#dystopia

He saw the rules of life clearly for the first time and they were simple: it was a game where Death was the only winner. ↗

— Sharon Sant

#fantasy #science-fiction #young-adult #death

Technique has taken over the whole of civilization. Death, procreation, birth all submit to technical efficiency and systemization. ↗

— Jacques Ellul

#technique #death

(ghost of)ACHILLES: How can I force obedience on this? In other times I've used the fear of death to make a woman bow herself to me. If not the fear of her own death, then fear for someone else, a husband or a child. How can I bend this woman to my will? (ghost of)POLYXENA: I think I will not bend. IPHIGENIA: You see, it's as we've tried to tell you, Great Achilles. Women are no good to you dead. ↗

— Sheri S. Tepper

#dead #dystopia #wome #death

Hate looks like everybody else until it smiles ↗

— Tahereh Mafi

#hate #inspirational #love #shatter-me #young-adult

The life where nothing was ever unexpected. Or inconvenient. Or unusual. The life without colour, pain or past. ↗

— Lois Lowry

#future #life #sci-fi #the-giver #utopia

I wrote Unwind for lots of reasons, and it poses questions about a lot of subjects. To state it briefly, I wanted to point out how when people take intractable positions on an issue, and stick to extreme sides, sometimes the result is a compromise that is worse than either extreme. I meant it as a wake up call to society -- and to point out that sometimes the problem IS that we take sides on an issue, when a different sort of approach is needed. It's also to pose questions about what it means to be alive. Where does life begin, where does it end -- and point out that there is no single answer to these questions. The problem is people who think there are simple answers. People who see things as simple black-and-white right-and-wrong are the type of people who will end up with a world like the world in Unwind. ↗

— Neal Shusterman

#dystopian #morality #sanctity-of-life #social-commentary #unwind

It’s more eerie to be alone in a city that’s lit up and functioning than one that’s a tomb. If everything were silent, one could almost pretend to be in nature. A forest. A meadow. Crickets and birdsong. But the corpse of civilization is as restless as the creatures that now roam the graveyards. ↗

— Isaac Marion

#dystopia #nature

In the afternoon, they stopped to eat on a rocky outcrop. Perry brushed a kiss on her cheek while she was chewing, and she learned that it was the loveliest thing to be kissed for no reason, even while chewing food. It brightened the woods, and the never sky, and everything. ↗

— Veronica Rossi

#dystopian #fantasy #post-apocalyptic #romance #sci-fi

I laughed under my breath, and it sounded bitter. “Listen to me. What am I talking about, worth it? Is any experience or bit of beauty worth the cost of my life? I know nothing but safety and self-preservation at all costs.” “And yet,” he said softly, “you’re risking everything to help me. ↗

— Kate Avery Ellison

#fantasy #beauty

Vaughn is talking about the heat, and his voice is so excited that it breaks into whispers at times. He loves his madness the way a bird loves the sky. ↗

— Lauren DeStefano

#insanity #madness #sever #the-chemical-garden-trilogy #vaughn