Utopian fiction is the creation of an ideal world as the setting for a novel. Dystopian fiction is the opposite: creation of a nightmare world. Both are commonly found in science fiction novels and stories. In common current usage, the term nightmare refers to dreams of particular intensity, with content that the sleeper finds disturbing, related either to physiological causes, such as a high fever, or to psychological ones, such as unusual trauma or stress in the sleepers life. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... Daniel Defoes Robinson Crusoe; title page of 1719 newspaper edition A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended fictional narrative in prose. ... This article is in need of attention. ...

The word utopia was first used in this context by Thomas More in his work Utopia, which literally means both "no place" and "best place" in Greek. In this work, More sets out a vision of an ideal society. Other examples include Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, and B.F. Skinner's Walden Two. Gulliver's Travels may also be seen as a satirical utopia because it is actually a comment on the society the author lived in. The same goes for Erewhon by Samuel Butler - where "Erewhon" is an anagram of "nowhere". For the Elizabethan play, see Sir Thomas More (play). ... See Utopia (disambiguation) for other meanings of this word Utopia, in its most common and general meaning, refers to a hypothetical perfect society. ... Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (November 30, 1667 – October 19, 1745) was an Anglo-Irish priest, satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer, and poet famous for works like Gullivers Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella, The Drapiers Letters, The Battle of the Books, and A Tale of a Tub. ... Gulliver Gullivers Travels (1726, amended 1735) is a novel by Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of the travellers tales literary sub-genre. ... Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 _ August 18, 1990) was an American psychologist and author. ... Walden Two is a novel published in 1948 by B. F. Skinner, who intended it to describe a utopia. ... Gulliver Gullivers Travels (1726, amended 1735) is a novel by Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of the travellers tales literary sub-genre. ... Erewhon, or Over the Range is a novel by Samuel Butler published anonymously in 1872. ... Samuel Butler Samuel Butler (December 4, 1835 - June 18, 1902) was a British writer best known for his satire Erewhon. ...

Dystopias usually include elements of contemporary society and function as a warning against some modern trend. Often, the warning is against the threat of fascism in one form or another. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

For examples of dystopias, see James De Mille's early A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder, Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Kurt Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron", Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, Ayn Rand's Anthem and William Gibson's cyberpunk novels. A dystopia (alternatively, cacotopia[1], kakotopia or anti-utopia) is a fictional society that is the antithesis of utopia. ... ‹The template below has been proposed for deletion. ... A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder is the most popular book by James De Mille. ... Yevgeny Zamyatin Yevgeny Ivanovich Zamyatin (Евге́ний Ива́нович Замя́тин sometimes translated into English as Eugene Zamyatin) (February 1, 1884 – March 10, 1937) was a Russian author, most famous for his novel We, a story of dystopian future which influenced George Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four and Aldous Huxleys Brave New World. ... The cover of the Penguin Classics translation of We. ... Eric Arthur Blair (June 25, 1903 – January 21, 1950), much better known by the pen name George Orwell (pronounced ), was a British author and journalist. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Animal Farm: A Fairy Story is a satirical novella (which can also be understood as a modern fable or allegory) by George Orwell, ostensibly about a group of animals who oust the humans from the farm they live on and run it themselves, only to have it degenerate into a... Aldous Leonard Huxley (pronounced ) (July 26, 1894 – November 22, 1963) was a British writer who emigrated to the United States. ... Book cover of Brave New World. ... Ray Bradbury in 1945. ... Fahrenheit 451 book cover Fahrenheit 451 (1953) is a dystopian fiction novel by Ray Bradbury. ... Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut Jr. ... Harrison Bergeron is a dystopian science fiction short story written by Kurt Vonnegut in 1961. ... Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Peggy Atwood, CC (born November 18, 1939) is one of Canada’s most important contemporary writers. ... Cover of The Handmaids Tale The Handmaids Tale is a 1985 dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. ... Neal Stephenson Neal Town Stephenson (b. ... Snow Crash, U.S. version cover shot, illustrated by Bruce Jensen. ... It has been suggested that The Ayn Rand Collective be merged into this article or section. ... Anthem (ISBN 0451191137), first published in 1938, is a science_fiction novella by Ayn Rand. ... William Ford Gibson (March 17, 1948, Conway, South Carolina) is an American-born Canadian science fiction author. ... This articles section called Criticism does not cite its references or sources. ...

Subgenres

A subgenre of this is ecotopian fiction, where the author posits either a utopian or dystopian world revolving around environmental conservation or destruction. Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopia was the first example of this, followed by Kim Stanley Robinson in his California trilogy. Robinson has also edited a collection of short ecotopian fiction, called Future Primitive: The New Ecotopias. Ecotopian fiction is a subgenre of Utopian fiction where the author posits either a utopian or dystopian world revolving around environmental conservation or destruction. ... Ernest Callenbach (born April 3, 1929) is an American writer. ... Ecotopia: The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston is the title of a seminal book by Ernest Callenbach, published in 1975. ... Kim Stanley Robinson at the 63rd World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, August 2005 Kim Stanley Robinson (born March 23, 1952) is an American science fiction writer, probably best known for his award-winning Mars trilogy. ... Future Primitive - The New Ecotopias, Tor Books, 1994, edited by Kim Stanley Robinson, republishes notable short works of utopian fiction and dystopian fiction, incorporating elements of primitivism and of eco-anarchism. ...

Another important sub genre is feminist utopias, for example Marge Piercy's novel Woman On the Edge of Time. Writer Sally Gearhart calls Feminist utopian fiction political, saying it: contrasts the present world with an idealized society, criticizes contemporary values and conditions, sees men or masculine systems as the major cause of social and political problems (e.g. war), and presents women as equal to or superior to men, having ownership over their reproductive functions. A common solution to gender oppression or social ills in feminist utopian fiction is to remove men, either showing isolated female societies as in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland, or post male societies where men have died out or been replaced: Joanna Russ Whileaway is a world where "the poisonous binary gender" has died off. Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness is an example of a feminist utopian novel that does not remove men, but posits gender interdependence. Feminism is a social theory and political movement primarily informed and motivated by the experience of women. ... Marge Piercy (born March 31, 1936) is an American poet, novelist, and social activist. ... Feminism is a social theory and political movement primarily informed and motivated by the experience of women. ... Feminism is a social theory and political movement primarily informed and motivated by the experience of women. ... Ursula K. Le Guin at an informal bookstore Q&A session, July 2004 Ursula Kroeber Le Guin (born October 21, 1929), is an American author. ... The Left Hand of Darkness is a science fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin, published in 1969. ...

See also

• Utopia and Category:Utopian fiction
• Dystopia and Category:Dystopian fiction
• Social science fiction