Quote:Arguably, violence in stories does not necessarily make it a dystopia.... Neither does pacifism make it a utopia. It really depends on how the story was going.And the presentation of the violence, particularly in the sense of how realistic it is. There's a big difference between the depiction of war in, say, "Saving Private Ryan" vs. Doc Smith's "Lensmen" books. If we took our cues from the former, it would be very easy to get dystopic, as we focus on cost of war and its individual toll. However, if we paint the war in bold stripes, and look at it from a distance, it is easy to avoid dystopia, by virtue of portraying it in the space opera tradition.
-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.