Guest post
by Massimo Marino
The word dystopian comes from the ancient greek with δυσ-, “bad, hard”,and τόπος, “place.” Alternatively it can also be called cacotopia, or anti-utopia.
Many dystopias describe an utopian society where good-life seems to have been achieved, but suffers by at least one fatal issue. Whereas utopian societies are founded on aspiring to the general well-being, a dystopian society’s dreams of improvement are overshadowed by a repression of any sort and origin, at times even a benevolent repression.
The society appears in stories staged on a speculative and visionary future and are characterized by dehumanization, totalitarian rules, ecological and environmental disasters or other events associated with a cataclysmic decline in the society fabric. Continue reading “Dystopian, Utopian, and Cacotopyan”