Why are dystopian novels so popular?
“A boy, I think from District 9, reaches the pack at the same time I do and for a brief time we grapple for it and then he coughs, splattering my face with blood. I stagger back, repulsed by the warm, sticky spray. Then the boy slips to the ground. That’s when I see the knife in his back. Already other tributes have reached the Cornucopia and are spreading out to attack. Yes, the girl from District 2, ten yards away, running toward me, one hand clutching a half-dozen knives. I’ve seen her throw in training. She never misses. And I’m her next target.” (Collins)
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3. 2. 1. The last of the cannons sounds, marking the beginning of the end of most of the tributes’ lives. Now the excitement begins. Eyes scanning each word with record speed, I rush through the action, each violent death sending shivers through me. But something makes me continue turning the pages.
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The Hunger Games became such a huge success because of many factors. First and foremost, the plot takes the reader on an exciting adventure of danger and rebellion, as Katniss struggles to survive in the Games and inspires a revolution among the districts. A heroine and a strong female character, Katniss appeals to both male and female readers. The love triangle between Katniss, Gale, and Peeta and the fact that the characters are mostly teenagers also add to the excitement. Filled with social criticism, the novel touches on topics relevant to our society such as gluttony, materialism, vanity, oppression, and reality television. In her article in the New Yorker, Laura Miller offers another explanation of why teenagers specifically might enjoy reading The Hunger Games:
"If… you consider the games as a fever-dream allegory of the adolescent social experience, they become perfectly intelligible. Adults dump teen-agers into the viper pit of high school, spouting a lot of sentimental drivel about what a wonderful stage of life it’s supposed to be. The rules are arbitrary, unfathomable, and subject to sudden change. A brutal social hierarchy prevails, with the rich, the good-looking, and the athletic lording their advantages over everyone else. To survive you have to be totally fake."
Teenagers can relate to the idea of being oppressed or forced to do things they do not want to do, which is the same thing Katniss experiences. She isn't allowed to say what she wants, unless she wants the Capitol to punish her and her family, and she's forced to participate in the Games and pretend to be someone she's not in order to survive.
"If… you consider the games as a fever-dream allegory of the adolescent social experience, they become perfectly intelligible. Adults dump teen-agers into the viper pit of high school, spouting a lot of sentimental drivel about what a wonderful stage of life it’s supposed to be. The rules are arbitrary, unfathomable, and subject to sudden change. A brutal social hierarchy prevails, with the rich, the good-looking, and the athletic lording their advantages over everyone else. To survive you have to be totally fake."
Teenagers can relate to the idea of being oppressed or forced to do things they do not want to do, which is the same thing Katniss experiences. She isn't allowed to say what she wants, unless she wants the Capitol to punish her and her family, and she's forced to participate in the Games and pretend to be someone she's not in order to survive.
Augusta Aston posed an interesting question in her blog when she asked "why we, the readers, naturally criticize the games and the 'fans' that cheer on the death of kids while we, the readers, are the ones that continue to turn the page and keep reading." It turns out that it's part of human nature to take pleasure in other people's pain. This is a phenomenon called "Schadenfreude" aka the "devilish" hormone. According to German philosopher Friedrich Nietzshe, "The harm that befalls another makes him our equal," (Shaffer 78). In other words, seeing other people suffer makes us feel better about ourselves and our own situations. When applied to dystopian novels, the reader sees how much worse life could be and feels grateful for the life they have. Many dystopian novels have an overbearing government or oppressive force that inhibits the characters from living the life they desire, which taps into the emotions of many adolescent readers and their teenage angst. As Sophie Masson puts it in her article in The Australian, "teenagers identify with the genre because they feel trapped in a closed world ruled by hovering adults and peer-group conformity, where rebels and outsiders get short shrift and to survive you have to be fake." Dystopian novels also attract teenagers because they have similar characteristics of video games with lots of violence and adventure. Along with dangerous and violent scenes, dystopian novels ask big questions like "What is freedom?" and "What is love?" (Masson). These commonly asked questions push the reader to find the answers and interpret the novels to come up with them. Because young adult dystopian novels tend to end with hope for a better future, more people read them as opposed to their adult counterpart.
