[WARNING: This contains
MAJOR spoilers]
Hello Friend, today’s post is going to revolve around
dystopian fiction. As you probably know already, dystopian fiction is one of my
favourite genres. I really like the way it explores and exposes the flaws of
our society through a futuristic, gruesome setting; I believe that dystopian
books are a great way to get your point across if there’s some issue, no matter
how small, that you want to see resolved.
We are humans, and humans will be
flawed. It’s in our nature, and this is what makes us what we are. However, some authors tend to let their
emotions carry them away, and they often forget that we can’t be goody-goody
all the time—if your characters are humans, let them act like humans. Our strength is that though we may be weak and
make mistakes, we learn real quick,
and our mistakes enable us to stand on our two feet. Authors usually keep this in mind while
writing dystopian fiction. When I was
younger [around thirteen to fourteen years of age], I didn’t really like
dystopian fiction much, mainly because it’s so blunt, dark and gritty, but now
that I’m older, wiser and more experienced, I’ve realised that this is exactly why I love dystopian
fiction. Pretty sure I’ve stated this
before, but I want to say it again: for a student of sociology, reading dystopian
fiction is great practice, because analysing it is fun! And it’s useful, too.
Besides, if you want a reliable sketch of human nature, pick up a dystopian
book.
Of course, if one wants to create a dystopian world, the
society and the entire setting has to be completely messed up and flawed—most
authors use totalitarian governments. The population is almost always depicted
as severely oppressed, and they’re searching for a reliable leader who can
propel them out of the mess they’re in, and establish a democratic government.
This is the gist of every dystopian book. Every author adds his or her own
flair to it and uses several varying techniques to create a vast spectrum of
literary effects. Really, I love every dystopian book I’ve read so far, but Battle
Royale by Koushun Takami and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro hold a very
special place in my heart. I read Battle Royale purely out of curiosity [and a
desire to explore dystopia thoroughly], but ended up analysing and evaluating
it in an academic way [yup, that’s totally me.] Takami is a genius! No other
book’s ever made me feel so many contrasting emotions at the same time—I was
one with the characters, laughing with them, crying with them, and feeling the
fear and pain [both physical and psychological] that they felt; they’re just a
bunch of fourteen-year-olds, but they’ve been placed on an isolated island
seemingly in the middle of nowhere, and instructed to fight each other to the
death, gladiator style, until only one survives. Can you imagine it? Can you
imagine the brutality of it all? Kids their age should be eating candy,
studying hard so they can forge a path for themselves, socialising with their
friends and clamouring for their parents’ attention. Instead, they’ve been
given knives, ice-picks, guns and rifles of all kinds, bullet-proof vests,
sickles etc., and are forced to turn on each other in order to survive. Battle
Royale is an excellent representation of the uncertainty of life; it also
depicts loss of innocence, as the children [well, a lot of them are more mature
than their age, but they’re still just fourteen] are suddenly thrust into this
killing “game”, dubbed the “Program”. [Urgh, I hate this government. I mean,
who wouldn’t?] Only one is supposed to survive, but the two protagonists,
Shuuya Nanahara and Noriko Nakagawa, both make it off the island in one piece [I
don’t really like them much… I’m glad they’re alive, because every life is
precious, but there were people who deserved to survive more than they did.]
Anyway, I’m digressing here; let’s move on. Now do you see why I love this book
so much? I’ve just given you a very brief summary here [I’ve written an entire
post for Battle Royale before], but it’s really interesting, is it not? The
author has used a multi-narrative style to allow the audience to experience the
viewpoints of several different characters; I really do like this technique,
but I’m a huge fan of first-person narration. The multi-narrative technique is
trending now-a-days—I see it in so many books.
Never Let Me Go [I’ve written on this as well] is another
piece of sheer genius [it sounds cheesy, I guess, but it’s true, heh heh]; I
love it so much cause it employs first-person narration. That book is horrific
in its subtlety—there are several ambiguous terms written there, like
“completion” [it means death, but this isn’t revealed until much later];
“carer” [a nurse, basically—and this isn’t even “revealed”. It’s just implied];
“donor” [one of the terms that hit me the hardest.] Yes, you guessed it—the
author is talking about organ donors. The book revolves around clones, and
Kathy H., the thirty-six-year-old protagonist and narrator, is an extremely
experienced “carer”—she has spent eleven years as one. She frequently breaks
the fourth wall, talking to the readers directly; as she hails from Hailsham, a
facility for clones where they were treated as humanely as possible, she is a
little snobbish [just a little], and is often envied because she gets to choose
the donors she will look after. Because of this, she assumes that the readers
are also clones who will envy her due to her privileged status. She frequently
makes statements like “I don’t know how it was where you were, but at Hailsham
we had to have some form of medical every week” and “I don’t want to brag, but
as I am an experienced carer and have developed a sort of ‘instinct’ around
donors, I get to pick and choose the donors I want to look after. My colleagues
think it’s because I’m from Hailsham, and they envy me.” Kathy’s narration adds
to the darkness and horror of the book, as she has the ability to say the most
awful things in the calmest, most nonchalant fashion. Like, for example, she’ll say: “So-and-so just
completed”—that’s so nonchalant, right? Completion means death. But Kathy is a very
mechanical person in general, which is why her narration is so interesting—it’s
so methodical, misleading, and unreliable in the sense that her memory of some
events is hazy, and she often second-guesses herself. Her only friends, Ruth and Tommy, complete
before her; she does express sadness, but the feeling passes quite fast. At the
end, she is on her way to becoming a donor, too, and she has absolutely no
regrets. She is serene, almost happy.
While the students were at Hailsham, Miss Emily, the head “guardian”
[teacher] believed in giving the clones their childhood by not informing them
of their bleak futures as organ donors; according to her, it would be best for
them if they discovered it all on their own. She did not want to spoil their
childhood. I understand this, of course, but I think Miss Lucy Wainwright’s
approach was, in a way, better, though it seemed awfully brusque—she outright
informed the children of their futures, and did not mince any words or beat
around the bush. She tried to soften the blow in her own way, I suppose, but
her message was very clear: the clones were meant to be only organ donors. They were not free to pursue their own dreams
and aspirations. Dude, it’s a dystopian society which does not treat clones well at all, so don’t you think it’s better
to let them know what lies in store for them beyond the protected walls of
Hailsham? It’s kinder than thrusting them into the harsh world and letting them
discover it for themselves. As it stands, the students, after the initial
shock, accepted their fate with quiet resignation. Just like Battle Royale,
this book causes a surge of inexplicable emotions within me; I’m sure the point
that the author wanted to make was that clones can often be more human than
supposedly “real” human beings [that’s what I think—this book is pretty much open to interpretation.]
There are so many great dystopian books—the Hunger Games
trilogy, the Divergent trilogy, The Giver [this is a really old book, it was
written in 1993]—I’m lucky to have read all of these, but Battle Royale and
Never Let Me Go are books that I’ve really thought long and hard about, so I
wrote about them. I hope it was
interesting and fun to read!
Thank you! I hope you liked my article!
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