Apocalypse Anonymous: Exploring Our Addiction to Dystopian Literature | Jennifer Zhou | TEDxOxford

Why are we so addicted to stories of the apocalypse, even in times when the world is falling apart? Jennifer Zhou explores the ways in which dystopian fiction can be a valuable social tool. In particular, she discusses the emergent parallels between our world and the ones imagined by writers, and how the nightmarish visions glimpsed in their novels can serve as a valuable thought experiment about our future. A broken view of the world might just be the clearest—and the death and destruction in dystopian fiction can perversely provide us with hope. Jennifer Zhou was born in Beijing, grew up in Australia, and is now a student of English at Magdalen College, Oxford. She will be speaking about dystopian fiction, and how literature about dysfunctional worlds can help us build a better one. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx