Utopia is when the community or society is perfect or ideal, dystopia is when the condition of that place is extremely bad or unpleasant.
Utopia presents the "prime directive", so to speak, of a message of hope and occasionally, overwhelming so.
Utopia usually has a sort of Council or more of a communal society, where decisions are made based on the "greater good."
Dystopia usually presents a story told out of despair. Dystopia normally has an overwhelming message of warning.
Dystopia, more often than, makes use of "big government" and military, using tactics of intimidation and sometimes mind control.
Utopian societies are generally based on the so-called equality of all humankind. Meanwhile, dystopia presents societies based on segregation, inequality, and oppression.
Utopia is often grouped together with dystopia and, in some cases, the terms have seemingly become interchangeable. Generally speaking, most utopic books can be considered dystopia, but dystopia books cannot all be considered utopic.
Using these guidelines, The Lawnmower Man is a clear dystopian tale.
The Lawnmower Man is a 1992 American science fiction horror film written by Brett Leonard and Gimel Everet. The film is named after a Stephen King short story of the same title.
Dr. Lawrence Angelo works for Virtual Space Industries, running experiments in increasing the intelligence of using drugs and virtual reality. Jobe Smith is a local greens keeper with an unspecified learning disability. Learning more about Jobe, Angelo persuades Jobe to participate in his experiments, telling him that it will make him smarter. At the end Jobe believes his final stage of evolution is to become "pure energy" in the VSI computer mainframe, and from there reach into all the systems of the world. Jobe uses the lab equipment to enter the mainframe computer, abandoning his body to become a wholly virtual being. In the process, his body becomes a wizened husk. After the building is destroyed in multiple explosions, Jobe escapes and back at home without drugs and technology get back to his mental disability.
In this film we can see underlying message of despair and warning. So, I think this movie is about the technological dystopia.
Sources:
//www.imdb.com/title/tt0104692/
//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lawnmower_Man_[film]
//wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_difference_between_utopia_and_dystopia
| A DYSTOPIA is a community or society that is in some important way undesirable or frightening. Such societies appear in many artistic works, particularly in stories set in a future. Dystopias are often characterized by dehumanization, totalitarian governments, environmental disaster, or other characteristics associated with a cataclysmic decline in society. It’s a society in which everything has gone horribly wrong and injustice or chaos holds sway. This might be a post-apocalyptic society where all governments have collapsed and human beings have to fight to survive; or it might be a totalitarian society in which powerful authority figures control every aspect of citizens’ lives. Dystopias are, naturally, more realistic and relevant to most people than utopias because our societies have many problems, and we worry about the future. In fact, dystopian stories are almost always about problems that we already have in this world. In literature, seemingly utopian societies often turn out to be dystopian, as in the case of The Giver by Lois Lowry. In this book, the society at first appears to be perfect and orderly. But slowly we learn that people have gained their security and order by giving up their freedom and creativity, and ultimately we come to see this “perfect” society as dystopian.EXAMPLES OF DYSATOPIAS:
TYPES OF DYSTOPIAS: The majority of dystopias [though not all!] fall into one of two categories- Post-Apocalyptic dystopias are the aftermath of some horrible calamity. The disaster is always an expression of society’s greatest fears – during the Cold War, post-apocalyptic dystopias were depicted as the aftermath of nuclear war. In the 21st century, we are less afraid of nuclear war but more afraid of disease and climate change, so we imagine dystopian futures stemming from ecological collapse or the outbreak of some horrible virus. Statist dystopias are the opposite of post-apocalyptic ones. In these dystopias, the government has grown to the point where it controls everything and suppresses all individual freedoms, especially freedom of thought and expression. Sources: //literaryterms.net/dystopia/ | A UTOPIA is a community or society possessing highly desirable or near perfect qualities. It is an imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect. For thousands of years human beings have dreamt of perfect worlds, worlds free of conflict, hunger and unhappiness. But can these worlds ever exist in reality? The word was first used in the book Utopia [1516] by Sir Thomas More. In 1516 Sir Thomas More wrote the first 'Utopia'. He coined the word 'utopia' from the Greek ou-topos meaning 'no place' or 'nowhere'. But this was a pun - the almost identical Greek word eu-topos means a good place. So at the very heart of the word is a vital question: can a perfect world ever be realized? EXAMPLES OF UTOPIAS:
TYPES OF UTOPIAS: a. Moral All these utopias use and explore questionable morals or ethics, such as the genetic perfection of human beings. They might be about political ethics, environmental ethics, religious ethics, or the ethics of science. b. Political/Economic/Social Many utopias are based on a particular political, social, or economic philosophy. The author believes [or at least wants to explore the possibility] that a society following a pure form of their philosophy would be without flaws. Of course, no such utopias have ever existed in real life and in most stories, the society turns out to be very imperfect indeed, usually a nightmare. But they are still a source of inspiration to writers. c. Ecological In an ecological utopia, humans live in perfect harmony with nature: their society produces no pollution, their food sources are sustainable, and the environment is protected, bringing about happiness for humans. d. Religious A religious utopia is one based on the precepts of a particular religion. Christian authors throughout history have written utopian stories about what society would be like if everyone was a perfect Christian. But you could also do the same thing for Islam, Buddhism, or any other religion – the problem, of course, is that it might not be persuasive to readers who belong to a different tradition! e. Science/Technological In a technological utopia, scientists and engineers have worked out technological development, such as genetic engineering or total surveillance, perfectly. In these stories, human problems are treated as technical glitches, to be resolved solely through technology. Sources: //literaryterms.net/utopia/ |
| Click HERE for Shmoops Utopia becomes a Dystopia |
| Pixar’s WALL-E has another ambiguous utopia on-board the Axiom. The people have all their needs met by robots, and live entirely in comfort and ease. However, this life is also dystopian in a sense – because they have all their material comforts, the people on the ship are fat, lazy, and immature. |