Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Stories, essays, and interviews explore dystopias that may offer lessons for the present.
As the recent success of Margaret Atwood's novel-turned-television hit Handmaid's Tale shows us, dystopia is more than minatory fantasy; it offers a critical lens upon the present. "It is not only a kind of vocabulary and idiom," says bestselling author and volume editor Junot Diaz. "It is a useful arena in which to begin to think about who we are becoming."
Bringing together some of the most prominent writers of science fiction and introducing fresh talent, this collection of stories, essays, and interviews explores global dystopias in apocalyptic landscapes and tech futures, in robot sentience and forever war. Global Dystopias engages the familiar horrors of George Orwell's 1984 alongside new work by China Mieville, Tananarive Due, and Maria Dahvana Headley. In "Don't Press Charges, and I Won't Sue," award-winning writer Charlie Jane Anders uses popularized stigmas toward transgender people to create a not-so-distant future in which conversion therapy is not only normalized, but funded by the government. Henry Farrell surveys the work of dystopian forebear Philip K. Dick and argues that distinctions between the present and the possible future aren't always that clear. Contributors also include Margaret Atwood and award-winning speculative writer, Nalo Hopkinson.
In the era of Trump, resurgent populism, and climate denial, this collection poses vital questions about politics and civic responsibility and subjectivity itself. If we have, as Diaz says, reached peak dystopia, then Global Dystopias might just be the handbook we need to survive it.
ContributorsCharlie Jane Anders, Margaret Atwood, Tananarive Due, Maria Dahvana Headley, Nalo Hopkinson, Maureen McHugh, China Mieville, Alex Rivera, Jordy Rosenberg
Synopsis
This collection of new fiction, essays, and interviews--including celebrated authors Margaret Atwood, China Mi ville, Maureen McHugh, and Charlie Jane Anders--conjures visions of political, environmental, and gender dystopias. Some stretch the imagination; others feel uncomfortably possible. Such stories look toward the future, but they also offer readers a new perspective on the crises of our time.
In the era of Trump, resurgent populism, catastrophic inequality, and climate change, this collection raises vital questions about political and civic responsibility. If we have, as Junot D az says, reached peak dystopia, then Global Dystopias might just be the handbook we need to weather the storm.