My question is: why don't these authors who are trying to write dystopian novels research how real life dystopian societies functioned? You don't even need to read 1984, just look at the Soviet Union, China, Roman Israel, Nazi Germany, Cuba. Study the reasons why they worked (or work) and you'll already have a solid basis for your own dystopian society, with a few interesting twists, of course.
i mean all districs would have been easaly difyted if not for distric 13 technology and they werent awere that distric 13 still exist so they didint feel that there is any hope for victory. why it took distric 13 so long to act its another guestion. also the fact that this distopian existed for so long can explain why snow acted so stupid, he probably let his guard down and became overconfindent. but this is just mine opinion
i dont know for me the hunger game sosieti actualy made sence, i mean the capital has all the hight tech weponry like bombs, atomick bombs, guns, all sorts of mutants whyle the districs only had wepons like bows and arows and knifes when you put that against bombs guns and all other high tech capital wepons i can see why they didint think that they have a chance of victory.
The hunger games was ok..it wasn't a great example of a Dystopian novel. I did enjoy The City of Ember, Brave New World, and 1984. Personally I'd rather read Battle Royale a third time than read the Hunger games a second time. I agree with you on this subject.
@Theo2kitty The City of Ember isn't really a dystopian novel because it wasn't like the government was suppressing the people and making their lives miserable. They led (for the most part) healthy, productive lives. Dystopian novels are usually about how much the government sucks, but The City of Ember was more about them leading their people to safety.
Do you mind if I post this on my Facebook. A lot of my friends are crazy fans who have been spitting out a lot of "Hunger Games is the best dystopia ever" type crap. I like the books but I would like to start a discussion with them about it. And I like how this video brings up a lot of great points that I would like to show to them. Thanks.
Excellent point! I loved The Hunger Games but I did think it was weird that a revolution didn't occur sooner because it really should have based on how unhappy the people were, Katniss or no Katniss.
For YA fantasy novels that I think contain a nicely handled element of dystopia I highly recommend Isobelle Carmody's The Obernewtyn Chronicles, and Marianne de Pierres' The Night Creatures trilogy.
I've read very few classic dystopian novels - I haven't even tackled The Handmaiden's Tale yet because I know it will enrage me - but I agree with those who have said that Brave New World is an effective example of the genre.
I'm currently reading Wither.... it seems pretty flippin' implausible
This is partly why I fell out of teenage drama books in the first place when I was a teenager- none of it made sense. Miss Melina makes sense- a dystopia has to actually function to maintain its horror, or at least, be stable enough that the alternative is worse. This is why I was attracted to legitimate science fiction at an earlier age, because the authors there have well established themes and functioning models to draw upon. Even the zanier settings, like Warhammer 40,000 make sense in [c]
@Jordanationalismtion their proper context. Take 40K as an example- the Imperium of Man is a brutal, hierarchical, theocratic regime where the most plentiful resource is the human resource, the government is repressive enough to obliterate worlds for the slightest whiff of rebellion, and the Imperial military drafts men and women in the billions to be thrown into meat grinder wars across a hundred thousand worlds. But the creators of the setting go into extensive length illustrating [c]
@Jordanationalismtion why and how the Imperium sustains itself- the alternative is much worse, and if the Imperium stopped functioning as it did, even for a brief moment, the enemies of humanity would consume us in a heartbeat. It's that kind of extinction-level pressure that keeps a good, future dystopia going, even if its on its own inertia.
Many of the dystopias flooding the market right now isn't even dystopia; it's mostly just one dystopic element thrown into a teenage romance in order to keep the couple (or love triangle) apart. It's not about social commentary or building complex political worlds, but rather, the dystopia elements act as a novel setting for a romance.
In other words, lovely rant and I couldn't agree more.
@childofthemoor Also, for some reason, many post-apocalyptic or future worlds in scifi nowadays are being called dystopia, when they're anything but. Dystopia =/= bad future world, ugh.
@childofthemoor Yeah, that's the thing. A lot of the good, older scifi books go into detail as to how their negative, dystopian societies function and sustain themselves, because back when Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein were around, you couldn't get away with bullshitting your readers.
My setting 4 my book is a mini distopia... More like the ba sing se kind of thing though than hunger games (u know, from avatar. W/ the king as a figurehead.
