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A Century of Dystopia volume 1 - Introduction
A Century of Dystopia
In A Century of Dystopia, author Steve Shahbazian looks at seven literary dystopian We by Yevgeny Zamyatin; Brave New World by Aldous Huxley; Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell; A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess; High Rise by J.G. Ballard, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and his own Green and Pleasant Land.
In this work, he analyses the ways in which the authors used dystopia to comment on their world. Through study of the authors’ own essays, interviews, letters and the historical context in which the novels were written, A Century of Dystopia analyses the allusions, metaphors and references within the works to answer the what messages were the authors trying to convey?
Discussing ideas ranging from psychology, sociobiology, utilitarianism, solipsism, Christianity, Freudianism and thermodynamics, A Century of Dystopia finds out how the authors of these iconic dystopias influenced each other and asks us to look at the works again. While many themes from the novels have been discussed at length, many more have been missed or overlooked. Reading these works closely reveals the authors’ responses into the great events of the 20th and 21st centuries and that their insights into life go much deeper than we realise.
The history of fiction is a history of the human imagination. Read these essays and find out what did the fictional worlds tell us about the real one.
Volume 1 – Why Dystopia?
In the introduction, Steve Shahbazian introduces the concept of dystopia and its relation to utopia, the basic premise of speculative fiction and the different dystopias depicted in the seven novels discussed in the succeeding essays. Although each one involves some form of civilisational “decline and fall,” the introduction finds there is no one prototypic dystopia is the story of where we fear we might be headed.
A Century of Dystopia – the series
Volume 1 – Why Dystopia?
Volume 2 – “We” by Yevgeny Zamyatin
Volume 3 – “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley
Volume 4 – “Nineteen Eighty-Four” by George Orwell
Volume 5 – “A Clockwork Orange” by Anthony Burgess
Volume 6 – “High Rise” by J.G. Ballard
Volume 7 – “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood
Volume 8 – “Green and Pleasant Land” by Steve Shahbazian
In A Century of Dystopia, author Steve Shahbazian looks at seven literary dystopian We by Yevgeny Zamyatin; Brave New World by Aldous Huxley; Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell; A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess; High Rise by J.G. Ballard, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and his own Green and Pleasant Land.
In this work, he analyses the ways in which the authors used dystopia to comment on their world. Through study of the authors’ own essays, interviews, letters and the historical context in which the novels were written, A Century of Dystopia analyses the allusions, metaphors and references within the works to answer the what messages were the authors trying to convey?
Discussing ideas ranging from psychology, sociobiology, utilitarianism, solipsism, Christianity, Freudianism and thermodynamics, A Century of Dystopia finds out how the authors of these iconic dystopias influenced each other and asks us to look at the works again. While many themes from the novels have been discussed at length, many more have been missed or overlooked. Reading these works closely reveals the authors’ responses into the great events of the 20th and 21st centuries and that their insights into life go much deeper than we realise.
The history of fiction is a history of the human imagination. Read these essays and find out what did the fictional worlds tell us about the real one.
Volume 1 – Why Dystopia?
In the introduction, Steve Shahbazian introduces the concept of dystopia and its relation to utopia, the basic premise of speculative fiction and the different dystopias depicted in the seven novels discussed in the succeeding essays. Although each one involves some form of civilisational “decline and fall,” the introduction finds there is no one prototypic dystopia is the story of where we fear we might be headed.
A Century of Dystopia – the series
Volume 1 – Why Dystopia?
Volume 2 – “We” by Yevgeny Zamyatin
Volume 3 – “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley
Volume 4 – “Nineteen Eighty-Four” by George Orwell
Volume 5 – “A Clockwork Orange” by Anthony Burgess
Volume 6 – “High Rise” by J.G. Ballard
Volume 7 – “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood
Volume 8 – “Green and Pleasant Land” by Steve Shahbazian
34 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 31, 2019
1 person is currently reading
4 people want to read
About the author
Steve Shahbazian
17 books5 followersSteve Shahbazian has won no awards, no competitions and isn't critically acclaimed. Some of his best friends have gone so far as to describe his work as “okay in places” and his books have been in huge demand, mostly due to the large number of wonky tables needing propping up...
Okay, okay, I wrote that. I'm sure you're all sick of writers bigging up their work, telling you how many awards they won and blah, blah, blah... seriously, how many bestsellers are there out there!?! For me, all that matters is writing original stories that you, dear reader, enjoy. For me, the reader is everything.
If you like a mixture of literary fiction, science fiction and political dystopian fiction with the occasional dark and disturbing twist, check out my writing. Who knows, you might like it.
Happy reading!
Okay, okay, I wrote that. I'm sure you're all sick of writers bigging up their work, telling you how many awards they won and blah, blah, blah... seriously, how many bestsellers are there out there!?! For me, all that matters is writing original stories that you, dear reader, enjoy. For me, the reader is everything.
If you like a mixture of literary fiction, science fiction and political dystopian fiction with the occasional dark and disturbing twist, check out my writing. Who knows, you might like it.
Happy reading!
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 13, 2021
Very short. Best part for me is the reading list and the bibliography. Even though I rated this as "2 stars", I will likely be checking out the rest of the series. Volumes 1 and 8 are currently free.
Displaying 1 of 1 review