Listen to a reading of this article: ❖ I've been kicking around some ideas for a dystopian novel lately, and I was hoping readers might be able to provide me with some feedback. I'm picturing a story set in a world where everyone's a slave but doesn't know it. People think thoughts they believe they came up with themselves, make decisions and lifestyle choices that they think are their own, buy things they sincerely believe they want, consume entertainment they honestly feel they enjoy, vote for political candidates they truly think they support, when in reality they're all marching in complete obedience to an elite ruling class whose high-level mastery of mass-scale psychological manipulation has bent the public to their will.
Anyone who has followed you, even for a little while, would recognize your description of the state of the world in your synopsis. And I quite agree with it in general but there's one point I don't buy: that the ruling class would mindlessly lead their world to oblivion.
There are historical precedents to my argument. In the 19th century, the United Kingdom passed laws that limited working hours and implemented safety measures in the workplaces. It wasn't out of compassion, although the government wanted to be credited as such for obvious political reasons.
It was because they had noticed something that had alarmed them. The price of work, that is the salaries, were on an irresistible upward move. So they formed an inquiry which discovered they had been depleting the UK of three generations of workers in the course of one.
Since individual employers couldn't implement corrections without putting themselves at a competing disadvantage, it had to pass through legislation. Of course, not everyone was pleased. In fact, the opposition came mostly from small businesses for which the measures were proportionally more costly. On top of that, the big corporations had lawyers that knew ways to pass the fiscal bill to the smaller ones.
So the big companies were the liberals and the smaller ones, the conservatives. In order to have their program passed, the liberals sought the support of the working class which, of course, obliged. And that is why the liberals gained the reputation of being progressives.
It also brought the elites of the working class to believe they had won a fundamental battle and that class justice could be reached within the system.
But about a century later, technical progress made it possible to relocate production at low cost, that is the cost of importing the production was low but also the new locations were places where workers didn't have the same protections and accepted lower conditions. Which is, not by coincidence, the time when free trade became a religion because it's not beneficial to produce at low cost elsewhere if you have to pay compensating custom taxes when importing your product.
And the workers unions found they couldn't do a thing about it, especially since the workers' parties thought they had to go along in order to have access to power.
Right now, there's a shrinking population phenomenon happening. Not through eugenics, as some would believe but through a relatively natural process of which some researchers identify urbanism and women's education as the main causes. It's presently obscured by the surviving mass of the baby boomers but they're globally retiring and entering their exctintion phase. The next generations are not reproducing at replacement level. In fact, Japan is already experiencing population shrinkage.
The ruling class is already addressing this problem with the Great Reset because capitalism needs growth so they'll have to implement authoritarian measures to maintain their domination in the context of a shrinking economy. I believe this phoney pandemic is part of the program. But go explain that to propagandized people.
So, they're not as clueless as they seem. And, as Mao said, it's natural to hate your ennemies but it's a mistake to underestimate them
If you pitch this in Hollywood, you know the studio moguls will turn the “real” bad guys into some subversive group of socialists who meet on an uncensored corner of the Dark Web where they are radicalized by a pleasant-seeming Australian mastermind (with possible ties to the Chinese Communist Party) who places sinister coded misinformation into her blog posts. (“We thought it was just poems and stuff," said one of her operatives during interrogation. "She seemed like such a nice person.”)
And Fauci, Kamala Harris, and Elon Musk—all dressed in Iron Man suits—will save the world.
You've almost got it, Caitlin. You've identified most of the unbelievable things that could manifest in your fanciful dystopia:
"The government is so profoundly corrupt that the corporations who manufacture military weaponry are inseparably intertwined with the decision-making apparatus of its foreign policy establishment and are permitted to actively lobby for more wars so that more of its expensive weaponry will be used.... It's the same with environmental and economic policies."
But you've left out the most unbelievable portion of your fantasy: the complete takeover of the medical and "scientific" establishments and 90% of trained physicians by the very same forces of corporate greed you pretend run the military, environmental and economic policies.
Nor are your suggested endings sufficiently unbelievable. Sure, "the most obvious ending would be to kill the whole world off within a few books by nuclear war or ecological disaster..." is difficult to believe, but not supremely so. At least you have the humility to recognize that you too may have a blind spot for "...something equally terrible..."
