Writerly Ways

[cornerofmadness]

I could have use my time at the laundromat thinking on my post here but I was too busy going 'there are only TWO machines left.' Note to self avoid the mat on a sunday.

I wanted to talk a little bit about dystopias and their runaway success right now. I think I may have touched on this before but I find this a bit distressing. There is a quote that I've seen attributed to Chesterton and to King "Fairy Tales are blamed for teaching children that there are such things as monsters. Children already know that there are monsters. What Fairy Tales really teach is that monsters can be killed.

I've wondered if that is why dystopias are so popular right now and directed at young adult audiences. Here's the thing, as an adult I don't need to be told that life sucks and maybe it can be overcome. I already know this. I've lived it. Frankly, reading about it is depressing. I just read through one where the main character stabs the hand of a competitor in a violent 'school game' pinning it to the table and made him cut his hand off if he wanted free and the other guy is like sure, no big deal and did it.

1. I never want to hear anyone say my YA stories are too violent ever again or I will make them read this bestseller.
2. Why am I reading something this psychotic and why is it a bestseller (okay I'm reading it because I was given it to review and I had no choice)? I'm really surprised at the level of violence in YA/NA fic right now.
3. Seriously if someone says my YA is too violent I'm going to slap them with this book or The Hunger Games or any YA dystopia. And yes I was both annoyed and hurt over the years by beta readers saying this.

So thoughts as to why dystopias are so popular because I'm all out of idea. I touched off a bit of a debate yesterday when we were asked what trope we didn't want to see in fantasy/SF any more and I answered dystopias where women are breeding stock and NOTHING else. (someone did link me up with one where they weren't so there's that).

I have no problems with all male casts. I DO have a problems when the women have been reduced to their uteruses and nothing else. Right now something called Glass Arrow is soaring up the YA charts and it's a dystopia where girls are sold as breeding stock on the open market. No, I've not read it and don't plan to. It disturbs me especially when I look at current legislation. I could handle it if there was a reason women suddenly couldn't have kids and work at the same time but we usually do a pretty good job of it. It seems to me to be a distressing idea to put in front of young girls and yet they're eating it up. At least The Hunger Games didn't discriminate that much between the sexes.

I was calling my one SF a dystopia but compared to these things, it's a pollyana story and you know what, I'm just fine with that. I don't want to be this dismal.

Maybe that's a mistake. Apparently I could make a fortune if I churned out the next dystopic YA masterpiece.


Yearly Word Count -

12045 / 110000
(10.95%)

Yep I nearly wrote my entire word count for the year over again this week (I was short by only 1100 words of achieving that. I have done no editing at all to Splinters of Silver and Cold IRon I SUCK.

However, I did fix up A Wolf in the Fold to the point that after I give it one more once over I'm sending it in to Wayward Ink publishing and based on evil_little_dog and silvrethorn's suggestions I completely rewrote the opening scene of Blood Red Roulette. ELD seemed to like it, barring the italics issue.

Also thanks again to everyone who liked that paragraph of my SF not-dystopia (i swear I thought it was...) and if you would like to read that on a chapter to chapter basis let me know.

Comments

[wildrider.livejournal.com]

I think part of the problem is most beta readers are OUR age, and from what we remember of YA fiction from our own young adulthood - when things like The Hunger Games was more violence than was usual for us.

Now things have changed, and what any of us writers of YA fiction actually NEED is some YA beta readers...

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

That is a very good point. And for the most part I have that outside of a few of us in Link.

That said these dystopias are downright depressing reads. I'm not really grooving on the sub-genre

[wildrider.livejournal.com]

Some of them are right downers. But since Hunger Games was such a big seller, of COURSE that's the hot thing right now. Who knows what the Next Big Thing will be?

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

That is so true. Zombies is another Big Thing that can go away too.

Who knows but why do I get the idea it won't be what I'm writing?

[wildrider.livejournal.com]

Yes, and same here. I do NOT have my finger on the pulse of readers...

