If you are reading this manual, you are likely curious about what makes a utopia or a dystopia. Let us begin with some definitions:
- Utopia was first coined in 1516 by Sir Thomas More. The term comes from the Greek meaning no place. An imagined place where everything is perfect.
- Dystopia was first coined around the mid-nineteenth century, and the first clear recorded use was given by John Stuart Mill in 1868 when he described the Irish Land Policy.
- Eutopia is a term used to describe what is humanly possible to the utopian ideal.
For ease, we will loosely use utopia to mean a better place and dystopia to mean a worse place. This provides a simple scale from good to bad or bad to good. We will use this scale to describe forty factors that can be used to assess how close a place is to being utopian or dystopian.
In truth, there is no completely dystopian place; things can always get worse (or better). Conversely, no place is completely utopian, as things can always get better (or worse). They are endpoints that will never be reached. That means the scales of good to bad or bad could be described as infinite. Utopia and dystopia are transient in both time and space. A dystopian or utopian society has a beginning, middle and end, along with a geographic limit.
The question is, how large is a dystopia? How small is a utopia? And how long did it last? We will discuss this more in Factor 1: Environment. Usual dystopia or utopia is typically applied at the societal scale, with a minimum of 160 people to be sustainable. In this manual, we will describe a society, as well as a household. The reason for scaling this down to a household is that it highlights how many of these factors manifest at the individual level, which is vital for storytelling. It is rare to read a book without characters and an individual’s viewpoint.
Currently, this manual comprises forty factors. There are likely to be more, but forty is a good starting point. The details of the manual are debatable, as much of it is based on opinion, but the broad strokes should hold true. In some places, you may argue that one factor overlaps with another, and that is also true. Due to the overlap, it is not easy to order the factors, so please keep this in mind. The overall aim is to help you analyse utopia/dystopia and, most of all, to make you think.
In literature and films, the balance of utopian/dystopian fiction is weighted toward the dystopian. This is because dystopia offers a clear conflict, which aids storytelling. There is an objective for the protagonist to strive for, to make things better, to move closer to utopia. This occurs either by escaping or by societal improvement. Utopia is usually only written about when it is threatened or when the protagonist begins to question a supposed utopia as something more sinister. Writing about a paradise of utopia, which is perfect and where nothing changes, is difficult, but not impossible, to find a compelling story.
The manual is designed for writers and for those interested in analysing the world around us. For writers, there are writing prompts to consider how these factors can be used for world-building. There are examples from film, literature, and the real world. Furthermore, we have added high-level facts to help ground your writing. A little knowledge goes a long way.
Most of this manual is quantitative, along with a single quantitative question for each factor. At the end of the manual, we will use these quantitative questions to attempt to quantify a society or characters as to how close they are to utopia or dystopia.
This manual was developed through research for the Kurdor series of novels, the first being Kurdor: The Newcomer. When the island of Kurdor was set up as a utopian paradise, the Department of Observation and Research developed a manual to guide the utopian society. Perhaps, just perhaps, this is what the first iteration of that manual might have looked like.
At the end of the manual, we have practised what we have preached by exploring a truly dystopian world and a purely utopian one. This has developed into a full novel, Two Worlds, One History.
Factor 1: Environment
The word environment comes from the old French environner. It means to surround or enclose. It describes a boundary, whether physical or metaphorical. It defines one space from another. For humans, the largest environment we inhabit is Earth, but we are also part of the solar system, the Milky Way, and the universe. If the sun stopped shining or the air disappeared, we would not be able to live. We are intrinsically connected to the cosmos. Even if we imagine a box, it suggests two environments: the inside and the outside. Even then, we may assume gravity, which requires a celestial object. We can’t have a truly discrete environment, a void of nothingness. The only exception is in our imagination, in our writing.
An environment describes select differences between one place and another. What those differences are, this manual attempts to explore and will provide you with a toolkit for analysis. For simplicity, we can scale environments from a house to the planet Earth. Every environment is shaped by two key dimensions: time and space.
Temporal (Time)
Time defines the lifespan and evolution of an environment. Nothing lasts forever, not countries, populations, or ecosystems. The Roman Empire had a beginning, a middle, and an end. At its height, it may have felt utopian to its citizens compared to what came before. But when Rome fell, some may have harked back to the good old days of the empire. During the Cold War, the West portrayed the USSR as dystopian, casting itself as relatively utopian in comparison. This ideological divide lasted from the 1940s to the 1990s, a clear beginning, middle, and end.
Even small environments shift over time. A nightclub may feel utopian for a few hours, until fatigue sets in, and it becomes a dystopia if you cannot escape.
Time changes can be:
- Gradual: the fall of the Western Roman Empire
- Abrupt: The fall of the Berlin Wall on the 9th of November 1989, triggered by a misstatement from Günter Schabowski
- Stepped: The slow decline of the British Empire from its peak
The following diagram illustrates gradual, abrupt, and stepped changes:
Spatial (Geographic Area)
Space defines the physical extent of an environment. From one geographic area to another. But how are you defining that? Is it a country, a city or as small as a house? The geographic boundaries can be:
- Gradual: city boundaries from suburbs, low rises, to skyscrapers
- Abrupt: A wall, a border, a locked door
- Stepped: The ecosystems from sea, breach to land
The images in the previous section can also be used to illustrate gradual, abrupt and step changes in geographic area. Examples of geographic boundaries include:
- The Haiti and the Dominican Republic forest boundary shows how policy can dictate the natural landscape
- The Berlin Wall was a literal and symbolic wall between ideologies
- A house can become dystopian if escape is impossible, perhaps due to illness or abuse
We inherit our spatial environments from history. Countries, cities, and homes come with laws, expectations and traditions. When we are born, we have no say in such things. Through travel or migration, we actively step outside the inherited geographic environment. That said, if your home is destroyed by war or environmental disaster, it may dramatically change your environment without moving anywhere. However, that would be more of a change in time, rather than space.
