Pop Culture Mashup: Dystopia

What if Winnie The Pooh ended up living above the butchers shop in Delicatessen or shared an apartment with Charlton Heston in Soylent Green?

What if The Shopaholic found herself in Dark City?

Ever wondered what Holden Caulfield would do if he found himself transported to the island in Battle Royale?

Would Philip Marlowe investigate the strange disapearance of humans whilst starting an affair with Zira the only dame he could get his hands on if he crash landed on Planet of the Apes?

These kinds of questions have been puzzling me so I thought I'd investigate further, here, in my first Pop Culture Mashup.

The rules are simple, five characters taken from popular culture and implanted in to one of five dystopian futures. First let's introduce you to our five guinea pigs:


Travis Bickle

A former marine with an honorary discharge and not much education; an insomniac, fantasist and socially inept Bickle is a man who is horrified by the degenerate lifestyle on offer in New York in the 1970s and decides to cleanse the city of its filth. At his core he seems to be a good man in need of a strong guiding arm at all times, otherwise he's prone to wild behaviour and taking matters in to his own hands and believing in his own fantastic vision of himself.

James Bond

Secret agent, lover of fast cars, fine food and beautiful women. Writing his own code of behaviour, using coercion at the point of a gun, taking women when he pleases and killing in interesting ways, all in the name of and for the good of your country. Bond is a complex character who kills when he needs to but prefers not to, has suffered heartbreak in the past but consumes women like an addiction. He is full of confidence and regularly does as he pleases regardless of orders.

Philip Marlowe

Underneath the wisecracking, hard drinking, tough private eye exterior, Marlowe is quietly contemplative and philosophical and enjoys chess and poetry. While he is not afraid to risk physical harm, he does not dish out violence merely to settle scores. Morally upright, he is not fooled by the genre's usual femmes fatales. He is a heavy smoker and a consumer of copious amounts of bourbon.

Robin Hood

A heroic outlaw who robs from the rich and gives to the poor. A skilled archer and swordsman he generally relies on his group of merry men to back him up. A former member of the aristocracy who had his land and fortune stolen from him he found solace in the poorest of local folk and takes his vengeance out on those who take advantage of their place in society for selfish reasons.

Winnie The Pooh

A bear of very little brain, but capable of being both astute and helpful in a pinch. Definitely a gourmand, coveting honey especially, innocent of motive and apparently incorruptible. Trusts in his instincts rather than his intelligence, though also makes great efforts to apply his limited mental capacities.

Next we take a look at five dystopias:

Demolition Man

Following a massive earthquake in 2010 that destroyed much of Los Angeles, it merged with San Diego to form a planned city called San Angeles in which all crime has seemingly been eliminated from society. Referencing both Brave New World and 1984 the world of Demolition Man features an all powerful mayor/president/monarch in a seemingly pacifist-utopia that monitors its citizens' every action, but below ground a renegade band of anarchists plot a way to destroy the oppresive regime so they can run around in their underwear if they want to.

Fahrenheit 451

A totalitarian state that burns books as a way to control the minds of its people. Populated by a hedonistic citizenry who are taught the value of technology over nature and discouraged from asking "why," small groups of rebels memorise novels to keep the stories alive.

Delicatessen

Post-apocalypse France, meat is scarce, employment scarcer still. People survive in lonely apartment buildings, some of them turning to canibalism thanks to the skills of a business savvy butcher. An underground vegetarian resistance movement are prepared to fight to the death in an attempt to educate and free France from the ideologically unsound idea of eating meat.

Gattaca

A near future built on the principle of creating genetically perfect human beings. Those who were born the natural way find themselves designated second class citizens who can never achieve anything above working for the janitorial services industry. A black market exists to provide perfect DNA samples for those born without it, enabling them to follow their dreams.

Children of Men

The near future, all women have become infertile, children are no longer being born, the government is controlled by the military, immigration laws are very strict. An illegal African immigrant arrives in the UK carrying the first child to be conceived in 18 years. Different millitant and scientific factions fight over the best way to move the human race forward.

