As a way to unleash and sharpen my creative storytelling I long ago pledged to write a dystopian short story every month and publish it at a site I bashed together called dystopiandays.com, this is since the days of the pandemic lockdowns, in early 2020. From being true to this dedicated ritual, I have also published two books of short stories.
I began whilst enduring an unhealthy dose of Covid-19 which seemed an appropriate time to start the venture. The truth is, I need to write down ideas before they are lost in the fog of life. It’s a kind of addiction. From it, I learn. Not just the flow and composition of stories, but literally, I learn about the subject matter. This is what writing is about. Since writing dystopia and reading it too, the tales and their nature seem increasingly less science fiction and more, a way to recognise realities, and perhaps that’s the point of all fiction.
Make no mistake, we are living in dystopian times, and this is not a specific reference to the pandemic. Just recently, professional footballer, Amir Nasr-Azandani was the second man to face being hung by the neck from a crane, for sticking up for women’s rights in Iran. The term used for the Iranian enforcers, ‘the morality police’ seems particularly dystopian and incredulous after the brutal killing of a young woman for not wearing a headscarf. Then there were the two teenage boys shot by firing squad for sharing movies, in North Korea, which left the world horrified. It’s not just these notoriously autocratic states either, as even the host country of the World Cup officially labels homosexual love as ‘damage in the mind’, banning signs of inclusivity being displayed. And of course, in Ukraine, there is true dystopia and suffering. In Bucha, it is hard to imagine how it was, as family members were dragged out of their homes to be slaughtered.
These almost ‘unreal’ parallel worlds are constantly at play and can be invisible if we choose not to look from the cosy vantage point of our law-given rights. The animalistic desire for absolute control seems to permeate the world if left unchecked. Freedom, as a citizen, is not for granted and never will be. As a writer, once you start looking, it’s hard to stop, just as once you find your voice, it’s hard to silence it.
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