What's Left to Fight For?

Today we have a guest post from debut author Jessica Souders, whose book RENEGADE launches this November from Tor Teen. Please give her a warm League welcome!


At a recent conference I was on a panel about dystopian literature and someone asked a question that pretty much stopped me in my tracks. I had no idea how to answer it.

The question? What’s left to fight for when there’s nothing left?

I’m fairly certain that I looked like a fish with my mouth opening and closing, and no sound coming out, but finally I settled on an answer. Love. However, the minute I said it, I had to backtrack, because even when love is gone there’s something left.

Hope.

Hope to find love. Hope to conquer whatever task we’re trying to beat. Hope that things will get better. Even when everything else is taken, there’s hope. Hope is the most dangerous weapon a person, group, or society has. Because where there’s hope, there’s strength to accomplish anything. When we lose hope, we lose the ability to fight.

That’s why so many countries make sure the morale is up for their troops. With high morale comes high hope. With high hope, a higher chance of winning.

In the Hunger Games movie, President Snow makes a very enlightening comment about hope that illustrates my point clearly. In a conversation with the head gamemaker, Seneca Crane, he’s talking about why they have the Hunger Games. He asks Seneca why they don’t just line up the 12 children and shoot them instead. It’s certainly faster. When Seneca can’t answer, he says, “Hope: It is the only thing stronger than fear. A little hope is effective; a lot of hope is dangerous. Spark is fine, as long as it’s contained. So, contain it.”

Seems a bit diabolical, right? Yes, but he’s right and he knew that if Katniss won the Hunger Games, she’d give hope to the people he didn’t want to give too much hope. Because by controlling their amount of it, he was able to control them. By doling it out in slow amounts, he made the citizens dependent on him. But too much would make them realize they didn’t need him at all. Thus starting an uprising. Of course, if they didn’t have any hope at all, he wouldn’t be able to control them either, because they wouldn’t care enough to do what he needed them to do. Make clothes, make their electronics, dig for coal, etc.

And like in life, hope is, in my opinion, the most important part of every story. Not to mention the one of the common denominators between every book, but most specifically in dystopian books. It’s what not only fuels our characters to keep going through their darkest ordeals, but it’s part of what keeps us reading. If we care about the characters, we’re hoping they’ll come out unharmed from whatever it is they’re dealing with and that they’ll have their (somewhat) happy ending.

So…do you agree? What’s left to fight for when there’s nothing left?



J.A. Souders is the author of RENEGADE, the thrilling YA underwater dystopian coming
November 13, 2012 from Tor Teen. Visit her at http://www.jasouders.com/ or @jasouders on twitter.

Horror & Dystopian

Okay, so we're nearing the witching hour (Halloween), and October is the perfect month to talk about horror.

Now, I'll admit that I'm a huge wimp. I don't watch a lot of horror, because then I can't sleep at night. And my definition of horror is like, the 20/20 episodes about serial killers. I seriously make my 13-year-old son check the closets if the doors are closed and I don't remember closing them.

Watching movies and shows are much more impactful for me than reading, but I still don't read a lot of horror.

Unless you count the horror in dystopian novels. Because let's face it, dystopian novels aren't all sunshine and unicorns.

Let's examine:

THE ELEVENTH PLAGUE by Jeff Hirsch. All we have to do is look at the first sentence on the jacket copy.

In an America devastated by war and plague, the only way to survive is to keep moving.

Sounds horrific to me. Yet it was one of my favorite reads of 2011.

BLOOD RED ROAD by Moira Young. This time, it takes two sentence for me to feel the shiver of fear down my spine.

Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. The Wrecker civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her family to scavenge from.

Actually, the thought of a "dried-up wasteland" doesn't sound that appealing. And in BLOOD RED ROAD, there are some gruesome scenes that are simply brilliant. Horrific? Definitely. And I loved it.

THE PLEDGE by Kimberly Derting. Again, only one sentence.

In the violent country of Ludania, the language you speak determines what class you are, and there are harsh punishments if you forget your place—looking a member of a higher class in the eye can result in immediate execution.

I haven't read this yet, but I'm dying to be deliciously horrified.

THE MAZE RUNNER by James Dashner.

When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name. His memory is blank.

I can't think of anything more horrifying than waking up and remembering absolutely nothing. I think our memories make us who we are, and it would be difficult to even know where to go or what to do moving forward.

A fantastically horrifying read.

SHIP BREAKER by Paolo Bacigalupi.

Nailer, a teenage boy, works the light crew, scavenging for copper wiring just to make quota-and hopefully live to see another day.

I don't know about you, but I'm not just trying to live to see another day. This novel has its fair share of violence, and it fits the world perfectly. But I was horrified--in the best way possible.