As you can see in the graph, there are spikes around the years 1940 and 1960 of the percent of all books categorized as "dystopian." This is significant because in these years, dramatic changes were taking place in the world like World War II and The Cold War, reflecting a trend in the number of dystopian novels with the onset of bleak or scary times. You can see another spike around the year 2010, nine years after 9/11. It's possible that the terrorist attack and the resulting fears and worries caused authors to write more dystopian novels. It should be noted that The Hunger Games was published in 2008 which is probably another reason why so many dystopian novels where written at that time because authors were hoping to be the next Suzanne Collins.
Historically, dystopian novels have flourished during times of fear and uncertainty, such as during the Cold War, when people feared nuclear destruction. Many of their fears were reflected in dystopian novels, causing an increase in purchases of the genre. |
Works Cited:
Aston, Augusta. HG Philosophy Precis Paragraph. More Popular Fiction, 2014. Web. 21 April 2014. <http://morepopfiction.weebly.com/9/post/2014/04/hg-and-philosophy-precis-paragraph.html>.
Astor, Dave. Why Do We Like Dystopian Novels? Huffington Post, 2012. Web. 21 April 2014. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-astor/why-do-we-like-dystopian-novels_b_1979301.html>.
Brown, Patrick. Dystpian Books Again Seize Power. 2012. Goodreads. Web. 1 May 2014. <http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/351-the-dystopian-timeline-to-the-hunger-games-infographic>.
Clemente, Bill. "Panem in America." Of Bread, Blood and the Hunger Games: Critical Essays on the Suzanne Collins Trilogy. Ed. Mary F. Pharr and Lesia A. Clark. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2012. 20-29.
Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. New York: Scholastic Press, 2008. Print.
Crowley, John. What if the future is a disaster? Yale Insights, 2010. Web. 1 May 2014. <http://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/what-if-future-disaster>.
Diebel, Rachel. "The rise of the dystopia: Popularity of dystopian themed films and novels skyrockets." Mast Media, 2013. Web. 1 May 2014. <http://mastmedia.plu.edu/2013/09/17/rise-of-the-dystopia/>.
Dixon, Christine-Marie. "The Hunger Games": The Role of Dystopian Literature in Libertarianism. Students for Liberty, 2012. Web. 1 May 2014. <http://studentsforliberty.org/blog/2012/03/22/the-hunger-games-the-role-of-dystopian-literature-in-libertarianism/>.
Masson, Sophie. "End of the world as we know it." Theaustralian.com.au. The Australian, 7 May 2011. Web. 21 April 2014 <http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it/story-e6frg8n6-1226049043302>.
McDonald, Brian. “The Final Word on Entertainment.” Of Bread, Blood and the Hunger Games: Critical Essays on the Suzanne Collins Trilogy.Ed. Mary F. Pharr and Leisa A. Clark. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2012. 9-25.<http://morepopfiction.weebly.com/uploads/2/6/3/8/26383539/the_final_word_on_entertainment.pdf>.
Miller, Laura. "Fresh Hell." The New Yorker. Condé Nast, 14 June 2010. Web. 1 May 2014.
<http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2010/06/14/100614crat_atlarge_miller?currentPage=all>.
Shaffer, Andrew. "The Joy of Watching Others Suffer." Of Bread, Blood and the Hunger Games: Critical Essays on the Suzanne Collins Trilogy.Ed. Mary F. Pharr and Leisa A. Clark. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2012. 75-89. <http://morepopfiction.weebly.com/uploads/2/6/3/8/26383539/joy_of_watching_others_suffer.pdf>.
Sutliff, K. The pain and pleasure systems. Web. 1 May 2014. <http://www.sciencemag.org/content/323/5916/890.figures-only>.
