Monday, March 17, 2014

YA Dystopia

I have rediscovered an old love...dystopia!

I come from the age of Running Man, Logan's Run, 1984, even Lord of the Flies, but I think my favorite was Soylent Green where Charlton Heston screams at the end, "It's people!" *shiver*

The resurgence of the genre has come about with YA dystopias...Hunger Games, and then the advent of the Divergent series. Both have made it to the big screen to add to the largess of the series. Hunger Games just came out with their second of four movies and this Friday the Divergent series debuts. I think it is more prevalent in young adult culture because they are more adventurous and resilient than people "of age" who are more interested in just arguing politics rather than reading about "what-if's."

I define a dystopian as a future society that showcases issues of our present society that could become larger problems if we don't fix them. LOL...in other words we'd better worry about the world we're traveling now! The subject matter could be political, environmental, economic, religious, ethical, science, or technology.

I tend to see everyday events as typical fodder for dystopian fiction with "what if's." I found this new method of disposing of yourself after death. Seriously...you go into a bio-degradable container with a tree seed planted inside. You feed the tree. Okay...this is really kinda' creepy to me because I can think of a hundred ways this could go wrong. Talk about the ultimate revenge...a forest of your relatives...LOL. There was a scene in Hugh Howey's Wool series where one of the guy's wouldn't eat his mashed potatoes because it made him feel like he was eating his father. (Dead people's bodies became compost in the gardening level of the silo!) Freaky!

Do you have a favorite "type" of dystopia, and what do you think about becoming tree fertilizer?

Sig

2 Comments:

  1. Unknown said...
    A favorite? I love books like Hunger Games because one person makes all the difference between a life of enslavement and freedom. Even though 1984 was a great book, I really wanted to good guys to win. Orwell was probably too much of a realist. I'm hoping that dystopian will undergo a Christian influence. Show that, even in the worst of despair, there is always hope in Christ. Isn't that how Christians in North Korea are living? We can learn from them. We, who complain when someone takes down the Nativity Scene at the courthouse. How would we handle it we risked death every time we picked up a bible? That's the kind of dystopian I'd like to read. So when's that badboy coming out, Bonnie?
    Bonnie S. Calhoun said...
    LOL...I don't know that the theme would be dystopian...that after all is the hope of Christ. And risking death is a reality in many countries today, so not very dystopian...more like reality. :-)

Post a Comment