The List

The List is an intriguing entry into a specific category of dystopian literature: stories in which an authoritarian regime indoctrinates and controls the populace by the enforcement of linguistic laws. In the case of The List, the people are only allowed to legally use 500 words. The dictator, John Noa, claims that words are the root of all evil. Humans without language would be on equal footing with animals, and animals do not create catastrophes that lead to extinction events.

Some of the most notable texts in this category are Ray Bradbury’s classic novel Fahrenheit 451 and George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel 1984. In Fahrenheit 451, books are illegal objects, even though words are not. Workers called Firemen destroy books, and, supposedly, the subversive ideas contained within them. A group of rebels who hide from the authorities in the woods dedicate themselves to memorizing books, so that they will never pass out of existence. In 1984, the narrator, Winston, has the job of destroying language that runs counter to the ideology of Big Brother’s regime. He performs this work by putting obsolete words and phrases down a memory hole, which eliminates them from public knowledge.

Dystopian societies are ones that appear on the surface to offer citizens order, control, and peace. In controlling language, dystopian governmental bodies control what people can know, which affects the power that people can have. In the case of Fahrenheit 451 and 1984, language, and therefore ideas, are limited in order to manifest equality among all peoples. However, this idealized world typically hides sinister forces, and the order, control, and even peace that dystopian societies seem to have are shown to be quite fragile and often not all that peaceful. Ultimately, The List, like its literary precursors reveals how limiting language limits peoples’ access to information, which inevitably creates power imbalances, and ultimately conflict, intolerance, and oppression.

Readers interested in further dystopian works with language and/or forbidden books as a motif may enjoy Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, in which an authoritarian leader possesses a vast, secret library similar to that of John Noa. Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea series is a work of fantasy in which the concept of magic is tied into whether people know the name for the objects upon which they need to interact.