by Claire W. Staley

After discussing dystopian literature with a wide variety of people, including college students and college professors, I have reached a conclusion: this genre is extremely important to our culture right now.

For one, it’s trending. From The Hunger Games to Divergent to Matched, it’s selling fast, which means people are buying. Why are we fascinated by this kind of literature? Why now?

With increased globalization bringing our world closer together, and smaller in the process, we are constantly being asked big questions. Significant questions. Questions that we may not be prepared to answer. Governments around the world are coming closer to home, and with them corruption and conflict. More than that, corruption and conflict within our own government is becoming publicized with increasing vigor by the media.

What does this have to do with dystopian literature? I don’t know about you, but I’m plagued by this question: what kind of governing body, if any, is the best pathway to a healthy and happy life and world? Do we believe in our own governing body, and thus try and implement it around the world? Or are we secretly Jeanine Matthews from Divergent by Veronica Roth, trusting our beliefs so much we are willing to sacrifice much more important things? I saw a quote the other day from Tom Hiddleston, the actor who plays evil Loki in the Marvel Comics Avengers movies, who stated that every villain is a hero in his own mind. Where do we draw that line?

Perhaps that is what dystopian literature is really about. Figuring out who is the hero and who is the villain, and if the two can even be separated. Maybe because, in this world where everything is so accessible, the lines between hero and villain are being blurred. Or perhaps we have just begun to question what we’ve always been told- perhaps heroes don’t have to be dressed in all white, and perhaps villains don’t have to be dressed in all black. Or perhaps we’re trying to figure out if we are, in fact, the villains after all. If we are the villains, perhaps reading these books can show us the pathway to heroism.