Dystopian Writing Prompts Part 2. How to Create a Dystopia | The Spectacle. 1984: The Essence of Dystopia. Utopian and dystopian fiction. The utopia and its offshoot, the dystopia, are genres of literature that explore social and political structures. Utopian fiction is the creation of an ideal society, or utopia, as the setting for a novel. Dystopian fiction (sometimes referred to as apocalyptic literature) is the opposite: creation of an utterly horrible or degraded society that is generally headed to an irreversible oblivion, or dystopia.[1] Many novels combine both, often as a metaphor for the different directions humanity can take in its choices, ending up with one of two possible futures. Both utopias and dystopias are commonly found in science fiction and other speculative fiction genres, and arguably are by definition a type of speculative fiction.
More than 400 utopian works were published prior to the year 1900 in the English language alone, with more than a thousand others during the twentieth century.[2] Subgenres[edit] Utopian fiction[edit] Dystopian fiction[edit] Combinations[edit] Ecotopian fiction[edit] Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction. Dying Earth (subgenre) The Dying Earth subgenre is a sub-category of science fiction, fantasy or science fantasy which takes place in the far future at either the end of life on Earth or the End of Time, when the laws of the universe themselves fail. Themes of world-weariness, innocence (wounded or otherwise), idealism, entropy, (permanent) exhaustion/depletion of many or all resources (such as soil nutrients), and the hope of renewal tend to pre-dominate.
Another early example is La Fin du Monde (The End of the World, aka Omega: the last days of the world), written by Camille Flammarion and published in France in 1893. The first half of the novel is dealing with a comet on a collision course with earth in the 25th century. The last half focuses on earth's future history, where civilizations rise and fall, humans evolve and finally, its end as an old, dying and barren planet. Another early and more famous science fiction work to utilize the familiar Dying Earth imagery was H.
G. Genre: Speculative Fiction | Suite101.com. Speculative fiction is often used as an umbrella term for science fiction, fantasy and horror genres. Writers in this genre though, will tell you that while they are grouped together, each has its own unique elements and style. Science Fiction Science fiction utilizes settings that tend to be outside of our ‘reality’ and that explores and encourages discussion of new, often controversial ideas. Science fiction usually asks the question “What if?” Settings and plots of science fiction novels ask the reader to suspend disbelief for a while, explaining fictional elements of the story using scientific fact or theories. A science fiction plot would typically include elements like future settings, alternative timelines or historical settings that depart from known historical facts.
Most stories in this genre focus on plot and action rather than characterization. Science fiction frequently crosses over into other genres, so it’s difficult to define it with one generic definition. Horror Fantasy.