Genre of the week: Dystopia

Or is it distopia? Just googled it, it's dystopia.

Anyway, I feel like this is a good genre this week considering that it's been appearing a lot in mainstream media these past few years. We have The Hunger Games, Divergent, and something else I probably can't remember at this time.

It usually follows the journey of one person as they, unintentionally at first, bring down the entire civilization that they have lived in their entire life. Oddly enough, the civilization itself provides them with the tools to do it. I've watched all of The Hunger Games movies so far, but haven't seen Divergent. The latter just seems like something I'm not interested in. Truth be told, I'm probably getting a bit tired of seeing this in the media.

However, that's not stopping me from writing about it! Actually, my next novel idea I'm currently planning falls under this genre.

I've read all three books of The Hunger Games and watched several animes with a dystopia theme going on, and the ones I've consumed so far I enjoyed it to an extend. I do understand though if someone is getting tired of the genre as it's been popping up a lot lately. When I was in the library several times last year a lot of the stories are dystopia in the YA section.

I think reason for its popularity is the younger audience seems to lean towards more darker stories. I remember long ago when I was active in several Pokemon forums dystopias and darker fic are the norm. I used to be like that too, but as I got older I want more happy and hopeful narratives as real life can get a bummer too. I have one friend from livejournal who mentioned her thoughts on the dystopia genre and she too thinks the same way.

I've enjoyed the classic dystopian novels I've read, like We and The Chrysalids. The current popularity of dystopian settings in YA literature is interesting, but I haven't read any good ones yet. I was pretty unsatisfied with the Hunger Games trilogy, I couldn't stand Divergent, and Delirium was pretty meh. It's still slightly better than the supernatural romance fad, though.

When not targeted towards teens, the genre is pretty cool. Movies like Mad Max, Dark City, Blade Runner, V for Vendetta, In Time, Gattaca and Children of Men have all fascinated and really appealed to me, and even kooky ones like Brazil and Repo Men remain memorable. It's a genre that has a lot of potential to teach and warn, and the fact that it's so easy to go overboard almost...adds to its charm. (Depending on who's steering the boat, at any rate.)

~Psychic

Bardothren said:

I personally don't often find these stories interesting because they seem to focus far too often on the main character, leaving the society full of literary holes. Achieving this balance is something I hope to do.

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Do you mean how dystopians often go in first person narrative? I admit to only reading The Hunger Games series, so I don't know if other dystopian stories went with that point of view. I'm aware though stories in third person point of view can fall in that trap too. In either case, I can understand if you feel that way as a dystopian society you have different opportunities to showcase how others are dealing with this and if you focus too much on one person you're missing on some world-building.

Psy_MoonShadow said:

When not targeted towards teens, the genre is pretty cool. Movies like Mad Max, Dark City, Blade Runner, V for Vendetta, In Time, Gattaca and Children of Men have all fascinated and really appealed to me, and even kooky ones like Brazil and Repo Men remain memorable. It's a genre that has a lot of potential to teach and warn, and the fact that it's so easy to go overboard almost...adds to its charm. (Depending on who's steering the boat, at any rate.)

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Yay, V for Vendetta! In all seriousness, though, interesting you mentioned dystopias for the older crowd. I would think it all comes to teens and adults having different tastes. I was looking back at the comments my livejournal friend did on dystopias and one thing she mentioned is how hard it is to find a YA without romance as a big focus.

Psy_MoonShadow said:

When not targeted towards teens, the genre is pretty cool. Movies like Mad Max, Dark City, Blade Runner, V for Vendetta, In Time, Gattaca and Children of Men have all fascinated and really appealed to me, and even kooky ones like Brazil and Repo Men remain memorable. It's a genre that has a lot of potential to teach and warn, and the fact that it's so easy to go overboard almost...adds to its charm. (Depending on who's steering the boat, at any rate.)

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Have you read, 1984? That's one of the only books that I had to read for school, and enjoyed.

I like the adult versions because it feels like the societies are much more fleshed out and possible. YA dystopian novels focus a bit too much on the main character and love interest, and not enough on how the society manipulates and controls to achieve and maintain its power.

Bay Alexison said:

Do you mean how dystopians often go in first person narrative? I admit to only reading The Hunger Games series, so I don't know if other dystopian stories went with that point of view. I'm aware though stories in third person point of view can fall in that trap too. In either case, I can understand if you feel that way as a dystopian society you have different opportunities to showcase how others are dealing with this and if you focus too much on one person you're missing on some world-building.

