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This story is part of a Reporter’s Notebook series for Inman Intel that accompanies our larger feature on utopian cities. Read the main feature here.
Quick, can you think of a piece of media — a movie, a book, etc. — that presents a truly utopian vision of the future?
If you’re a fan of Star Trek, the original series and the 90s spinoff Next Generation might come to mind. But beyond that, it’s tough to think of many examples. Instead, modern media is far more concerned with dystopias. Think of the zombie apocalypse of the Walking Dead. Or the neonpunk nightscapes of the Blade Runner movies. The Hunger Games and Divergent series have both explored teen dystopias in literature and film. The Handmaid’s Tale offered a more grown up variation, also in literature and film.
CAN FUTURISTIC UTOPIAS SOLVE OUR HOUSING CRISIS?
The list could go on, but suffice it to say that dystopias are clearly a more popular topic to explore in media. And that’s kind of strange given that, as our longer feature argues, utopias are having a bit of a moment right now.
In the course of my reporting, I asked Pamela Bedore, an associate professor of English at the University of Connecticut, about this. And she confirmed that “there’s not a lot of utopian fiction” emerging lately.
Part of the reason for that may be that it’s “kind of boring.” After all, if everything is working perfectly, there’s potentially less drama.
But Bedore also said that in the nineteenth century, Americans did tend to be more interested in an optimistic about the future. This is evident in old Victorian illustrations of what people imagined the future might look like. The illustrations feature cities filled with airships and bustling streets. People thought the future looked bright.
An old illustration of what people thought the future would look like. Credit: Public Domain
But then attitudes shifted.
“I think it’s World War I,” Bedore said. “People have so much optimism in the nineteenth century. About technology, about learning all these things. And then WWI happens. World War II comes next.”
The two world wars changed the world in many ways, but significantly they illustrated downsides to new technology. Yes, technology brought trains and lowered the costs of goods due to mass production. But it also produced machine guns and aerial bombing and mustard gas and, eventually, nuclear bombs.
There are certainly many other socio-cultural reasons we tend to obsess today over dystopias rather than utopias. But the world wars were a turning point — and we’ve arguably never really fully recovered that pre-war attitude about the future.
