Jan 21, 2022·edited Jan 21, 2022Liked by March Twisdale
The commonly held view is that dystopian fiction is, most logically, written as cautionary tales; the intentional exaggeration of societal phenomena the author observes in her present era to suggest a course that needs correction.
But I've also heard theories that it has a spoiler effect, too: that it plants in the collective minds of a culture what is POSSIBLE that might not have occurred to them before; possibilities that a portion of humanity will look at and think, "hey, that's a neat idea."
Have you heard of this school of thought? There's a term for it that escapes me at the moment. What do you think of it?
Hey there! I actually haven’t heard this mentioned by anyone else ever before. It is something that I have been thinking about since I was young and pretty much grew up reading dystopia novels. For example, Stephen King’s novel, The Stand, always made me nervous because it definitely suggested the idea of reducing human population with a plague. Mostly, I alleviated that concern by reminding myself that most dystopias borrow from History, and so these awful ideas have often already played out. It’s truly difficult to come up with something that hasn’t happened before. Still, as you say! History is the playbook of life. If you’re on a football team, you whip open that playbook and there are all sorts of prepared ideas for how to respond to a certain scenario. For the game of life, history provides the the same thing.
Did you know that Margaret Atwood, when she wrote The Handmaid‘s Tale, intentionally only included events and actions and rules or conditions that had occurred before in human history? She just looked throughout human history, saw all the ways in which women and their fertility were abused, and then decided to put it all together into one super yucky society.
So, if anyone shook their head and said she was being extreme or having an overactive imagination, she could actually point to history and say “this happened.” Humans did this. Men and women did this. Not my imagination at all!
I appreciate reading a literary point of view on our current dystopia. While I of course value highly the data analysts, scientists and doctors who are writing, the lessons from literature and other arts are also crucial.
I couldn’t agree more. My paid subscription articles are actually going to delve into the scientific, medical, and statistical data that is so crucial to lift up into the awareness of our society.
There are many people who are doing this, which is why with my “available to all” essays I’m moving in a different direction.
I have always been fascinated by history, sociology and psychology. These were the three areas that I focused on when I was in college, but I have been thinking and exploring these aspects of human reality for as long as I can remember.
So often, it is that small and subtle shift in our mind, a crack in a door, that can throw light into a dark room and change everything.
I so agree. Please forgive the crude marketing analogy but as they say facts tell, stories sell. We humans are story animals. Someone can hear a bunch of statistics about vax injuries, for example, but when someone in their circle is injured that (true) "story" changes everything, as you say.
The commonly held view is that dystopian fiction is, most logically, written as cautionary tales; the intentional exaggeration of societal phenomena the author observes in her present era to suggest a course that needs correction.
But I've also heard theories that it has a spoiler effect, too: that it plants in the collective minds of a culture what is POSSIBLE that might not have occurred to them before; possibilities that a portion of humanity will look at and think, "hey, that's a neat idea."
Have you heard of this school of thought? There's a term for it that escapes me at the moment. What do you think of it?
Predictive programming? I think the term was coined by someone who was key to my awakening, Alan Watt (Cutting through the Matrix).
That was it!
Hey there! I actually haven’t heard this mentioned by anyone else ever before. It is something that I have been thinking about since I was young and pretty much grew up reading dystopia novels. For example, Stephen King’s novel, The Stand, always made me nervous because it definitely suggested the idea of reducing human population with a plague. Mostly, I alleviated that concern by reminding myself that most dystopias borrow from History, and so these awful ideas have often already played out. It’s truly difficult to come up with something that hasn’t happened before. Still, as you say! History is the playbook of life. If you’re on a football team, you whip open that playbook and there are all sorts of prepared ideas for how to respond to a certain scenario. For the game of life, history provides the the same thing.
Did you know that Margaret Atwood, when she wrote The Handmaid‘s Tale, intentionally only included events and actions and rules or conditions that had occurred before in human history? She just looked throughout human history, saw all the ways in which women and their fertility were abused, and then decided to put it all together into one super yucky society.
So, if anyone shook their head and said she was being extreme or having an overactive imagination, she could actually point to history and say “this happened.” Humans did this. Men and women did this. Not my imagination at all!
I appreciate reading a literary point of view on our current dystopia. While I of course value highly the data analysts, scientists and doctors who are writing, the lessons from literature and other arts are also crucial.
I couldn’t agree more. My paid subscription articles are actually going to delve into the scientific, medical, and statistical data that is so crucial to lift up into the awareness of our society.
There are many people who are doing this, which is why with my “available to all” essays I’m moving in a different direction.
I have always been fascinated by history, sociology and psychology. These were the three areas that I focused on when I was in college, but I have been thinking and exploring these aspects of human reality for as long as I can remember.
So often, it is that small and subtle shift in our mind, a crack in a door, that can throw light into a dark room and change everything.
I so agree. Please forgive the crude marketing analogy but as they say facts tell, stories sell. We humans are story animals. Someone can hear a bunch of statistics about vax injuries, for example, but when someone in their circle is injured that (true) "story" changes everything, as you say.
So right…and I wanted to say again, thanks for the conversation. No one wants to talk into the void, as it were…😎
Yet even the lead sheep with its beautiful bells will lead the flock to the slaughter house. Discernment is key.
Acts 5:29
“Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.”
King James Version (KJV)