(I meant 2 say 'love 2 hate him...) anyway, like, even voldemort can pull of a better dictatorship. I mean, in the deathly hallows he overruns the ministry. His dictatorship wasn't that impressive but he had a better one than snow.
Snow freaking pisses me off cuz he was not only a bad dictator, just a lame villain in general... I was just like "R U Freaking serious, THIS is what u r trying 2 give me for a villain? This old man?" he never scared me, I never loved 2 hare him, nothing. I was just like "oh... Snows here. Now what?" I didn't care wen he died either
Your discussion of the Hunger Games seems to argue more for the idea that Snow was a bad dictator than that the story's framework itself is poor. He didn't do everything possible to take away his people's ties to other things, and that lead to its logical conclusion: a rebellion. He was stupid, but the progression of events was still fairly logical. Are you arguing that the rebellion should have happened sooner--that Snow's poor planning would have lead to uprising earlier than that?
@MelinaPendulum That makes sense. There was a previous rebellion on Snow's watch, which lead to the creation of the Games...but there was also a 76 year gap between uprisings.
Have you ever read, "Pretties"? That society has a very interesting--and effective--way of neutralizing its people.
@ShalomDove I kind of agree, but I understand Melina's point. The story is logical and could make sense, but it is not something to be afraid of, something to make you think, something to make you fear, because someone like Snow is such a weak ruler, and therefore a weak antagonist.
There are a lot of arguments as to wether or not a certani type of society would work or not. Some of them are out-there, and have not yet bene expirienced by human kind, but there are arguments that stand for them as well as against. It's all about the individual reader's suspension of belief.
@ShalomDove aaand it was also poor. I mean, how can the cameras not see the girl in some areas, and catch her INSIDE A FREAKING cave? Too many plot holes.
If you want a good dystopia,read a history book. Soviet Russian and Soviet society as well as South American and North Korea's dictatorships/communism are the basis of dystopia after all.
Also,you have to keep the people entertained as well so they don't question anything. Like at the beginning of the Nazi Party's regime.
And what Melina said with the children was straight up Hitler Youth Program.
See I didnt have a problem with Divergent because I kept forgetting it was supposed to be a dystopia but with The Hunger Games I can see your point. But Matched is the worst of them all because not only does it not make sense, its not a dystopia & the line between what is a dystopia and what's just fantasy or maybe sci-fi is blurred
This was a different take than I was expecting but Great video. Now that you've pointed it out I'm not really surprised that these books are a bastardized form of the genre. I don't like what this says about the industry but I think people are less concerned with writing a functioning dystopia and more about hopping on the new hot genre bandwagon. :/
Melinda... I respect your views but I strongly disagree....Why do you keep comparing every dystopia to 1984? It's just a novel not the holy grail... If every writer took your advice we would end up with a bunch of books resembling 1984 because that is a "true" dystopia. I like what you said at the end though about making a young dystopia the less plausible your system is. But in the end authors need to be free to push the boundaries and not have to follow 1984's lead.
@mavsguru41 I compare it to 1984 because, imo, it shows how to write a believable dystopia and I think it is a good example of how to create a sci-fi/speculative world. It's not the holy grail, but I think that if you want to write a dystopian novel it is a great one to read because it covers so many issues. I don't think every book should be 1984, which is why I brought up A Handmaiden's Tale, but I think it's a good book to look at to get ideas :)
i didn´t read the hunger games, but i think that t writer didn´t wanted a gorge orwell kind of distopia, ecause then she couldn´t have the story she wanted. Aren´t there different kinds of dystopia?
@nobby481 George Orwell (who based 1984 on 'We') and Kurt Vonnegut (who based Player Piano on 'We') have accused Aldous Huxley of stealing the plot of 'We' for Brave New World...
I agree with pretty much everything you've said. There is another aspect of it, concerning the Hunger Games, that I think is worth mentioning: by showing these games on national television and making sure everyone can see the kids fight, you make the people AWARE that they can fight. They see these teenagers, these children, do some pretty amazing stuff: why shouldn't the people start thinking "Well, if the kids can do that, what will adults be capable of?"
