Future Imperfect: Science Fiction and Dystopias

Verne was one of the founding fathers of the science fiction genre, and was always careful to ground his stories in the science of the day. Submarines existed in 1870, when Verne published the story of the vengeful scientist-in-exile Captain Nemo and his marvelous vessel. Verne used elements of their design in creating the Nautilus, which made the speculative technology of the underwater marine lab/war machine more believable.

L’Engle’s novel is notable for a couple of reasons: it features a female protagonist, which was still a rarity in science fiction works for young readers in 1962; it also contains one of the most uniquely chilling dystopian scenes ever committed to paper. When Meg and her companions arrive on the planet Camazotz to rescue her father, they find row upon row of identical houses. Each house has a child on the front lawn, each child has a ball or a jump rope, and all are all bouncing and skipping in perfect unison.

As Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Lowry depicts a society that has achieved perfect peace and unity – by stripping the citizens of all choices, attachments, and memories of pain. Jonas, the boy assigned to be the single keeper of all collective memories, decides that their idyllic existence has been achieved at too high a price.

In Anderson’s depiction of a not-distant-enough future, bioengineered Internet feeds are installed in children’s brains at birth, providing a constant barrage of advertising and puerile entertainment. The feeds also provide the all-powerful corporations that are essentially running the country with unlimited access to people’s thoughts, desires, and purchasing patterns, plus the ability to distract them from the environmental disasters ravaging the planet.

The inclusion of a National Book Award-winning historical novel set during the Revolutionary War might seem odd in a collection of science fiction and dystopian novels, but Anderson’s titular protagonist is actually the subject of a scientific experiment, and is being raised by a communal collective of philosophers who refer to each other by numbers rather than names. The nature of the experiment – to see if a black slave given all the advantages and education of a wealthy white child can achieve the same intellectual capacity – is what puts the “dys-” in their utopia.

Advances in the field of genetic engineering have opened up an enormous can of ethical worms. Farmer’s multi-award-winning novel centers around a boy who discovers he’s a clone being raised to provide replacement parts for a 146-year-old drug lord. The story graphically illustrates some potential consequences of what critics of the science of cloning call “playing God.”

Rosoff’s semi-post-apocalyptic story takes place in the near-future, as an American teen is spending the summer on her English cousins’ farm. While her aunt is away, terrorists overtake London, and the five kids must fend for themselves in a country suddenly embroiled in World War III. At first Daisy and her cousins revel in their unsupervised Eden, but the war eventually finds them and turns their heaven into hell.

With the first Superman issue (1938), Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster didn’t just create the original comic book superhero – they created an icon that has seared its image onto the public consciousness, and revolutionized the budding comic book industry in the process. Suddenly sci-fi had a profitable new format, and scores of scientifically enhanced heroes and villains began duking it out on their four-color pages. This issue features the first cover appearance of Lex Luthor, Superman’s mad scientist arch-nemesis.

Comics have come a long way since the 1930s. Shaun Tan’s wordless graphic novel, portraying the experience of an immigrant in a strange land, is a profound work of art. As the protagonist—a young father determined to make a new life for his family— navigates a semi-surreal landscape of imaginary creatures, fantastic architecture and incomprehensible writing, the reader feels just as confused and helpless as he is, and just as grateful for the kindness of strangers who offer assistance and friendship.