Brave New World (1931) anticipated the mechanics and the biotechnology of confident mass social regulation. 1984 (1948) depicted the totalitarianism of information and cancellation and war and ignorance control. Farenheit 451 (1953) saw the uniformity of comfort, hatred of knowledge and the fantasist plus crippling anxiety of aspiring to a world lived inside the four walled VR room. Huxley (1894-1963) and Orwell (1903-1950) are Modernists, embedded in their generation's zeitgeist. Both novels are masterpieces, smart brave idealism masquerading as fiction. The Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) novel - a better work of fiction, by a primarily fiction writer - slips into the 20th-century literary canon by a sci-fi side-door because by the 1950s/60s, the cultural gatekeepers have been replaced by postmodernists eager to marginalize individuals (especially dissenters).

See also : We (1924) an early Modernist dystopia novel by Russian writer Yevgeny Zamyatin (1884-1937). Written for younger readers but unflinching on substance is The Guardians (1970) and The Death of Grass (1956) by English writer John Christopher (1922-2012).