May I propose a resolution even less believable than war, economic or environmental destruction? I propose the geno-suicide of the most advanced countries in the world through takeover and manipulation of the medical and public health establishment! Such thoroughly corrupt institutions could frighten over half the citizens into not just accepting, but mandating inoculation with vaccines against a bio-weapon with an infection fatality rate barely twice that of the flu, with even that rate enhanced by iatrogenic injury from drugs and devices mandated by bureaucracies captured by evil forces. And the vaccine itself would be a second, more effective bio-weapon that trains human cells themselves to produce the most pathogenic portion of the first bio-weapon, causing infertility and years of premature death from heart attacks, strokes, autoimmune disease and the resurgence of latent diseases previously held in check by immune systems damaged by the vaccine.
Don't you agree, Caitlin, that I propose an ending so bizarre, so contrary to your own faith in the medical establishment that you couldn't think of or propose it yourself?
Re: the ending — unfortunately part of the takeover of minds the book alludes to has included the total elimination of utopian stories from popular literature, film, or television. For the good ending to work, you might have to write in a subplot where plucky, heroic authors begin telling optimistic tales about the future. Some of them will be stopped of course, but others will take their places and go on writing the forbidden stories of a world where love rules, inspired by mythical figures from their murky past, demigods like the one called Dr King, whose legacy has been co-opted by the evil powers, but who miraculously continues to speak truth to power in spite of it all.
Man, this is gonna be a fantastic novel. I can’t wait!
If it were as easy as shedding a coat on a warm day. How to get there from here is the perennial question.
Yanis Varoufakis (sp?) has a recent book out with one explanation for how. The truth is that power must be wrested away, and that's usually not a pretty picture. The folks at the top have the motivation and wherewithal to keep what they have.
I can't tell if you're being coy or what. You describe the exact world we're living in today then ask if it's too different from today's world for people to relate to? Seriously? My fear is that as fiction it might be rejected as being too on the nose.
But you're a great writing team so I say go for it. As for the ending, the process of reaching it should present one not knowable from the start -- pretty much like now.
Of course, this ain't no novel, but it is a "novel' situation leading in only one, destructive direction. It sometimes presents as a dilemma, as in, don't most people actually know they are slaves and should rebel, but figure their chances are nil, the rich and powerful having had a head start of centuries, have the game wrapped up? Or is more talk the solution? Which prospect is more discouraging? It seems we do have the facts, people know them where they live: the existential anxiety of daily life for the majority could elude only the brain-dead or purposefully blind. And they are acting: people are quitting their dirty jobs in the millions. They are demanding better working conditions and remuneration. They are no longer indulgent of billionaires, and quite possibly trillionaires. It isn't "cute" anymore. And the trend away from marriage and family forced by the system's inequity, makes the population less dependent on the system, and less willing to support it at any cost. Ironically, there is some hope in that.
Je suis de ceux qui ont fait des mauvais choix. Souvent de façon impulsive et irréfléchi. J'aurai bientôt 65 printemps et votre roman distopique ne reflète que la pur réalité. Mon arrivé sur le net (2012, fallait que je m'adapte) fut tardive mais m'a ouvert les yeux.., et l'esprit. Je crois profondément que l'arrivé du télévisuel fut ce qui a boulversé les valeurs profondes de notre monde. On nous a fait croire des choses aussi stupide que prendre un bain de pétrole était bien ou que fumée la cigarette était une libération (Je suis encore fumeur) et il y a plein d'exemple comme ça. Je veut dire, depuis 2012 j'ai quitté définitivement la télé et les choses se sont mit à prendre leur place dans ma façon de penser et de voir les choses simplement parce que je m'informais beaucoup plus. Je dit ça parce que je sais, en tout cas je le crois fortement, que nous sommes très nombreux à ne plus suivre la propagande médiatique. Donc , il devrait y avoir dans votre roman distopique cet aspect de dualité ou rivalité dans les divisions qu'ils ont créé dans les populations. Merci pour ton travail Caitlin, j'apprécie vraiment pouvoir te lire.
Just write your bio as fiction…, perfect. Especially, how wonderful China is and how bad American’s are, and how you need a place to rent in Australia but, have now joined the urban outdoorsmen (bums) and are living on the street wonderfully, and you were saved and given a place to stay by the police who are enforcing the Covid mandate lock downs so very well it was just like in East Berlin. You also are completely unarmed and have been triple vaxed and nothing happened yet, except some very mild heart palpitations.. You also believe in free speech sort of… Or something to that effect! You asked…. Smile, j
Yeah, I don't think people would be able to relate to your premise. It's just too far fetched! LOL!
I wrote a near future dystopian novel and gave it a "satisfactory ending" (because my publisher didn't want it to be totally bleak). The main character is an anarchist who practices mutual aid. She and her commune support each other and liberate others against their fascist oppressors. It's called "Where The Bodies Lie" -- https://www.extasybooks.com/Where-the-Bodies-Lie
Anyone who has followed you, even for a little while, would recognize your description of the state of the world in your synopsis. And I quite agree with it in general but there's one point I don't buy: that the ruling class would mindlessly lead their world to oblivion.
