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Dystopian Literature


Thrashmaster

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Hi IBSurvival!

Does anyone else on here enjoy reading dystopian literature? You know, like Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, Ayn Rand's Anthem, or George Orwell's 1984? That's just to name three I've read (the first in class this year, the latter two for my EE that I'm writing).

I really enjoy dystopian literature and I was just wondering if anyone else on here does. It really gives insight into what is wrong with the world, and what will happen if that doesn't change.

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Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is awesome. I hope that our world does not turn into something like that in the future.

The book is great and I recommend it!

I knew someone would bring up Brave New World! I haven't read it, but I keep hearing good things so I might just do that sometime. Have you read Anthem, We, or 1984? If you have, would you rather our world end up like one of those or the Brave New World?

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Hunger Games and Divergent FTW!

I thought We was very progressive for the time period it was written in. I was never a huge fan of 1984, good book, but overrated imo.

I actually think, tween romance elements aside, that The Hunger Games has a very interesting take on the dystopian premise and the trilogy does a pretty good job of showing the rich and the poor, the oppressed and the oppressors and demonstrating the tension between the opposing factions.

On an unrelated note, did anyone else who has read Divergent feel that the five factions were more or less a rip-off of the Hogwarts Houses?

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I read 1984 and I think I would rather live in the world created by Orwell. In Brave New World citizens lived in blissful ignorance with the need to get drugged all the time. In 1984 people at least could think for themselves.. to some extent.

That's an interesting perspective. I think some would argue that the 1984 citizens can't think for themselves, and that's kind of the whole point. The party doesn't care about the crime - just the thought.

Hunger Games and Divergent FTW!

I thought We was very progressive for the time period it was written in. I was never a huge fan of 1984, good book, but overrated imo.

I actually think, tween romance elements aside, that The Hunger Games has a very interesting take on the dystopian premise and the trilogy does a pretty good job of showing the rich and the poor, the oppressed and the oppressors and demonstrating the tension between the opposing factions.

On an unrelated note, did anyone else who has read Divergent feel that the five factions were more or less a rip-off of the Hogwarts Houses?

I think I can probably agree on the overrated note. I thought it was going to be better than We, but I was wrong. The rats were kind of anticlimactic, really. I liked it, and it was better than Anthem, but We is still my favorite I think.

As for the Hunger Games, the first one was really good. I really enjoyed its view of dystopia. After that, the second one was okay... and I really didn't enjoy the third one.

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I'm doing my EE on Animal Farm by George Orwell, but my favorite Dystopian literature piece would probably be The Giver or The Hunger Games. I agree that the first book was the best, and it went downhill from there, though I enjoyed all three books. I've also read Anthem, Lord of the Flies, Fahrenheit 451, Ender's Game and Divergent. Divergent is like a morphing of Harry Potter and Hunger Games.

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  • 2 weeks later...

 

 

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is awesome. I hope that our world does not turn into something like that in the future.
 
The book is great and I recommend it!

I knew someone would bring up Brave New World! I haven't read it, but I keep hearing good things so I might just do that sometime. Have you read Anthem, We, or 1984? If you have, would you rather our world end up like one of those or the Brave New World?

It is no longer a possibility but a reality. Read Neil Postman's "Amusing ourselves to Death" and Huxley's intro to the 1998 Harper Perennial edition of BNW... We are living the early stages of BNW..... The more advanced and democratic a nation, the more (as Chomsky sets argues in Manufacturing Conesent) corporations and their lapdog/handmaid (government) need to distract us from reality... Check this 

It is the natural outcome of our consumerist-corporate culture.

 

As Bush (jr) said after 911  "Don't stop shopping"!  It's pretty plain we're not citizens anymore, we're just consumers, endlessly distracting ourselves.. with sex and shopping. :o  :lol:   

 

And some studying on the side ...  I mean, what is IB for (for some of us anyway) except as a means to enter prestigious universities in order to become "doctors" and "lawyers" so that we have even more spending power... to get the goods. The new elite of medicrity. 

 

hahah Pathetic. 

Edited by Blackcurrant
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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 7 months later...

I'm a huge fan of Orwell works. I actually read 1984 when I was fairly young, and I hardly remember much, and to me the fact that it didn't leave any impression on me tells me it's not worth a re-read. I do love Animal Farm though.

 

We recently read a dystopic novel in class called Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. To summarize, it's a book in which books are forbidden and society is very materialistic. People have varying views on the book, but I believe that our world really is not too far from that world. I mean with all the technological advancements going on, the younger generation is not reading as much as it should. As I said, it's controversial and both sides of the argument make valid points.

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Guest moonkyu97

Hey traveller, lets try not to necro 6 months old thread. But yeah, Fahrenheit 451 is pretty good. I don't agree with what you said about how 1984 is not worth a reread because you can't remember the content that well. Sometimes when you reread things you might come to something really intriguing that you might have missed. Happened to me when I was reading the scripts for Death of a Salesman.

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  • 1 month later...

Hi everyone!

 

I am planning on writing my EE on the first Hunger Games film and specifically focussing on Youth Culture.

Does anyone have an ideas or tips regarding this?

 

Thank You!

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi everyone!

 

I am planning on writing my EE on the first Hunger Games film and specifically focussing on Youth Culture.

Does anyone have an ideas or tips regarding this?

 

Thank You!

 

Yes, don't do it. I know the topic is very very interesting, but the examiners generally frown upon everything pop culture-Tolkien-Meyers-Rowling-Collins related. Better choose a classic and/or better established work. ;)

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  • 4 weeks later...

I absolutely love dystopian novels. Of the classics, I've read 1984, Anthem, Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451 - I loved all of them but my favorites are 1984 and Brave New World. We're going to be reading Handmaiden's Tale in English A next year, I'm very excited! 

 

If I had to live in one of the worlds created in these novels, I would probably go with Brave New World. Yes, your status is decided at birth and citizens exist in a blissfully ignorant state of euphoria created by drugs and promiscuity- but some distorted sort of happiness is better then the atmosphere of fear in 1984, where something as simple as a thought will get you arrested. In Anthem, people work for the collective and have no sense of self. So I would go with Brave New World. :) 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Dystopian literature yussss. This is my thing.

 

I would pick Brave New World, too.  I think the most appealing thing about living in Brave New World is ignorance -- ignorance is bliss... Endless ignorance = endless euphoria. Woah. 

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