For storytelling, the key is how the environment feels to the characters. Are they confined to a single geographic area, or can they migrate/travel to another? For example, in The Hunger Games, people are trapped in the dystopian districts unless selected for the games. Free movement is not permitted. We will explore this further in Factor 17: Free movement.
Human Imagination: The Grass Is Always Greener
Humans can imagine better or worse environments. During WWII, people in bombed-out cities constantly had the idea of peace on their minds. Someone born into dystopia may dream of utopia without ever experiencing it. They can imagine how things can improve. They have hope for a brighter tomorrow.
This imaginative power of humans is central to both hope and despair. You don’t know how good you’ve got it until it’s gone. The grass is always greener on the other side. Imagination allows us to project utopian ideals and guide us from dystopia.
In a dystopia, the overall environment is bad. All factors in this manual would sum to a low score, suggesting a true dystopian world. There is little hope for change in both time and space. You cannot escape. If this were the case, the story would be one of woe with a sad ending. As we like happy endings, the characters would fight for betterment. Moving from a dystopia to a utopia. This is done by a change in circumstances (change in time) or running away to a new geographic area (change in space). Being aware of what your story is doing allows you to understand the arc. If you are fleeing, what are you leaving behind? A monster waiting to take revenge? If you are staying, what are you changing, and how? Is it for the good of all, or just your protagonist?
In a utopia, the environment is good. All factors in this manual would result in a high score, a near-perfect paradise. Whilst improvements are possible, they are relatively minor. People may be confined to a planet, an island or a country, but they have little to no reason to move from a utopia to a potential dystopia. Why would they move? Are they forced to flee due to a virus? Do they discover a sinister truth that shakes their idyllic society? Do the population (assuming that they aren’t naïve) fight to protect utopia for as long as possible? Again, we like a happy ending, so the arc would be utopia to dystopia, then back towards utopia. That said, maybe we should have more unhappy endings? Painful and unresolved, they may be.
In a domestic abuse situation, the victim is confined to a house or a room. A tiny environment. There is little hope for them of escaping the dystopian world they inhabit. The abuser has all the keys, all the power. Or maybe there is a shift in the household, the abuser realises the harm they are doing and turns a corner. This would be a change in time, rather than space.
Film: Titanic: The environment is defined as the ship, subdivided into first class, second class, steerage, and services. The ship sailed across the Atlantic, marking a passage of time. When the ship sank, the carefully defined sub-environments were thrown into chaos, and everyone was for themselves. This marks the transient nature of one environment in time and space to another. From the ship to the sea.
Book/Film: The Hunger Games: The dystopian districts have a distinct feel compared to the seemingly utopian Capitol. Where one ends and the other begins, we are left with the idea that they are spread out with immense forests in between. District 12 is marked out by a fence that Katniss passes through to go hunting. When you consider Panem as a whole, including the Capitol, would it be considered utopian or dystopian? We will explore this more in Factor 2: Outlook.
Book/Film: Harry Potter: Harry grew up in the cupboard under the stairs. Living in this dystopian household until he went to Hogwarts. He found his utopia through a change in geographic space.
Book/Series: The Game of Thrones: The Wall marked a stark transition between two environments. Then there is the cold, harsh north, compared to the lush, warm, green south. For the people living in King’s Landing, they saw various rules come and go, marking a step change in time.
Book/Series/Film: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: The transition from one realm to another is marked by the wardrobe. A clear, abrupt boundary between two environments. The transition in this story is through geographic space more so than time.
The Gaza Strip: The people of Palestine are not allowed to leave the area. They are trapped in a war-torn environment.
Factor 1: Environment Dystopia: The environment is Bad. It struggles to provide for the population and or the individual. There is limited or no ability to escape from dystopia (move in space) or for society to improve (move in time). The population may imagine or know how things could improve, moving closer to utopia. Or they realise the situation could, in fact, get worse and are thankful for the small comforts they have in a bleak world. Utopia: The environment is Good. It provides an environment suitable for everyone. Potentially, people know of a dystopian place, either imagined or real, which they are thankful they do not inhabit. It is unlikely they want to move. Assuming they are not naïve, the people will do their best to protect their homeland. Or perhaps a utopian society has had to flee its homeland and is trying to cling to the utopian ideals, such as in Star Trek Voyager. Question: To what extent is the environment good? (1=terrible, 9=excellent) |
Writing Prompt (Factor 1: Environment):
Define your environments. Where does one end and another begin? What is the transition like? Is it a mountain range, a wall, or even a door? (Alice in Wonderland / The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe). Or is it fuzzier, like the boundary of a city and the countryside? Which one is more utopian? Which one is more dystopian? What is it like through time? When did it start? When may it end? Or is it just imaginary? Whose viewpoint are you describing? If it is a utopia, is it under attack from a dystopian neighbour? Or the dystopian one fighting for freedom against oppression, or maybe these actions will destroy a supposed utopia? In a dystopia, are people wanting to flee? Or are they staying put, fighting for improvement?