And now we apply the particle accelerator for the fun part.

Winnie the Pooh might be perfect as a Sheriff in an Old West town but in the planned community of San Angeles he finds himself as the personal assistant to the famed Dr Raymond Cocteau, creator of this pacifist-utopia. One day whilst looking for a new pot of honey in the office of the great man, the fuzzy little tubby old bear stumbles across the diabolical plans to destroy the starving renegade anarchists, and in one foul act wipe out all dissent against Cocteau's leadership. His conscience won't allow him to assist in this matter and seeks help from Lenina Huxley in fighting back. Through cunning and heart the naive pairing manage to stop the Cocteau Plan from coming to fruition and in doing so installs Pooh Bear as the new leader of the city. His first decree providing free honey for all the resistance fighters who now come out of hiding in support of his leadership.

Recruited out of the Marines Travis Bickle is a night watchman in the Fire Brigade. Spending his nights driving around on the hunt for illicit book readers he slowly comes to realise that books are not bad. After setting an underground book group on fire whilst they discuss the impact of Oprah Winfrey on the history of the book, he starts to notice the decadant filth cavorting on the streets every night, encouraging him to kill and burn. With the help of young renegade high school teacher Clarisse he plots the assasination of the president and the reinstatement of the printing press.

People are disappearing every day and nobody seems to care. Nobody that is, until the beautiful Julie walks in to the office of Philip Marlowe and begs for his help in locating her little brother, missing for the past week. The kind of dame a man can't refuse, Marlowe finds himself walking the streets of post-apocalypse Paris asking questions that shouldn't be asked. Following a trail of breadcrumbs he finds himself at the butcher shop owned by Clapet and sucked in to a hellish plot to fill the bellies of the hungry masses.

Robin Hood, a naturally born son to the billionaire couple Ethel and Arthur Hood finds himself ostracised as DNA profiling comes in to force in favour of laboratory created perfect specimens, causing even the children of the rich to become persona non grata in polite society. Branded as In-Valid he joins a group of fellow outcasts in fighting back against the faceless media outlets who promote this unwholesome status quo; in the process uncovering an evil disabled genius, Norman Sheriff, who hates himself so much he wants to cleanse the Earth of imperfection.

With all the women of the world seemingly infertile, the British Secret Service refocus their activities on securing their borders against illegal immigrants, the locating of a fertile female to reestablish Britain as a super power and the destruction of internal terrorist cells intent on destroying the military controlled government. Bond is on a one man mission to create his own progeny and spends each night with a new beautiful woman. His legacy is assured however when former colleague Julian Taylor brings him the fertile nubian princess, Kee, all he has to do is get her to the government safe house, and his bedroom, before the Russians can capture her.

Book Review: I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (1954)

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Blurb: Robert Neville is the last man left alive on Earth...but he is not alone. Every other man, woman and child on the planet has become a vampire. Neville spends his days scavenging for food and supplies, and hunting down the undead in their lairs in the ruins of civilisation. At night, he becomes the hunted and barricades himself in his home, waiting and praying for the dawn.

I Am Legend was one of the first, and certainly the most brilliant, fusions of horror and science fiction. Its powerful and disturbing reworking of the vampire myth has made it a classic and enduring novel that has had a profound impact on generations of writers

Thoughts: Having seen Omega Man and the recent Will Smith movie adaptation and heard a few different people talking about the differences in the book I managed to put together a strange 'ideal' composite of what I imagined this novel to be, leaving me in the strange situation of having three stories going through my mind whilst reading an entirely different fourth one. Not exactly condusive to enjoying a book most of the time but in this instance failing at dampening the pleasure I got from reading Matheson's wonderful novel.

It was and is very difficult to analyse this without comparing it to the movies, it's possible for example that if I had been unaware of the storyline this might have received a 5 star review, but as it is it may take additional readings for me to make that distinction.

