This topic from Long and Short Reviews’ blog hop was an
interesting one. I’ve read a lot of dystopian fiction and have, on occasion,
found myself staring at the book thinking “You know, this doesn’t actually
sound that bad.”
Take the “Uglies” series, for instance. The concept there is
that teenagers are classified as Uglies until a certain age (16 or 17, I can’t
remember which) when they are given extensive surgery to make them
manga-inspired Pretties, at which point they move to New Pretty Town and spend
the next couple of decades partying with their pretty friends. Sounds fine to
me. The characters want to remain Ugly on principle, especially when they
discover that Pretties also have brain surgery to make them more docile, but
even with that I found myself thinking I’d be quite happy to go ahead.
However, if you take something like “The Hunger Games”, that’s
a world I’d like to stay away from. A corrupt government who pits children
against each other for entertainment and makes half the population live in
poverty? Definitely one to avoid.
And the other one that I would hate to visit? “Matched”.
This is a series about a controlled society where the powers that be choose
your partner for you and everything is limited – they only have one hundred
songs, one hundred stories, one hundred poems and so forth. The matching of a
partner is one thing – it seems to work out OK for a lot of the characters. But
only having one hundred stories? I could work through those in the space of a
year.
So which fictional worlds would you avoid?
Yeah, I wouldn't want to visit the "The Hunger Games" or "Matched' universes either. They don't sound like pleasant places to live at all.
ReplyDeleteMy post.
Definitely not. I have too many fantasy universes to visit where things are lovely!
DeleteI'm not familiar with either the Uglies or Matched... will have to check those out. Might not want to live there or visiting physically...but that's the beauty of being able to visit vicariously! My choices are here: http://jhthomas.blogspot.com/2019/02/wednesday-weekly-blogging-fictional.html
ReplyDeleteThere is that advantage - you can witness the heroine winning without having to live with it.
DeleteDon't know about Uglies. I'll have to check it out. Good post.
ReplyDeleteHere are my "universes" http://www.ourtownbookreviews.com/2019/02/fictional-universes-id-rather-not-visit_26.html
It was an interesting series.
DeleteI couldn't do the Hunger Games or the Maze Runner situations. I'm not a competitive spirit kind of gal. Good choices. Will have to check out the Uglies book. :-)
ReplyDeleteAh yes, I wouldn't like Maze Runner either.
DeleteActually, I almost mentioned "Matched". That was horrible. Ditto Hunger Games, which I did mention. Dystopias, but their very nature, are the opposite of utopias, so that makes sense. But even so ...
ReplyDeleteI find dystopias interesting to read, but I certainly wouldn't want to live in one.
DeleteThe Hunger Games made my list this week, too. Matched sounds interesting, reminds me of Brave New World in a way.
ReplyDeleteMy post
I did think of mentioning Brave New World. I like the idea of soma, but not everything else.
DeleteI agree with the Hunger Games -- it's depressing.
ReplyDeleteWillow - the brownies annoyed me and the trolls were so disgusting!
Twilight - not just the sparkles but I couldn't stand the movie adaptions. The books I could interpret my own way so maybe could be more palatable. Visiting the world where it all happens? Nope, not even for a visit. okay... maybe a sneak peek at Jacob. ;)
Yes, Twilight was a tricky one. I liked Jacob myself, but I'm not sure it's a world I'd want to live in.
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