100 things #41 dystopias

[jana_denardo]

{Take the 100 Things challenge!}



I know I don't want women as sexual slaves but that is neither here nor there in a book where the characters will be predominantly male. I am still thinking hard on that short story open call. What would you like to see (or not see as the case may be) in a dystopia?

I'm thinking at the very least, repopulation isn't an issue (otherwise I'd bet they'd make homosexuality a dark and evil thing once more). I'm not really concerned if we can tell if the characters are in America or not. And NO HUNGER GAMES. It's bad enough that book rips off Stephen King's the Running Man (I'm not saying I didn't enjoy it but I am saying I didn't think it was all that). I don't want anyone competing for anything in that manner (since there are dozens of Hunger Games clones on goodreads giveaways alone).

SO I know what I don't want but what DO I want? Other than 2 characters in love, I'm not entirely sure. I usually do something genre specific but dystopia IS a genre. I'm not sure what else to layer it with so that's why I'm asking the readers, what would you like to see more of in dystopias? See if we can jumpstart the muse. You had some interesting answers to a similar question about steampunk

Comments

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

1. No competition-based anything.
2. Start of rebuilding society would be nice.
3. Possibly the characters meet due to some sort of trading going on regarding that rebuilding?

[jana-denardo.livejournal.com]

1. agreed
2, that could be very interesting. thanks

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'm reading something by Harlan Ellison (hush you) and that's the discussion going on - whether someone's actually started that rebuilding process in the dystopia.

[jana-denardo.livejournal.com]

It depends on the dystopia. there's a whole new subgenre of rebuilding dystopias or dystopias with high level of tech and that is the problem

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Hmm, haven't actually seen that except in that TV series that already got cancelled.

[jana-denardo.livejournal.com]

A lot of the YA ones are of this type (the high tech dystopia)

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Oh, okay, yes, I get it now.

[wildrider.livejournal.com]

I often find myself wondering about dystopian governments -- why they came to exist and how they manage to stay in power when they are so, well, dystopian. Something that touches on what allows humans to be used and led like that (because we know it happens, even today) -- the whys of people simply flowing with the stream, not even questioning why they allow themselves to be used like that.

Or a government that isn't rigid and repressive, but simply ineffective, and the people have fallen into patterns -- law breakers and keepers alike.

Humans are a horrible animal, and seem to take any chance they can to fall into chaos. Dystopia is a ripe place to look into that.

[jana-denardo.livejournal.com]

that is a very good point. I've found that to be true in many dystopias (like Unwound, how did they get to the point of saying hey this teenager isn't working out, let's chop him up for parts)

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

Hmmm ... are we talking post-apocalypse in general here, or dystopian societies specifically? Because there's a big difference to me ... I guess because the aspects of post-collapse-of-civilization stories that appeal to me are pretty much nothing to do with dystopias. What appeals to me mainly about post-apocalypse stories is the "survival against the odds, in the absence of infrastructure" aspect -- that is, it's the same reason why I like "small group in the wilderness" fantasy or exploring-new-frontiers sci-fi. I really like seeing the characters bond under pressure without being able to just call 911 for help. Think Zombieland or Stephen King's Dark Tower books, or on the fanfic/slash side of things, The Hard Prayer (http://www.goldenmaze.com/hardprayer.htm) by Rheanna (still one of my favorite slash stories in any fandom).

I also really love stories about rebuilding society, to echo evil_little_dog. I like the hopefulness of it and the picking-up-the-pieces aspect, and I also just find social dynamics and anthropology really interesting, so building a society from (more or less) scratch is massively fascinating to me. Where do they grow crops, what are their houses like, what kind of government do they have and how do they put steps into place to keep it from ending up a dictatorship or police state ... that kind of thing.

If we're talking dystopias specifically, I think I'd like to see something more in the mode of older classic SF, something that breaks away from the recent horrible-life-is-horrible dystopia trends and more like, oh I don't know, Farmer's "The Sliced-Crosswise Only-On-Tuesday World", where the world is so overpopulated that people are awake for only one day a week and share the same living space with six other people they've never met (but rebels live seven days a week, slipping in and out of different identities). Something really weird and different, where it's not merely repressive for the sake of being awful, but repressive in an interesting and fascinating kind of way.

[jana-denardo.livejournal.com]

that's a good question and I echo the idea that post apocalyptic and dystopias aren't interchangeable. I'm looking at post apocalyptic.

The older class SF sort of dystopia could be very interesting to do. I'm more likely to go for the survival against the odds thing (more me writing wise) but I need to go back and reread the open call to be sure I'm not left of the mark like last time I started something for Storm moon

[silvrethorn.livejournal.com]

The one thing I want to see in a dystopian story is hope. I know that kind of cuts against the grain of the whole dystopian idea, but black on black is depressing, and it gets old pretty quickly. I want some little spark of light to root for, no matter how small.

[jana-denardo.livejournal.com]

I agree. That's one of the reasons I shy away from a lot of dystopias. If there's no hope then there is no point. I think I'm going to mix rebuilding and hope in this (and something from ancient aliens...)