Somewhere along the way, we got lost. All of a sudden, people don't seem very interested in the world around them. Maybe you do, as the reader, but not everyone does. So why? Why is this? I have an idea that due to the rise of social media (and everyone having something to say), we wave off what people are trying to say and warn us off. We have so many "scientific studies" that show different things, it's hard to know who to listen to and who to trust. You need to have that balance of a light and dark side (something Anakin Skywalker failed to understand around 2005) in order for people to listen to your point.
Entire satire.
The movie we watched, Idiocracy, offers a unique warning about the world and what happens if we stop caring. But we don't see the movie in a super dark and menacing story line. I would say it would be the "anti-1984", also because how the society is set up in the movie. And yet, here we are. In a world that people are tired of hearing from people about how bad the world is... which is maybe WHY the people are voting for someone like Donald Trump. They want change and this is how the American people are speaking. But back to dystopia.
Satire in these books can help us feel that we belong in the society. I use my reference from before about the movie being on the opposite "side" of 1984. Both forms of media show us some warnings about how society is going, based on the same message, but yet we seemed to listen to the film much more than the book.
To me, this is why the book that we read, Life As We Knew It, is that sort of happy medium. While the events in the book are a little out of "societies" control, our main characters still offered some humor while describing these events. I believe that they ground the story and make it more believable. We had a hard time jumping into the plot-line and idea of Feed because the idea was so similar to how we are now, yet very different due to rules and ideas in the book. We even found ourselves asking the questions in Life As We Knew It, because the story was being "made up" as we went along!
Look, I'm not saying that every message needs to have a positive message or at least some humor. But I believe that satire can have a strong effect on dystopian novels because it allows us, the readers, to access the book a little bit better.
Entire satire.
The movie we watched, Idiocracy, offers a unique warning about the world and what happens if we stop caring. But we don't see the movie in a super dark and menacing story line. I would say it would be the "anti-1984", also because how the society is set up in the movie. And yet, here we are. In a world that people are tired of hearing from people about how bad the world is... which is maybe WHY the people are voting for someone like Donald Trump. They want change and this is how the American people are speaking. But back to dystopia.
Satire in these books can help us feel that we belong in the society. I use my reference from before about the movie being on the opposite "side" of 1984. Both forms of media show us some warnings about how society is going, based on the same message, but yet we seemed to listen to the film much more than the book.
To me, this is why the book that we read, Life As We Knew It, is that sort of happy medium. While the events in the book are a little out of "societies" control, our main characters still offered some humor while describing these events. I believe that they ground the story and make it more believable. We had a hard time jumping into the plot-line and idea of Feed because the idea was so similar to how we are now, yet very different due to rules and ideas in the book. We even found ourselves asking the questions in Life As We Knew It, because the story was being "made up" as we went along!
Look, I'm not saying that every message needs to have a positive message or at least some humor. But I believe that satire can have a strong effect on dystopian novels because it allows us, the readers, to access the book a little bit better.
I think that infusing humor into a satire or critique of society can help the viewer or reader take it in. No one wants to feel attacked or chastised, and I think that a film like Idiocracy helps to laugh at society without anyone's feelings getting hurt.
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