So I think I actually read a lot of horror. Maybe not blood and guts and people crawling through TVs, but still.

What do you think? Are dystopian novels horrifying?

Is Dystopia Too Bleak?

As an author of a dystopian novel, I've been thinking a lot about the genre, and the topics and content in post-apocalyptic novels.

Sometimes I see people talking about how bleak these types of novels are. Depressing, sometimes. Is this true?

Yes and no.

I find people fascinating. There are so many differences, from what books we like to what we find attractive, to what we believe. Difference is what makes each of us unique; it's what gives the world spice.

Because, really, one person’s idea of a perfect, ideal existence is often another person’s nightmare.

Dystopian novels examine these differences. They peer into what makes us different, and they peel back the layers of what we believe. Each person will get something different from each dystopian tale, because they have the opportunity to apply it to their own lives, in their own unique situation.

And to me, that's a very good thing.

Do you think dystopian novels are too bleak? What do you see in them?

Dystopian Vs. Science Fiction

Okay, so I apologize if we've discussed this before, but it's something I've been thinking a lot about. A few months ago, I attended a class on dystopian literature, and realized there are different kinds. I had no idea! So I've been thinking about this since then. And then, POSSESSION came out last week, and some people are saying it's sci fi, and some are saying it's dystopian.

So I started thinking some more.

So here's some dystopian definitions:
dystopia - An imaginary place in a work of fiction where the characters lead dehumanized, fearful lives. Jack London's The Iron Heel, Yevgeny Zamyatin's My, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-four, and Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale portray versions of dystopia. ...
http://www.gale.cengage.com/free_resources/glossary/glossary_de.htm

dystopia - Polar opposite of utopia. A society in which social and/or technological trends have contributed to a corrupted or degraded state.
http://www.theliterarylink.com/definitions.html

dystopia - an imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives; an imaginary place or state where everything is as bad as it possibly can be: or a description of such a place.
http://www.infinitefutures.com/resources/glossary.shtml

I read those, and I see "bad" "fear" "corrupt" and "dehumanized."

And that, to me, does not sound like science fiction. At all. To me, science fiction is gadgets and space ships. In fact, I don't think something is science fiction unless there is a space ship.

Let's look at some definitions for science fiction:
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with the impact of imagined innovations in science or technology, often in a futuristic setting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction

Kingsley Amis says "Science Fiction is that class of prose narrative treating of a situation that could not arise in the world we know, but which is hypothesized on the basis of some innovation in science or technology, or pseudo-technology, whether human or extra-terresial in origin."

Isaac Asimov says "Modern science fiction is the only form of literature that consistently considers the nature of the changes that face us, the possible consequences, and the possible solutions.

That branch of literature which is concerned with the impact of scientific advance upon human beings."

And for those of us not as deep as Asimov, Benjamin Appel says, "Science fiction reflects scientific thought; a fiction of things-to-come based on things-on-hand."
http://scifi.about.com/od/scififantasy101/a/SCIFI_defs.htm

Okay, I don't see "space ship" in any of those. Ha! What I do see is "science" "futuristic" and "impact."

It's the last word that fascinates me. The impact of futuristic scientific achievements. I like that almost as much as space ships.

So, what do you think? Do you agree with these definitions? How would you define dystopian? Science fiction?

One thing is clear: dystopian and science fiction are NOT the same, but I can see how they can exist in the same book, space ships or not. Can you see that relation?

Waiting On VARIANT by Robison Wells

About VARIANT: Benson Fisher thought a scholarship to Maxfield Academy would be the ticket out of his dead-end life.

He was wrong.

Now he’s trapped in a school that’s surrounded by a razor-wire fence. A school where video cameras monitor his every move. Where there are no adults. Where the kids have split into groups in order to survive.

Where breaking the rules equals death.

But when Benson stumbles upon the school’s real secret, he realizes that playing by the rules could spell a fate worse than death, and that escape—his only real hope for survival—may be impossible.

Okay, I think most of you know how I feel about books with rules, and whether or not those rules should be broken. So VARIANT is right up my alley. And luckily, I don't have to wait super-long to read it (VARIANT comes out October 18 from HarperTeen), because I happen to know Rob--and he's fantastic. And he may or may not have lent me an ARC.

You can add VARIANT to your Goodreads list here.

And follow Rob on his blog or twitter or on his weekly podcast, The Appendix.

What book are you waiting on??

Near Vs. Far

I don't think it's a secret that we read a lot of dystopian novels around here. Or maybe that's just me...

Anyway, I've been madly reading every dystopian tale I can get my hands on. I've noticed something about myself as a reader: I don't really want and/or need to know where I am in the future. In fact, I'd rather not know what the year is.

