One admirer of Children of Men has claimed that the real story of the film takes place in the movie’s background, not the foreground.  From this point of view the story of Theo matters less than the depiction of the world around him that he simply takes for granted.  Do you see a particularly striking moment of this dynamic, where we (or the camera) might be focused on Theo, even as the most meaningful aspect of the scene is the depiction of some part of the world he lives in?

Butler published Parable in 1993, but in 2017, one critic wrote of the book and its sequel that “in the ongoing contest over which dystopian classic is most applicable to our time, Octavia Butler’s ‘Parable’ books may be unmatched.”  Where, if anywhere, do you see the present day in Butler’s book?   Does the novel seem particularly applicable or insightful about the present in ways that other dystopian texts don’t? 

In Blade Runner, what (if anything) distinguishes the natural world from the man made?  Originals from copies?  Discuss one particular moment when these questions seem to be central to the movie. 

What kind of world does Dick start to build in the opening paragraphs of “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale”? In what ways does it seem futuristic? In what ways is it utterly familiar?