So, I finally get around to telling all about my adventures at Penguicon. I'll be posting one of these a day, on weekdays, until I'm done. So, enjoy! :)
Also, I apologize, but this first one is going to be choppy, I'll try to edit it in the future.
Title: How We Learned to Love Dystopia
Presenters: Sarah Monette, William Jones, Daniel J. Hogan, and Elizabeth Bear
Date and Time: Friday, April 18 at 8:00pm
Utopia has no plot. It cannot have plot. Plot come from two sides of a conflict fighting with one another. There are few Utopian stories, because there is nothing really to tell. The happily ever after ending is not pleasing. It doesn't feel true to us as humans, because life is full of strife and hardship, but in a Utopia everything is perfect. There is no hardship to be suffered.
Dystopia, on the other hand, is full of stories. The stories of where the dystopia began, how it grew and took hold. The accounts of those oppressed in the society - the freedom fighters and those they fight for. The tales of how the Dystopia ends.
Dystopia stories often incorporate the Utopia as well - the place where everyone is happy and content, where there is no suffering or sadness. In the end, however, all of these stories are revealed to be about a Dystopia disguised as Utopia. The people are oppressed, but do not realize it (The Matrix, Brave New World). They are controlled by forces outside of their control, and they don't try to stop it. They are happy, but not truly. A happiness caused by lies and drugs.
A true Utopia - one where there is no pain, no suffering, everyone is happy with their lives and themselves - is no more possible to our minds than Santa Clause or the Tooth Fairy. The belief and faith needed for a Utopia to be believable does not exist any longer. Not with all the pain and suffering we witness in the world around us.
For each story that dystopia gives rise to, there are different takes that they can be portrayed through as well - The people who become legends because they get out. The cautionary tales and the fairy stories. The metaphors, written 15 years in the future - about the world here and now, that we live in. The stories that are epiphanies. Where the character and/or the reader come to an "aha" moment by the end.
