Dystopian fiction has increased exponentially in popularity in recent years.  The Hunger Games books and movie and the The Handmaid’s Tale series on Hulu  are but two of the most popular examples of the genre.  Dystopian tales imagine the worst of the worst in a setting where everything is as bad as possible. Dystopian stories are overloaded with extreme oppression, horror,  human ill will, ill health, and corruption. Authoritarian regimes and ecological devastation are common fixtures and stories often unravel in the time following a horrific pandemic or nuclear war.  Although fiction, the themes are real, and creators are usually critiquing social, political, technological, and cultural issues.   Given the current state of political chaos, the real threat of environmental collapse, the rise of authoritarianism around the world, and the recent pandemic, these stories have gone from being obviously fictional to tales that anyone with even the slightest shred of imagination can picture happening next year or next month if not the day after tomorrow.   

If the daily news isn’t scary enough, these novels will terrify you in how realistic they seem and how easily you could imagine the stories being current events, not fiction:

  • The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
  • Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
  • The Last Summer of Reason by Tahar Djaout, translated by Marjolijn DeJager
  • Burn by Peter Heller
  • Jennifer Government by Max Barry

There is another way to imagine the future.  The opposite of dystopian fiction is not necessarily utopian because utopias do not exist.  The word utopia  literally means “no place” in Greek.  Yet there are certainly stories of recognizable and realistic hope.  Fairy tales of blind optimism where everything turns out perfect and humanity lives in paradise forever and ever aren’t what we need. We need stories that help us imagine a path to a better place, a future that’s better, if not perfect, and most importantly, actually possible.  Something not too difficult to imagine.  If you need to imagine a better world, I recommend these stories. 

A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers is about a world that has gone through the worst of ecological devastation and over-reliance on technology run amok and come out on the other side. The story centers on a monk and a robot who form a unique friendship and together explore what it means to be human, to be good, and to be alive.

The Life Impossible by Matt Haig is an exemplary work of magical realism that deals with themes including ecological collapse, political corruption, and personal integrity.  A mysterious energy or being found in the ocean of a Spanish island sustains and heals the planet and its people. The protagonists fight against political power and corruption that endanger the environment.

The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk begins as a dystopian nightmare but in an environmentally devastated American Christian theocracy, a group in the pacific northwest creates an alternative society built on community, compassion, and fifth sacred thing.

Glory by Noviolet Bulawayo recalls Animal Farm, but the story is an overthrow of tyranny.

Orbital by Samantha Harvey is set in an international space station orbiting the Earth. The crew offers a glimpse into a better humanity as the float above the planet.

Find stories that imagine a better way this month and let them inspire you to imagine a future of possibility and renewal instead of futility and mourning. 

Imaginatively,

Rev. Tony 

A Message From Rev. Tony
A Message from Rev. Tony