Lately, I find that a handful of authors and writers don’t like to call their dystopian novels… dystopian. You can blame it on YA and pretentiousness (not wanting to be labeled “genre-fiction,” even though I strongly believe there’s no demerit that comes with that classification). Instead, these are called “speculative fiction,” and never “science fiction,” granted science fiction has certain requirements in my mind.
Since it’s so oversaturated with recycled storylines and worlds, I think a lot has been lost in dystopian literature. There’s less experimentation, as the most profitable and generally appealing dystopian books are dominating the genre. Maybe because it isn’t so new anymore, it’s not as thought-provoking and profound as it once was. When I think of classic dystopian novels, there’s only a handful that comes to mind. If I think about science fiction as a whole, there are loads more notable titles that come to mind.
I think associations with “dystopia” have changed a lot since the influx of YA dystopian trilogies. While I’m not criticizing these books (they made up the better part of my youth, trust me), I wonder what happened to dystopian books that were so good they were considered true *classics*. The only one that comes to mind is *The Handmaid’s Tale*, but Atwood has already made some comments about her feelings on the classification… Most of which I interpreted as a slap in the face to science fiction writers.
I love dystopian books, new and old, but find a lot of new works to be so repetitive and lacking in depth.
Let me know what you think about the direction of dystopian books.
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by bunnywithribbon