There are historical precedents to my argument. In the 19th century, the United Kingdom passed laws that limited working hours and implemented safety measures in the workplaces. It wasn't out of compassion, although the government wanted to be credited as such for obvious political reasons.
It was because they had noticed something that had alarmed them. The price of work, that is the salaries, were on an irresistible upward move. So they formed an inquiry which discovered they had been depleting the UK of three generations of workers in the course of one.
Since individual employers couldn't implement corrections without putting themselves at a competing disadvantage, it had to pass through legislation. Of course, not everyone was pleased. In fact, the opposition came mostly from small businesses for which the measures were proportionally more costly. On top of that, the big corporations had lawyers that knew ways to pass the fiscal bill to the smaller ones.
So the big companies were the liberals and the smaller ones, the conservatives. In order to have their program passed, the liberals sought the support of the working class which, of course, obliged. And that is why the liberals gained the reputation of being progressives.
It also brought the elites of the working class to believe they had won a fundamental battle and that class justice could be reached within the system.
But about a century later, technical progress made it possible to relocate production at low cost, that is the cost of importing the production was low but also the new locations were places where workers didn't have the same protections and accepted lower conditions. Which is, not by coincidence, the time when free trade became a religion because it's not beneficial to produce at low cost elsewhere if you have to pay compensating custom taxes when importing your product.
And the workers unions found they couldn't do a thing about it, especially since the workers' parties thought they had to go along in order to have access to power.
Right now, there's a shrinking population phenomenon happening. Not through eugenics, as some would believe but through a relatively natural process of which some researchers identify urbanism and women's education as the main causes. It's presently obscured by the surviving mass of the baby boomers but they're globally retiring and entering their exctintion phase. The next generations are not reproducing at replacement level. In fact, Japan is already experiencing population shrinkage.
The ruling class is already addressing this problem with the Great Reset because capitalism needs growth so they'll have to implement authoritarian measures to maintain their domination in the context of a shrinking economy. I believe this phoney pandemic is part of the program. But go explain that to propagandized people.
So, they're not as clueless as they seem. And, as Mao said, it's natural to hate your ennemies but it's a mistake to underestimate them
That’s not a novel, that’s a non-fiction book about reality.
It’s definitely got legs....I personally prefer the ending where the population wakes up, but I’ve always been a sucker for happy endings.
I think if you throw Mel Gibson and a dog in to your pitch it will sell like hotcakes!
If you pitch this in Hollywood, you know the studio moguls will turn the “real” bad guys into some subversive group of socialists who meet on an uncensored corner of the Dark Web where they are radicalized by a pleasant-seeming Australian mastermind (with possible ties to the Chinese Communist Party) who places sinister coded misinformation into her blog posts. (“We thought it was just poems and stuff," said one of her operatives during interrogation. "She seemed like such a nice person.”)
And Fauci, Kamala Harris, and Elon Musk—all dressed in Iron Man suits—will save the world.
You've almost got it, Caitlin. You've identified most of the unbelievable things that could manifest in your fanciful dystopia:
"The government is so profoundly corrupt that the corporations who manufacture military weaponry are inseparably intertwined with the decision-making apparatus of its foreign policy establishment and are permitted to actively lobby for more wars so that more of its expensive weaponry will be used.... It's the same with environmental and economic policies."
But you've left out the most unbelievable portion of your fantasy: the complete takeover of the medical and "scientific" establishments and 90% of trained physicians by the very same forces of corporate greed you pretend run the military, environmental and economic policies.
Nor are your suggested endings sufficiently unbelievable. Sure, "the most obvious ending would be to kill the whole world off within a few books by nuclear war or ecological disaster..." is difficult to believe, but not supremely so. At least you have the humility to recognize that you too may have a blind spot for "...something equally terrible..."
May I propose a resolution even less believable than war, economic or environmental destruction? I propose the geno-suicide of the most advanced countries in the world through takeover and manipulation of the medical and public health establishment! Such thoroughly corrupt institutions could frighten over half the citizens into not just accepting, but mandating inoculation with vaccines against a bio-weapon with an infection fatality rate barely twice that of the flu, with even that rate enhanced by iatrogenic injury from drugs and devices mandated by bureaucracies captured by evil forces. And the vaccine itself would be a second, more effective bio-weapon that trains human cells themselves to produce the most pathogenic portion of the first bio-weapon, causing infertility and years of premature death from heart attacks, strokes, autoimmune disease and the resurgence of latent diseases previously held in check by immune systems damaged by the vaccine.
