Dystopia: A Literary Genre, or Reality?
Stephen Krashen, an author from the Teachers College Record said this about the decline of reading, "In 1982, 60% of young adults engaged in literary reading, while in 2002, only 43% did" (Krashen 1). As reading decreases, technology is gradually increasing. Lani Rosales stated in the article Internet, technology statistics and infographics that there were "100,000,000 new Twitter accounts opened in 2010" and that "there was a 14% increase in the number of internet users" on the year prior to that (Rosales). Not enough people read for pleasure anymore, because some of them are too busy conforming to what the media tells them. For example, to by a new phone, because the old one is not as good as the new one; or to buy a new computer, because the old one is not as fast as the new one. False propaganda coalesced with violent sports and conformity make the United States a dystopia.
United States
United States
Ray BradburyFirst of all, America can be considered a dystopia because our society is controlled by sports that are vicious. In "Rollerball Murder", a dystopian short story written by William Harrison, people are being controlled by a brutal game, just like America today with various pugnacious sports. The following excerpt from the story exemplifies the control: "Two runners do hand-to-hand combat and one gets his helmet knocked off in a blow which tears away half his face⦠The crowd screams and I know the cameramen have it on an isolated shot and that viewers in Melbourne, Berlin, Rio, and L.A. are heaving with excitement in their easy chairs" (Harrison 1). Violence is not a moral thing, as humans, we comprehend that; yet there are sports that showcase violence as a normal part of the game. The owners or the...