For now I will simply tell you that aside from being a powerful insight in to human loneliness and an intriguing premise of the last man standing amongst a spreading bacteria it is also a science fiction novel of the highest quality (whether the science used is correct or not it matters little to me, it is the presentation of the ideas that carries all the greats of the genre in my mind) and contains passages of prose that will leve you breathless in empathy and anticipation.

I know little of the vampire legends and myths, I don't generally read books about vampires or vampirism, but Matheson gives you a strong grounding in it and then attempts to poke and prod the silliness of them; his assuredness that crosses will only work on Christian vampires and Mohammedan vampires would simply drink your blood when faced with a crucifix was a particular favourite revelation of mine. And the way the novel ends left me near certain that this has been integral to a lot of the more interesting developments in vampire novels/movies of recent times such as Sergei Lukyanenko nightwatch trilogy and Blade.

All in all I can't recommend this novel highly enough.

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Movie Review: Gamer (2009)

Today I welcome back Leah from What Indie Nights? to talk a little bit about one of my favourite movies of recent times, Gamer, in what is probably the best thing to ever get posted on my blog.

Greetings BBBGers, and thanks for having me. I'm here today to talk to you about a little movie released in 2009 called Gamer, a short, hard and fast dystopian cyberpunk masterpiece that pushed its way bodily to the top of my favourites list from the moment I experienced its first heart-pounding scene. You may not have heard of it, or you may have passed it right by, because this movie flew so far under everyone's radars I'm surprised it didn't hit a mountain range, or a really tall tree. It was generally panned or ignored by everyone who mattered or cared, and as it was released around the same time as an overblown Bruce Willis snore-fest (do you remember Surrogates? Yeah.) it just didn't get anywhere near the amount of attention it deserved. Which is a crying shame, because to me it was the Matrix of the new millennium, when cyberculture had worked itself out into the bland, perverse, advertisement-filled play-world we know it as today, and big business is taking advantage of the online masses in ways we don't really like to think about. Also, it's a gasp-for-breath action movie. And the soundtrack rocks.

Gamer takes place in a world where lives are lived online to an extent we can only dream about. Or have nightmares about. The number one entertainment destination is Society, a Second Life-esque wish fulfilment game where the characters on screen are as real as the people controlling their every move at the computer. Down and out, desperate types can earn a living by having their brains altered with nanotechnology - called nanex - to allow them to become living game components, at the mercy of the wealthy types who can pay to take control of live subjects and play with them any way they want. Sex, drugs, blood, raves, dancing, kink and more, all real, all at the push of a button. This is Second Life as envisioned by a cynic, or a realist. No-one's pretending this is anything but a way for the wealthy disconnected to get off.

The world of Gamer has been dramatically altered by the advent of Society. Its massive popularity has clearly had an impact on every aspect of people's lives, from the entertainment news hosts who swear constantly and smoke on air, to the abundance of nudity and generally vulgar behaviour on display on the TV screens on every street corner. Television itself is EVERYWHERE, vomiting advertisements, programs and pictures into everyone's faces all the time. Social morals have been freed, it would seem, by this breakthrough in technology. People no longer care (or have any say in) what they see in the media, nor where they see it. In fact, the media is reflecting their own behaviour back to them, tenfold, and they're responding with loyalty and purchasing power. A kind of reverse-Big Brother, where the people are doing the watching instead of being watched, and losing almost as much freedom.

The reclusive tech genius behind all this is Ken Castle - played to off-centre, unhinged perfection by Michael C Hall - a billionaire with a shady past who has just introduced his new pay-per-view hit TV series, Slayers. Taking the 'real people' concept to the next level, he has struck a deal with the failing US prison systems, whereby death-row inmates are offered the chance of a full pardon if they can survive 30 rounds of violent, bloody gameplay, televised weekly around the globe. These i-cons (get it?) are played by members of the public, who become as famous as the characters they play as the weeks go by. With this runaway success, Castle has single handedly saved the military-industrial complex in America. His i-cons, as well as being convicted murderers and rapists, are volunteers to the scheme, so there's no need to feel guilty about their horrifyingly gory deaths. It's a win-win scenario. A similar concept was explored pretty thoroughly in the Arnie thriller Running Man, where the setting was an 80s cheeseball game show hosted by a pyschopathic ratings whore, diverting the public attention from international resource shortages.

