The result, which I don’t think logically follows, is that girls are at constant risk of kidnapping and forced marriage. I would think it would be much more likely that people would simply start marrying in their mid-teens.
If I'm dying at 20, why bother getting married in the first place? It's not like 'til death do you part is going to be much longer than until you get bored with each other anyway!
I assume because, despite all the hoopla about "you can do anything in YA now," non-marital sex is still difficult to get away with. Especially if it's your main character having it. Especially if it's consensual and nothing horrible happens afterward.
Yeah, it's strange. I assume that not all the authors actually are conservative.
I think "evil government" rather than "evil big business" is caused by a failure to question the premises of the culture at large as applied to worldbuilding. That is, they might vote for government programs, but when constructing something powerful and evil, they automatically think "government!"
Or, I expect they're not trying to be anti-sex, but pro-love. But what do you actually get? Chaste longing is not only good but revolutionary, sex is a weapon of the oppressor and leads to very bad things, and only heterosexuality even exists.
I found Birthmarked initially compelling, but I wound up being very frustrated by the following:
1. All those kidnapped babies and so few cows / goats. 2. Hemophilia is an X-linked disease. 3. The evil government seemed to be holding the idiot ball too often.
I really like a well-done YA dystopia (I LOVED the Hunger Games, I loved the Uglies books, I was a huge fan of H.M. Hoover back in the 1980s when I was an actual kid) but far too many don't seem to grasp #3 and give us a government that is oppressive in stupid and impractical ways for mystifying reasons. To be fair, the quintessential real-world dystopia is North Korea and they are, in fact, oppressive in stupid and impractical ways. But reality is under no obligation to be plausible.
North Korea is also pretty unusual - it's almost one of a kind, as opposed to the many existing oppressive governments which just do stuff like suppress dissent, hold prisoners without giving them trials, etc, as opposed to banning random things like underwear and the color blue for no logical reason.
I wouldn't mind so much if the seemingly random stuff had logical reasons. For instance, India used to ban Coke. Reason? They wanted to give local soft drink manufacturers a chance. Also, no one was busting down doors to arrest people who'd smuggled in Coke. It just couldn't be legally imported or marketed. (All this IIRC.)
Can you elaborate a little on what was up with hemophilia and cows/goats in the book?
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If I'm dying at 20, why bother getting married in the first place? It's not like 'til death do you part is going to be much longer than until you get bored with each other anyway!
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I think "evil government" rather than "evil big business" is caused by a failure to question the premises of the culture at large as applied to worldbuilding. That is, they might vote for government programs, but when constructing something powerful and evil, they automatically think "government!"
Or, I expect they're not trying to be anti-sex, but pro-love. But what do you actually get? Chaste longing is not only good but revolutionary, sex is a weapon of the oppressor and leads to very bad things, and only heterosexuality even exists.
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1. All those kidnapped babies and so few cows / goats.
2. Hemophilia is an X-linked disease.
3. The evil government seemed to be holding the idiot ball too often.
I really like a well-done YA dystopia (I LOVED the Hunger Games, I loved the Uglies books, I was a huge fan of H.M. Hoover back in the 1980s when I was an actual kid) but far too many don't seem to grasp #3 and give us a government that is oppressive in stupid and impractical ways for mystifying reasons. To be fair, the quintessential real-world dystopia is North Korea and they are, in fact, oppressive in stupid and impractical ways. But reality is under no obligation to be plausible.
(Incidentally, there's a really fascinating graphic memoir about the artist's time in North Korea: http://www.amazon.com/Pyongyang-Journey-North-Guy-Delisle/dp/1896597890 )
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I wouldn't mind so much if the seemingly random stuff had logical reasons. For instance, India used to ban Coke. Reason? They wanted to give local soft drink manufacturers a chance. Also, no one was busting down doors to arrest people who'd smuggled in Coke. It just couldn't be legally imported or marketed. (All this IIRC.)
Can you elaborate a little on what was up with hemophilia and cows/goats in the book?
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in a world where medical care for hemophiliacs is taboo
In the hope that they'd all die out, to stop transmission of the gene? Or just randomly?
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