Plan for the lesson on Monday:
Your task is to write a text, in groups of 4-5 people, in
which you explain why dystopian literature appeal to young adults. You can use
the arguments you read about last week in the different articles, but you can
also include your own thoughts. Your texts will be published here on the
blog.
You can use the picture below, which summarises what you
discussed last week. You also find a link to the website where you can find all
the articles.
Your texts from the lesson.
SvaraRaderaWe think that teenagers are attracted to dystopian stories and movies because it’s an escape from reality and they want to experience it since they normally don’t. You try to almost live into the characters and want to feel the same way they do because it’s not a feeling that you feel normally. It also brings out the feeling of a hero in some of these stories, for example when the government is corrupt there is someone who is against them and is fighting for a change.
People are generally interested in how the future will look like and how it will evolve. Us youths still have a long time to live and have a lot ahead of us, so learning how the future will be is very interesting, as to the older people. They don’t really care as much because, unfortunately, they do not have as long to live as we do.
Dystopian literature has been getting more and more recognition in all age groups but mainly among youths. We think that this is a result of many different things. First of all a lot of good content with a high production value, focusing on dystopias, has been released, which helps to attract individuals interests, with one of the most recent example being the hunger games. This movie follows a very modern way of expressing dystopias where the main character or hero/heroin rise against the system and trail a classic hero story in order to appeal to the mainstream audience. Another factor, which might add to the dystopian sensation to the world, is the development of the Internet. People all around the world can contribute to spread their situation and its much more easy to use your perception and get a realistic view of what the world actually looks like, a sort of internet propaganda in the dystopian favour. What we mean by this is that the Internet facilitates getting interest to a harsher truth and makes dystopias more exciting for a wider audience.
SvaraRaderaWhat we think is behind the dystopian trend is among other things escapism.
Escapism
Young people want’s to escape the reality they live in. Youths know that the future might become something like a dystopian world and they want to read about when this world is set straight so that they know that there still might be hope.
Fear
People are more afraid now than before of what the future brings and that makes the books with a hero or a heroine a source of comfort. Some youths feel surveyed by society and that makes them unnerved and this is usually a topic in these books where everything is watched and controlled.
Entertainment
Some young people just want to read about the struggle. It becomes sort of like watching an action movie for youths, wondering what’s going to happen next. The kind of rebellion that is present is in the book usually lift’s people up and gives them the will to fight for what’s right.
Interesting
Some young people might find the dystopian world structure fascination with how the society built. In the hunger games we have a society that’s built in districts where people have a certain profession depending on where in their country they are located. And the Capitol consumes almost everything they have produced.
Our group thinks that the biggest reason for people being interested in dystopian literature and filmography is because we’re interested in the creator’s thoughts and perception of a dystopian future. This is however only our argument, It’s hard to speak for other people in this category because of all the abstract thoughts, we can’t be sure of the future that is made up in these type of movies and books.
Some of the opinions from other young adults is that the dystopian theme is a way for powerless people to feel hope again. We weren’t really sure of what this was supposed to mean but we think it means that by watching dystopian movies or reading dystopian books there are often one character or a small group of persons, usually normal civilians that manages to take care of the problem that has occurred.
Young adults are drawn to sci-fi because teenagers are very confused in today’s society and when they read dystopian stories, they get a clear view of what is good and what is bad.
SvaraRaderaFor example the movie 2012 gives us a reality based theory about the world going under. Based on this movie, we can relate to how our future can be like. It can give us a frightening look on our future.
Another example: The walking dead. It is a dystopian story because in the story, the world gets invaded by a virus which was spread over the whole world. This virus transformed the people to zombies. If you are a victim of this virus, you are guaranteed a certain death. In the series today, they still haven’t found a cure to this virus, so this might be a way our future will turn out.
We young adults have different series, movies, books and also computer games, which relates to a dystopian future for us.
Dystopian stories. The stories are exiting, people find it to be cool. People like the fact that you can do what ever you want. Raise the anarchy. Martial law usually does not happen and people would like to know how it is.
People are mostly curious. People find it cool that there are no boundaries. So you can do what you like, when you like etc.
People want to see what it’s like in other countries where there is a war or revolution, not because it’s exciting but because nothing like that happens to you and know how other people have it.
We are curious of what the society looks like later, for example. Metro 2033, how everything works, does the main character save everyone and does he survive himself.