Life as we know it has changed drastically in the past month, it feels surreal, as if we are living in a completely different world… it’s like something straight out of a Black Mirror episode. We can’t leave our homes, the police have extra powers and there’s no toilet paper in sight. But fear not! It’s not the end of the world as we know it. True dystopia is reserved for fiction. Here are my top five dystopian novels to help pass the time through our own warped present.
We - Yevgeny Zamyatin
In a nation entirely constructed out of glass, there is no such thing as privacy. Built akin to a prison, the structures are designed in a way to ensure all citizens can be seen at all times, without them knowing they are being watched. Citizens are reduced to a number and everything down to imagination is mathematically calculated to reduce unpredictability and dissidence.
1984 - George Orwell
Imagine a world where your every move is watched by the government. Your home is no longer yours, your thoughts are not yours. Everything belongs to the Party. Orwell tells a story of unbridled governance which breeds totalitarianism, mass surveillance and the oppression of individuality.
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Everyone wants to be happy, but how much are we willing to sacrifice to have it? In Brave New World, happiness is achieved but at the cost of truth, beauty and everything else that adds to the human experience. Humans are engineered by caste, programmed to be perfect docile consumers in a world devoid of humanity.
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
The youth are the future, and the future is violent. In a totalitarian state regular everyday people are lulled into complacency, whilst the youth grow apathetic and restless. Left to their own devices they run rampant, creating chaos wherever they go.
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
Fertility rates plummeting create a catalyst for the patriarchy to suppress women’s rights. The few women who can still conceive are the property of the elite who struggle, their rights stripped and they are seen as nothing more than walking incubators.
