![]() ![]() It was, of course, a simple yes-or-no question. What the querying hand had left tacit another felt bound to spell out, making definitive what had merely been intimated: Scribbled in black marker was a resounding-an unequivocal-“Yes!”īut let us return to the reflection that “IS THIS DYSTOPIA?” seemed designed to provoke. ![]() Yet at least one passerby whom it similarly arrested was compelled to respond. ![]() It acted as a dramatic provocation by implying an answer so evident it hardly needs stating and is not expected. The question on the streetlight was patently rhetorical. Was the dystopia our society, now and here? Or was this the contemporary world as a whole? And did it matter which? Is there a real difference between these alternatives? It might be some part of the phrasing that for a moment holds all our attention. As though its message were addressed exclusively to us. “IS THIS DYSTOPIA?” Sometimes a simple stencil of bold red letters sprayed across a lamppost in a shabby part of town under lockdown stops us in our tracks. ![]()
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