In Greek mythology, Elysium is the paradise where the righteous go to lead a blessed life after they die. There are variations in mythology and Greek writings on exactly what Elysium is, but this definition should work for our purposes. Why have I have chosen to focus on Elysium, a sort of utopia, for an investigation into dystopia? Because you can’t have one without the other. But that’s too easy. The more richer answer is that we often use the concept of utopia to hide the dystopias underneath.
Take the film named Elysium. The rich and privileged live in a luxurious space station where all illness is curable, while the poor live on what’s left on earth, are policed by robots, and die from curable disease. The rich will kill to maintain their lifestyle. This is a typical structure for a dystopian society, where things seem perfect until you dig because its rarely perfect for all.
I think it’s much more difficult to write an Elysium than it is a Dystopia, it’s harder to imagine what a perfect world would be like. Interesting thought that you can’t have one without the other.
https://iainkellywriting.com/2021/04/06/the-state-trilogy-a-z-guide-e/
Oddly, I don’t think perfect worlds are very interesting. But maybe we can’t have one, because we struggle to imagine what one would look like that we’d like to live in.
Neither is a world I would like to live in. Give me balance!
Agree. Balance is key.
Interesting! Another piece of fiction I haven’t read. When I wrote my somewhat dystopian novel, I wrote it with the idea that I wanted to solve some of the world’s problems. No one was homeless, no one faced disease, no one faced discrimination. Maybe if I dug deeper into the society, more of that would emerge, but I was writing erotic fiction, so the focus wasn’t on the society anyway.
Stopping by from A to Z!
– Jayden Vincente
Erotic fiction author
https://jrvincente.com/a-to-z-2021/