@nobby481 Yeah, BNW has pretty much everything Melina was talking about. Nobody in the society of BNW fears death, feels like their body belongs to themselves, or has any concept of family besides the state. "Father" and "mother" were considered swear words! I may not have agreed with Alduous Huxley's "warnings" (like how he made everyone in the society have wild orgies as a direct response to the sexual revolution of his time) but it was a well-crafted distopia that was believable.
I don't know if I agree with you about dystopia and freedom. North Korea is a rather interesting example of this, Kim Jong Ill has a pretty powerful grip on the people, but they are relatively free (I use relatively here very loosely). So, it's not too hard to imagine a dystopian society where everybody is not crushed under the iron fist of the government at every second. Physical force is a precondition for totalitarianism but it doesn't need to be omnipresent.
While all the rules and ideas Melina prefers are great, every dystopia shouldn't have to follow ironclad genre rules on how their society works--who wants to read the same story every time? There's as many types of dystopias as there are types of utopias.
Yes, bravo! There are rules when one is writing about such an immense interpretation of society. Not everything needs to be made Hollywood-friendly and childish. Dystopian societies need severe conditions, not just kids being made to fight and gladiator-esque drama. I remember how the best part of 1984 was when the main character was befriended and then tortured. It felt real, scary. The risk in 1984 was so damned palpable it crushed even the reader. HG will never compare, nor will anything YA.
Interesting points; I find it really easy to suspend disbelief while I'm reading, but yeah, the world of THG doesn't hold up too well upon re-examination, does it? The whole "bread and circuses" thing makes sense, but it can only be applied to the Capitol.
Another thing to note when crafting a dystopia, I think, is to try to make it genuinely unsettling. I just finished reading 1984, and though I didn't find the novel itself to my tastes, the whole idea of Ingsoc was absolutely terrifying.
Very insightful video! I was toying with the idea of a supernatural dystopia, so I should keep this in mind. What you said about teaching the citizens to be loyal and feel affection for only the government strongly reminds me about a documentary on North Korea I saw in class earlier this year.
In Collins's defense on THG, she did research on how a Totalitarian government works. She just decided not to use it because it wouldn't fit her story. Like most of these dystopian stories... huh.
dystopia seems like a completely unnecessary label for a genre when you understand utopia means, "no place" or "nowhere" in Greek.
The ancient Greeks were wise enough to realize any attempts to create a perfect society, free of conflict and suffering would be ultimately doomed to failure and the people who tried to create utopia would end up nowhere.
One other thing I'd suggest for doing dystiopia novels is to look at history and see how dictatorships and such have worked in the past. Like the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror and how they tried to keep people in line and essentially no one was safe.
They're still really, really good books but, like Melina pointed out, they're just more about defeating an extreme version of a Totalitarian/Dictatorial Society rather then a true Dystopia.
If you haven't read it yet, you must read "Blindness" by José Saramago. When I read it (many years ago) it was one of the most philosophically challenging, and disturbingly realistic dystopian novels I'd ever read. However, it's not a young adult novel, and it's more of a medical dystopian story, rather than a political one. It was a damn good book just the same. If you ever get the chance do read, and I'd love to know your thoughts about it sometime.
@859377 It was an amazing book! When I read it, my lit professor gave a description of it (which I still agree with) calling it, “a pre-dystopian tale”. In other words it was the beginning of the breakdown of society, which would ultimately lead to a dystopian world.
My teacher asked my freshman class if anyone has read a good dystopian novel (for The Lottery short story). My class was like "Oh like the Hunger Games :)" they all thought they were smart and then I raised my hand and said "I've read 1984 and Fahrenheit 451." my class is honors but seriously they need to read more literature. I like the hunger games but if that is the only Dystopian universe they know I hope they read more. Love dystopians :P
@DjHamHam411 tell them about Battle Royal, it came out in 1999, very similar to hunger games, its less sci fi than hunger games, no love triangles, its a japanese novel, translated into english, turned into mangas, and 2 movies(2nd one isnt that good, but still entertaining.)
Good points all around in this video. The whole point of a distopia is that it's a society in which there is absolutely no hope. Having a distopia in which people can develop familial ties and the government has no way to foresee a rebellion is is like a utopia in which crime is still a problem. The point! You are missing it!
I FUCKLIN LUV DISTOPIAN NOVELS. my favorite one is anthem by ayn rand if you havent read it you HAVE too. In that book they describe exactly what YOU want. if you read this book i will love you more.
My question is: why don't these authors who are trying to write dystopian novels research how real life dystopian societies functioned? You don't even need to read 1984, just look at the Soviet Union, China, Roman Israel, Nazi Germany, Cuba. Study the reasons why they worked (or work) and you'll already have a solid basis for your own dystopian society, with a few interesting twists, of course.
CarFox6 3 weeks ago
Seed by Rob Ziegler is a good dystopian novel, I'd definitely reccomend it.
Writteninmyheart 1 month ago in playlist More videos from MelinaPendulum
i mean all districs would have been easaly difyted if not for distric 13 technology and they werent awere that distric 13 still exist so they didint feel that there is any hope for victory. why it took distric 13 so long to act its another guestion. also the fact that this distopian existed for so long can explain why snow acted so stupid, he probably let his guard down and became overconfindent. but this is just mine opinion
domakliu 1 month ago
i dont know for me the hunger game sosieti actualy made sence, i mean the capital has all the hight tech weponry like bombs, atomick bombs, guns, all sorts of mutants whyle the districs only had wepons like bows and arows and knifes when you put that against bombs guns and all other high tech capital wepons i can see why they didint think that they have a chance of victory.
domakliu 1 month ago
The hunger games was ok..it wasn't a great example of a Dystopian novel. I did enjoy The City of Ember, Brave New World, and 1984. Personally I'd rather read Battle Royale a third time than read the Hunger games a second time. I agree with you on this subject.
Theo2kitty 1 month ago
@Theo2kitty The City of Ember isn't really a dystopian novel because it wasn't like the government was suppressing the people and making their lives miserable. They led (for the most part) healthy, productive lives. Dystopian novels are usually about how much the government sucks, but The City of Ember was more about them leading their people to safety.
CarFox6 3 weeks ago
Do you mind if I post this on my Facebook. A lot of my friends are crazy fans who have been spitting out a lot of "Hunger Games is the best dystopia ever" type crap. I like the books but I would like to start a discussion with them about it. And I like how this video brings up a lot of great points that I would like to show to them. Thanks.
AmSpazz 2 months ago
I have read Witch & Wizard and that's called a dystopian book. It is not, its just boring!!!!!
ravendarkwater 2 months ago
Excellent point! I loved The Hunger Games but I did think it was weird that a revolution didn't occur sooner because it really should have based on how unhappy the people were, Katniss or no Katniss.
mizunoyuy 2 months ago
Comment removed
gardeztoujoursespoir 2 months ago
For YA fantasy novels that I think contain a nicely handled element of dystopia I highly recommend Isobelle Carmody's The Obernewtyn Chronicles, and Marianne de Pierres' The Night Creatures trilogy.
I've read very few classic dystopian novels - I haven't even tackled The Handmaiden's Tale yet because I know it will enrage me - but I agree with those who have said that Brave New World is an effective example of the genre.
I'm currently reading Wither.... it seems pretty flippin' implausible
NEHOMAS2 2 months ago
This is partly why I fell out of teenage drama books in the first place when I was a teenager- none of it made sense. Miss Melina makes sense- a dystopia has to actually function to maintain its horror, or at least, be stable enough that the alternative is worse. This is why I was attracted to legitimate science fiction at an earlier age, because the authors there have well established themes and functioning models to draw upon. Even the zanier settings, like Warhammer 40,000 make sense in [c]
Jordanationalismtion 2 months ago
@Jordanationalismtion their proper context. Take 40K as an example- the Imperium of Man is a brutal, hierarchical, theocratic regime where the most plentiful resource is the human resource, the government is repressive enough to obliterate worlds for the slightest whiff of rebellion, and the Imperial military drafts men and women in the billions to be thrown into meat grinder wars across a hundred thousand worlds. But the creators of the setting go into extensive length illustrating [c]
Jordanationalismtion 2 months ago
@Jordanationalismtion why and how the Imperium sustains itself- the alternative is much worse, and if the Imperium stopped functioning as it did, even for a brief moment, the enemies of humanity would consume us in a heartbeat. It's that kind of extinction-level pressure that keeps a good, future dystopia going, even if its on its own inertia.
