Dystopian Fiction to Be Reality

Both seemingly created with an idea so outrageous and positively twisted beyond recognition, the worlds of Huxley and Scott when they were first presented were not quite understood, and furthermore, ridiculed for their ostensibly outlandish designs of humanity and our constantly changing world. Now, however, especially with the release of ‘Blade Runner: 2049’, people are talking, watching, reading, about the surreal, unfamiliar spheres and how we seem to be moving in that direction of our own accord, ignoring the warning signs that have been popping up in the last few decades. Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ was written just prior to the outbreak of World War II and is profoundly influenced by the political factions that brought forward ideas of a utopic society through movements like fascism, totalitarianism and communism, as well as biotechnological development which had very recently been introduced with the Eugenic movement, and his own grandfather, T H Huxley, had assisted with the development of the theory of evolution. ‘Blade Runner (Director’s Cut)’ is a film adapted from Phillip K Dick’s novel ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’ and the original ‘Blade Runner’ originally released in 1982 was influenced by the Cold War, the principal conflict during that time, prominent political leaders namely Margaret Thatcher; one that many saw as ‘prioritising money over people’ and how society as a whole was becoming materialistic and in turn consumerism was becoming prevalent.

The current political climate as of right now, in 2018, is as fiery as it has been in the last century or so; constant conflict has been fuelling and influencing everything, from literature, films and the media. And the same goes for both Huxley and Scott’s works; the politics from when they were written and produced have played a massive part in their stories. Huxley’s world is led by the ‘World State’, a group of leaders who inherently dictate everything; from what people do and think, to how society is structured. These leaders preach the motto ‘community, identity, stability’, one that clearly identifies the community oriented mind-set forced upon the public from a young age. Huxley has clearly outlined a totalitarian regime, but he has demonstrated it in a different light; one where the citizens are happy and content because they themselves know no better. And consequently, they are stripping people of power, rights and humanity without their consent and knowledge. A scary thought- and even scarier that the premise of it all is something that has occurred in the past and is likely to happen again. ‘Blade Runner’ also presents a dictatorship, one run by a corporation, Tyrell. Corporatocracy, a term coined in the past few decades, is a label to describe a political system controlled by corporations or corporate interests. Although not to the extent in the film, global corporations hold a lot of power in our increasingly materialistic society. In both the novel and the film however the balance of power is turned completely on its head; only a small minority hold all the authority and control the vast majority. With this the abuse of power is prevalent and furthermore the selective and prejudicial use of control and dominance is unequivocal.

Currently, we hear of IVF, artificial insemination, the freezing of embryos, and it isn’t news to us, however when watching Blade Runner and reading Brave New World, the ideas of humanity and what it is to be ‘human’ were utterly outrageous, and many were and are still left struggling to comprehend how ideas like these were thought up and furthermore trying to convince themselves that it simply couldn’t be possible. And that’s the idea- dystopic fiction is exactly that, but is it really? The works demonstrate ignorance and desire to push the boundaries to the absolute limit, blurring the lines between what’s real and what’s not. When you first pick up ‘Brave New World’ you are immediately thrown head-first into Huxley’s seemingly outrageous ideas- the very first sentence begins to inform us of the ‘Central London Hatchery Centre’, and in the chapter that follows an in-depth description of how children in his dystopia are manufactured. Huxley’s world is inhabited by near perfect humans in the eyes of the leaders- test-tube babies born in hatcheries that are not bred, but produced, and in turn their social class and entire future is determined within days of their ‘births’. ‘Blade Runner’ employs a alternative approach, introducing us to an Artificially Intelligent race that is created to do the jobs that humans don’t want to do. But as they evolve and become more advanced, the difference between what is artificial and just an android and humans that possess real and justified feelings becomes less and less clear. Throughout the film, Tyrell proclaims that the replicants are, in fact, “more human than human” and although the viewer recognizes it to be untrue, the way that the androids act is more human than the human characters. Deckard, for example, claims the ‘lives’ of replicants on a day-to-day basis and never stops to think about whether he’s doing the right thing- his response to the question of whether he’d retired a human by mistake a robotic ‘no’. And that then begs the question- if humans are indeed only human based on their feelings and emotions, then how come androids can hold more love in their robotic hearts? And how can the citizens in ‘Brave New World’ be human if they’re brainwashed into avoiding emotional connection, as it will cause problems and consequences?

Ridley Scott’s lurid ‘Blade Runner (Director’s Cut)’ and Aldous Huxley’s frightening ‘Brave New World’ capture the ideas of modern political ideas and the very basis of being human and flip them on their heads- the entire premise of being made to think a certain way and not being aware of it, or contrarily being controlled by a corporation that provides society with a scapegoat, so they don’t have to do the greasy things that they don’t want to. Humanity now lies in the hands of us; we are the ones living this not-quite dystopic nightmare, but unless things take a dramatic turn, we’re on a one-way train to a future so bleak we can’t even distinguish between what’s real and what’s not. ‘Community, identity, stability’, these are the things we strive for in life, but crossing the line, which continues to be blurred with every new discovery, will end up having dire consequences on life as we know it. What is the price of utopia? And is our humanity really absolute?