Don't you agree, Caitlin, that I propose an ending so bizarre, so contrary to your own faith in the medical establishment that you couldn't think of or propose it yourself?
Re: the ending — unfortunately part of the takeover of minds the book alludes to has included the total elimination of utopian stories from popular literature, film, or television. For the good ending to work, you might have to write in a subplot where plucky, heroic authors begin telling optimistic tales about the future. Some of them will be stopped of course, but others will take their places and go on writing the forbidden stories of a world where love rules, inspired by mythical figures from their murky past, demigods like the one called Dr King, whose legacy has been co-opted by the evil powers, but who miraculously continues to speak truth to power in spite of it all.
Man, this is gonna be a fantastic novel. I can’t wait!
it would never sell, its just not believable ;-)
If it were as easy as shedding a coat on a warm day. How to get there from here is the perennial question.
Yanis Varoufakis (sp?) has a recent book out with one explanation for how. The truth is that power must be wrested away, and that's usually not a pretty picture. The folks at the top have the motivation and wherewithal to keep what they have.
Amazon eventually takes over the entire world and puts implants into peoples brains at birth to facilitate total control
I can't tell if you're being coy or what. You describe the exact world we're living in today then ask if it's too different from today's world for people to relate to? Seriously? My fear is that as fiction it might be rejected as being too on the nose.
But you're a great writing team so I say go for it. As for the ending, the process of reaching it should present one not knowable from the start -- pretty much like now.
Of course, this ain't no novel, but it is a "novel' situation leading in only one, destructive direction. It sometimes presents as a dilemma, as in, don't most people actually know they are slaves and should rebel, but figure their chances are nil, the rich and powerful having had a head start of centuries, have the game wrapped up? Or is more talk the solution? Which prospect is more discouraging? It seems we do have the facts, people know them where they live: the existential anxiety of daily life for the majority could elude only the brain-dead or purposefully blind. And they are acting: people are quitting their dirty jobs in the millions. They are demanding better working conditions and remuneration. They are no longer indulgent of billionaires, and quite possibly trillionaires. It isn't "cute" anymore. And the trend away from marriage and family forced by the system's inequity, makes the population less dependent on the system, and less willing to support it at any cost. Ironically, there is some hope in that.
Je suis de ceux qui ont fait des mauvais choix. Souvent de façon impulsive et irréfléchi. J'aurai bientôt 65 printemps et votre roman distopique ne reflète que la pur réalité. Mon arrivé sur le net (2012, fallait que je m'adapte) fut tardive mais m'a ouvert les yeux.., et l'esprit. Je crois profondément que l'arrivé du télévisuel fut ce qui a boulversé les valeurs profondes de notre monde. On nous a fait croire des choses aussi stupide que prendre un bain de pétrole était bien ou que fumée la cigarette était une libération (Je suis encore fumeur) et il y a plein d'exemple comme ça. Je veut dire, depuis 2012 j'ai quitté définitivement la télé et les choses se sont mit à prendre leur place dans ma façon de penser et de voir les choses simplement parce que je m'informais beaucoup plus. Je dit ça parce que je sais, en tout cas je le crois fortement, que nous sommes très nombreux à ne plus suivre la propagande médiatique. Donc , il devrait y avoir dans votre roman distopique cet aspect de dualité ou rivalité dans les divisions qu'ils ont créé dans les populations. Merci pour ton travail Caitlin, j'apprécie vraiment pouvoir te lire.
Just write your bio as fiction…, perfect. Especially, how wonderful China is and how bad American’s are, and how you need a place to rent in Australia but, have now joined the urban outdoorsmen (bums) and are living on the street wonderfully, and you were saved and given a place to stay by the police who are enforcing the Covid mandate lock downs so very well it was just like in East Berlin. You also are completely unarmed and have been triple vaxed and nothing happened yet, except some very mild heart palpitations.. You also believe in free speech sort of… Or something to that effect! You asked…. Smile, j
Yeah, I don't think people would be able to relate to your premise. It's just too far fetched! LOL!
I wrote a near future dystopian novel and gave it a "satisfactory ending" (because my publisher didn't want it to be totally bleak). The main character is an anarchist who practices mutual aid. She and her commune support each other and liberate others against their fascist oppressors. It's called "Where The Bodies Lie" -- https://www.extasybooks.com/Where-the-Bodies-Lie
Throw it out - develop Imagine by John Lennon 🌞