Dystopian Sliding Scale

[sarahrebecca58]

Over time when writing scripts, I've slowly developed the theory that rather than one type of dystopia there is more of a sliding scale, between Totalitarian and Consumerist.

For those who write scripts for dystopian comics, does your work lend more to consumerist or totalitarian?

Totalitarian would be something like Stalin's Russia, and Consumerist is a little harder to define by it's nature. But relies more on collective monopolistic tendencies.

Note I don't mean this as a dichotomy, because some stories have some overlap.

With mine it's more in the direction of collective monopolistic consumerism, though even that aspect has become increasingly subtler in recent scripts.

[GFalconDX]

I guess it depends on the world the story takes place. When it comes to consumerism, THX-1138 comes to mind. And with Totalitarian stories, The Purge is a pretty good example, even though there a hint of consumerism in there. And when I think about it, there's also another type of dystopian: fake utopian stories where the world is almost like a paradise, yet everyone is either being controlled by drugs, their lives are controlled by some external 'omniprescence', or so on. Examples would be Logan's Run, The Island and The Giver. Sorry if this sounds random.

[sarahrebecca58]

But how about your own scripts?^^

[GFalconDX]

Ah, yes, as for my own scripts, I do have a yet-to-be-drawn story related to my comic. It's half totalitarian, as worlds are governed by the companies that run them, and half consumerism, as people are forced to work for the company that owns the world they live on or else they can't survive, but that part really depends on the company. This is a story that is slowly evolving as I am working on my comic as it is a prequel, so it does have a lot of hole in it, but I hope to fill them as I flesh out the story.

[sarahrebecca58]

I look forward to seeing how that develops!:D

I'm still figuring out how consumerist and how detailed I want mine to be. For one, the worlds I create are a lot more nuanced than they used to be. No longer is it one guy telling you how to live your life, but rather different kinds of groups that tell you how to run different aspects of your life.

So like instead of something like a religious institution executing heretics (this is a reference to a game I was developing on my own a long time ago), it's more like you might have four different cast members: a game reviewer, a used car salesman, a retired accountant, or whatever. And different MC types highlight a different aspect of the world that I had developed.

So it's hard to articulate any specific direction.

[starlightcityentert]

In my series, the dystopia that will be presented will meet somewhere in the middle between the totalitarian/consumerist points, i would say that the consumerist aspects will be more underlying and less out front than the brutal totalitarian stuff unless the reader picks up on it. The level of oppression that a character feels or endures from the entity that embodies "the state" archetype will vary depending on what a character's social status is as well.

[sarahrebecca58]

Interesting? For example politicians experience the most mind control and trickles down. Or more like the reverse, as seems to be the case in our world?