On Dystopia, Fearing the Future and Political Imagination

This week, the Anti-Dystopians is talking to an expert in dystopia! How thematically perfect.

Matthew Cole is a scholar of political theory and an Assistant Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences Binghamton University. His new book “Fear the Future: Dystopia and Political Imagination in the 20th century” explores the history of dystopian thinking and why so many dystopian books have captured our political imagination (or indeed, accurately predicted our political future….). We discuss the history of utopianism and dystopianism, why they emerged so prominently in the 20th century, and how dystopian literature and slogans (from “Make Atwood Fiction Again” to “1984 Was Not an Instruction Manual”) have come to characterize today’s political resistance movements.

Be sure to take a listen!

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By Matthew Cole:

• Fear the Future: Dystopia and Political Imagination in the 20th Century https://press.umich.edu/Books/F/Fear-the-Future

  • It’s also available open access! https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/br86b6684

• Cole, Matthew. “The Desperate Radicalism of Orwell’s 1984: Power, Socialism, in Dystopian Times.” Political Research Quarterly 76, no. 1 (2023): 267–78. https://doi.org/10.1177/10659129221083286

Mentioned in the Episode

• Kateb, George. Utopia and Its Enemies. Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1963.

• Lepore, Jill. “A Golden Age for Dystopian Fiction.” The New Yorker, May 29, 2017. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/06/05/a-golden-age-for-dystopian-fiction

• Patai, Daphne. "Orwell's Despair, Burdekin's Hope: Gender and Power in Dystopia," Women's Studies International Forum 7, no.2 (1984): 85 - 96: https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-5395(84)90062-1

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• I also wrote something for University World News about why we should be cautious of embracing private industry and Big Tech with the cutting of public funds, and why all science—like all business—is political.

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