GeorgeGlass

It can be useful for critically examining a particular aspect of today’s society too, by making it the predominant theme of the dystopia.  For instance, my original fiction stories put evangelical Christianity on steroids, made the society a tad more conservative, and examine the possible results.  (ie, do we want to live in a society that puts the Christian Cross onto the USA’s flag?)

Some people find it cathartic to know worlds can be worse or else have characters strive to at least make it brighter if only by candlelight.
You could also successfully argue any utopia by definition is also dystopian by its very nature. Collectivism is currently in vogue. While the individual is to be abhorred,  Its all so very strange.

Definitely, contemporary dystopian fiction doesn't have any scare value: “It's going to be society exactly as messed up as it is today — but on a train!” It almost sounds like a parody, but maybe they're trying to simplify what they think the root causes or possible solutions are… or just take random guesses at how it can always get even worse.
(Yesterday I was talking with someone about They Live! and how boring the first half of the movie is because it's indistinguishable from most major U.S. cities these days.)
The past decades have been even more bizarre than fiction. Imagine if George Orwell saw that people are happy to pay for their own tracking devices and even more eager to share all their most-intimate thoughts and details with all the world’s corporations and governments.

“Don’t blame me, I voted for Kodos.”

“Add more tentacles” they told me, “no not to that,” they told me, “you’ve ruined this wedding” they told me.

@BronxWench Good Luck!
@GeorgeGlass I just want to finish off the last story, write more sex into it and post it. Then rest!

I have faith in you, @JayDee. Your smut shall rise again.

Smutting hard!

I have faith in you, @JayDee. Your smut shall rise again.

I have faith in you, @JayDee. Your smut shall rise again.

Smutting hard!

I’m trying to revive my smutting. We shall see…  

I have faith in you, @JayDee. Your smut shall rise again.

Smutting hard!

50 is kind of an anticlimax, because you spend a whole year worrying about it after you turn 49.

Smutting hard!

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday, PW!

Happy birthday, PW!

Thank you so much!  Great day surrounded by my family!

I think @GeorgeGlass has the right of it.
The only other thing I can think of, and I will admit it does annoy me, is when people put a word or phrase in quotations as a form of emphasis:
He seemed to think he was always going to be “the big man on campus” despite being the lowest producer on the team.
And there’s the quote within conversation, which should be marked by ‘ ‘ rather than “ “ :
“So, he said the me, ‘I won’t eat that rubbish.’ Can you imagine the cheek?”

The editor complained that writers use quotation marks too often? If they’re talking about nonfiction, I might agree, because direct quotes are often not necessary in nonfiction (at least, not as necessary as some writers think). But in fiction, quotation marks are essential.

The editor complained that writers use quotation marks too often? If they’re talking about nonfiction, I might agree, because direct quotes are often not necessary in nonfiction (at least, not as necessary as some writers think). But in fiction, quotation marks are essential.

The editor complained that writers use quotation marks too often? If they’re talking about nonfiction, I might agree, because direct quotes are often not necessary in nonfiction (at least, not as necessary as some writers think). But in fiction, quotation marks are essential.

Some of that will actually be dealt with in my story.