Cat Fight In The Kitchen-Wattpad Rant

Dystopian Stories

Long story short, sometimes it's nice to have a group of people making a change and not just the chosen one. When it's the chosen one, we pretty much know they aren't going to fail. When there's a group, we get to take bets on who lives and who dies.

2. The Oppressive Government

Why is it always the government that's oppressive? I mean, I get that's usually the case in most situations, but did you see the definition. Sometimes it's the society, and let's be honest, the government can make as many laws as they want, but that won't stop the masses from taking over and breaking them. Honestly. If you don't believe me, think about speeding. Everyone speeds. Maybe not consistently, but we've all done it. Don't act like you haven't. And what about the countries that have literally been taken over by the citizens using social media? Not all powerful. Not at all.

My point, let's maybe explore something like this: what happens when the government isn't a strong presence and we have a lot of oppressive people taking over? What happens when Hollywood actors/actresses are able to convince people that, I don't know, we should cut down all the trees in the world? And we do it. Because some super cute celebrity told us to (shut up. I see the amount of fanfiction that gets published online. People have their heads so far up celebrity's asses it's not even funny anymore).

And what about giant corporations. I've never actually watched Wall-E, but my kids tell me this is a good example of a corporation taking over and fucking things up (okay, I'm paraphrasing, but stick with me). I think we have this idea in place that governments are the all powerful ones, but y'all need to really start caring more about corporations. Seriously. Money rules, not politics.

I mean, I'm going to assume you all were alive just a couple months ago when Starbucks started the "war on Christmas" with their holiday cups, right? Look how people freaked out over that. Look at this whole Target issue going on right now? What happens when all this shit escalates? I'm going to just go ahead and assume it will create a dystopia. That's my guess. So maybe we start thinking about these things a little more other than "government is big and bad and makes me do stuff".

3. The "Outside"

You ever noticed that about 98% of dystopia's have this "other" place that isn't part of the actual societal boundaries. Like, Katniss hunts outside the fence (right? It's been, like, five or six years since I read it). Or they have like, a wall, and no one knows what's outside of it. Most zombie apocalypse novels have zones for non-zombies, right? Anyway, my point is, the "outside" is becoming kind of a cliché thing. Because the outside is usually 99% better than whatever shit's going down inside the wall. So, what happens when it's worse? What happens when we run into these terrifying woods and realize that the government or society or whatever was keeping us away, because that shit's awful? Maybe then, we should worry about taking care of the threat that surrounds us before we care too much what society is making us do? Because I'd rather not live in the middle of impending doom if I can keep from it. Just a thought. Just brainstorming here. I'm interested to hear what you guys have to say on this, because while I recognize it has become a bit of a cliché, it seems to maybe be a necessary evil. And it's not in 100% of dystopian stories, so that's cool.

4. The Districts/Factions/Grouping Systems

There's always a grouping system. The Districts. The Factions. The parties. The normals, the pretties, the uglies. The specials. The elite. We have labels for everything. I get it. When we think of the worst thing every, history has time and time again shown us, it's about not incorporating diversity. If you section people off and don't let them communicate and work together, you fail as a society.

But what happens when we have no organization whatsoever? What happens when it is chaos?

Let's just face it guys: some people are better logically. Some people are better artistically. Some people are better academically. Some people are better socially. What happens when we have no organization with people? What happens when you don't take the time to recognize what makes people different and special? What happens when we don't capitalize on people's strengths?

It sounds crazy, I know. It sounds like I'm all for segregation and whatnot, but that's not the deal at all. I'm not arguing that we have to have grouping. I'm arguing that we have to have order.

Because my problem is, there's always that one person that doesn't fit the mold of their district/faction/grouping system and they always end up being the hero. That's what I'm arguing against. You can always pick out the protagonist because they're "different". But what happens when you're completely normal and you still want to change something?

I think this topic got away from me. I'll think on it a while and try to come up with a better explanation of what I mean. Until then, cipher through that crap and try to find something useful. I'm going to just move on to the next point.

5. What's being critiqued?

I'm not necessarily a huge fan of dystopian novels, per se, but this is, by far, my favorite aspect of them. Something is always being critiqued. There's always this hidden double meaning. Sure, a lot of them masquerade under the whole "big bad government" façade, but most of them are actually talking about some serious social issues. Let's take some examples: 1984 was critiquing censorship, right? They had thought police. They changed history. Fuck. That's legit.

The Hunger Games is critiquing this reality TV culture. The people of Panem are watching kids kill each other and we think that's outrageous. Then we put down the book and go watch people on TV date 25 guys or girls all at once trying to find "the one". We finish the movie and change the channel to the latest celebrity just "living their life" or the latest teenager being pregnant and making an entire spectacle of it. Right? At what point do we stop being observers and start being productive members of society? Is it really going to take us watching a bunch of kids kill each other to make us reassess our values and our TV culture?

Harrison Burgeron. Obviously about all this equal treatment stuff, right? Because they use "handicappers" to make everyone equal. No one is prettier. No one is smarter. No one is stronger. We're all equal. But, is that really the best thing for society?

Unwind, the novel my class just finished (they loved it. I'd never heard of it until they asked me to cover it, but it wasn't bad), was critiquing abortion. It was literally about late term abortion, but it's advertised as a big bad government that wants to oppress teenagers.

I think what we're lacking in some of the dystopias here on Wattpad is that it's not really criticism. Sure, it's about the big bad government, but we all already know how bad governments can be. How dangerous it is for something to get too powerful. What about society? What aspect of society could propel us into this dystopian society?

What about social media? What happens when social media takes over (we're going to pretend it hasn't already.) What about environmental problems. No one gave a shit until Leonardo DiCaprio's speech, now the whole fucking world cares again. So what about that? What about animal testing? I know, I personally don't use products that test on animals, but that hasn't stopped companies. What about the child armies in developing countries? What about the education system? What about cell phones and computers?

If you're going to write a dystopian story, you have to go deeper than the big bad government. What point are you trying to make? What social aspect that is overrunning our society do you fear might propel us into this horrific scenario where we do things that are obviously crazy, but very possible. You have to really think about these things. Because at the end of the day, the reader shouldn't walk away from a dystopian novel thinking about how they hope the government never gets that much power. They should walk away questioning what they do to perpetuate this kind of culture.

That's it. That's my rant. What do you think about it? Anything to add? Anything to subtract? I'd really like to know what you think about this. I know you have opinions. We had some good class discussions over this, so add on. I don't mind. I like hearing from you guys. You have some really cool things to say. And you should never be afraid to say them.