'Dystopia' is an inversion of Sir Thomas More's 'utopia'

'Dystopia,' explained

John Stuart Mill introduced the term "dystopia" in 1868 to critique harmful policies, calling it the opposite of utopia, or an ideal world. The concept grew as industrialization and totalitarian regimes exposed societal flaws, inspiring works like George Orwell's "1984" to warn against oppression and moral decay.

Dystopian literature is focused on oppressive societies

The subgenre can come in many forms, but its shared traits are the way it reflects the anxieties and satirizes the utopian thinking of its writers’ societies. One of the earliest examples is Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels."

Political science professors say dystopias are defined by government coercion

Shauna Shames and Amy Atchison, two political science professors and the authors of "Survive and Resist: The Definitive Guide to Dystopian Politics,” argue that defining a real-world dystopia depends on whether a government is using coercion to protect its citizens or to control them. Shames and Atchison seek to provide a more nuanced understanding of the word “dystopia,” one they note they began hearing more and more as the COVID-19 pandemic progressed.

What it means to call something 'Orwellian'

The adjective often refers to anything that resembles the dystopian governments of George Orwell, usually a state like the one in "1984" that monitors its citizens to ensure compliance. But as this video essay from Noah Tavlin makes clear, the more precise definition is a society that redefines language to control thought.

A visual guide to Hollywood dystopias and their real-world locations

Even the most dire dystopias are grounded in the real world. That's especially true with dystopian movies, which turn real cities into near-future nightmares. This guide from Atlas Obscura takes readers on a tour through some of the most recognizable, from "Blade Runner" (filmed in Los Angeles) to "Total Recall" (Mexico City, Mexico), "The Matrix" (Sydney, Australia), and more.

Sci-fi writer Jeff VanderMeer writes dystopian fiction about the environment

Noted science fiction writer Jeff VanderMeer discusses his 2014 novel "Annihilation," which uses climate change as a dystopian frame. VanderMeer notes that he’s not interested in cynicism, even though that’s how most people view dystopian literature. “I’m not a fan of fiction that’s totally hopeless,” VanderMeer says. “You find ways of documenting the world as it is and you wind up redefining utopia and dystopia.”

JRR Tolkien believed fairy tales needed dramatic reversals of fortune

Tolkien coined the term "eucatastrophe" to define what he believed as an essential key to good storytelling: “The consolation of fairy-stories [is] the joy of the happy ending: or more correctly of the good catastrophe, the sudden joyous ‘turn.'"

The word 'dude' was originally used as an insult

Although the actual origin of the word is unknown, stymologists found the first recorded use in the United States was in the 1880s and referred to a young man, usually from the East Coast, who was overly concerned with his appearance. "Dude ranches" were an informal name for the ranches out West that catered to these types of men.

Hear 2 literature professors unpack the legacy of 'Animal Farm'

The University of Oxford's David Dwan—a professor of English literature and intellectual history—is an Orwell scholar who has written about the author's politics, especially as they relate to "Animal Farm." In this conversation with Dr. Nathan Waddell, from the University of Birmingham, UK, Dwan explores how framing the novella as a beast fable both made it more accessible and allowed it to be overly simplified.

The word 'punk' originally meant 'female prostitute'

The Oxford English Dictionary records the first usage before 1575. Shakespeare used the word in his play “Measure for Measure,” with one character suggesting another “may be a Puncke.” Over time, the word acquired additional meanings. By the 20th century, it was used as an insult for a young man.

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

Fantasy is heavily influenced by myths, legends, and folk tales

In fantasy, anything is possible, mirroring the supernatural worlds of history’s earliest stories. The narrative voice of fantasy is often similar to early tales, too, with an affinity for the magisterial rather than the contemporary.

Truth joined a utopian project in the early 1840s

The Northampton Association of Education and Industry was a brief utopian community in Massachusetts that united abolitionists, reformers, and intellectuals. Truth lived and worked alongside William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass; this helped to launch her career as a public speaker and activist.

The word 'vertigo' derives from the Latin 'vertere,' meaning to turn

Beyond the word's origin, this article makes clear that fuzzy definitions of the disorder make it confusing for patients to describe it.

Lord Byron lives on through the Byronic Hero trope

Brooding introspection, rebelliousness, and a troubled past define the Byronic Hero, named after an archetype made famous by Romantic poet Lord Byron. This video dives into the romantic rebel's origins, why he’s so compelling, and how the character type persists in modern media.

