How to Live in a Dystopian Fiction https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/06/28/how-to-live-in-a-dystopian-fiction/
@enkiv2 the first point already makes me think... would it work if you *didn't* start the book in the middle of a situation already brewing?
might be able to devote a little more time to depicting what it's actually like to live in that world. really sell it. maybe invert the typical strategy of fantasy tales in these matters...
then you can start something, and it be more meaningful? 🤷
@KitRedgrave I think maybe the reason is that figuring out how to describe a collapse in an entertaining way is hard. Often, dystopian settings have complicated structures that would require a lot of justification. (For an example of this done well, watch the V miniseries)
@KitRedgrave Imagine if Logan's Run started before the society they were describing formed. (Or, look at episode 19 of Darling in the FranXX.) If you start off with a high-concept dystopia it's easy to fail to produce one whose origins can be readily explained. (Then again, who among us can explain how society got to the current place, convincingly?)
personal theories why (although all may be factors)
A: dystopian fiction's so into being a warning of the bottom of the slope that the slippery beginning seems unsexy
B: the "but we must have a win" condition of modern fiction in general
C: most of the people writing are either white straight abled cis men or 3 to 4 of those things and since society currently benefits them they're hesitant to suggest new order-maintaining steps are wrong
D: fear it'll be a roadmap
@enkiv2 @KitRedgrave
> figuring out how to describe a collapse in an entertaining way is hard
it's not, it's just that nobody likes bleak fiction; it's the least used plot
"the hero tries, does all they can, and fails" is not what people are used to in fiction
so the best you get is "here's how our society became a fuck, and here is your hope spot of people who might try to solve it"
and that usually isn't considered dystopian 'enough', b/c the genre is mired in experiences of the dystopia