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RE: Dystopias, Disasters and Other Futurescapes
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From: Claudia Pearson <pearsoncrz_at_earthlink.net>
Date: Wed, 04 Aug 2010 08:49:26 -0500
While I love the genre, I find dystopian novels for youth tend to be extremely didactic, especially what has been written recently. As messages for youth, they tend to be hypercritical of current adult behavior and responses to crisis situations, offering the clear message that it is up to youth to change things "or else."
Texts in recent years tend to focus on current "hot topics" like global warming and environmental disasters -- perhaps driven by marketing in the major publishing houses who are trying to capitalize on current events. This is not a new trend. I loved House of the Scorpion and Feed, but while these excellent texts focused on new technology that was newsworty at the time, the same two themes seem to be present in most dystopian/futurescape books: mismanagement of science and/or the environment in pursuit of power or a scarce product or access to knowledge, and the individual choices each person must make to survive in a flawed/damaged society and world.
One of my favorite oldies is Keeper of the Isis Light, which reflects on the way an individual can change to fit into her environment, to be in harmony with "nature." It juxtaposes the main character's adaptation with those who refuse to change and instead attempt to control "nature." It not only effectively portrays the choices, but the social impact they could have and the difficulty humans have in making the "right" choice: the main character did not choose to adapt, the choice was made for her by a robot when she was an infant. Those who try to control nature reject the main character precisely because they feel the changes necessary to live in harmony with the environment are not only unacceptable but make the main character less human. It is a nice text to read along with Feed where physical modification of humans is not only accepted by society, but those who can't afford to modify their brains or who reject the commercial programing that comes with the feed are shunned and treated as defective.
Another one of my favorites is The Last Book in the Universe, a wonderful postmodern blending of genres that pays homage to several dystopian classics.
Claudia Pearson pearsoncrz_at_earthlink.net
Received on Wed 04 Aug 2010 08:49:26 AM CDT
Date: Wed, 04 Aug 2010 08:49:26 -0500
While I love the genre, I find dystopian novels for youth tend to be extremely didactic, especially what has been written recently. As messages for youth, they tend to be hypercritical of current adult behavior and responses to crisis situations, offering the clear message that it is up to youth to change things "or else."
Texts in recent years tend to focus on current "hot topics" like global warming and environmental disasters -- perhaps driven by marketing in the major publishing houses who are trying to capitalize on current events. This is not a new trend. I loved House of the Scorpion and Feed, but while these excellent texts focused on new technology that was newsworty at the time, the same two themes seem to be present in most dystopian/futurescape books: mismanagement of science and/or the environment in pursuit of power or a scarce product or access to knowledge, and the individual choices each person must make to survive in a flawed/damaged society and world.
One of my favorite oldies is Keeper of the Isis Light, which reflects on the way an individual can change to fit into her environment, to be in harmony with "nature." It juxtaposes the main character's adaptation with those who refuse to change and instead attempt to control "nature." It not only effectively portrays the choices, but the social impact they could have and the difficulty humans have in making the "right" choice: the main character did not choose to adapt, the choice was made for her by a robot when she was an infant. Those who try to control nature reject the main character precisely because they feel the changes necessary to live in harmony with the environment are not only unacceptable but make the main character less human. It is a nice text to read along with Feed where physical modification of humans is not only accepted by society, but those who can't afford to modify their brains or who reject the commercial programing that comes with the feed are shunned and treated as defective.
Another one of my favorites is The Last Book in the Universe, a wonderful postmodern blending of genres that pays homage to several dystopian classics.
Claudia Pearson pearsoncrz_at_earthlink.net
Received on Wed 04 Aug 2010 08:49:26 AM CDT
