Varying Fears of Future: A Comparative Analysis of First-World Dystopia and Third-World Dystopia

 Author: Aqsa Fatima.

The world is changing rapidly with the influx of technological advancements. Where these advancements are assisting humanity in a variety of ways, they are also becoming a leading cause of the obliteration of the natural environment. The Dystopian genre within literature and other art forms give an indication of such potentially devastating impacts of technological advancements thereby warning humanity of the atrocious future that awaits them. In the words of Keith Booker “dystopian literature is specifically that literature which situates itself in direct opposition to utopian thought, warning against the potential negative consequence of arrant utopianism [emerging as a result of technological advancements]” (Dystopian Literature 3). Building my argument upon the foundation laid by Booker, I aim to extend the definition of dystopia by establishing that the perception of dystopia among literary geniuses is not monolithic rather it varies across their geographical and social conditions. Thus, the ones belonging to the third world countries have a different perception of dystopia as compared to the ones who are writing from a privileged position that is, the first world. To put it in another way, “the potential negative consequences of arrant utopianism” portrayed by authors belonging to different parts of the world are distinct and very much dependent upon their geographical and social conditions.

To corroborate my argument about the varying perception of dystopia among authors belonging to different backgrounds, I intend to conduct a textual analysis of Ray Bradbury’s and Osahon Ize-Iyamu’s short stories “There Will Come Soft Rains” and “More Sea Than Tar” respectively. The two authors, one American and the other Nigerian, are writing within the same dystopian genre however, their presentation of the “potential negative consequences of arrant utopianism” is distinct owing to their different geographical and social backgrounds. Their distinctiveness lies in the fact that the preoccupation to achieve utopia through technological advancements has wreaked havoc on humanity as it has deprived the third world of its resources and repleted the first world with resources. To explicate the said distinctiveness in the perception of dystopia between the two authors, I seek to engage with M. Keith Booker’s theory of African Dystopian fiction and the concept of “Cyberpunk” explained by Karen Collins in his research work based on cyberpunk literature and industrial music. The Dystopian fiction produced in the West falls mainly under the category of “cyberpunk” as it is largely “associated with technophilia, computer and hacker culture, smart drugs, and dark futuristic narratives” (Collins 165) while on the other hand, Booker is of the view that “African dystopian fictions differ from their European counterparts in certain important ways” and because of that “African writers of dystopian fiction [often] face special complications in their attempts to explore new cultural identities within a quintessentially bourgeois form” (“African Literature and the World System” 58). Thus, it can be said that although both authors are concerned with the portrayal of an atrocious future, their portrayals are distinct because of their geographical and social backgrounds.

Ray Bradbury’s short story, “There Will Come Soft Rains”, is an epitome of cyberpunk literature. The story is replete with bleak imagery where machines are carrying out all the chores of the household however there is no human being present in the house. The predominance of technology in households depicts the erasure of humanity with the invasion of technology and hence is a dystopic narrative. Moreover, the repletion of resources is not just bound to technology but food and other luxuries as well. Hence, “In the kitchen, the breakfast stove gave a hissing sigh and ejected from its warm interior eight pieces of perfectly browned toast, eight eggs sunny side up, sixteen slices of bacon, two coffees, and two cool glasses of milk” (Bradbury 1) but there is no one to eat such amount of food. Everything in the story is working normally, the house is getting cleaned, the front door opens normally at the sound of the dog, the stove prepares pancakes, etc. However, what is not normal is the absence of humans. It appears as if technology has wiped the Earth of humans and there are only robots and machines that are left. In this way, Bradbury’s short story depicts that the conception of dystopia for the first world authors revolves around the notion of cyberpunk where the society is replete with resources of all kinds primarily technological resources but is devoid of humanity.

As opposed to Bradbury’s projection of dystopia, Ize-Iyamu’s short story presents an entirely different picture of dystopia. In his short story, “More Sea than Tar”, there is an excessive shortage of resources unlike Bradbury’s “There Will Come Soft Rains”. People there are dying due to floods, struggling their best to survive in the filthy water yet are unable to fulfill their basic needs. Moreover, the flood contains a “rancid taste of sickness, of cholera and dysentery…bugs and mosquitoes” (Ize-Iyamu). All this dystopian imagery crafted by Ize-Iyamu is credited to the experiments carried out in the name of technological advancements. The experiments, though often successful, become the leading cause of climate change, and the third world countries that are already living on the verge of poverty fail miserably to fight the consequences, hence they suffer from floods, drought, famine, and other such life-threatening conditions. Moreover, the first world countries often conduct experiments in the third world so that their “civil” societies remain safe from harmful results if any. Apart from that, Ize-Iyamu’s perception of dystopia characterized by a lack of resources also involves an abundance of humans whereas Bradbury’s dystopia contains an abundance of resources but a lack of humans. All such conditions combined make Ize-Iyamu’s perception of dystopia distinct from the perception of dystopia by a first-world author, hence validating Booker’s theory about African Dystopian fiction that it is significantly different from its European counterparts.

The upshot of all is that although the concept of dystopia is related to the portrayal of an atrocious future. But, the perception of an atrocious future is different for authors belonging to different geographical and social conditions. Dystopia for an author belonging to the third world is strictly in opposition to the perception of dystopia by a first-world author. Therefore, when Ize-Iyamu depicts an excessive lack of resources as compared to the humans present in his short story “More Sea Than Tar”, Bradbury shows a surfeit of resources but no human to consume those resources. Such distinctiveness in the definition of dystopia verifies Keith Booker's argument about the difference between African and European dystopia as European dystopia falls primarily under the category of cyberpunk literature.

Works Cited

Booker, M. Keith. “African Literature and the World System: Dystopian Fiction, Collective Experience, and the Postcolonial Condition.” Research in African Literatures, vol. 26, no. 4, 1995, pp. 58–75, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3820227. Accessed 24 Apr. 2022.

---. Dystopian Literature: A Theory and Research Guide. First Edition, United States of America, Greenwood Press, 1994.

Bradbury, Ray. “There Will Come Soft Rains”. Perfection Learning Corporation, 1989.

Collins, Karen. “Dead Channel Surfing: The Commonalities between Cyberpunk Literature and Industrial Music.” Popular Music, vol. 24, no. 2, 2005, pp. 165–78, https://doi.org/10.1017/s0261143005000401.

Ize-Iyamu, Osahon. “More Sea Than Tar – Reckoning.” Reckoning, 28 Feb. 2019, reckoning.press/more-sea-than-tar.