Jordanationalismtion 2 months ago
Many of the dystopias flooding the market right now isn't even dystopia; it's mostly just one dystopic element thrown into a teenage romance in order to keep the couple (or love triangle) apart. It's not about social commentary or building complex political worlds, but rather, the dystopia elements act as a novel setting for a romance.
In other words, lovely rant and I couldn't agree more.
childofthemoor 2 months ago 4
@childofthemoor Also, for some reason, many post-apocalyptic or future worlds in scifi nowadays are being called dystopia, when they're anything but. Dystopia =/= bad future world, ugh.
childofthemoor 2 months ago
@childofthemoor Yeah, that's the thing. A lot of the good, older scifi books go into detail as to how their negative, dystopian societies function and sustain themselves, because back when Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein were around, you couldn't get away with bullshitting your readers.
Jordanationalismtion 2 months ago
My setting 4 my book is a mini distopia... More like the ba sing se kind of thing though than hunger games (u know, from avatar. W/ the king as a figurehead.
Maikkacrackshiper13 2 months ago
(I meant 2 say 'love 2 hate him...) anyway, like, even voldemort can pull of a better dictatorship. I mean, in the deathly hallows he overruns the ministry. His dictatorship wasn't that impressive but he had a better one than snow.
Maikkacrackshiper13 2 months ago
Snow freaking pisses me off cuz he was not only a bad dictator, just a lame villain in general... I was just like "R U Freaking serious, THIS is what u r trying 2 give me for a villain? This old man?" he never scared me, I never loved 2 hare him, nothing. I was just like "oh... Snows here. Now what?" I didn't care wen he died either
Maikkacrackshiper13 2 months ago
... Is the Giver setting a dystopia? If so, is it a realistic one or plausible one, or is it one that would crumble in like 5 minutes?
Maikkacrackshiper13 2 months ago
Your discussion of the Hunger Games seems to argue more for the idea that Snow was a bad dictator than that the story's framework itself is poor. He didn't do everything possible to take away his people's ties to other things, and that lead to its logical conclusion: a rebellion. He was stupid, but the progression of events was still fairly logical. Are you arguing that the rebellion should have happened sooner--that Snow's poor planning would have lead to uprising earlier than that?
ShalomDove 2 months ago
@ShalomDove Because Snow is such a bad ruler it makes it (at least to me) unrealistic that he and the Capital could have stayed in power for so long.
MelinaPendulum 2 months ago 7
@MelinaPendulum That makes sense. There was a previous rebellion on Snow's watch, which lead to the creation of the Games...but there was also a 76 year gap between uprisings.
Have you ever read, "Pretties"? That society has a very interesting--and effective--way of neutralizing its people.
ShalomDove 2 months ago
@ShalomDove I kind of agree, but I understand Melina's point. The story is logical and could make sense, but it is not something to be afraid of, something to make you think, something to make you fear, because someone like Snow is such a weak ruler, and therefore a weak antagonist.
PurpleBadger 2 months ago
There are a lot of arguments as to wether or not a certani type of society would work or not. Some of them are out-there, and have not yet bene expirienced by human kind, but there are arguments that stand for them as well as against. It's all about the individual reader's suspension of belief.
PurpleBadger 2 months ago
@ShalomDove aaand it was also poor. I mean, how can the cameras not see the girl in some areas, and catch her INSIDE A FREAKING cave? Too many plot holes.
Pouroushair 1 month ago
If you want a good dystopia,read a history book. Soviet Russian and Soviet society as well as South American and North Korea's dictatorships/communism are the basis of dystopia after all.
Also,you have to keep the people entertained as well so they don't question anything. Like at the beginning of the Nazi Party's regime.
And what Melina said with the children was straight up Hitler Youth Program.
fangthewolfdog 2 months ago
so THAT'S what MOW stands for xD i am so slow...
64sphinx 2 months ago
I read 'A Handmaid's tale' by Margaret Atwood recently and absolutely loved it. I highly recommend it for somone who likes dystopian novels
pinkiegirl55 2 months ago
See I didnt have a problem with Divergent because I kept forgetting it was supposed to be a dystopia but with The Hunger Games I can see your point. But Matched is the worst of them all because not only does it not make sense, its not a dystopia & the line between what is a dystopia and what's just fantasy or maybe sci-fi is blurred
MsKristinaRose 2 months ago
can you recommend some good dystopia novels i can start getting into? like for a first timer whos never read any dystopia type novels? lol thnx
ScarletFierce 2 months ago
"Dumbass" lol you're funny as hell but it's true!
