Despite its simple premise, ‘The Pedestrian’ is loaded with plenty of food for thought. One man’s harmless, perhaps even dull, enjoyment of strolling the pavements of his neighbourhood, an action completely unremarkable by itself, becomes a source of concern and transgression to an increasingly isolated society. This is a short example of the dystopian form of science fiction (a movement that seems to be growing even today) wherein a society is depicted as negative in some way. Damaged, counter-productive, oppressive, hostile, empty, soulless. They can be set in the future (such as Octavia Butler’s excellent duet, The Parable of the Sower and … Talents, and Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange), or set in our world but one changed (Philip K.ĭystopias, like their opposite utopia, can come in all shapes and sizes, both on Earth and far away from home. Dick’s Axis power-ruled The Man in the High Castle, or a changed religious America in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood), they can post-apocalyptic ( The Postman by David Brin) where the world has already collapsed and may be trying to rebuild, or they can be set in restrictive societies where everyone must conform or else ( 1984 by George Orwell). ![]() It’s a sprawling sub-genre of science fiction and one which has many, many examples to its name for all the many dark and twisted forms it can take. This short, ‘The Pedestrian,’ is a great example of how dystopia can be concerned with the simplest subjects. Leonard Mead enjoys strolling his neighbourhood on a night, and sometimes during the day. He is a writer, though that’s not really considered a job in his world, and is unmarried. He isn’t as transfixed with televised entertainment as the rest of the populace. When his neighbours are at home in their dark rooms at night, watching their shows, he prefers to leave his well-lit house and walk around aimlessly. He is certainly alone in this activity, as he notes “he had never met another person walking, no one in all that time,” with all that time being the ten years he has carried out this daily exercise. ![]() For Leonard, this is an individual experience, truly individual. He shares it with no one, because no one cares, and he does it totally alone, causing no mischief to himself or others. On a nighttime, the world around him is “tomb”-like, as his neighbours stay home. He doesn’t do it as a message to anyone, he isn’t encouraging them to leave their sets behind and join him, he just walks by himself.
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