• Someonelol@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    12 hours ago

    This is a terrible take. Every dystopian novel I’ve ever read features people working in one way or another except sometimes when the characters are teenagers like in Feed or Little Brother. You can probably argue the children in Brave New World didn’t have to work but they were being conditioned and low key tortured in subtle ways until reaching adulthood to fulfill their expected job roles.

    • wanderwisley@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      18 hours ago

      Yes definitely. I find it very uncanny how bad everything in this country is, but there is summer car sales commercials and ads for dish soap and movies like nothing is wrong.

  • ViatorOmnium@piefed.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    21 hours ago

    It’s at least implied in cyberpunk novels. We live in a cyberpunk world, we just have a bit of a neon lights shortage in most places.

  • CodexArcanum@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    15 hours ago

    You have to remember that 99% of people talking about “dystopian” novels mean the Hunger Games and Divergent books, maybe also Harry Potter. Dystopian YA novels were best sellers in the US for like a decade, so most peoples’ image of a dystopian protagonist is a teenager with limited responsibilities outside “growing up” and “overcoming the system.” And after your “youthful rebellion” against the oppressive nightmare system, you can become a cop protecting it!

    If you wonder why Americans are so bad at all this stuff, it’s because generations of us were raised on fake revolution stories.