I believe that dystopian books are highly interesting and engaging for the readers, as they suggest scenarios that are often dreaded by numerous individuals. During my life, I frequently chose to read publications from the dystopian genre, which always involves me due to a unique author hypothesis about the events in the humanities future. As such, I read 1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell, We by Evgeny Zamyatin, and The Road by Cormack McCarthy. Even though the proposed events were frightening and despairing, they incited different thoughts about human advances, questioning whether the scientific and political developments are beneficial or dangerous for the upcoming populations.
Another interesting trait of these books that made me especially involved in them was the quality of storytelling, which perfectly depicts the attributes of the proposed future. Considering that the environmental and societal traits were considerably detailed, it was easy to imagine the surroundings of the protagonists and the hardships they had to endure. Furthermore, the iconic battle between virtuousness and evil, illustrated as the main characters’ struggle against immoral society, government, or simply the environmental conditions, becomes substantially engaging when the heroes are placed at a disadvantage (Stoner, 2017). Overall, I highly enjoyed dystopian books, and I intend to re-read them in the future to gain additional insights into the content.
The idea expressed by John Mandel highly resonates with me, as I believe that technology can be both a salvation and a limitation that produces significant negative outcomes. Although scientific progress empowered humanity to achieve better welfare, elevating the overall quality of life, technological advances can also compel individuals to become distracted by the digital world, separating them from real life. Such modern entertainment units as films, TV shows, and video games often disconnect people from their family, friends, and other social connections, replacing real-world interaction with electronics (Al-Kandari & Al-Sejari, 2020). Therefore, I fully agree with John Mandel, who excellently captured the negative outcomes of technological advancements.
References
Al-Kandari, Y. Y., & Al-Sejari, M. M. (2020). Social isolation, social support and their relationship with smartphone addiction. Information, Communication & Society, 1–19.
Stoner, P. (2017). Dystopian literature: Evolution of dystopian literature from We to the Hunger Games. Merge, 1(1).