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Dystopian Fiction. Dystopian Fiction. Dystopian Fiction usually imagines the FUTURE. It is a criticism of an aspect of society that the author dislikes. It is a WARNING of what may happen. Three Titles:. The Machine Stops (1909) Brave new World (1932) 1984 (1948). The Machine Stops (1909).
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Dystopian Fiction • Dystopian Fiction usually imagines the FUTURE. • It is a criticism of an aspect of society that the author dislikes. • It is a WARNING of what may happen.
Three Titles: • The Machine Stops (1909) • Brave new World (1932) • 1984 (1948)
The Machine Stops (1909) • The Machine Stops is a SHORT STORY by E.M. Forster.
Questions to consider: • What does Forster dislike? • What is BAD about his imagined future? • Were his fears in any way accurate?
The Machine Stops • The Machine imagines a world where everyone lives in rooms underground.
The Machine • Their lives are controlled by a machine which regulates their air, feeds them, bathes them etc.
The Book of the Machine • The Book of the Machine is the machine’s manual. • It has become like a Bible to the people who live in this society.
Religion • Though religion has been abolished, people have started praying to the machine. • The Machine, was of course, created by man.
The Committee of the Machine • The Committee of the Machine are the government of this society. • The worst punishment that they can inflict is HOMELESSNESS.
Homelessness • Homelessness means being sent to live of the surface. • People can no longer breathe the air. • Homelessness therefore means death.
Control The Committee decides: • Who can have children. • Where people live. • When people die.
Alone • People communicate through the machine’s television screens, but everyone lives alone. • People have thousands of friends but rarely visit each other or physically leave their rooms.
Are People Happy? “Something "good enough" had long since been accepted by our race.” • People find life acceptable. • But most importantly, they love the machine.
Ideas • The only pastime people have is sharing ideas - usually in the form of lectures with each other through their television screens.
Vashti and Kuno • Vashti worships the machine and is contented with her life. • Like most people she never leaves her room.
Vashti and Kuno • She is called by her son Kuno who demands that she come and see him. • Very reluctantly she agrees to get on a plane and visit him. (everything is connected by tunnels, so she would never have to step outside.)
Kuno • Kuno is dissatisfied with his life underground and wants to visit the surface. • Though there are no rules against this, the idea of leaving the machine seems worrying and wrong to Vashti.
On the Surface • Kuno does go outside and nearly dies when his respirator falls off. • He is thrilled to see the grass and the trees outside.
The “Worms” • On the surface Kuno is attacked by “white worms.” • They turn out to be part of the machine. • He says he sees a woman on the surface killed by a “worm.”
Surface-Dwellers • This confirms that there are people who have been made “homeless” and survived.
Threat to society • Kuno is threatened with homelessness. • Vashti is very upset by his story of the surface. • She thinks that it is terrible he would want to leave their underground world.
Going to the surface • Respirators are abolished as everyone agrees that there is something wrong in wanting to experience things first hand. • They agree that it is better to repeat other people’s ideas instead.
“The Machine Stops” • Kuno warns Vashti that “the machine stops.” • He is telling her that there are problems with the machine. • Vashti refuses to believe something so frightening.
The Machine Stops • But things start to go wrong in the underground rooms. • The air turns bad and things stop working. • The machine controls their whole lives and without it they are helpless.
The End • Vashti eventually panics and leaves her room and finds everyone else is doing the same thing. • Kuno and Vashti find each other in the corridor. • Unable to live outside or stay below ground, they and everyone else will die.
Optimistic Ending • They finally have speak to each other as mother and son. • Kuno assures his mother that the “homeless” surface-dwellers will rebuild a better society.
Optimistic Ending 'Oh, tomorrow - some fool will start the Machine again, tomorrow.' 'Never,' said Kuno, 'never. Humanity has learnt its lesson.'
Modern life • Obviously the society imagined in The Machine Stops” has not come true. • However people are often surprised how accurately Forster described something very like the Internet almost 90 years before it was invented.
Fear of Technology • Forster was worried that machines were taking over people’s lives. • He thought that they would distance people from one another. • People say the same thing about social networking sites today.
Brave New World 1932
Brave New World • “Brave New World” is a quote from The Tempest. • In The Tempest when Miranda she sees humans for the first time says: “Oh brave new world that has such people in it”
Aldous Huxley • Huxley wrote A LOT of books. • Brave New World is his most famous.
What kind of dystopia is Brave New World? • In Brave New World people are kept constantly “HAPPY.”
World State • Unlike the 3 state dystopia imagined in 1984, Brave New World imagines a global “World State.”
Soma • Soma is a drug produced by the government. • It is designed to make you feel happy with no side effects (like a hangover, for example).
Sex • People have sex ALL THE TIME in Brave New World, but just for fun. • Great precautions are taken to ensure women don’t get pregnant.
Conditioning • People are taught to be satisfied with their future lives. • As children they are manipulated to make sure they will grow up with certain attitudes.
Making Babies • In Brave New World children are CLONED. • Childbirth is considered to be a disgusting and embarrassing thing.
Class • During the process of making the babies doctors decide what their future jobs will be. • The Alpha Class are made clever and strong • The Epsilon Class are made stupid.
Suited to their tasks • Epsilons are then deprived of oxygen so their brains don’t develop as fully. • They are taught to be happy that they don’t have all the responsibilities of the Alphas.
Indoctrination • The babies and children live in large centres until they are adults. • Their beliefs and attitudes are formed by messages that are played whilst they are asleep.
Indoctrination • The children are also conditioned through treats and electric shocks to like and dislike certain things……
Indoctrination • As children they are taken to visit the “death hospital” where people are taken to die. • All the best toys are kept there and they are given sweets. • This means they have no fear of death.
