Science-fiction: Dystopia for boys?

This week I wanted to do something different.  In response to Teri's great post Dystopian fiction: Science Fiction for Girls? I wanted to look at the question from a boy's perspective.
But not just any boy - a young me, Julienne lite, as yet untouched by the mindtwisting effects of
James Herbert, Shaun Hutson and Stephen King 
(I went through a brief but intense horror stage).

To read Teri's - Dystopian fiction: Science Fiction for Girls? click here

Me at school!

So, as Demention's resident interviewer, I give you an interview with myself:

One of the main topics discussed in the Worlds of Tomorrow presentation was how referring to future-based 'other-worldy' stories as dystopian instead of Science Fiction made them more likely to be read by girls.  What do you think of when someone says Sci-fi?

Sci-fi is one of those boy geek-words, it always has been.  Think Star Trek, Star Wars and all the spin-offs and copy-cats and you'll always think of a group of boys who aren't good at sports and aren't brave enough to talk to women.  The US sitcom Big Bang Theory has reached over 100 episodes.  It's a worldwide hit and four of its five main characters tick all of the Sci-fi nerd boxes.

But that's just what people think.  I know loads of girls who are fans of Star Wars, Star Trek and Red Dwarf.  Some of them just don't like to talk about it in public!

But what about books?  There always seem to be a lot more boys than girls in the Sci-fi/Fantasy sections of bookshops.

The Sci-fi sections are still crammed with images of planets and spaceships, heroic men in space suits with laser guns.  The same sort of things that have been used for decades.  But look at the covers of modern dystopias - girls' faces looking defiant or mournful, or striking, graphic logos with a sinister edge.

Compare old vampire books with today's - scary man in front of a castle vs pale skinned woman on a black background.  You'll know Sci-fi is written for girls when Judge Dredd takes off his helmet and there's a tear running down his cheek!

Are you saying that current dystopian novels are just for girls?

No way!  I love some of the modern dystopian stories - great characters facing hard trials in harsh futures.  But what I like about the older stuff is the 'nuts and bolts' of the worlds they are set in: the way that the embryos are sorted and graded in Brave New World; the six (or possibly seven) different bullets that Judge Dredd's Lawgiver pistol can fire; the television screens in Fahrenheit 451 that fill whole walls and sync the viewer's name into the programme so they feel like they are part of the drama.

And there isn't any of that in modern books?

It's there, all right, but only in the background.  Sometimes it feels a bit like the author doesn't want to put too much in just in case it puts people off.

People?

Girls, I suppose

And do you think it would?

No.  Not the ones who like Star Wars!

Relationships stuff doesn't put me off.  I like it when a boy rescues a girl (or a girl rescues a boy) because they are in love and the evil forces of the scary future police are chasing them in their solar driven hover pods.  But as well as knowing how much in love they are, I'd like to know how the pods hover and what happens if they run out of solar power.  And I think a lot of girls would too ...

This is how I think I would have answered, but do you agree with teen-me?  Are you a girl who wants more 'hi-tech' in your stories, or a boy who likes the romantic relationships?  Or do you think that young-Julienne doesn't know what he's talking about?

Readers and Writers of YA fiction, tell me I'm right
... or tell me I'm wrong!

Can A Book Change The World?

by Julie Bertagna

The cash machine had just swallowed the cards of two women in front. I went to another bank, slid my card in the machine. Nothing. I thought of all the banks crashing in the financial crisis. I hadn’t seen the news that day. Had there been a crash while I'd been out? What if I couldn’t get any money?!

Eventually, I did. But for a surreal moment I felt like Offred in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale who can’t get money from a cash machine one day because women’s bank accounts have been seized by the government - for the good of the nation. And suddenly she is plunged into a terrifying dystopia... 

That fictional moment, when everything changes in an instant has stayed with me since I was young. It made me wonder: what if our freedoms are more precarious than we think and could be snatched away if we don’t guard them?

Today’s young adults were small when the twin towers fell on 9/11 and I’ve often wondered how growing up in an ‘Age of Terror’ with daily images of war and violence would affect them. My daughter doesn’t know what it’s like to board a plane without shoes and phone, even a lipgloss, examined for bomb-making materials...  

In the years after 9/11, US publishers weren’t keen on my YA novel about young survivors in post-apocalyptic future, kicking back against a brutal world empire. 

Teenagers wouldn’t want dark, dystopian fiction in such troubled times....would they? 

But young readers were seeking books that held up a cracked mirror to the world. Lots wrote to me saying, I’ll never forget your book, it’s changed the way I see the world. 

        Does a book really have the power to change the world?

Neuromancer by William Gibson was a stunning vision of cyberspace that influenced techiesdeveloping the web. Space scientists find their ideas in science fiction. Watch this brilliant vid from European Space Agency. 

Nineteen Eighty-Four  by George Orwell predicted a Big Brother world full of CCTV. 

Apple took ideas for iPads and iPhones from Star Trek!

If ideas in books can seep into reality, could the craze for dystopia change our world?

Why does dystopia grab you? Is it pure escapism? Or something deeper? Does it make you fearful? More sussed about the world? Is it a kickback, via imaginary characters, against the forces that control a teenager’s life - parents, school, politicians, and other forces that threaten to stamp all over your future?

What if fictional events really happen? A 'live' death on reality TV? Governments controlling the internet ‘for our own good’? (This happens in my new book.) What if young rioters mysteriously disappear, once arrested? (Slated). Are controlled futures like Matched and Divergent possible? If the Earth’s climate changes, will we survive by building domed cities (Under The Never Sky), towering sky cities (Exodus), or traction cities that can trundle across parched lands? (Mortal Engines). Or will we abandon Earth? (Across The Universe) 

Is the future destined to be grim? Or full of amazing new discoveries? Will it be a brave new world? Or new worlds?

Nobody controls the future - it’s still to unfold. Anything might happen. 

And anyone (maybe you?!) could be a pivotal part of the future in some way you can’t yet imagine. Maybe that’s the appeal of Katniss in The Hunger Games, Kyla in Slated, Laura in The Carbon Diaries, Nailer in Ship Breaker, Josh inThe Joshua Files, Tris in Divergent, Mara and Fox in my Exodus trilogy... ordinary teenagers who do extraordinary things to survive.  

In a YA dystopia, lead characters change events in some crucial way - their victories, large or small, offer hope. In adult dystopian fiction, characters tend to be ground down by the system. Their defeat is a warning to the reader: do not take this path!

What dystopian or futuristic books do you love? What scenes and characters will live on inside you?  

The kids and young adults of today will be in charge of the world soon! So, what kind of future do you want?