The Handmaid’s Tale is a story of subjugation all the more horrific for how close to our current reality it seems. It plays on things we already know and premises we already accept to show us a future we begin to believe in more and more as the story unfolds.
Battlestar Galactica is about two peoples fighting a battle for survival. At first it seems like these forces are totally opposed and can never coexist, but in time the line between them becomes more and more hazy until it virtually disappears.
In Westworld, life is defined by suffering. Hosts are put through a daily ritual of abuse, torture and often murder. Their lives are set to the rhythm of their deaths.
When I was a child I had a pet guinea pig who died. It lived in a cage in my room, and one evening as I lay in bed I thought it sounded quieter than usual. But I didn’t get up and check on it; instead I fell asleep, and by the next morning it was dead. Poor Sparky’s death was a guilt that hung over 7-year old me.
