Dystopia and Didacticism

[rachelmanija]

I was recently pointed to a new YA dystopia straight out of the YA dystopia generator.

Caffeine has been banned and the government controls water.I have no idea what that book is actually like (unfortunately, it looks like it isn't a comedy) but my problem with a lot of recent YA dystopias is that they do didacticism badly: bluntly, to the

Comments

[bookelfe]

I think my favorite feminist message in fiction these days is "being perfectly nice all the time can really damage you! IT'S OKAY TO GET MAD. Shockingly, that remains true even if you're female." I am seeing this more often as a character-development aspect these days, which pleases me.

Something I wish I would see more as a message in YA fiction is a concept of responsibility to something besides yourself. Believing in your own individuality and the importance of being true to yourself is great! It's a good message! It's also a message we've seen so many times over, sans caveats, that it's in danger of drowning out everything else.

[rachelmanija]

I am so with you on the second! The first too, but the second is a huge pet peeve of mine.

In particular, sometimes there are larger issues than your love life! Though the way Casablanca expressed the idea was obviously sexist, I'd love to see more of the message that sometimes you have to look at the bigger picture and sacrifice something from your personal life in the service of the world/community/group.

[bookelfe]

YES. I thought for years I didn't much care for romantic plots, but now I've realized that it's not romance I dislike at all, just romance when it is elevated to the status of being more important than anything else (life, family, friends, future, responsibilities, community, the end of the world, etc. etc.)

[asakiyume]

Amen! I especially agree as that message made me feel demeaned--as if, as a woman, of course that's all I'd care about.

[kateelliott]

[smillaraaq]

I have been bitterly sick to death for YEARS of "ALL women (unless they're hopelessly damaged or evil) adore children and yearn desperately to have babies of their own! No romantic relationship is truly happy and complete unless it leads to the production of offspring."

[ide_cyan]

Relatedly, I loved the opportunity Elli Quinn got at the end in Ethan of Athos.

[vito_excalibur]

I know right? How awesome would that be? Propagate your genes widely, be responsible for none of it!

[ide_cyan]

QED -- Quinn Evades Diapers.

[asakiyume]

and in the service of a message that everyone already believes

--that's what I object to most. The *easiness* of that sort of story. Tell me the story from a novel perspective, and tell it to me with characters whose personalities and actions aren't decided entirely by the side they're on.

I'm really interested in work-arounds, and in how people cope in oppressive situations. I think, though, that that can seem a copout--like interest in those things means I'm not interested in ending the oppressive situation. That's not true. I AM interested. But how do people survive in the meantime? How have they survived these sorts of things in the past. I'm interested in that.