2 B R 0 2 B

The genre of utopian fiction has existed at least since Thomas More published Utopia in 1516. Dystopian fiction can be traced as far back as the French Revolution in the late 18th century. Both genres flourished and evolved in the 20th century, largely in response to the growing complexity of technology and its role in society. Kurt Vonnegut’s “2 B R 0 2 B” can be classified either as utopian fiction or dystopian fiction, in part because the lines between utopia and dystopia are often blurry. Vonnegut emphasizes that blurriness by making most of the characters in “2 B R 0 2 B” compliant with their control and by imagining euthanasia as a reasonable response to overpopulation. However, Vonnegut ultimately satirizes this solution and points to its absurdity.

Although today utopia is taken to mean “a good place,” when More invented the word, he combined two Greek words—“ou” meaning “not” and “topos” meaning place—that together mean “not place” or non-place. Thus, a utopia is a place that is nowhere. It is a place that is conceptual and allows for experimentation within it. Vonnegut draws on this original meaning by