`Brave New World', a satirical novel by Aldous Huxley, and `Blade Runner', a post-modern film by Ridley Scott, are two dystopian, science-fiction texts which address the tension between humanity and the natural world, and the true notion of `progress'. `Brave New World' focuses on the Individual's struggle amidst scientific rationalism and mass culture, while `Blade Runner' deals with human rights in a world dominated by economic rationalism and corporate capitalism.

The composers of both texts value humanity's link with nature, and have thus foregrounded how and why this link has been severed. This is achieved through their representations of issues such as the relationship between humanity and the environment, dehumanisation, and reproductive technology. However, the quality and importance of humanity's relationship with the natural world, as well as its response to the absence of the natural world, can vary across different times and cultures. Composed fifty years apart...