Blake Kotel-Blog Post 3

In Moylan's "Preface", a fairly good description of what dystopian literature is and what it does is presented. However, there are certain points that may not pertain to all dystopias, especially modern works. Throughout his piece, Moylan discusses how dystopias are based off of real, historical events that have happened, in the case of his preface events of the 20^th century (xi). One point that Moylan brings up that does not pertain to all dystopian literature is when he states, “no single policy or practice can be isolated as the root of the problem,” (xii). What this means is that in a dystopia, there is not just one thing that cause the society to be so broken but in fact in is the operations of all facets of society as a whole that cause the problems. In other words, there is no single legislation that causes the problem. This does not quite fit with some societies, such as the one portrayed in Divergent. In Divergent, there is one thing (albeit a complex one) that is the root of the problems, the faction system. Even though the there are layers to the faction system, overall this one “policy or practice” causes all of the problems in this society because it programs its citizens to not act like humans. “Every faction conditions its members to think and act a certain way” (441). In the faction system, no one is allowed to be diverse or think how they want, they must do everything the faction wants them to or they could be seen as a threat to the delicate balance of the system. This one rule that everyone must be in a single faction and do what they say is the root of the issues in this society, which conflicts with some of Moylan’s arguments. In order for Moylan to encompass more dystopian works (especially modern ones) he should consider revising his stance on what the root of dystopian dysfunction is and for the sake that time never stops, account for the fact that in the future more and more dystopias will be based on more current events than the ones of the 1900’s.