Utopia and Dystopia - Essay Example

?Utopia and Dystopia: A Comparative Conceptualisation Introduction: There has always been a stark distinction between the concepts of ‘a perfect or ideal world’ and ‘a nightmare or dark world’. Especially in terms of literary context, the conceptualisation of ‘perfect’ and ‘nightmare’ has eventually created and developed two distinguished genres of literature, namely, the utopian concept and the dystopian concept respectively. Although different in characteristic features and nature, these two concepts commonly explore the social and political structures of the society. The concepts have been developed over centuries. Starting with a general understanding of what utopia and dystopia are all about, Levitas has offered layman knowledge of the concept of utopia in her book, Utopia is about how we would live and what kind of a world we would live in if we could do just that…sometimes utopia embodies more than an image of what the good life would be and becomes a claim about what it could and should be: the wish that things might be otherwise becomes a conviction that it does not have to be like this. Utopia is then not just a dream to be enjoyed, but a vision to be pursued. (Levitas, 2010, Introduction) When it comes to describing the concept of dystopia, it is just the opposite of the idea of utopia. Oulton and Griffin describe the concept of dystopia as “a society of human misery, squalor, terror overcrowding.” (Oulton and Griffin, 2007, p. 3) It is about repressive social control systems with a total absence of individual freedom and expressions. In other words, the concept of dystopia explores the key aspects of technology abuse executed by human beings. Widespread poverty and brutal political systems are other significant characteristics of dystopia. This paper briefly discusses the concepts of utopia and dystopia while comparing them simultaneously. The paper focuses more particularly on the notion of dystopia and shows how it defeated the utopian culture. In this context, the paper discusses two dystopian films namely The Trial (1962) directed by Orson Welles based on Franz Kafka’s novel by the same name, and A Clockwork Orange (1971) directed by Stanley Kubrick based on Anthony Burgess’s novel by the same name in order to make the analysis. Before going into any details on dystopia, it is important to first have a clear understanding of what is utopia. The 1960s: A closer look Talking about the cultural milieu of a free society, historical records are strongly evident in describing the 1960s as the phase of cultural revolution. Also known as the Sixties, the period denotes the web of inter-related cultural and political trends across the globe. This cultural decade from 1960 to 1970 is the period when the world witnessed the formation of a wide range of new cultural coinages including the notions of ‘subculture’, ‘pop culture’ and ‘counterculture’. During this phase of cultural revolution, a number of subcultures were created across the world. A general definition of a subculture describes it as a group of people with a culture that differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong. The subcultures coined and developed during the 60s vary in terms of different fields of interests. More particularly, the 60s witnessed hues of subcultures in the arena of music including jazz, pop, punk, hippies and rave cultures. The Sixties are also coined as popular culture that featured a rather informal outlook towards the mainstream culture of a given society. In other words, the characteristic features of the cultural revolution of the 60s include a special sense of individual freedom along with remarkable lenience in certain social taboos particularly regarding sexism and racism. The winds of cultural revolution evidently brought changes in the thinking process of young minds to the extent that the Sixties have become synonymous with all the new, exciting and radical events and trends of that period. In this context, the notion of counterculture also refers to the extended connotations of the Sixties. Counterculture is defined as a cultural group that is distinctly dissimilar in its behaviour to the societal norm of the culture it belongs to. For instance, the counterculture of the 60s is characterised by its rejection of conventional social norms of the 1950s and its adoption of a new set of norms including race relations, women’s rights, etc. Further, these extended connotations of the Sixties remarkably relate to the notion of utopian culture, which has been discussed and adopted by the researchers and scholars of various fields of studies. The notion of utopia as originally coined by Sir Thomas More in 1516 refers to an ideal, imaginary society where human beings would live in perfect happiness and fulfilment. More’s utopia is a fictional island with an idealistic society that features ideal socio-economic and political system and perfect harmony with nature. Goodwin and Taylor (2009) also describe a similar definition of a perfect utopian society: “…utopia denotes an elaborate vision of ‘the good life’ in a perfect society which is viewed as an integrated totality.” (p. 5) So integration of systems, ideas and organizations along with