Selectively Juggling

My short answer is that once I would have viewed dystopian novels as so far removed from our lived realities, yet here we are at the tail end of 2026 and I see evidence of George Orwell, Margaret Attwood and MT Anderson everywhere. Where once ideas of ‘The Handmaids Tale’ and political wastelands like ‘1984’ were mainly flights into dystopian fantasy, albeit tinged with a growing social commentary and metaphor. Anderson’s ‘Feed’ would be another dystopian, cyberpunk world where environmental degradation, consumption and loss of compassion and loss of personal agency dictate.

On paper these worlds looked frighteningly stark and distant- fantastical even. Yet the reality is we live surrounded by political speak, data mining, consumption driven environmental destruction, loss of women’s reproductive rights and personal agency. We have become what we feared. Or simply the authors tapped into the undercurrent, tapped into the political and social cracks, the hidden parts of our societies that lay shrouded in secrecy, denial or ignorance. Either way life is imitating art, or is it art imitating life.

Now I’m off to find a fictional world of real fantasy, sunlight dappled ancient forests, bubbling brooks and spells of enchantment. Now where did I leave my trusty steed? I have foraging to do over the far mountain ridge, as that is where the healing wild blossoms grow.