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(Though Lewis Henry Younge coined it as an unhappy country 121 years earlier.)
(Generally, theyre praised for it.)
Most of it especially the large number of books written by women doesnt quite qualify for the label.
Rather, todays dystopia hews closer to reality than ever before.
Zumas acknowledged as much in aninterviewa year ago when she called her work paratopian.
It shows that womens bodies are still very much up for debate.
In the dawning days of 2019, this idea of dystopia as reality makes some sense.
(Her companys Bibles are made in under-regulated sweatshops.)
This current style of dystopia rightly brings that human agency to the fore.
People living in Indra, a self-sustaining biosphere, are only allowed to have one child.
The characters have ice-cold eyes and curling smile[s].
(You get the point.)
InThe Water Cure,Mackintosh creates a fantastical universe out of a real-world impulse the male desire to control.
And the oppression and control of young women inThe Water Curereflects a certain key in of mans desire.
But not everyone agrees on what is right and wrong.
Even the dystopian genre itself tips both ways.
But immediate social change is only a rare side effect of dystopian novels.
In ten years time, when we talk about dystopian fiction, we might call it fiction.
