Everyday Canvas

Utopia or Dystopia? No way!

Prompt: Utopia and Dystopia are imagined worlds in which humanity lives in the worst possible or best possible conditions. If you were to write about either, which one would you choose and what would your version of that world look like?

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As much as I loved to read the weird experiences of Gulliver, I think Swift started this whole Dystopia idea. When I think back, I find traces of it in Homer’s Iliad, as well. Then, after Swift, I can think of Aldois Huxley’s Brave New World, George Orwell’s 1984, Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale. If I am not mistaken, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road made the idea rise to its present fame, or maybe I should call it infamy.

Nowadays, whether a dystopian story is free in E-book format or not, it is so copious and outrageous that when I see another book on sale on something dystopian, I want to gag. In book groups online that advertise E-books such as Pixelscroll, FreeBooksy, Bookbub, and Kindle Nation Daily, two out of five books have dystopian content. Too much of anything is nauseating for me.

I would, therefore, not choose Dystopia as the setting for any of my writings at this point. Utopia, maybe, if it were cloaked with science fiction in another universe or far away galaxy, since what I know of our planet, I can’t fathom any Utopia surviving on our earth.

In my Utopian world, living things—plant, animal, human—wouldn’t eat each other to survive. They may have non-living food that doesn't rot, feel pain, or do anything else negative.

Every action of the inhabitants would be judged according to its love content, and not in the name of justice, or for revenge, or punishment.

Giving birth to and bringing up new life would be much easier and would be considered something very special and rare.

There would be no sickness or aging, and to give space for new life, the old life would willingly fade out without making it painful for others left behind.

There would be no race, gender, religion, capability, intelligence, or achievement distinctions among inhabitants. Because of this lack of distinction, there wouldn’t be any wars.

That world’s denizens would create art for art’s sake and not for fame or fortune.

In other words, for me, both Utopia and Dystopia stink to high heaven, simply because, even in my utopian world, the art of writing would be bland, with fiction lacking conflict.

All things considered, I think I’ll stay where I am in our fault-filled planet, until it is time to take off. Anyway, my reading tablets are full of books I plan to read, books without Utopia or Dystopia and without billionaires’ far-out, erotic romances, so I am hoping my departure hour will be delayed.