Monday, April 11, 2011

MATCHED, Elections and YA Dystopian Novel Popularity

In Canada, a general election is scheduled for May 2, 2011.

AND

The other day I finished reading MATCHED by Ally Condie, a young adult dystopian novel. The storyline:


In the Society, Officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die.

Cassia has always trusted their choices. It’s hardly any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one… until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path no one else has ever dared follow — between perfection and passion.

I was struck by the connection between the book and the elections after seeing this picture posted by a friend on Facebook:


Young Greens of Canada

The connection got me wondering why young adult dystopian novels are so popular recently. In a December 2010 NY Times article, author Paolo Bacigalupi suggests that teens "crave stories of broken futures because they themselves are uneasily aware that their world is falling apart." That makes sense to me.

These novels are being written by adults, not young adults (as far as I know). I'm curious, however, if they are being bought by a higher percentage of young adults or adults. In my heart, I hope young adults are buying them because maybe they will inspire the next generation to change the world.

Led by THE HUNGER GAMES and MATCHED (and many others), young adults are reading about people their age making a difference, in times not too dissimilar from our own. I've found the dystopian novels published in the last few years are more realistic than the adult dystopian books I've read, such as BRAVE NEW WORLD or 1984, making them easier to relate to, for me at least.


Elections are one opportunity to make such a change (or at least an attempt to make one but that's a whole 'nother blog). They are a start.

From THE HUNGER GAMES "May the odds be ever in your favour," and from MATCHED "I wish you optimal results," whatever changes you are choosing to make in your life.

What do you think about the popularity of YA dystopian books?

Edit on April 15: April 11-15 was dystopian week on Tor.com. There's a great Introduction to Dystopian Fiction which mentions a new anthology of dystopian literature which sounds fantastic. A further post has a Dystopian Round Table from the contributors to the anthology. Check it out!

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