Wulf, Jon. The Ethics of Reality TV: Human Debasement as Spectacle. Texas Christian University, 2009. Web. 21 April 2014. <http://www.rtvfmediastudies.tcu.edu/Ethics%20Debasement%20and%20%20Humiliation.htm>.
Young, Moira. "Why is dystopia so appealing to young adults?" Theguardian.com. The Guardian, 22 Oct. 2011. Web. 21 April 2014. <http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/oct/23/dystopian-fiction>.
Aston, Augusta. HG Philosophy Precis Paragraph. More Popular Fiction, 2014. Web. 21 April 2014. <http://morepopfiction.weebly.com/9/post/2014/04/hg-and-philosophy-precis-paragraph.html>.
Astor, Dave. Why Do We Like Dystopian Novels? Huffington Post, 2012. Web. 21 April 2014. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-astor/why-do-we-like-dystopian-novels_b_1979301.html>.
Brown, Patrick. Dystpian Books Again Seize Power. 2012. Goodreads. Web. 1 May 2014. <http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/351-the-dystopian-timeline-to-the-hunger-games-infographic>.
Clemente, Bill. "Panem in America." Of Bread, Blood and the Hunger Games: Critical Essays on the Suzanne Collins Trilogy. Ed. Mary F. Pharr and Lesia A. Clark. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2012. 20-29.
Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. New York: Scholastic Press, 2008. Print.
Crowley, John. What if the future is a disaster? Yale Insights, 2010. Web. 1 May 2014. <http://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/what-if-future-disaster>.
Diebel, Rachel. "The rise of the dystopia: Popularity of dystopian themed films and novels skyrockets." Mast Media, 2013. Web. 1 May 2014. <http://mastmedia.plu.edu/2013/09/17/rise-of-the-dystopia/>.
Dixon, Christine-Marie. "The Hunger Games": The Role of Dystopian Literature in Libertarianism. Students for Liberty, 2012. Web. 1 May 2014. <http://studentsforliberty.org/blog/2012/03/22/the-hunger-games-the-role-of-dystopian-literature-in-libertarianism/>.
Masson, Sophie. "End of the world as we know it." Theaustralian.com.au. The Australian, 7 May 2011. Web. 21 April 2014 <http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it/story-e6frg8n6-1226049043302>.
McDonald, Brian. “The Final Word on Entertainment.” Of Bread, Blood and the Hunger Games: Critical Essays on the Suzanne Collins Trilogy.Ed. Mary F. Pharr and Leisa A. Clark. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2012. 9-25.<http://morepopfiction.weebly.com/uploads/2/6/3/8/26383539/the_final_word_on_entertainment.pdf>.
Miller, Laura. "Fresh Hell." The New Yorker. Condé Nast, 14 June 2010. Web. 1 May 2014.
<http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2010/06/14/100614crat_atlarge_miller?currentPage=all>.
Shaffer, Andrew. "The Joy of Watching Others Suffer." Of Bread, Blood and the Hunger Games: Critical Essays on the Suzanne Collins Trilogy.Ed. Mary F. Pharr and Leisa A. Clark. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2012. 75-89. <http://morepopfiction.weebly.com/uploads/2/6/3/8/26383539/joy_of_watching_others_suffer.pdf>.
Sutliff, K. The pain and pleasure systems. Web. 1 May 2014. <http://www.sciencemag.org/content/323/5916/890.figures-only>.
Wulf, Jon. The Ethics of Reality TV: Human Debasement as Spectacle. Texas Christian University, 2009. Web. 21 April 2014. <http://www.rtvfmediastudies.tcu.edu/Ethics%20Debasement%20and%20%20Humiliation.htm>.
Young, Moira. "Why is dystopia so appealing to young adults?" Theguardian.com. The Guardian, 22 Oct. 2011. Web. 21 April 2014. <http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/oct/23/dystopian-fiction>.