Dystopian Novels: a cliche?

[Forrest Philpot]

The commonplace plot/setting for a Dystopian novel is the future, in a heavily-populated city, where the government controls every movement (and sometimes thought) that the citizens make. 

A few commonplace Dystopian books:

1. 1984 - George Orwell

2. Anthem - Ayn Rand
3. Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury

4. A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess

5. Harrison Bergeron - Kurt Vonnegut

some films
1. Metropolis
2. 2081

3. Soylent Green

4. iRobot

[Runa]

And what if they are? Still completely interesting.

[Forrest Philpot]

Oh no! Do not misinterpret my message here. I completely support the Dystopian movement. I don't think they're cliche. Each one is very different.

[Lenore103]

Books: The Giver - Lois Lowry
Movie: Titan AE (One of my FAVORITES)

I don't think they are a cliche. Because they are set in the future it's very easy to make each of them original.

[Lulu P]

Books: A brave new world

If you look at any book that has the gov. as one of the enemies(or any fantasy gov.) they all have a little bit of dystopian characteristics

Books ? : Wicked

[sabelmouse]

not always the government. increasingly the dystopian world is controlled by corporations. my favourites
he, she and it by marge piercy
the year of the flood by margaret atwood
oryx and crake by margaret atwood
this is in order of my preference though the fist 2 share the top spot and oryx was writtenbefore flood and should be read first. i didn' t but it's better that way.

anyway those are a little different because??? maybe because they where written by women. the way things are going corps are more realistic than government and they are called trnsnationals for a reason.

as for ayn rand. never read her. always associate her with crazed young republicans. as i keep comming acros her i have decidet that i must give her a go .

[BookCaseJim]

The reason the dystopian novel/movie is set in these giant cities is because there is this general consensus that the world is becoming more urbanized by the year (it is). It's more tempting therefore to imagine a future, 50 or 100 years from now, where it's all about city living.

Also, if it were set in the countryside either the reach of the evil government/corporation won't be as obvious, it would be like watching Little House on The Prairie 2059, it's still a little house on a prairie. On the other hand, "On the Waterfront 2059" will be different and exciting in many ways.

[Sarah Ride]

Even as a cliche, as long as it's always well thought out I feel like in its least it can serve as enjoyment and entertainment, and at most it could give warning to the present generation about the future

[Jeffrey Elliott]

Don't forget "We" by yevegny zamyatin.

[Kat Dianne Lundgren]

Given the setting, wouldn't The Hunger Games count as a dystopian novel?

[Neema Samawi]

I always thought it was one...isn't it? I feel like I gravitate toward dystopian novels. Or at least novels based on hypothetical questions.

[Kaiden Munsey]

I don't know, I personally think that Dystopian novel are really coming back into popularity. I mean they where popular before because of the whole fear of communism thing, but I think just recently with the way the world has been going That alot of people are returning to the concept of Dystopian as something that interests them just because it explores some of societies worst fears. Like if you look at all the old books & movies you mentioned, They all feature evil governments that control everything and supress your freedom by stealing information and your rights. While in a lot of newer fiction the "evil people" tend to be the mega rich, specifically those who are running large corporations. And even in things where that isn't totally true, Like to use the very popular hunger games as my example, in that novel/movie the bad dictators are still the government, but most of the capitol is still just filled with these mega rich people who are profitting on the people(I never read the hunger games, so I'm not sure on anything more about that.) Then again of course the Hunger Games was more of anti-war book than a social commentary like so many of the books you mentioned. Okay well anyways, thats, I don't know, my ideas on the theme? 

Well, I'm not going back to proofread all that.

[Paul Birtwistle]

That's true. But In general, books about the future are becoming darker. They're all about world ending apocalypses and zombies, and less about the technology.