Is Dystopian fiction a subgenera of fantasy? Is it it's own thing altogether? What if there is a little magical realism mixed in? How would you guys categorize this kind of story in terms of genre? Thanks for any help or thoughts you can share.
Dystopian fiction is a subgenre that crosses genre lines. It can be action, scifi, or fantasy. I wouldn't put "Hunger Games" into a fantasy catagory. The terminator series is more scifi/action. The "survivalist" series by A. American has an incititing incident that might be considered SciFi, with an EMP event. But it isn't SciFi, it is more realistic. So ultimately, i would say it is a subgenre that crosses genre lines.
Dystopian/Utopian are among the oldest subgenres in science fiction. There are literally hundreds of titles from the late 1880's into the 20th century.
Hmm... Does dystopian fiction have to be a genre or can it just be its own genre? Or would you have call it magical realism if it's got some of that in there? And would that make it fantasy? But I don't think dystopian fiction always falls so neatly into these other categories. And I think in trying to it may fail to meet the expectations associated with these genres. I don't know. I could be wrong.
Dystopian makes me think of the Orwell, totalitarian regime style of story. Hunger Games would be the more modern, popular usage. Definitely speculative, but not necessarily Sci-fi or fantasy. And if there's zombies or a plague that created the dystopia, it's more horror or post-apocalyptic. And post-apocalytpic stories in general don't feel dystopic in my brain. Kind of like the pure dystopia is a society that exists intact but sucks major ass because of humans being assholes. Not because of aliens, zombies, or viruses. So, yeah... kind of muddled.
I was going to be smartarse and say thanks for clearing that up but reconsidered and thought about your distinctions for a moment. So, thanks for clearing that up. I guess some people do like genre conventions though it's possible aspiring authors over-estimate the rigidity of the boundaries. Maybe for marketing purposes, but it's much easier, I'd imagine, to sell a good story well-told than something that slavishly adheres to genre specificity.
This is sort of what I was thinking, but I thought I must not be getting something. Thanks for posting this.
100% opinion on my part. I do agree about the over-emphasis on genre in the modern milieu. So many of these things existed for decades before they had names for them. Now everything has a genre, like a forced gender assignment.
Well, it's not my genre - so I naturally turn to the wiki-article. (Yes, I know wikipedia has a bad reputation among some people, but I always use it as a first resource, and then move on to others). Wikipedia defines "utopian and dystopian fiction" as: The first 9 "dystopian fiction" novels listed on google are: - Brave New World - Fahrenheit 451 - 1984 - The Hunger Games - The Giver - The Road - Divergent - Station Eleven - A Clockwork Orange I hope these help you narrow it down. As I said, it's not my genre.
Not my genre, either. This article was written by someone who doesn't know what they are talking about though. What about Erewhon, 1872? Or Gulliver's Travels, 1725? The Time Machine, 1895? There are many, many more.
