O England!
If you were heroin, I'd be a junkie.
But I'll write more about that in another post. Operating on two hours' sleep here, and not going to get back to bed until tomorrow morning, too.
That's how I roll.
Especially when I'm in a bad mood, it helps me get into my Byronesque, existential main characters. I love writing on days like this.
So I actually wanted to talk a little about this Dystopia thing I keep hearing about.
Apparently, it's, like, pretty big.
PW says it's still the big thing in upcoming releases, too.
I don't think I really know what it is, though, and I'm hoping people will comment (which reminds me... those were great comments on yesterday's post -- which still seems like today considering I haven't had any sleep to turn the mental calendar page) about what Dystopian fiction is.
Really.
What is it?
Because I had an idea that the word implied anything that was more or less the opposite of perfect -- a universe in which things break down and fall apart. In that case, the broadest sense of the made-up word, just about everything qualifies as Dystopian. Right?
So I have this idea that the narrower definition seems to include some evil society ruled over by an impersonal and heartless order, against which heroic protagonists rally their comrades to wake up and smell the coffee.
Mmmm... coffee.
Am I right?
Because I seriously want to know.
The reason I ask is that I've been thinking a lot about The Marbury Lens, and trying to decide if I should be hipster-indignant if someone refers to it as "Dystopian."
Because there is no order, and the coffee turns out to be piss.
Which is really Dystopian, if you ask me.
So, help me out.
I'm really looking for someone to tell me what Dystopian means.
Thanks.
Now back to my work.
7 comments:
As a Huxley fan, you're supposed to know all about this.
Brave New World
1984
WE
Those are the books that defined it originally, for me.
Now it's something different.
Ship Breaker
Maze Runner
Possession
Across The Universe
These are some of the newish books that seem to be defining it these days, and for some reason it is like burning hot to combine Dytopia with YA. I'm not going to judge whether that's good or bad, I liked all those books, some more than others.
And I really loved yesterdays post/debate/conversation, if only people wouldn't be scared to share their opinions. People never have great conversations anymore, or if they do, I don't know them.
Oh, and if I could live anywhere, it would be England. Probably Manchester, or maybe Birmingham.
Ooooh, Matthew. You know I never "review" books on here, so one of these days when I can think straight, I really feel the need to send you a personal note about my honest evaluation of some of those books on your list.
But, more importantly, I guess, looking at the common elements in your list (and the ones that stand out to me as being the "typical" Dystopian titles on the current list), The Marbury Lens is not Dystopian.
Right?
Oh yeah, I forgot to answer your main question.
I don't consider TML to be dystopian at all. Not even close.
I mean Jack's "real world" is kind of shitty, but so is ours, and it's not dystopian. Fucked-upian, yeah, sure, but not dystopian.
The world of Marbury? Nope. Not that place either. Not for me. It's evil, it's terrifying, it's kind of ... disgusting, but none of that is dystopian. The word refers to a society of some kind, and Marbury has none, unless you count something ... never mind. That's a spoiler.
I'll email you.
I was scratching my head over that a few months back, since I was out of the loop on dystopians as well.
I found this New Yorker piece insightful, and this post seems to sum up the downside of the situation.
TML isn't Dystopian.
I described it to a friend as a Mad Max world but painted and sugar coated to look like The Stepford Wives. Down to the pretty little white picket fences.
I don't consider it Fantasy/Sci-Fi either, since it's a true story, but if Booklist wants to call it that, for the sake of an award, I'm down with it.
TML deserves a lot of awards.
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