perfect synchronization of every ingredient of the society is part and parcel of a utopian culture. This means the utopian philosophy incorporates a wide range of spheres including ecology, economics, politics, history, religion, science and technology, feminism, and so on. In terms of ecology, utopian idealism describes a fictional society in perfect harmony with nature, that is, without any garbage or natural destruction while restoring the pristine quality of nature. Economic utopias describe a society with equal distribution of goods, total abolition of money, along with ample time for cultivation in arts and sciences. In the contexts of politics and history, global utopia conceptualises the idea of world peace with progressive interaction between different cultures and identities. In the similar manner, religious utopias advocate concepts like polyculturalism with the abolition of baseless superstitious beliefs, and adoption of a religion of humans with God being the Science that rules the universe. In short, utopian ideology incorporates the following features: Promotes the concept of a Green Earth Supports equality of economic status of individuals Refutes war, hatred and violence Advocates acculturation of societies and individuals Conceptualises a scientific God with no baseless superstitions Refutes gender bias Dystopia: Defeating Utopia The concept of dystopia is one of the most significant offshoots of utopia. The articulation of a dystopian society lies in the contradictory conceptualisation of a utopian society. In other words, a dystopian society is simply the opposite of a utopian society. While utopia visualises a perfect society, dystopia creates just the opposite – a nightmare world. As intellectuals would unite for arguing on the utopia/dystopia debate, a prolonged utopia is widely considered to be the birthplace of the idea of dystopia. The calculation is simple and logical enough: what happens to a perfect world if its people continue to live the way they do for a very long time? There would be the same group of people governing them, everyone would be equally rich (or even equally poor), which would ultimately result in a cautionary tone of threatening the proposed unity as well as mankind. So dystopia is a negative utopia. As Gordin, Tilley and Prakash (2010) would put it, “Dystopia is a utopia that has gone wrong, or a utopia that functions only for a particular segment of society.” (Introduction) Considering the characteristic features of utopia, a dystopian society contains the following features: Promotes authoritarian or totalitarian form of government Features different kinds of repressive social control systems Results in total absence of individual freedom and expressions Incites constant states of warfare and violence Reiterates technological abuse by humans Brings in widespread poverty Creates brutal political control forces like large military groups Thus, the concepts of utopia and dystopia are in a way part of the same living world where both good and bad would rule all strictures of mankind. If we talk about the world of arts and literature, many authors tend to combine these two notions in a single work piece as a metaphorical means to show the different directions of choices that humanity would like to make under various situations and circumstances. It is significant to note that many fictions as well as different films have been written and directed on the subject theme of utopia and dystopia. More particularly, it is usually found that dystopian fiction and films are respectively science fictions and sci-fi films in nature. Starting with The Trial a film released in 1962 and directed by Orson Welles, the story is based on Franz Kafka’s novel by the same name. The film is a typical example of dystopian ideology with significant dystopian features evidently present in it. The storyline is typically dystopian in nature. In Higham’s words, “The whole film is dedicated to the idea of a man trying desperately and futilely to obtain justice before he is flung into a pit to die…it has been said that the logic of this story is the logic of a dream – or a nightmare.” (Higham, 1971, p. 162) Thus, the story itself narrates the nightmare world of the protagonist. As the film opens with the protagonist (Josef K.) waking up to his open arrest by anonymous police, the scene compares his simultaneous wakeup from a nightmare to the nightmare of reality. The ticking of the clock showing 6.14 AM explains the hour of vulnerability and that of human weakness due to which the notion of nightmare becomes real and powerful to human beings. In addition to the dystopian nature of its storyline, there are a number of significant dystopian elements evidently making it a cult movie of the dystopian idealism. These elements are briefly discussed below as an attempt to find out what ultimately led utopia to dystopia. As discussed above, Josef is a dreamer who lives in a dangerous realm, a realm of nightmare. In every step of events shown in the film, the protagonist faces a world of guilt, punishments, injustice, and so on. The world of the protagonist here is just opposite to the perfect utopian world of absolute peace and ideal control system. The open arrest and