Game of thrones is fancy mix of the Western Roman empires most degrading aspects turned into a middle ages context and slapped in with that middle ages mentality to boot. Add in high fantasy. That said, history is full of moments like that (particularly in Europe) sans the fantasy elements (dragons and stuff). People are familiar with this already and its not that most of the things happening in there are not happening in real life either. So its easier to not be repulsed.
They are happening, indeed. That is what worries me. But maybe I am overblowing the whole thing. The masses were always suckers for flesh and blood. To cut this side topic short, as it happens, I know a thing or two about the real Middle Ages. Game of Thrones' destitution and misery, and the death of chivalry, was in our world brought about, amongst other factors, by the rise of Merchant States like Venice or Genua, and the heavy economical drain they've put onto the old feudal system through their superior communications and insatiable greed... giving us Renaissance in exchange, though... So the Game of Thrones brings about the
the worst aspects of late Middle Ages mentality and economy, without any Renaissance in sight, in my opinion.
In regards to the metro series, I wouldnt call it "fantasizing" about becoming tunnel rats. Presenting a dystopian world usually is a means to raise questions about the morality of those living in the current world (ours or the writters time frame) the steps that led to the presented world and ultimately usually acts as a warning.
I doubt anyone would like to live inside a shit hole of his own voilition.
Very true. Nobody would like to live there if there was a choice... unless the choice was between two evils? How many would choose the tunnels if the alternative was a seemingly hopeless fight? What if the fight was not hopeless, only dangerous? What if the tunnels are just conveniently perceived as the "lesser evil"? I agree that such visions serve as a warning... but I think Wells gave us a deeper warning, a more profound warning. Anything is better than the tunnels... even the seemingly hopeless fight with the Martians. You shouldn't choose the lesser evil because it's very difficult to measure evil, unless in hindsight. Yes the book ends well, with hope, as when the Martians die, most of the humanity is not defeated, not reduced to rat-like state.
No compromises, even in the face of Armageddon, said Rorschach in The Watchers. But he was crazy, wasn't he...? But the message seems to be still there; better to risk everything than to lose human dignity and civilization. This was another warning against lesser-evilism. I'm not saying it is good to embrace such a fanatical take on this thing as Rorschach did; but he has shown the direction, like Wells, away from the tunnels and towards... uncertain tomorrow, without easy choices? One thing the Tunnels lack is that uncertanity; as it was, it will be, we will be forever safe under the watchful eye of Most Wise Tunnel Overlords...
Maybe it was easier for Wells to write about the Spirit of Man in 1895; after all, the book appeared in what was, in many ways, the most optimistic era of humanity. The wars were believed to be dwindling down, ushering an era of general peace; the Spring of Nations of 1848 gave a beginning to a new society, away with the absolute hell of the early XIXth century, onwards into the era of empowerment, allowed by the Industrial Revolution. By the turn of the century, the paradise seemed to be within grasp; the immense fruits of Industrial Revolution (an order-of-magnitude increase of energy available for every human for the same amount of work) were either given to the workers as high wages, to create free society and middle-class based economy (USA), or taken forcibly by the masses, formenting Communism. In both cases, industry and technology, in time, uplifted the human existence to a new level. Nevermind one of the authors of this new world, Henry Ford, saying:
the future is National Socialism...
And here, back to Dune, incidentally... the book was written in, what I believe, was the heyday of human civilization (and incidentally, also the Golden Age of SF). Logic and reason seem to go hand in hand with human empowerment that reached its height by the early 1970s... and has been since squandered. With bleak times, reason seems to recede; and
when the reason sleeps, demons are born. Is Metro a warning? Or is it a fantasy? What is the lesser evil, the Tunnels and Mutants, or the uncertainty of job, housing, family so many face today? Where is the Spirit of Man in this equation? Were the nukes even launched? In how many ways Metro reminds the world of TFTD? Just food for thought, I don't claim to know the answers.
