u/DaphneAVermeer

There's a Venn diagram of dystopias (+ Lord of the Flies for some reason) floating around the internet that has annoyed me for ages because it's wrong. Almost everything about it is wrong. So I spent an hour yesterday making a proper Euler diagram of those dystopias instead, posted it to Threads, and got some great input from people suggesting additional dystopias. This dragon of a diagram (made in PowerPoint because what am I, a graphic designer? No.) is now my new hobby project and I would love to create more cells and fill the still empty Pure Illegible system, Distraction+Illegible system, and Distraction+Surveillance/control cells. As there is a limit to how many dystopian works of fiction I have personally read/seen, I am throwing this to the group. Although the diagram also includes movies, for the purposes of this post, we can consider only written works. Give me your favourite "oh my god I can't believe you missed that!" works or argue with me about my placements!
(the "You are everywhere on this graph" is because the original Venn diagram had "You are here" in the middle and I'm trying to honour that)

FAQ:
- Why is Gattaca not in surveillance/control? Because the MC being under such scrutiny is not a feature of the system, it is a consequence of him being engaged in criminal activity (identity theft/fraud)
- Why is Logan's Run in scarcity+abundance and The Hunger Games is only in scarcity? Because in Logan's Run, the dystopian society allows everyone who participates to live in abundance and the culling is due to resource scarcity, whereas in The Hunger Games, the scarcity is used as a means of/reason for control and the abundance of the ruling class is just that, a class difference (just like how the upper classes in Soylent Green have access to real food).

https://preview.redd.it/oylbffgwun1h1.png?width=1047&format=png&auto=webp&s=65800c12128282d6f64d98b958ea21bbfe981fb1

Hi! This past weekend, I started an interactive fiction story on r/scifi with the post title 'I was in a relationship with an alien'. Initially this was intended to be a fully diegetic project, i.e. never mention it on my main account (this) and the story account would be fully in-character, and I had gotten mod permission for this project beforehand because of that. However, I had unfortunately not anticipated that a significant proportion of people would not realise that this was fiction and would instead interpret it as a delusional person in need of a mental health intervention (I thought the second sentence, "I’m currently on my way back to Earth", was a dead giveaway).

So, in an effort to get some attention to this as a story and not as a disturbing example of someone having a mental health crisis live on the internet, I am here sharing it with you! The premise of the story is that a retired interstellar treaty specialist is taking the opportunity of their retirement and multi-year journey back to Earth to finally tell the story of their relationship with their alien coworker Silk on an online forum. As the events of the story are all in the past, the story itself is set, but the manner of the telling, the information the narrator reveals, and the relationship of the narrator to their audience can all be influenced by audience interactions. The narrator also interacts in the comments (e.g. answers questions).

If this is your type of thing, head on over there to check it out, give it an upvote, and check back on r/scifi every Saturday for a new episode or follow the account u/midwaydispatches to keep up to speed on new episodes. The story is estimated to take approximately 35 episodes. Thanks for reading!