Gamer's central theme is control: control of i-cons by gamers, control of the masses by opiates, control of people by corporations, control of the media by money. Everyone's part of the system here. What Gamer shows us is that control is not just Big Brother, not just Stalin or Mao or Kim Jong Il at the head of a cowering populace. Control, in our Western lives, in our futures, is about consent, coercion, and choice. The masses, when we see them, are all complicit in these systems. They have chosen to participate in Society, to watch Slayers and cheer on the violent, bloody deaths of real humans, to submit to wall-to-wall, cradle-to-grave, home-to-work-to-play advertising. Life in Gamer is insidiously saturated with media, and the people love it. So much so that they don't see what they're getting themselves into, so that they don't want to be saved, not even by the rogue group of hackers who can see past the glitz of Castle's entertainment industry to the chilling heart of the matter. Castle is offering instant gratification on a colossal scale, and all he wants in return is brand loyalty of a somewhat more permanent nature than the people are used to. But, as he says, isn't it possible that many people out there would prefer to be controlled? Not to have to make any more difficult choices or worry about the future? Control to some people would be welcome relief.

Life in Castle's world takes on the aspect of black and white, almost literally. The world of Slayers is black, gritty, filthy and bloody, a war zone in every sense. The prison yard where the inmates work is pure, chalk white, bleaching everything to dust. The 'real world', the world of everyday, the streets, buildings and offices of dull regular life, is filmed almost on a greyscale, overexposed and drained. Nothing to see here. All the action, all the colour and life, is in Society, where everything is hyperreal, from the improbably green grass to the neon wigs on characters and everything in between. As much of the story is told in colour schemes as it is in dialogue, and it's a pretty bleak tale. 

What truly gives Gamer the shine on its dystopian undercoat is the insertion of weird, quirky little asides that colour the personalities of the characters and tilt the balance of reality just a little beyond bearability. A conversation mid-interrogation about different kinds nut butters (peanut, macadamia, pistachio...); a song and dance number where Castle sends chorus-line Slayers at our hero Kable, but not before they've danced in unison to his unsettling rendition of 'I've Got You Under My Skin'; a virtual room where the walls are one giant screen and the interaction (and spam) is all-encompassing; the all-too-real conversation about advanced technology that can convert memories into raw audiovisual data:

"But that kind of tech's not supposed to be available for a decade!"

"They'll have better shit than this in Best Buy in 18 months."

Gamer inhabits a world that is truly not too distant from our own, where technology has advanced (believably, might I add, in direct contravention of the Hollywood rule that states that tech in futuristic movies must be laughably unlike that of the present day) to a point at which it invades and runs most aspects of human life, where humanity is flinging itself bodily onto the bonfire of entertainment and interactivity with no thought for the consequences to their freedom, to their individuality, to their very souls. It is a true dystopia, a reminder to us all, and boy, is it entertaining...

Book Review: Player One by Douglas Coupland (2010)

What Is To Become Of Us?

Player One by Douglas Coupland

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Blurb: International bestselling author Douglas Coupland delivers a real-time, five-hour story set in an airport cocktail lounge during a global disaster. Five disparate people are trapped inside: Karen, a single mother waiting for her online date; Rick, the down-on-his-luck airport lounge bartender; Luke, a pastor on the run; Rachel, a cool Hitchcock blonde incapable of true human contact; and finally a mysterious voice known as Player One. Slowly, each reveals the truth about themselves while the world as they know it comes to an end.

