People – mostly adult people – have been spouting meaningless justifications for enjoying the wanton slaughter of teenagers in books and on the screen for years now.
People – mostly adults people – have been attempting to
explain just why they write books and produce movies in which teenagers are the
targets of assassination, murder, bloodbaths, humiliation, and in which
teenagers are used as the ultimate weapon in order for adults to escape
condemnation and guilty feelings for committing genocide. I’m reading a new
novel now that’s getting rave reviews and might well be an Andre Norton Award
contender – it’s main premise is the “voluntary” cutting of the throat of a
teenage male by an older woman.
Ah yes, artistic license.
“We don’t mean anything by it! It’s just a book/movie! There’s
nothing deep or psychological taking place here! It’s just entertainment!”
Yeah.
Right.
And if you believe that (and most adults will), then I have
a bridge in Brooklyn, New York I’d like to sell you. Just email me and make an
offer and I’ll draw the contract up right away!
In all this meaningless gassing and passing of the buck and
attempts to justify a deep seated hatred of anyone who is younger than us and
more beautiful than us and more full of life and hope than us, I have heard a
single voice offer the only viable explanation of why teens actually go to
these horrendous movies and read these awful books (I’ve commented at length regarding
WHICH books I’m talking about here: http://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2013/11/a-slice-of-pie-weird-mix-of-events.html).
At Diversicon 21 (http://www.diversicon.org/),
a panel led a discussion on how speculative fiction writers and readers might
help at “Recapturing A Sense of Wonder” in the field. During opening remarks
and discussion, panelist Katie Ferriera made this comment: “Kids grew up
comfortable, so they are looking for bad [political and scientific] fails.”
Either she or someone else commented – though I am virtually
certain that none of the other adults in the audience heard what she said nor
did they catch her drift or understand how such an attitude could possibly have
anything to do with them – that “dystopias = no hope; teenagers recognizing
what’s wrong = We Survive!”.
Teens recognize that they live mostly a life of ease. Even
children of black parents, Hmong parents, African parents, Ukraine parents,
Mexican parents, Chinese parents, Somalian parents – AND I HAVE SPOKEN TO AT
LEAST ONE TEENAGER OF EVERY ONE OF THESE DEMOGRAPHIC GROUPS – all have grown up
with a life better than the one their parents had.
I am NOT saying that the civil rights movement has
accomplished its goals and everyone is treated equally in America today! I am
NOT saying that the women’s rights movement has accomplished its goals and
everyone is treated equally in America today!
Please DO NOT PUT WORDS IN MY MOUTH!
What I am saying is that teenagers today understand clearly
that their rows to hoe are both different and less difficult than the ones
their parents did. Even the children of white privilege – like me (I am a big,
old, fat, white guy – I AM the “establishment”, I have every single privilege
our American society has to give) – have it easier than their parents did in
terms of women’s right, gay rights, civil rights, educational rights, consumer
rights, and any other kind of rights you care to name.
With the recognition that they have it easy, teens then seek
to enter a world where teenagers DON’T have it easy; where teenagers are in
fact hunted, tortured, executed, and expected to murder others. In other words,
they voluntarily want to enter the world their parents lived.
They feel GUILTY.
And we adults, instead of pointing them in a direction that
might lead to the next generation experiencing even more freedoms; instead of
encouraging them to fight for more rights, more medical treatment, more LIFE...we
blindly facilitate their guilty wallow.
I feel for this, only shame.
1 comment:
Guy -
Great post - I've never thought at length about why it is so many teen stories are set in bloody dystopian futures, and it was great to hear your take on it. Could there be an element of guilt behind the popularity of these stories? Could there be an element of generational jealousy? As you suggest, there very well could be.
Let me add to the conversation by sharing an alternative (or perhaps synergistic) theory - that of the superhero ethos.
Everyone secretly wants to be a superhero. You talked about your own caped crusades as a kid in a different post - I had my own as well! We all seek to be unique, special, and save the day.
Thus, enter teen novels, where the underdog teenager is poised to be just that savior, thanks in part to their superhero, vampire, werewolf, or wizard abilities. This appeals to the imagination and ambition in all of us - no surprise there.
But, how can the young protagonist truly rise up and conquer evil? How, in this ambiguous world filled with shades of grey (we are well acquainted with 50, but there are more...), where one person's right is another person's wrong, can a person find a unified enemy to triumph against?
Enter the dystopian world. By presenting the world as purely black and white, the protagonist can point his righteous wrath at one entity (often a fascist government) which by proxy represents the world.
Why the violence and gore, then? I think it might just come down to raising the stakes. In real life, even if there was one universal enemy for me to shake a fist at (which there is not), the stakes just aren't that high. But when in a story people are dying and there is true violence, the hero's cause becomes that much more righteous and cathartic.
I think this ties in to one of your main points, that young people today are growing up so far removed from the suffering and hardships of yesteryear. Few things we do now, even truly impressive feats of skill, truly matter on a grand scale. Youtube has seen to it that the coolest stunts and wildest artworks are made public, but then topped by the next viral video and forgotten.
Thus - in a dystopian fantasy land, where there is one great evil to beat and the stakes are at their utmost, and the balance of life as we know it is at stake, a young person can find everything they yearn for in a satisfying superhero fantasy.
Anyways, just a thought! It will be interesting to see how this genre of literature evolves as authors attempt to top the success of Twilight and the Hunger Games....
-Austin
Post a Comment