Dystopian Novels: A Discussion

Last week, the NYT opinion section came out with a discussion of why young adult fiction was so popular now a days. Several authors wrote pieces for the discussion, which can be found here. I thought it was very interesting what Maggie Stiefvater wrote. 

  "Teenagers want to be able to fight for what’s right -- but finding out what’s right is now 90 percent of the battle. If only the evil in the world was named Voldemort, we could get down to the business of slaying it. And with the dystopian novels, we know just what we're fighting for." - Maggie Stiefvater

With dystopian novels, you know just what and who you are fighting. You are fighting to keep from losing your individuality and from losing your freedom.

But unlike, Ms Stiefvater, I don't believe all is black and white in dystopian novels and THAT is what draws the readers in. The reason these worlds came to be was from good intentions. You can't tell me that whole time reading these books you have never thought how much easier your life would be if some things were chosen for you or if everyone looked the same. The point of these novels, and why I feel people are attracted to them, is that they reiterate what we already know. That life isn't perfect, but without some sadness how can you truly know what happiness feels like.

I just read a preview of delirium and one of the main characters said something similar as she was being carted off to be evaluated for matching. " You can't be really happy unless your unhappy sometimes. You know that, right? I think that's the question that all these dystopian novels ask us, and hopefully at the end of the story your answer is "Yes, I know that."