TheBestseller1 2 months ago
This was a different take than I was expecting but Great video. Now that you've pointed it out I'm not really surprised that these books are a bastardized form of the genre. I don't like what this says about the industry but I think people are less concerned with writing a functioning dystopia and more about hopping on the new hot genre bandwagon. :/
MeaghanTheBookAddict 2 months ago
Melinda... I respect your views but I strongly disagree....Why do you keep comparing every dystopia to 1984? It's just a novel not the holy grail... If every writer took your advice we would end up with a bunch of books resembling 1984 because that is a "true" dystopia. I like what you said at the end though about making a young dystopia the less plausible your system is. But in the end authors need to be free to push the boundaries and not have to follow 1984's lead.
mavsguru41 2 months ago
@mavsguru41 I compare it to 1984 because, imo, it shows how to write a believable dystopia and I think it is a good example of how to create a sci-fi/speculative world. It's not the holy grail, but I think that if you want to write a dystopian novel it is a great one to read because it covers so many issues. I don't think every book should be 1984, which is why I brought up A Handmaiden's Tale, but I think it's a good book to look at to get ideas :)
MelinaPendulum 2 months ago 8
@MelinaPendulum The thing is George Orwell got his inspiration from Jack London's The Iron Heel.
paladindragoongirl18 2 months ago in playlist Uploaded videos
Sweet, now I can take over the world the right way! :D
But in all seriousness, this actually really helped me with thinking about my story even though I’m not necessarily writing dystopian.
CloudyHybridKeys 2 months ago
i didn´t read the hunger games, but i think that t writer didn´t wanted a gorge orwell kind of distopia, ecause then she couldn´t have the story she wanted. Aren´t there different kinds of dystopia?
859377 2 months ago
@nobby481 George Orwell (who based 1984 on 'We') and Kurt Vonnegut (who based Player Piano on 'We') have accused Aldous Huxley of stealing the plot of 'We' for Brave New World...
MaskofTheMoon 2 months ago
Wow you would be a good dictator.
umwha 2 months ago
I agree with pretty much everything you've said. There is another aspect of it, concerning the Hunger Games, that I think is worth mentioning: by showing these games on national television and making sure everyone can see the kids fight, you make the people AWARE that they can fight. They see these teenagers, these children, do some pretty amazing stuff: why shouldn't the people start thinking "Well, if the kids can do that, what will adults be capable of?"
MeanMFA 2 months ago
'We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin, anyone?
MaskofTheMoon 2 months ago
@nobby481 Yeah, BNW has pretty much everything Melina was talking about. Nobody in the society of BNW fears death, feels like their body belongs to themselves, or has any concept of family besides the state. "Father" and "mother" were considered swear words! I may not have agreed with Alduous Huxley's "warnings" (like how he made everyone in the society have wild orgies as a direct response to the sexual revolution of his time) but it was a well-crafted distopia that was believable.
CherryFairy02 2 months ago
Plutah the head gamemaker in catching fire was a dobble agent. He worked for the rebbelion.
TheHeartofFarah 2 months ago
I don't know if I agree with you about dystopia and freedom. North Korea is a rather interesting example of this, Kim Jong Ill has a pretty powerful grip on the people, but they are relatively free (I use relatively here very loosely). So, it's not too hard to imagine a dystopian society where everybody is not crushed under the iron fist of the government at every second. Physical force is a precondition for totalitarianism but it doesn't need to be omnipresent.
uberhikari 2 months ago
@uberhikari Agreed.
While all the rules and ideas Melina prefers are great, every dystopia shouldn't have to follow ironclad genre rules on how their society works--who wants to read the same story every time? There's as many types of dystopias as there are types of utopias.
