asides Shelley, Verne and Gernsback considered to be one of 19th parents of "science-fiction" genre
a “social scientist in fiction”: stories as thought experiments about planned futures and world government.
A Modern Utopia (1905): a parallel Earth with a liberal World State, free movement, “Order of Samurai” ...
The Shape of Things to Come (1933): “history from the future” where global war leads to a technocratic “Air Dictatorship” unifying the planet.
1938 CBS inscenation of "War of the Worlds" causes panic
Ambivalence: Wells’ utopias blend emancipation (education, science, world peace) with problematic ideas (eugenics, paternalism, colonialism, dog-free societies).
Legacy: Wells’ world-state imaginaries anticipate later notions of the UN, technocracy, the “world brain,” and global planning.
privacy
free movement
unlimited knowledge
truthfulness
free discussion
one of the most important anglosaxxon intellectuals of 1st half of 20th century
first schooling by his own mother Julia (departure letter: "Judge not too much and love more"), later Eton, Oxford etc.
first very much empiricist & rationalist (grandson of Thomas Huxley, influence of Lord Russell & Whitehead)
later turn towards spirituality, mysticism (influence of Vedanta - Ramakrishna & Krishmamurti lineages)
in last decade of his life one of the biggest proponents of usage of entheogenic & psychedelic substances for welfare of mankind
died on the same day as JFK and C.S.Lewis; last instruction to his 2nd wife Laura: "LSD 100µg intramuscular.”
BNW: biologically and psychologically engineered society built on stability, consumption & "happiness".
Humans are mass-produced and conditioned from infancy.
Social order is maintained through caste hierarchy (Alpha to Epsilon), hypnopædia (sleep-learning), sexual promiscuity and the pleasure-drug soma.
Art, science, and religion survive only in sterilized forms.
Characters like Bernard Marx, Lenina Crowne, and especially John “the Savage” dramatize the clash between engineered contentment and the desire for authenticity.
Huxley warns that soft power—comfort, entertainment, and conditioning—can be more effective at ending human freedom than overt repression.
Island Pala is a psycho-spiritual utopia blending Buddhist mindfulness, Western science & ecological balance.
Education as core institution: cultivating awareness through cooperative play, self-observation, "reminder birds".
“Mutual Adoption Clubs” as communal parenting structures designed to prevent authoritarian family dynamics.
use of psychedelic “moksha-medicine” for guided insight
Decentralized, small-scale, non-exploitative economy.
Characters like Dr. Robert, Susila, and Will Farnaby embody the tension between enlightened practice and real-world pressures from imperialist neighbors and oil interests.
Huxley’s last novel is a Contrapunct (sic!) to Brave New World: instead of comfort as control, Pala models conscious freedom — yet remains fragile against global power.
George Orwell / Eric Arthur Blair born in British India, grew up in England, from 1922–1927 served in the Indian Imperial Police in Burma (Myanmar), an experience that filled him with guilt and disgust for colonial repression
lived among the poor in London and Paris, documenting homelessness and low-wage labor
fought in the Spanish Civil War with the POUM militia; being hunted by Stalinist forces radicalized his anti-totalitarian worldview
During WWII he worked for the BBC Eastern Service; not an MI5 agent but provided opinions about suspected communists to the Information Research Department
Animal Farm (1945) - an allegory of Soviet Union: a fable where revolutionary ideals decay into tyranny under the pigs’ rule
Nineteen Eighty-Four depicts a totalitarian state where the Party controls reality itself through surveillance, propaganda, and engineered language.
Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia in state of "perpetual war"; history is rewritten on-the-fly
Telescreens combine television and camera: omnipresent devices that both broadcast propaganda and watch citizens continuously
Doublethink is the mental discipline of holding two contradictory beliefs simultaneously
The System embodies inversion: Peace (war), Love (torture), Plenty (rationing), Truth (lies). Truth is whatever the Party declares as true
The 2 minutes Hate & mass rallies channel collective emotion, transforming fear and frustration into ritualized obedience
Margaret Atwood is a Canadian novelist, poet, and critic whose work blends fiction, feminism, ecology, and political satire.
She prefers the term “speculative fiction,” emphasizing that her inventions are extrapolations of existing technologies and social trends.
Atwood’s fiction often features archivists, witnesses, and survivors — characters who record or reinterpret the collapse of social orders.
Recurring themes: power, surveillance, reproductive rights, environmental destruction, mythmaking, and the blurred line between utopia and dystopia.
Atwood is also an inventor and activist, engaging with climate issues, civil liberties, and the politics of storytelling itself.