injustice done to the protagonist evidently shows the total absence of individual freedom and expressions in the dystopian society. The corruption of the legal system is also apparently characteristic in the portrayal of the Advocate as a hopeless representative of the law. The conceptualisation of a totalitarian government is starkly visualised in the film. Josef’s summon for the crime he vaguely remembered of committing eventually ended up in his death by dynamite. It was a typical dystopian legal system he belonged to, and that makes a justifiable answer. The dystopian idealism is evident in terms of religion too. While running into a great cathedral, Josef discovers there is no solace in religion. He rejects the priest’s offer of help on the basis that only death is left as his option and neither low nor religion can change that. However, what is non-dystopian in the film is the death of the protagonist. At the end, he refuses to commit suicide by the knife given to him by the policemen. Instead, he blows himself up with the dynamite. This shows the final triumph of Josef – the victory of humanity over the system, the victory of individual freedom of choosing death. Another dystopian example is demonstrated in A Clockwork Orange directed by Stanley Kubrick, released in 1971 and based on Anthony Burgess’s novel by the same name. The film displays the following dystopian features: The first and most significant thing that immediately strikes the audience is the cinematic violence of the film. The constant states of violence shown in various dimension are somewhat disturbing that inescapably connects to the dystopian idealism. In fact, there is profuse nudity, sex and violence in this film, thus making it a cult movie in dystopian philosophy. The brutal control systems of a dystopian society are also characteristic of this film. The characterisation of the main lead Alex is a perfect example of the brutality of dystopia. Alex is the self-declared leader of his ‘droogs’ Dim and Georgie. When Dim expresses his unwillingness to blindly follow Alex’s lead, the protagonist straddles Dim in his chair and decides to punish him. Dim’s reference to ‘orders and discipline’ here makes a direct connotation to Alex’s brutality. McDougal (2003) aptly states, “Dim’s reference to ‘orders and discipline’ links Alex’s sexual acts to his harsh disciplinary control over the gang. As a leader, Alex gets the most out of the gang’s exploits, both sexually and financially.” (p. 72) Alex’s world of crime depicts here a different kind of nightmare world – a world full of drugs, cheats, sexual aggression, brutality, murder, and most importantly, non-stop violence. At the end of the movie, the wicked face of the repressive social system of dystopia is shown along with a considerable note of sarcasm to it. After the imprisonment of 14 years, rehabilitation and the treatment by Ludovico technique, the once ultra-violent Alex learns that he has no aversion to violence. Therefore, unable to take the pain any longer, Alex injures himself by throwing himself out of the window and ends up in hospital. Even Beethoven’s music could not soothe his soul; instead, he saw images of ultra-violence and rape. The Ludovico Technique is Kubrick’s attempt to characterise technological abuse by human beings in the film. As part of the dystopian nightmare world, Alex’s ultra-violent nature is never exactly cured by the Ludovico technique. It is indeed the soothing music that reminds the protagonist of constant violence, and that gives him more pleasure than any Beethovenian note. Conclusion: Both utopia and dystopia are constant reminders of the contrastive images of our society. The society can never be totally good or absolutely bad. While creating sufficient awareness for global utopianism and more specifically world peace, the society also simultaneously creates a nightmare world of dark reality where people like Alex and Josef successfully sing the notes of violence and brutality. What is more significant here is to speculate over the ground reality that there is nothing like a perfect utopian world or a typical dystopian world existing in reality. However, the real world significantly incorporates a considerable tinge of both of these idealistic and nightmare worlds. This is where we need to make the final argumentation – that is to say – a balanced and calculated world where nothing is out of control without losing our individual freedom and equality. Most possibly, this is where we could create more than a tinge of perfection to give it back to the world and to humanity in general. References: 1. Baccolini, R. and Moylan, T. (eds.0 2003, Dark Horizons: Science Fiction and the Dystopian Imagination, Routledge, New York. 2. Boutellier, H. 2004, The Safety Utopia: Contemporary Discontent and Desire as to Crime and Punishment, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Norwell. 3. Braunstein, P. and Doyle, M. W. (eds.) 2002, Imagine Nation: The American Counterculture of the 1960s and 70s, Routledge, New York. 4. Goodwin, B. and Taylor, K. 2009, The Politics of Utopia: A Study in Theory and Practice, Peter Lang, Bern. 5. Gordin, M. D., Tilley, H. and Prakash, G. 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