Here's why. If I feel like it's too close to the year we live in now, I find it very hard to suspend my disbelief. I like imagining the futuristic society as many, many years from now, in a time when I'll be long gone from this Earth. I don't feel like I need the date; I can make it up on my own. Very far into the future.

So that spurs today's question: Do you prefer near-future or far-future dystopian? Why?

2012 Debut Dystopians

Most of us here at the League are Elevensies, that is we’re part of a community of YA/MG authors debuting this year. Next year’s group of debs has already started forming, and you’re going to love their name: the Apocalypsies. (You know, the whole 2012, world-coming-to-an-end thing.)

Anyway, I was browsing through their site, and I noticed that there are quite a few dystopian titles coming out next year. (Coincidence?) Here’s a few of them by our fellow debs:

The Other Life By Susan Winnacker
Marshall Cavendish, Spring 2012

From Goodreads:

Sherry and her family have lived sealed in a bunker in the garden since things went wrong up above. Her grandfather has been in the freezer for the last three months, her parents are at each other’s throats and two minutes ago they ran out of food.

Sherry and her father leave the safety of the bunker and find a devastated and empty LA, smashed to pieces by bombs and haunted by ‘Weepers’ - rabid humans infected with a weaponized rabies virus.

While searching for food in a supermarket, Sherry’s father disappears and Sherry is saved by Joshua, a boy-hunter. He takes her to Safe-haven, a tumble-down vineyard in the hills outside LA, where a handful of other survivors are picking up the pieces of their ‘other lives’. As she falls in love for the first time, Sherry must save her father, stay alive and keep Joshua safe when his desire for vengeance threatens them all.

Incarnate by Jodi Meadows
Katherine Tegan/Harper Collins Winter 2012

From Goodreads:

About the only girl who is new in a world where everyone is perpetually reincarnated, and her quest to discover why she was born, and what happened to the person she replaced.

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
Harper, Winter 2012

From the Publishers Marketplace announcement:

… about forbidden lovers from radically different societies - following a girl banished from her enclosed, technology-bound city out into the deadly natural world, where she encounters a savage boy who becomes her only chance to survive and return home…

Cybernetic by Laura Riken
Disney Hyperion, Summer 2012

From Goodreads:

Cybernetic is the first in a young adult dystopian series about a 16-year-old girl who lives in a walled city surrounded by bloodthirsty beasts, also threatened by rival armies of cybernetic soldiers who want to enslave humanity. Cybernetic is tentatively set for publication in the summer 2012 by Disney-Hyperion.

I hope I didn't miss anyone. Not every Apocalypsies' book description is online yet, so there may be even more dystopia on its way next year.



What dystopian titles (debut or repeat offender) are you looking forward to  next year? Or even late this year? (Ours go without saying, btw.)

A LATE ADDITION TO THE LIST!

Glitch by Heather Anastasiu
St. Martins, Summer 2012


From her website:

Seventeen-year-old Zoe Gray is a cybernetically-enhanced teenager living in an underground society when her internal hardware begins to malfunction. She slowly realizes that her body is changing, that she’s developing powerful telekinesis, and that she’s not alone. Even though getting caught could mean reprogramming, or worse, deactivation, Zoe begins to seek out other glitchers in society, including a dreamer named Adrian who can see the future, a boy named Max who can mimic other’s appearances, and a young girl named Molly with X-ray vision. They work together to plan their escape, but soon learn there is another powerful faction at work whose ambitions threaten all their carefully laid plans.

Thanks for pointing it out in the comments!

The End

Okay, so I've been thinking about endings a lot recently. Maybe because Mockingjay signaled the end of that story. Or maybe because I've been struggling with how to end my latest novel. Or something.

But endings have been on my mind. So, since I write and read a lot of dystopian, I've also been contemplating the end of the world. So many dystopian novels have that apocalyptic event, you know? There's everything from plague-ish diseases to war, and micro-organisms in oil to a technology revolution.

Then my mind drifted to the dystopian novels I've read. It seems like most of them don't end with shiny rainbows and golden sunshine. They resolve. They end. Just not happily. Which made me wonder why, if they're not ending all fairy tale-esque, why are they so popular? Do people really want to read this depressing stuff about war and oppression and then discuss it with each other?

Don't get me wrong, I love (like, LOVE) books that don't end happily. I think they reflect real life. Think about it. Not every situation in your life ties itself up with a neat little bow and sails into the sunset. It simply resolves. Then you get up and go to work the next day.

Are dystopian endings mirroring real life? What do you think? Have you read a dystopian novel that did end in glorious harmony?