1. Trouble on Triton by Samuel Delany (1976)

The Utopia: In the “ambiguous heterotopia” (as Delany dubs it) of Triton, humans have unprecedented freedom. They can adhere to any culture or style, work or not work, never go hungry, change their genders or bodies if they please, and associate how they wish. While people are still humans and frequently behave like dicks, systemic racial and gender discrimination seem largely gone. Want and a lack of leisure time appear to have been wiped out as well. The little bit of the government apparatus that's shown seems incredibly democratic and accessible.



Delany’s story focuses on Bron Helstrom, practitioner of an obscure mathematical art and vaguely dissatisfied white guy. War with other parts of the solar system may be looming and Bron may feel oddly alienated, but Triton still seems like a pretty great place, especially compared to our current world.



The Dystopia: Bron, it becomes pretty quickly clear, is an asshole. And Triton, at first seemingly a peaceful utopia, is also willing to wage war by any means necessary.



Triton is a vastly under-appreciated book. It's one of the smartest subversions of utopia, especially of the anarchist variety, that's ever been written, giving us a society immensely more free and fair than the one we have now, while reminding us that it's still going to produce alienated individuals — especially those who long for a time when privilege ensured them power and a good lay.



If that wasn't enough, the world of Triton still has a power structure, and when its very society is threatened, it will play for keeps because that's what any power structure worth its salt does. By the novel's end, it becomes clear that, for the narrator and plenty of other people in the far future, Triton is a dystopia. The kicker? The book also makes a uncomfortably good argument that the negatives — Bron's alienation, the ruthlessness of Triton's government, etc. — are all absolutely justified.

