An early example of a dystopian novel is Rasselas (1759), by Samuel Johnson, set in Ethiopia.

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1 Dystopia A dystopia is the idea of a society, generally of a speculative future, characterized by negative, antiutopian elements, varying from environmental to political and social issues. Dystopian societies, usually hypothesized by writers of fiction, have culminated in a broad series of sub-genres and is often used to raise issues regarding society, environment, politics, religion, psychology, spirituality, or technology that may become present in the future.

2 Etymology The word derives from Ancient Greek: δυσ-, "bad, hard", and Ancient Greek: τόπος, "place, landscape". It can alternatively be called cacotopia, or anti-utopia.

3 Many dystopias found in fictional and artistic works present a utopian society with at least one fatal flaw, whereas a utopian society is founded on the good life, a dystopian society s dreams of improvement are overshadowed by stimulating fears of the "ugly consequences of present-day behavior." People are alienated and individualism is restricted by the government. An early example of a dystopian novel is Rasselas (1759), by Samuel Johnson, set in Ethiopia.

4 The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia, is an apologue about happiness by Samuel Johnson. An apologue or apolog (from the Greek ἀπόλογος, a "statement" or "account") is a brief fable or allegorical story with pointed or exaggerated details, meant to serve as a pleasant vehicle for a moral doctrine or to convey a useful lesson without stating it explicitly.

5 Samuel Johnson (7 or 18 September December 1784), often referred to as Dr Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer.

6 While the story is thematically similar to Candide by Voltaire both concern young men traveling in the company of honored teachers, encountering and examining human suffering in an attempt to determine the root of happiness. The question Rasselas confronts most directly is whether or not humanity is essentially capable of attaining happiness.

7 The plot is simple in the extreme. Rasselas, son of the King of Abyssinia (modern-day Ethiopia), is shut up in a beautiful valley, "till the order of succession should call him to the throne." He grows weary of the factitious entertainments of the place, and after much brooding escapes with his sister Nekayah, her attendant Pekuah and his poet-friend Imlac. They are to see the world and search for happiness, but after some sojourn in Egypt, where they encounter various classes of society and undergo a few mild adventures, they perceive the futility of their search and abruptly return to Abyssinia

8 Nightmarish utopias In the 20 th century, the sense of anxiety and gloom resulting from the horrors of World War I did not end with Armistice Day. Unemployment, labour disputes, and tensions abroad, where there were demands for independence in many parts of the Empire (the south of Ireland became a free state in 1921) made the years between the two world wars difficult and often dismal ones. This is reflected in literature by anguish and ironical distance.

9 The depression of the 1930's and the rise of totalitarianism in Germany deepened the sombre mood of the nation. This led to more commited writing. George Orwell and Aldous Huxley wrote satires of their society, and turned the utopian genre into dystopias focused on our world in the future. A world which in no longer ideal but has become nightmarish, as if the possibility of describing an ideal world had become almost indecent in face of the anguish and the terror of the times.

10 In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932), genetic engineering and conditioning have eradicated pain, old age and emotions. Bred in bottles, babies are predestined to their various functions in society as they are divided into 5 groups, from alpha pluses down to epsilon minuses. Everyone is controlled through their minds. So everyone is 'happy' until an outsider comes and disrupts the order of the society...

11 AA class system is prenatally designated in terms of Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons. Among the lower castes, single embryos are "bokanovskified" ( fictional process of human cloning), so that they produce between eight and ninety-six identical siblings, making the citizens as uniform as possible.

12 Religion Concepts and symbols of religion may come under attack in a dystopia. In Brave New World, for example, the establishment of the state included lopping off the tops of all crosses (as symbols of Christianity) to make them "T"s, (as symbols of Henry Ford's Model T) The Model T was the first automobile mass produced on moving assembly lines with completely interchangeable parts, marketed to the middle class.

13 Nature In Brave New World, the lower classes of society are conditioned to be afraid of nature, but also to visit the countryside and consume transportation and games to stabilize society

14 Politics Whereas the political principles at the root of fictional utopias (or "perfect worlds") are idealistic in principle, intending positive consequences for their inhabitants, the political principles on which fictional dystopias are based are flawed and result in negative consequences for the inhabitants of the dystopian world, which is portrayed as oppressive.

15 Dystopias are often filled with pessimistic views of the ruling class or government that is brutal or uncaring ruling with an "iron hand" or "iron fist". [citation needed] These dystopian government establishments often have protagonists or groups that lead a "resistance" to enact change within their government.

16 Economics Even in dystopias where the economic system is not the source of the society's flaws, as in Brave New World, the state often controls the economy. In Brave New World, a character, reacting with horror to the suggestion of not being part of the social body, cites as a reason that everyone works for everyone else.

17 Aldous Huxley ( ) He believed in progress through spiritual life rather than through science. This is why Brave New World is a dystopia about scientific conditioning.