How upheavals in accepted scientific theories helped popularize the term 'paradigm'

When Thomas Kuhn published "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" in 1962, he described the history of science as comprising periods of "normal science" where these accepted frameworks—paradigms—gradually accumulate anomalies until they cannot describe nature. Revolutionary science, such as the development of a new theory, results in a paradigm shift, another term Kuhn helped popularize. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

The term “Middle Ages” was invented by Renaissance thinkers to belittle the era

The label “Middle Ages” reflects Renaissance writers’ admiration for ancient Greece and Rome, not medieval reality. They frame the post-Roman centuries as a cultural backslide—a view later reinforced by Edward Gibbon and modernized as the “Dark Ages” myth.

'Melancholia' was the ancient Greek term for depression

"Melancholia" in Hippocrates's time was derived from the Greek word for black bile. This term made sense in its context since the Greeks believed that depression stemmed from an improper balance of the four humors.

Read Albert Camus' 'Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays'

Camus' most famous work of nonfiction is this collection of philosophical essays. Perhaps the most resonant entry is the title essay, which reimagines the Greek myth of a man condemned to roll a boulder for all eternity. Rather than presenting the story as a cautionary tale about defying the gods, as the original myth intended, Camus considered Sisyphus an "absurd hero" for his actions and imagined him smiling as he endlessly toiled at his repetitive punishment.

Opera seria and opera buffa differ in their tones and themes

Opera began in the late 1590s with "Dafne" and evolved into two styles by the 18th century. Opera seria catered to elites with heroic, mythological themes, while opera buffa brought humor and relatable stories to wider audiences. Today, modern opera often tackles contemporary social issues.

Loving bad art isn't always about mockery

Dr. John Dyck, an assistant professor of philosophy at Mississippi State, says admirers of "so good they're bad" works like "The Room" do not do so ironically. "They love it as a gorgeous freak accident of nature, something that turned out beautifully—not despite, but because of the failure of its creators."

The political ideology of fascism originates in Italy

Fascism—first named by Benito Mussolini in 1919—derives from the Italian word fasci, linked to the Roman fasces, symbolizing authoritarian unity. Mussolini adapted this term to represent his autocratic, ultranationalist movement.

The word 'hoax' comes from the phrase 'hocus-pocus'

The famous phrase "hocus-pocus" combines liturgical Latin and gibberish. It's a silly series of words often said during magic tricks. The phrase naturally evolved into "hoax" over time and became a standard English word around the year 1800.

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

The typo that scandalized a continent

One printing mistake in the 17th century proved so unfortunate it cost two men their careers and scandalized religious folks for centuries. Read the story here.

Thomas Mann set his novel ‘The Magic Mountain’ in Davos

Thomas Mann’s 1924 novel “The Magic Mountain” is set in a Davos sanatorium, using the alpine resort as a symbolic backdrop for exploring time, illness, modernity, and European intellectual life on the eve of World War I.

'Monopoly' was a progressive economic thought experiment before it was a board game

Before "Monopoly" became a best-selling board game, a woman named Lizzie Magie patented "The Landlord's Game" as a thought experiment to advance American economist Henry George's ideas about land ownership.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

The first robot in literature may have been a 'mechanical man' in 1907's 'Ozma of Oz,' a book in L Frank Baum's 'Wizard of Oz' series.

According to the physics of black holes, our 4D reality may be a hologram—a projection of information coded on a 2D surface on the edge of the universe.

The Dracula character, now seen as the vampire archetype, was inspired by a seafood-induced nightmare its creator experienced.

Before writing 'Walden,' transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with a campfire that grew out of control.

The United States is one of only around two dozen countries with a fully federal system of government, in which power is divided between national and state governments.

The 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, but became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

Discover the catastrophic consequences of a failure of the US electrical grid—something that is more likely than many Americans think.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

Ebola species have historically been named after where they were discovered, stigmatizing residents who live there, including Bundibugyo, in Uganda.

See photos of Meteora, a mountainous site in central Greece, home to 14th-century monasteries perched atop soaring outcroppings.

Lesser-known phobias include turophobia, or the fear of cheese, and nomophobia, the fear of being without your cell phone.

In 2019, a laptop loaded with six of the worst malware in history and described as 'an exhibit of historical weaponry' sold for $1.3M.

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

One disco producer saw 'Star Wars' four times on its opening weekend and was so inspired that he recorded the album 'Star Wars and Other Intergalactic Funk,' which produced a chart-topping single.

Volcanoes 'die' when their supply of magma runs out, if they are shifted away from their underlying magma reservoir, or if they get clogged by collapsing or their magma cooling back into rock.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II in terms of casualties, forces mobilized, and displacement of civilians.

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.