Why Dystopian Fiction Keeps Warning Us About The Dangers Of Power (Picture Credit – Pinterest)
\n\nThe most unsettling dystopian novels rarely begin with the end of the world. Their real terror lies in what happens when familiar institutions keep functioning, but freedom, dignity, and opportunity become privileges reserved for a select few. From George Orwell's surveillance state to Margaret Atwood's authoritarian theocracy, dystopian fiction has repeatedly confronted one enduring question: who gets to control the lives of others?
\n\nThat question has acquired fresh literary relevance with British-Nigerian novelist Chibundu Onuzo's forthcoming 'The Great Shaking'. Canongate has acquired the novel, scheduled for publication in 2028, and it imagines a future in which a technological catastrophe reverses the global balance of power. Africa prospers while Britain struggles with economic decline, social fragmentation and technological dependence.
\n\nIn Onuzo's imagined world, the Marmot family looks towards Lagos for opportunity. But when one twin sister is granted permission to enter Nigeria and the other is refused, migration becomes an intimate moral crisis rather than an abstract debate. The premise reverses familiar assumptions about which nations grant entry and which citizens must ask for it. This is one reason dystopian fiction remains relevant. It does not…
Original source: https://www.timesnownews.com/lifestyle
