and it just requires more imagination than probably most anything except romance because it's been done so much. It can be fairly vague as to what exactly happened like _Children of Men_ or completely vague like (the movie) _The Road_ and that's almost scarier. _The Road_ is probably one of the better recent examples mainly because it focused on a kid too young to remember anything except terror, and that's basically the entire feeling of the movie. I would tend to say the whole pandemic thing has been done so much more than other explicit reasons getting someone on board to watch it is probably the hardest, especially competing with things like _Walking Dead_ and _28 Days/Weeks Later_. Humans often like to be scared and the whole dystopic fiction genre takes that up multiple notches at its best.


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## MzSnowleopard (Jul 7, 2016)

If the show you're referring to is Between, got bad news for ya, it's on Netflix. The difference is that the 'threshold age' in the show is 22 where in the book- it's 12.

In the show, it's at the beginning / testing phase of the virus- in the book it's after all the adults are gone. The commonality is that ( wow, wasn't it the same in Jeremiah?) some company developed a virus meant for population control- as described in the TV show Between, we don't know if this is the case with the novel _the girl who owned a city_. That's one difference- in the novel we don't read the part about who created or what caused the virus- as far as I can recall.

At least with Between we see the happenings that lead up to the virus and the greedy corporation behind it.

Hands down- Between is better than Jeremiah.


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## LeeC (Jul 7, 2016)

I think as far as the general subject area, Sam put it in perspective, and that the title is misleading if taken literally. I think reading between the lines of this article says a lot more.

To me, many of these stories come about because the author has a point to make. I'm not talking about authors that replay what they've experienced through media, but rather authors with a broader perspective and more insight**. Think back to ‘On the Beach’ by Nevil Shute (a post-apocalyptic novel in 1957). The author was trying to say something about the course humankind was taking. Think forward to the movie Avatar (2009) which was a reverse twist on the theme in a sci-fi approach. How many saw it as just an exciting cinematic extravaganza? The message portraying the extremes of humankind wasn't hidden. 

I can't say much about The Hunger Games because it is so dressed up in YA appeal, that if it does have a serious message behind it, it's overly obscured. 

One might also notice in the article how perspectives vary by local culture. Relate that to how some countries in Europe are nearing 100% renewable energy, while across the pond our corrupt business as usual approach is still doing all it can to thwart significant moves in that direction. Yeah, we all know it, but it's the cultural inculcation that hinders meaningful improvement. 

So, I'm not trying to start any debate about how shortsighted or not humans are, but rather to show there's more between the lines in life than many notice.

Take care

** akin to the emerging cli-fi novels like Thirst and Back To The Garden that I reviewed here and elsewhere.


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