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Great Dystopias

..Russian stage version of A Clockwork Orange...

:rofl2:

INT21
 
I can recommend Chalcot Crescent by Fay Weldon. It's not a great dystopia, it's a small and mundane one, but set in the near future and scarily possible. Party politicians have been superseded by competent technocrats and Britain has downgraded to a 2nd world economy.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chalcot-Crescent-Fay-Weldon/dp/1848873069

There was an excellent R4 Archive on Four documentary about specifically British dystopias in fiction, still available to listen to: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b02x5c9z
 
Now you can try to live in Deckard's LA apartment in Virtual Reality and experience the dystopia in person.
The developer is still working on including Rachael and other features.

A "First Person" version is available for people without VR equipment.

http://www.br9732.com/

You need this equipment, which still is pretty expensive, for the VR experience:
1553191209880.png


EDIT:
Found another page on the site where he says he has finished the project.
http://www.br9732.com/index.php/2018/04/24/final-release/

 
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A nice reminder that the BBC does still sometimes produce informative and educational material:

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/entertainment-arts-48492465/george-orwell-s-1984-why-it-still-matters

The bit about how some of the terms popularised by Orwell's novel have since become a bit debased reminded me of when I was teaching in the UK about 15 years ago.

The phrase `Big Brother` had been used in some or other text we were studying.

`Can anyone tell me where the term `Big Brother` first came from?` I asked a class of 14/15 year olds. A hand shot up confidently and proudly:

`It's , like, from this reality TV show, sir!`

The review is typically remiss,though, in not mentioning the seminal influence of the Russian writer Evgeniy Zamyatin in his novel `We -` from the twenties - on `Nineteen Eighty Four`. Orwell knew this novel and wrote a glowing review of it for Tribune in 1946.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/76171.We
 
Just for the hell of it - A jamboree of dystopian fiction related rock/pop:

First up, who remembers this technosceptic warning from Hazel O'Connor?


Iron Maiden, meanwhile had been reading Huxley:

But books, who needs books? It's more fun to burn them - as Hawkwind pointed out:

Robert Palmer covered this unsurpassed ditty by Gary Numan set in a Philip K.Dickian world where electricians are outmoded artisans:

All the way from Russia, Louna proved that the kids of Moscow are making asscoiations between Orwell's classic and their own situation. (The chorus line - Adin - Devyat -Vosyem-Chetyre -is One Nine Eight Four).

 
Yes, it was a bit slow off the mark. Better the second time around.

Sadly he came to a rather tragic end of his own choosing.

INT21.
 
GATTACA, anyone ?

In the future only the genetically perfect will be able to advance.
 
If anyone is interested BBC radio 4 Extra`s 7th dimention is broadcasting a production of Yevgeny Zamyatin`s WE, first part was on at 18.00 06/07.

Wm.
 
Stuart Macbride's Halfhead has to be one of the grimmest near-future dystopias ever written.

The title derives from the treatment/punishment meted out to violent criminals - to be lobotomised and have their lower jaw surgically removed.

It's brutal as hell, but exceptionally well-written and even laugh-out-loud funny at times.
Recommended (if you have a VERY strong stomach).
 
Zeke Newbold said:
`Day World` by Philip Jose Farmer. This has such a brilliant premise. In order to tackle the over-population problem people are kept in suspended animation underground. They are then released on alternating days of the year to live their lives for one day before being returned to sleep. Thus the space on the ground is ot overcrowded and everyone gets some chance to enjoy it. Of course, not everyone likes this solution....
Click to expand...
And I thought that was an original idea when I read 'folding Beijing'.
 
An interlectual snob once reccomended Zamatyns `We`.

Its very dull.
 
Was it Zeke Newbold in post #42 above ?
 
Just listening to 'Are friends electric ?' Gary Numan.

A suitable song for a dystopian thread.
 
Runningmanbachman.jpg

A world where the masses are controlled and governed by The Network. Heavily edited and doctored news footage. Free-Vee screens everywhere. Public executions disguised as big-bucks TV game shows. A big conspiracy by The Network to cover up fatal levels of pollution. And the story ending with a hijacked airliner being flown into a very tall building.....
 
Not how the film ended though.
 
heisenbear said:
View attachment 20722
A world where the masses are controlled and governed by The Network. Heavily edited and doctored news footage. Free-Vee screens everywhere. Public executions disguised as big-bucks TV game shows. A big conspiracy by The Network to cover up fatal levels of pollution. And the story ending with a hijacked airliner being flown into a very tall building.....
Click to expand...
It sounds almost like real life.
 
Half Past Human, T. J. Bass

One of the dozen or so most thought-provoking books I've ever read. Also The Godwhale.
 
The Godwhale.

One of the first sf books I read (knowing it was sf)

Some strange imagery...but I think a cyborg whale as a plankton harvester makes sense.

(Even though in RL it would be prohibitavley expensive)
 
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