Since starting this course, the definition of a dystopia has evolved just as the experience within higher education has shifted. Our definition of a dystopia has shifted to become a place real or imagined in which those in it may live a restricted and oppressed life enforced by their government. Continue reading
In the 1999 film, The Matrix, the birth artificial intelligence led to the downfall of the human race. In efforts to stop technology from taking over, humans manipulated the skies to prevent it from getting any more solar power. The technology found a new source of power, using human bodies Continue reading
Xavier University, Secondary education, and America’s system is a lot of things, but a dystopia is not one. My university along with other institutions of higher learning aren’t dystopias. Based on our evolving definition of a dystopia, I would just say it is just corrupted. A dystopia based on our class’ Continue reading
With the recent rise in popularity of dystopian works since the debut of George Orwell’s 1984 which paved the way for modern works such as Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games trilogy and Veronica Roth’s Divergent series (to name a few), it is no surprise that many people associate dystopian worlds with fiction. However, these same dystopian ideas Continue reading
The Purge was centered around one night of the year where civilians were given the opportunity to commit any crime without punishment for 12 hours. It was focused around a small family in the neighborhood and their experience throughout the night of the purge. The father sold top notch security Continue reading
The Purge is a dystopian movie centered around the American government sanctioning a 12-hour period during one day of the year in which all crimes were legal including the murder of anybody other than government officials. The Purge was implemented to reduce criminal activity throughout the year. The movie was Continue reading
In a society where the government has sanctioned a yearly night of anarchy titled, The Purge, citizens are supposed to rid themselves of built-up aggression and anger from throughout the year and experience a night without restraints of any laws or social norms tieing them down. For the rich and Continue reading
From my understanding of dystopias, real, and imagined, fictional texts and films typically portray their contemporary moment artistically. In 2018 The First Purge was released. This is the most current Purge movie and ironically is relevant to our present political moment. Although it is dramatized there are correlations between the Continue reading
According to Webster’s dictionary, the definition of dystopia is: an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanized, fearful lives https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dystopia In class we further discussed and dissected this definition and pondered if it was sufficient enough to cover the whole aspect of a dystopia and its characteristics. In Continue reading
Dystopia was defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanized, and fearful lives. My biggest concern with this definition was the word “imagined.” Dystopias, in my opinion, are very much real. People’s daily hardships, oppressed groups specifically, are not imagined. Their Continue reading
Update: #Room101Radio, a podcast about the intersection between fictional & real #dystopias, created by students at @XULA1925, is available here:
Google: go.jtodd.info/8c6
Apple: go.jtodd.info/2d4a3
Spotify: go.jtodd.info/3db97
iHeartRadio: go.jtodd.info/aab4b
