Dystopia

Dystopia "is the idea of a society in a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being Utopian" (www.wikipedia.com), although that refers more to a dystopic society than dystopia in general. Although if you leave out the part about it being a society it is still able to make sense and has a much broader application.


When looking at the concept of the 'dark' or 'dystopic', one of the first styles to come to mind is 'Gothic'. According to Thefreedictionary.com, Gothic means "of or relating to a style of fiction that emphasizes the grotesque, mysterious, and desolate."

For me, there are two things that I think about when I hear the word 'Gothic"

The Subculture

And the architecture

Gargoyles are something that has come out of Gothic architecture that lends itself well to the Macarbe. They are grotesque statues meant to frighten and intimidate evil spirits, but quite often they end up frightening us as well.

 
When searching for dystopia I came across the term "Orbital dystopia", which, according to Wikipedia, means "horizontal displacement of orbital structures due to trauma or craniofacial developmental anomalies". The first half of that sentence led me to believe that it was something to do with planets that had been knocked out of orbit.
It's not.
Doing something with planets could be a fun concept to work with though.

Grunge is another dystopic movement. Grunge means filth or dirt (www.thefreedictionary.com), and so grunge is the idea of making somethign dirty. When utopia is often associated with clenliness, Grunge is the opposite and so dystopic.

So far, for my Dystopic assignment, I have dark, filthy planets. Actually, that is a pretty neat concept. Let's see where I can go with that.

 Bibliography

www.thefreedictionary.com/Gothic [viewed 6-9-2011]
www.wikipedia.com [viewed 6-9-2011]