dystopic adj.

of, pertaining to, or resembling a dystopia n. 2

SF Criticism

Dystopia

  • 1967 W. H. G. Armytage Disenchanted Mechanophobes in Twentieth Cent. England in Extrapolation Dec. 55

    More consistently dystopic, since he was both anti-Wells and anti-Marx, George Orwell kept up a rapid fire of criticism not at the shape of things to come, but at the way they were going.

  • 1991 Locus May 19/1

    The story is…played out in the standing sets of dystopic-cityscape…, but with music and music videos added to the usual computerstuff.

  • 1993 P. Nicholls & J. Clute Encyclopedia of Science Fiction 1293/1 John Clute Peter Nicholls bibliography

    Only HW would have written…an alternate history (featuring 4 alternate worlds) with time travel from a dystopic future, Amerindian Mound Builders, Aztec Invaders, ancient Greek merchants in power-driven boats and much more.

  • 1995 Extrapolation Spring 82

    These same parks, with their milling docile crowds directed by overseers, also demonstrate the sinister dystopic aspects that result from the urge to create such utopias.

  • 1998 J. Leach Here Come Men in Black in Futures Dec. 1027

    This review of the film Men in Black argues that what used to be alarming in the science fiction genre has now become its main source of humour. As a reactionary response to the dystopic X-Files, MiB is an elaborate parody which seeks to recuperate ideological ground lost by the X-Files' examination of gender and technology in contemporary culture. "

  • 1998 Futures Dec. 1027

    This review of the film Men in Black argues that what used to be alarming in the science fiction genre has now become its main source of humour. As a reactionary response to the dystopic X-Files, MiB is an elaborate parody which seeks to recuperate ideological ground lost by the X-Files' examination of gender and technology in contemporary culture.

  • 1998 T. M. Disch Dreams Our Stuff is Made Of 105 Thomas M. Disch

    Whatever its literary merit, each dystopia, like Tolstoi’s unhappy families, is dystopic in its own way, charting its own unique path to a particular catastrophe.

  • 2006 M. Cabot Seventh Heaven 166 page image Meg Cabot

    OK, these movies Michael is making me watch? They are so depressing! Dystopic science fiction just isn’t my thing. I mean, even the WORD dystopic bums me out. Because dystopia is the OPPOSITE of utopia, which means an idyllic or totally peaceful society.

Research requirements

antedating 1967
Earliest cite

W.H.G. Armytage in Extrapolation
Research History
Enoch Forrester submitted a 1998 cite from Thomas Disch's "The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of".
Jeff Prucher submitted a cite from the entry on Howard Waldrop, by Peter Nicholls, in the 1995 edition of the Nicholls/Clute "Encyclopedia of SF"; Mike Christie verified the cite in the 1993 edition.
Enoch Forrester submitted a 1967 cite from W.H.G. Armytage's article "The Disenchanted Mechanophobes in Twentieth Century England" in Extrapolation.
Bill Mullins submitted a 1998 cite from Joan Leach in Futures.
Ben Ostrowsky submitted a 2006 cite from Meg Cabot.

Last modified 2021-03-25 06:51:22
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.