Do we learn more from utopian or dystopian science fiction?
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Both 1984 and Brave New World are presented as utopian to the reader at first, but of course both are ultimately dystopian.
Good point! Conversely, Diamond Age came off to me as dystopian out of the gate but contained one of the most utopian ideas I’ve come across. All fascinating books...
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And arguably my favorite genre. Stephenson is a genius, btw. I suppose Snow Crash is another ambiguous utopian/dystopian cyberpunk tale.
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In what sense was 1984 presented as utopian? I can sort of buy the argument for BNW – at least, it's intentionally ambiguous – but I don't think anyone in Orwell's audience would interpret it as a desired end state.