Weapon Shop What Is the Difference Between

Weapon Shop

What is the difference between a modern utopia and dystopia in fictional writing? Perhaps that is the very theme of A.E. Vogt's The Weapon Shop. What is ideal to one might be a terrifying and reversal of ideal for another. In The Weapon Shop, originally published during the early years of World War II, focuses on a small businessman (Fara) who faces what is to him, a dystopian reality in that despite his complete devotion to the Empress of the Solar System, he faces a number of personal and professional troubles. In fact, he is livid when a weapon's shop that sells advanced and fantastic technology, but uncontrolled by his "government" materializes. He fails in his efforts to have the shop removed from the town, continues his downward slide, and is even personally humiliated when his son helps the other townspeople scam him.

At his wit's end, with no one to turn to for help, he surprisingly receives aid from the operators of the weapon's shop themselves. Fara finds out that the size, power and grandeur of their technology far out surpasses anything his government (Empress) can offer. Most of the villages really follow the government blindly, without giving it much analysis, and the goal of the Weapon Shop is to protect the rights and freedom of the people, actually act as a silent yet grand guardian. The Weapon Shop shows Fara that it is indeed organizations run by the Empress that caused the theft of his money and business. Convinced, finally, Fara joins them in their resistance to the Empress.