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Yeah I know what you mean. It's nearly impossible to find a YA without it being romance

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

Last year, I read some of the early dystopian sci-fi shorts of the 60's, like Harlan Ellisons, "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream." Part of what they were trying to accomplish was a break from the true pollyanna stuff of the time, and make some social commentary on trends they saw around them.

The themes were using were trying to say something, and yes, there was this sense of pop culture at the time going for pure shock value. But at the time, that was New.

Now? Depressing for the sake of depressing, that isn't trying to say something about the world in the hopes of making it better somehow, who needs that? I suppose it feeds an emotional beast some people have brewing down below.

I don't read dystopia, because like you, I don't need to be told the world sucks. If I want dystopia, I watch the news or look outside.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

You make an excellent point about the older dystopians and even some of them were pretty violent for their times.

I think I'll take storylines like Deep Space Nine where there is hope even in the dark times. It beats the hell out of some of these YA dystopias and their message (usually misogynistic) of violence being the only way to win

[a2zmom.livejournal.com]

As someone else pointed out, I think a lot of it is due to The Hunger Games. I'm with you though. Depressing for the sake of depressing doesn't interest me.

I would love to read your story but don't expect a lot of critical feedback. Most days I come home from work with my brain half fried.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

It would not surprise me about that and even Hunger Games is so derivative (King's Running Man anyone?) but yeah this violent and depressing subgenre isn't doing it for me.

Thanks. I'll send it a chapter at a time if you don't mind (same old address or if you have a newer better one PM it to me). I don't need a lot of critical feedback but if you see anything that doesn't work or is really confusing, let me know. THANK YOU

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Glass Arrow sounds like a YA Handmaid's Tale. Maybe it would make some girls think.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

That's exactly what it sounds like (didn't like that one either). Maybe but why do I think not in a way we'd like

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Thinking that a patriarchy is bad would be fine with me, but I can see that just thinking about the possibility is nasty.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Yeah lately I've been seeing them romanticizing things that really shouldn't be

[0-mother-0.livejournal.com]

I found the quote attributed to GK Chesterton, All Things Considered, 1908. GREAT quote by the way. I added it to my collection :)

and maybe dystopias are just the perfect 'ultimate drama' back drop for the other elements of a story. If we have to keep 'upping the game', you don't get much better than end of the world as we know it scenarios

EDITED because it posted before I was finished - grrr!

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Maybe but I'm not convinced it's something we should be feeding to young teens but they are the ones driving the market

[0-mother-0.livejournal.com]

Well, hmm... just came across this:
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/boardarchives/2005/jun2005/chestertonquote.html

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

yeah that's what I found when I saw that quote but that IS NOT who I've heard it attributed to before. It was Stephen King

[scribesds.livejournal.com]

Well, I’m not sure if they are the same but I do love post-apocalypse stories, and I do read a lot of YA dystopian stories. The Hunger Games was the very first book that I read on my Kindle, and I hadn’t really read anything much for years before that. A lot of my B/A stories are post-apocalypse because I just love writing them.

I don’t like depressing for the sake of depressing – the example you quoted was unbelievable! I don’t like zombies much either. I have read one or two, but mostly I like to read stories that show how people survive. Against all the odds, they battle and (mostly) win. Having girls be kept as breeding stock isn’t what I had in mind!

Also… I think some people like them because they get to see how things could be – all the scary, all the destruction, etc – but in a safe way in your own home. Then, perhaps, nothing that could happen in real life could possibly be as bad as all that…?

I have a couple of ideas for post-apocalypse stories (original ones) that I hope to one day make the effort to write. Who knows?

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

I consider post apocalpyse stories as dystopias, usually. they're just not my thing. You may be onto something though as to the appeal for some people.

Certainly now is the time to be working on your original ones. It's a hot market

[scribesds.livejournal.com]

Trouble is, with the speed that I write – by the time I’ve finished them, everyone else will be on something else!

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Snort. I know that feeling too