The Futility of Utopia

by Kristen Saunders

What is utopia? It is an ideal community or society possessing highly desirable or perfect qualities. The problem lies within humanity’s inability to agree on a single course of action that would create a desirable outcome.

Desire is such a dangerous thing especially when there is only a limited quantity of something. “Something” could be money, time, space, a job, resources, or even the thoughts of people. It then stands to reason that a utopia would be able to fulfill everyone’s desires.

There have been several different kinds of government systems to try and equalize our desires. It could easily be said communism is an even distribution of things so that people will always have the basics and occupation. No one is left to suffer or to have their mind wandering endlessly. However, they can dream of more and are often stuck in a role they are not happy with.

Republics and Democracies are a representation of the people. The people, or their representatives, find their own balance and have their voices heard. Essentially distributing roles and resources as needed in each area. However, the state does not guarantee anything. The people must work with those around them to obtain the resources they need. Those who are not of the majority often lose their say in how the distribution is done for the community.

Dictatorships and Kingdoms raise up a few who would ideally provide and protect those bellow them. Very often this works out poorly. Those at the top often become greedy and deprive the people below them of their basic needs.

Wars are always the result of governments, or on a smaller scale people, having a shared desire of a limited resource. The desire often stems from a need that must be met. Sadly in many cases there is no way to satisfy the needs of everyone and eventually conflict breaks out.

The balancing of desire is a tricky business with an entire society. So hard in fact it is almost impossible to imagine a true utopia where everyone is happy. I would venture to say it would be impossible if people are responsible for the making of that world.

I imagine if utopia actually existed it would be different than we would normally think. It would be a world without want and everyone would have their place. Not only that, but they would be content with their lot.

If utopia existed, the society would very closely mimic that of the Borg from Star Trek. Your personal desires would be gone; you would want for nothing. Your directive would be your life, but you would always be satisfied and taken care of. Utopia would lie in having no desire for more and never dreaming of anything greater. It would the pinnacle for everyone to achieve. There would be neither great happiness nor great sadness. Everything would be in balance, and eventually there would be peace because everyone would be a part of it. After all, resistance is futile.

Kristen Saunders is a recent addition to Penumbra EMag, serving as an editorial intern. She loves to write science fiction in her free time and recently started her blog The Musings of a Growing Writer.

My Definition of Utopia

by Dianna L. Gunn

When we ran the Dystopia issue back in July, I wrote a post entitled Utopia Vs. Dystopia. As a final note I said that everyone's idea of utopia is different, so today I'd like to tell you about my vision of utopia.

In my utopia, we would have found an infinitely renewable source of electricity. This way, we could keep things like the internet functional without ruining our planet.

In my utopia, money wouldn't exist. Instead, regardless of what job they did, children, students and everyone employed would have shelter and food and other crucial items would be shared freely. What jobs people did would be based on their passion, rather than on what education they could afford or on race, age or gender. This would eliminate both poverty and hunger.

In my utopia, it would be easy and acceptable to plan your families, with birth control and contraception being freely provided. This way, nobody would have children they didn't want, meaning all children would be well loved.

In my utopia, sickness would never put someone into debt, but more importantly, terminally ill people would be able to choose when they die. Nobody would be forced to live in a hospital bed attached to twenty machines. People would instead choose the time and place of their death, so that they might die happy and with dignity.

In my utopia, there would be no 1%. Instead there would only be 100%, with all people on an equal footing, recognizing that everyone's contribution to society is important—after all, how well do you think teachers would teach if they had to clean the schools too? How well do you think scientists would do if they had nobody to teach them the periodic table? Every job is important to keep the system running, and in my utopia, they would acknowledge that.

My utopia would be a society that matched my values, focusing on the well being of its people rather than their efficiency or money. It is based upon my ideals. Some people's idea of utopia will be the same as mine. Others will have a slightly different or even completely different idea of utopia based on their own beliefs—and that variety of belief is just what makes humans so great.

So now I ask you to think: what does your utopia look like?

Dianna L. Gunn is a young Canadian fiction writer who specializes in dark fantasy. She also writes poetry, generally dark, which is her way of dealing with life. This insightful author hosts a website covering every aspect of fiction writing and interviews with noted guest authors.

Learn more about Dianna L. Gunn on her website and follow her on Twitter.

Utopian Vs. Dystopian: Two Forms of Great Fiction

by Dianna L. Gunn

If you've spent much time at all reading and studying speculative fiction, and maybe even if you haven't, you've probably heard the terms 'utopian' and 'dystopian' a lot, particularly in reference to science fiction novels. There's a good chance you've even got a vague idea of what each word means—but have you ever thought about it more deeply?

Let's take a look at the original words, armed with a trusty 1980 Oxford American Dictionary:

Utopia 1. An imaginary place or state of things where everything is perfect.

We'll stick with this definition, as it's the one most commonly applied to science fiction.

Interestingly enough, my edition of the Oxford doesn't contain dystopia, so for this one I've turned to dictionary.com:

Dystopia 1. A society characterized by human misery, as squalor, disease, and overcrowding.

Seems pretty clear cut, right? A utopian science fiction novel would obviously be one set in a place where all the world's problems have been fixed, whereas a dystopian science fiction novel would be one where the world has fallen into decline.

It both is and isn't as simple as that. Many science fiction novels blur the lines between utopia and dystopia. In The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, you first think the future society is a utopia where everyone's peaceful and has enough to eat, only to discover its darkest secrets and that it's closer to a dystopia.

Beyond that, everyone's definition of a utopia—or a dystopia—is different. Take Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy, in which a welfare-dependent Mexican woman is shown a future where men and women take equal part in the work, massive cities have given way to smaller townships, and food, along with other resources, are shared communally. For me and many others, this is a utopian future.

But that's not all Connie, the hero of Woman on the Edge of Time sees. She also sees a future in which humanity's retreated to metal homes and space stations, where the world is unlivable with food marked-up and everything else is created and delivered by machines. For Connie—and for me—this is a terrifying future—but it isn't terrifying to everyone.

Some books by genre are defined as utopian or dystopian, but this is certainly a case of beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Sure, most people are horrified by the extreme surveillance of Nineteen Eighty-Four or the mutation of humanity almost beyond recognition in The Time Machine, but some will always see it differently. Each of us dreams of a different future—my vision of utopia, where everyone's equal and we've eliminated capitalism, might just be your vision of dystopia.

Dianna L. Gunn is a young Canadian fiction writer who specializes in dark fantasy. She also writes poetry, generally dark, which is her way of dealing with life. This insightful author hosts a website covering every aspect of fiction writing and interviews with noted guest authors.

Learn more about Dianna L. Gunn on her website and follow her on Twitter.