Some literature seeks to highlight current social problems to bring about change. The most effective examples include works by Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist, for instance, highlighted the appalling conditions of workhouses, and the problem of nineteenth century UK poverty in general, amid a gripping and dramatic narrative. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift sought to expose contemporary injustice and hypocrisy through fantastical satire. However, dystopian fiction occupies an altogether different role in the literary landscape. Dystopian fiction seeks not to affect change, but to warn against change for the worse, as a check and balance.

The best dystopian narratives have etched themselves so powerfully into the popular consciousness that they have become a kind of shorthand argument that prevails against foolish or dangerous ideology. George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four is the ultimate example. Someone says they think more snooping and surveillance is a good idea, and the notion can be rebutted as “Orwellian” or “Big Brother”. It might be suggested by proponents of both political wings that certain books should be banned or censored. Again, one can cite Orwell, with reference to censorship and “newspeak”, robbing people of narratives (and indeed the words) to express themselves. The legacy of Nineteen Eighty-Four has helped protect western society from the worst excesses of authoritarianism.

Other dystopian tales have exerted a similar power. Margaret Atwell’s The Handmaid’s Tale has long been adopted by feminist groups as a warning against gender-based oppression in a potential religious autocracy; a danger that seems particularly feared in the United States. Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange jabs other raw nerves, with warnings about encroaching state control over individuals, particularly with reference to the brainwashing of young Alex. Then there’s Franz Kafka’s The Trial, which warns against frightening, impenetrable legal bureaucracy. Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games warns against a return to Roman Empire style bread and circuses dictatorship, whilst at the same time inviting allegorical comparisons between the west and exploited developing nations. Speaking of The Hunger Games, dystopian fiction recently has had particular resonance in the young adult market, with The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, Divergent, and various other titles.

I still think Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World features one of the scariest warnings in literature, as it resembles the modern west in alarming ways. The novel depicts a world where entertainment, pleasure, distraction, and trivia are deliberately deployed to distract the masses. However, for me, one of the most frightening prospects in dystopian fiction remains Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, which features a world where all books are banned.

Given current problems in the world, I’m not surprised at the enduring popularity of dystopian stories. This is a good thing. We now need future shock dystopian fiction more urgently than ever. People everywhere – and politicians in particular – need to read these books, think, carefully consider where we are headed, and avoid these appalling futures at all costs.