There are two pieces of
dystopian fiction that are often spoken of in the same breath because in many ways they are mirror images of one another.
The first depicts a world dominated by an invasive
surveillance system. Where your every move is monitored in anyone who expresses a hint of dissent is routinely
arrested and killed. Everyone worships Big Brother, their fictional dictator, and historical records are
constantly changed. The second is about a society consumed by meaningless distractions: sports,
pornography, casual sex, and when all of that doesn't work:
drugs. The difference is memorably summarized by Neil Postman in the foreword to his book, Amusing Ourselves to Death.
What Orwell feared were those who would ban books.
What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.
Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much information
that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism.
In 1984, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure.
What interests me about all of this is that while these two fictional
societies are very different, the means by which they are created and maintained is
the same. It's through the control of the media and by extension: art.
In recent years, there have been a few interesting studies into how stories and novels in particular can actually change the
chemistry of your mind. The New School in New York City discovered that literary fiction
Enhanced a readers a sense of empathy. They tested this against both
non-fiction and genre fiction. Neither of which appeared to have the same effect.
They theorized that characters and fantasy science fiction and other genre novels are more
internally consistent and predictable and as a result a reader didn't need to flex their mental muscles to
understand the characters. In literary fiction, however, characters are typically more nuanced and complicated,
inviting the reader to figure out their motivations. Books are essentially a
socializing influence
not socializing but
socializing, as in books teach us about other
people's emotions, allow us to build deeper bonds with them, and learn how to act in an emotionally intelligent way in society. In other words,
reading literally makes you a better person. Another study, conducted by Paul Zak at the Claremont Graduate
School, had participants watch a short film about a father whose son was dying of cancer. Blood tests revealed that
participants had higher levels of cortisol and oxytocin
after the experiment, which
corresponded to
feelings of distress and empathy. The findings show how when you read a book, watch a film, or hear a story your body is reacting
in the same way it would if the characters experiences were literally happening to you.
Empathy, remember, is the ability to not just understand another person's feelings, but to share them as well and that phenomenon is very
threatening to a
totalitarian regime. A dictator wants you to only be connected to himself,
but literature is a
conduit for you to connect yourself to the thoughts and feelings of the entire human race. In Orwell and Huxley's novels, the characters are
systematically isolated from the rest of society by their governments because the regimes understand that the only way to
exercise complete control is through isolation. And in both cases, this is achieved by a full-scale assault
on all forms of art.
In 1984, a lot of time is spent in the novel talking about how historical records are constantly revised
so that something that was true on Monday is suddenly treasonous on Tuesday.
In fact, the novel is really about how a totalitarian regime can destroy the idea of truth.
But less talked about is how alongside this art is also being revised, and destroyed and
all of the new entertainment that the society creates is designed to stir people into irrational rages.
Here's the main character, Winston, describing what has become a film.
I'll stop there...
But the descriptions of the violence continue for another page depicting the death of the fat man,
a Jewish woman and her child. The audience enjoys this gratuitousness.
Conditioned to celebrate the death of their political enemies and so from our perspective,
the characters that should receive our empathy in this situation, the victims, are denied that from the people in the theatre. The constant repetition
of violence has accomplished its goal: it has killed
empathy. I mean imagine: what would happen to your mind in every movie you saw was a version of the war scenes in American Sniper?
In Brave New World, the means are different
but the goal is the same. Instead of media that is
oversaturated with violence, the media is oversaturated by sex. People in the novel spend their time at the feelies, which are pornographic
films that include scent and touch receptors. The main character grew up outside of the regime called the World State and learned to read from
the collected works of William Shakespeare. When he arrives in the World State,
he is appalled by its frivolousness and in a
confrontation with a member of the ruling class, he argues that the world has lost something valuable: it's lost art.
There really is no more damning piece of
criticism of a piece of art than saying it is a lot of agreeable sensations to the audience.
Trivializing the role of art in society is just one of the tactics used to achieve their goal of essentially destroying strong bonds between
individuals, but it is an important part because it leaves the citizens of the World State completely ignorant about what they are truly missing out on.
Their society is really good at keeping them content inactive and apathetic and it obscures the real happiness that they could be
experiencing.
For decades readers have looked to these novels and asked whether their current political circumstances
resemble those in the books.
It doesn't take much to draw a straight line from the thought police to the NSA or from the feelies to any
modern day time waster. But if there are aspects of our society that feel comparable to those in dystopian fiction,
then it should also be comforting that Orwell and Huxley have left us clues into how those regimes can be prevented. An empathetic and
well-read population is the most terrifying thing imaginable to any real or fictional
totalitarian regime. I think whether we're becoming less empathetic than we used to be is still up for debate.
But what isn't is the fact that as a whole we are reading less than we once did. So, if you're worried that the politics
of your country has begun to resemble a dystopia, then your first act of resistance should always be to open up a book.
And in the spirit of learning
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