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I can't speak for Bardothren, but I assume he means that the focus is more on the protagonist than on the world at large. It's okay for stories to mainly be told from one person's point of view (whether told in first- or third-person POV), but it often seems like these stories forgo world-building in favour of talking about the protagonist. When you have what could be a really fascinating setting that you want to know more about, that can feel frustrating.

Bay Alexison said:

Yay, V for Vendetta! In all seriousness, though, interesting you mentioned dystopias for the older crowd. I would think it all comes to teens and adults having different tastes. I was looking back at the comments my livejournal friend did on dystopias and one thing she mentioned is how hard it is to find a YA without romance as a big focus.

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I really, really enjoyed V for Vendetta. Maybe someday I'll actually read the graphic novel. Just a shame the graphic novel doesn't have Hugo Weaving's sexy voice.

Honestly, with the current dystopian trend in YA novels these days, I think the difference is more due to laziness on the writers' behalf. People don't put as much effort into media for the younger crowd because it's assumed quality doesn't matter as much to them. Plus when a genre becomes popular, all that matters is jumping on the bandwagon as soon as possible. Don't get me wrong - you'll still see lots of lazy storytelling aimed at older crowds (hello, portrayal of women in video games!), but as much as I love YA fiction, the bar seems to be a lot lower for it. I know that's a depressing thought, but it's the impression I've been getting from what I've heard and read.

Nolafus said:

Have you read, 1984? That's one of the only books that I had to read for school, and enjoyed.

I like the adult versions because it feels like the societies are much more fleshed out and possible. YA dystopian novels focus a bit too much on the main character and love interest, and not enough on how the society manipulates and controls to achieve and maintain its power.

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I'm actually not entirely sure if I've read 1984, though I've always meant to! It's a shame you didn't read any other books for school that you enjoyed, though. D:

That's definitely one annoying part of YA dystopians. The writers focus on the main character and their love interest to make them more relatable, sacrificing fleshing out the setting in the process. Unfortunately, because so little attention is payed to them, these settings really can't stand up to much scrutiny. As someone who loves a cool dystopian setting, I think that sucks.

~Psychic

Psy_MoonShadow said:

I can't speak for Bardothren, but I assume he means that the focus is more on the protagonist than on the world at large. It's okay for stories to mainly be told from one person's point of view (whether told in first- or third-person POV), but it often seems like these stories forgo world-building in favour of talking about the protagonist. When you have what could be a really fascinating setting that you want to know more about, that can feel frustrating.

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Yeah I can understand that and hence why I mentioned missed opportunities in world-building . I brought up first person point of view as that's something I often heard criticism of the Hunger Games.

Honestly, with the current dystopian trend in YA novels these days, I think the difference is more due to laziness on the writers' behalf. People don't put as much effort into media for the younger crowd because it's assumed quality doesn't matter as much to them. Plus when a genre becomes popular, all that matters is jumping on the bandwagon as soon as possible. Don't get me wrong - you'll still see lots of lazy storytelling aimed at older crowds (hello, portrayal of women in video games!), but as much as I love YA fiction, the bar seems to be a lot lower for it. I know that's a depressing thought, but it's the impression I've been getting from what I've heard and read.

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I won't deny the dystopian bandwagon that's been going on for a while and a few of them not the best quality. As you and Nolfaus already mentioned, the main character and the love interest are often focused more but not too great. I guess YA dystopian writers think a romance subplot will make things more interesting. I'm reminded of the several posts on Tumblr saying "less focus on romance on YA dystopian stories", haha.

Nolafus said:

Have you read, 1984? That's one of the only books that I had to read for school, and enjoyed.

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I remember reading 1984 both times in high school and then college and I enjoyed it. My mom and I then watched the movie version, but she couldn't handle some of the scenes. XD But yeah, totally forgot that counts as dystopian.

Honestly, with the current dystopian trend in YA novels these days, I think the difference is more due to laziness on the writers' behalf. People don't put as much effort into media for the younger crowd because it's assumed quality doesn't matter as much to them. Plus when a genre becomes popular, all that matters is jumping on the bandwagon as soon as possible. Don't get me wrong - you'll still see lots of lazy storytelling aimed at older crowds (hello, portrayal of women in video games!), but as much as I love YA fiction, the bar seems to be a lot lower for it. I know that's a depressing thought, but it's the impression I've been getting from what I've heard and read.

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I wouldn't say that the authors have a lower writing standard for the Young Adult audience. I think that they put more effort into writing, actually, because any time I or my friends talk about The Hunger Games, The Mazer Runner, et cetera, we pay more attention to the detail of the writing, character development, plot, things like that, and the writing is pretty much the same as with any Adult book, but you know, it's what I think.