Does "World, Incorporated" remind you of other Dystopias?

Use this forum to discuss August 2018 book of the month "World, Incorporated" by Tom Gariffo.
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Blackie242
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Re: Does "World, Incorporated" remind you of other Dystopias?

Post by Blackie242 »

This book is kind of a futuristic book to me that I can see the resemblance of this with George Orwell's '1984' book and slightly in 'The Handmaid Tale' by Margaret Atwood, where a democracy country of America turning to be an oligarchy country.
Maybe we are actually living in a dystopia reality. This can be noticed with the terrorism actually take place in many countries, how many of our data are stored which will enable the intelligence to take advantage of them if they want to etc...but a democracy country to turn oligarchy? I shudder at the thought of it and I'm sure it is also the same to most people who live in democratic countries. Plus, this book made me think of the New World Order.
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Post by jjmainor »

Allyziemage wrote: 13 Aug 2018, 13:28 I honestly did not feel that this was that major of a dystopian society, unless you consider the modern era a dystopia. Society as a whole is not fearful for their lives nor are they severely suppressed and quieted (this is based on the definition of a dystopia from the Merriam-Webster dictionary). Yes, the registry does store information on each person, including shopping habits, but that is easily done with the internet and cookies from websites. Sure, you might delete your cookies every few months, but during that time the data from those cookies could be downloaded in another person's database, where you cannot delete the information from. Citizens are not limited to shop at only one company either; Sliver mentioned that competition between the supercorporations is common for them to get as many credits in their pool as possible. His first target was a terrorist planning on detonating bombs in a shopping mall; governments already target out terrorist organizations like this. There are specific keywords that are flagged in communication where the government will then listen in on what is being discussed. The professor was the only case that someone was targeted that would not have been in today's society that didn't have an exception in the novel. Shawn and the religious figure were only targeted because of Fellrock's agenda, not as a norm or necessity by the supercorporation.

Who knows, maybe we're the ones living in a dystopia as well.
It's a society where people don't know yet that they're oppressed. It could be headed for a true dystopia, but the people aren't at the point where they have to fear for their lives.

Then again, where the corporations battle each other in the streets of some city, the people there find themselves fearful, hiding away until the fighting dies down...yet they just accept it and go back to their lives when the security forces stop fighting and pull out.
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EvaDar
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Post by EvaDar »

I am reminded of this play from my middle school years (random, I know). It was called Earthnation and was about a corporate takeover of the planet. Benevolent and malevolent forces battling it out, of course. Everyone fighting over water. Thanks for this fun topic.
sit in the ocean. it is one of the best medicines on the planet. – the water
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Post by Dael Reader »

Well, I didn't think so, until I read some of the comments here. I think I need to go back and read some of those classic novels!
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Post by Bon0 »

I noticed parallels with other dystopian society in Dark matter too.
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Post by Amy+++ »

This book reminds me of "The Maze Runner", "The Hunger Games" and "The Divergent" series.
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Post by wairimu1 »

No, but my readership of Dystopias is limited to Margaret Atwood's novels.
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Post by Laura Del »

I think all dystopia's are alike in some way shape or form. There is only so many ideas until they all start to look the same.
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Post by Debjani Ghosh »

Yes, I could draw some parallels with George Orwell's 1984 but as other readers have pointed out, in "World, Incorporated", it's not a completely repressive authoritarian regime. People are still functioning albeit now their allegiance lies towards powerful corporations rather than governments.
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Post by Ashley Cremer »

This book somewhat reminded me of the Divergent Series.
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Post by DD129 »

Laura Del wrote: 21 Oct 2018, 14:06 I think all dystopia's are alike in some way shape or form. There is only so many ideas until they all start to look the same.
I agree. Dystopia itself is a niche genre. A lot of authors write what they know, so the same problems will pop up. There are ways to add your own unique twist on it, of course, but the general ideas are the same.
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