TheGreenFred 2 months ago
Yes, bravo! There are rules when one is writing about such an immense interpretation of society. Not everything needs to be made Hollywood-friendly and childish. Dystopian societies need severe conditions, not just kids being made to fight and gladiator-esque drama. I remember how the best part of 1984 was when the main character was befriended and then tortured. It felt real, scary. The risk in 1984 was so damned palpable it crushed even the reader. HG will never compare, nor will anything YA.
laviskrg 2 months ago
Interesting points; I find it really easy to suspend disbelief while I'm reading, but yeah, the world of THG doesn't hold up too well upon re-examination, does it? The whole "bread and circuses" thing makes sense, but it can only be applied to the Capitol.
Another thing to note when crafting a dystopia, I think, is to try to make it genuinely unsettling. I just finished reading 1984, and though I didn't find the novel itself to my tastes, the whole idea of Ingsoc was absolutely terrifying.
vanillaskulldirector 2 months ago
Ever since I read The Giver in 10th grade, I love dystopian novels. F 451, Brave New World etc... I need to read 1984 though
potterbroadwayfan92 2 months ago
Very insightful video! I was toying with the idea of a supernatural dystopia, so I should keep this in mind. What you said about teaching the citizens to be loyal and feel affection for only the government strongly reminds me about a documentary on North Korea I saw in class earlier this year.
In Collins's defense on THG, she did research on how a Totalitarian government works. She just decided not to use it because it wouldn't fit her story. Like most of these dystopian stories... huh.
ornamentelle 2 months ago
dystopia seems like a completely unnecessary label for a genre when you understand utopia means, "no place" or "nowhere" in Greek.
The ancient Greeks were wise enough to realize any attempts to create a perfect society, free of conflict and suffering would be ultimately doomed to failure and the people who tried to create utopia would end up nowhere.
Steve2323ZX 2 months ago
One other thing I'd suggest for doing dystiopia novels is to look at history and see how dictatorships and such have worked in the past. Like the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror and how they tried to keep people in line and essentially no one was safe.
Runnin2Crazy 2 months ago
@ToBeFree32
They're still really, really good books but, like Melina pointed out, they're just more about defeating an extreme version of a Totalitarian/Dictatorial Society rather then a true Dystopia.
MST3K1506 2 months ago
Comment removed
Steve2323ZX 2 months ago
If you haven't read it yet, you must read "Blindness" by José Saramago. When I read it (many years ago) it was one of the most philosophically challenging, and disturbingly realistic dystopian novels I'd ever read. However, it's not a young adult novel, and it's more of a medical dystopian story, rather than a political one. It was a damn good book just the same. If you ever get the chance do read, and I'd love to know your thoughts about it sometime.
DragonflyNoir10 2 months ago
@DragonflyNoir10 i love this book! but i never thought it was dystopian...
859377 2 months ago
@859377 It was an amazing book! When I read it, my lit professor gave a description of it (which I still agree with) calling it, “a pre-dystopian tale”. In other words it was the beginning of the breakdown of society, which would ultimately lead to a dystopian world.
DragonflyNoir10 2 months ago
My teacher asked my freshman class if anyone has read a good dystopian novel (for The Lottery short story). My class was like "Oh like the Hunger Games :)" they all thought they were smart and then I raised my hand and said "I've read 1984 and Fahrenheit 451." my class is honors but seriously they need to read more literature. I like the hunger games but if that is the only Dystopian universe they know I hope they read more. Love dystopians :P
DjHamHam411 2 months ago 14
@DjHamHam411 tell them about Battle Royal, it came out in 1999, very similar to hunger games, its less sci fi than hunger games, no love triangles, its a japanese novel, translated into english, turned into mangas, and 2 movies(2nd one isnt that good, but still entertaining.)
darkservantofheaven 2 months ago
Good points all around in this video. The whole point of a distopia is that it's a society in which there is absolutely no hope. Having a distopia in which people can develop familial ties and the government has no way to foresee a rebellion is is like a utopia in which crime is still a problem. The point! You are missing it!
CherryFairy02 2 months ago
I FUCKLIN LUV DISTOPIAN NOVELS. my favorite one is anthem by ayn rand if you havent read it you HAVE too. In that book they describe exactly what YOU want. if you read this book i will love you more.
nusaybah215 2 months ago
This video was super informative. Thanks for posting. (:
lovestapler 2 months ago
Even though I didn't personally enjoy reading 1984, that 5 minute hate always gave me chills.
xGomeztheWolfx 2 months ago
Always up for Dystiopia. ;)
TsugaruClan 2 months ago