I first learned of the word, Dystopia, at my lecture for Gallaudet University, creative writing class before the book signing in the bazaar. I had finished gently dressing down one of the students who wore a “humorous” T-shirt, lampooning their traditional sport rival, Rochester Institution of Technology. His shirt has the inscription, “R.I.T. Retards In Training.” in a column. Back then, in 2006 it was an insult term as shown in Saturday Night Live sketch shows for someone who is an idiot. But not to the people with I.D. intellectual disabilities. To them and their loved ones, that word is a cruel and a demeaning insult. I was explaining about how words are used in context and making that student squirm in his seat by asking him if he would meet with his parent for a formal dinner in that T-shirt or to class. Then I talked about my novel, describing it as a satire on how people with disabilities are perceived as burden, especially from people who believe in bio-ethic philosophy of utilitarianism. I was vaguely attempting to make a connection between the environment and the person’s thoughts, words, and deeds.

I dared to compare my novel to Stephen King’s The Long Walk, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaiden’s Tale, George Orwell’s 1984, and Anthony Burgress’, A Clockwork Orange. The other student raised her hand, and I paused.

“You mean a dystopia?” she asked and signed. A D-y-s-t-o-p-i-a?

“Yeah! That’s what I wrote, a dystopia novel,” I answered in voice and signs. “A dystopia story about the world of dystopia where people with disabilities are forced to become wards of the state. The kind of a dystopia world where a person who wears that shirt is welcomed everywhere he goes.”

By then the kid wearing that shirt had his arms crossed over the wording, an uneasy grin on his redden face. For the rest of the class, I peppered the rest of my lecture with that word. I was quite the rambunctious lecturer that day with that new word that I just found out from a student.

dys·to·pi·a

/disˈtōpēə/

noun

• 1.an imagined state or society in which there is great suffering or injustice, typically one that is totalitarian or post-apocalyptic.