In the tradition of Kurt Vonnegut and J. G. Ballard, Coupland explores the modern crises of time, human identity, society, religion, and the afterlife. The book asks as many questions as it answers, and readers will leave the story with no doubt that we are in a new phase of existence as a species -- and that there is no turning back.

Thoughts: So oil is expensive, people go crazy, strangers lock themselves in to an airport hotel cocktail bar to survive the fallout, Douglas Coupland documents this scenario in 'real time' and helps you take a long hard look at yourself and what it is that you are doing, what we as a species are doing.

It's part depressing, part uplifiting, part pessimism, part optimism, all of it is pure Coupland. I'm at a loss to explain this book, to analyse it, to find words that describe my unique experience with this author and his style of writing. Most people that I know are women and they dislike Coupland, it seems they think he is for men, not in a male version of chick-lit way, but they seem to think there's an element of the late teenage boy in his style.

I guess that is a compliment, meaning his observations of contemporary behaviours and the evolution of the mindset of the youth and their interaction with the world and technology are accurate.

"By the age of twenty, you know you're not going to be a rock star. By twenty-five, you know you're not going to be a dentist or any kind of professional. And by thirty, darkness starts moving in- you wonder if you're ever going to be fulfilled, let alone wealthy and successful. By thirty-five, you know, basically, what you're going to be doing for the rest of your life, and you become resigned to your fate..."

The world of Player One is presented as a form of dystopia before the apocalyptic events occur and in the course of his narrative Coupland questions the readers beliefs and assumptions on a wide range of subjects. Almost every page holds a line, a paragraph, an idea worthy of being drawn to your attention, of deeper longer thought being applied to it. The comparison to Vonnegut from the books blurb is no hyperbole, it is an impressive piece of 21st century literature indeed.

I love the work of Douglas Coupland, of his more serious work this is his finest achievement to date and a book I recommend for all. Even those women who consider him too male for their tastes.


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Movie Review: No Blade of Grass (1970) Dir. Cornel Wilde

No Blade of Grass by Cornel Wilde

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Stars

Blurb: Loosely adapted from the excellent John Christopher novel The Death of Grass (reviewed here last week) No Blade of Grass follows the same premise of a strange new virus, which only attacks strains of grasses such as wheat and rice, and the world is descending into famine and chaos. Architect John, along with his family and friends, is making his way from London to his brother's farm in northern England where there will hopefully be food and safety for all of them.

Thoughts: I admit I had very high expectations after loving the book but nothing could have prepared me for the crimes against literature perpetrated by Hungarian-American director Cornel Wilde with this adaptation. The very real difference between the book and the movie, my expectations and reality is what has caused the low rating as otherwise there are some really strong moments. Largely based on extreme violence.

It's a dystopian film where people are struggling for survival and featuring gang warfare and rioting. A violence packed eco-apocalypse drama. People get shot. A lot. And the hero is John Custance who wears an eye-patch only to enhance his "bad guy" image as far as I can tell.

The ragtag group of survivors that Custance brings together under his leadership show a quick and virtually unhesitant rejection of societal values and the adoption of a survivalist 'law of the group.' It wants to be a film about the thin veneer of social codes that stop us from behaving like Custance, and how easily they can be wiped away but it gets lost under a sea of red paint and silly surface action written specificlly for the film including a ridiculous gunfight with a motorcycle gang.

Wilde aims for a documentary like feel with his mise-en-scene whilst assaulting your eardrums with his jaunty score. The highlight of the visuals being another scene not in the book, a scene that would be mirrored in reality in 2011, Londoners looting shops under the guise of anti-government protests.

The book gave me hope of an interesting psychological character study, a look at the weakness of man but the movie only provided surface shocks and gratuitous violence. Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs would hit screens a year later and with similar washed out visuals and violent content achieves something so much more impressive and emotionally affecting.

Set in England and cast entirely with English actors Wilde manages to turn everyone in to a caricature of the typical little Englander, complete with everyones favourite Eastender Wendy Richards as a busty young cockney lass out for a good time no matter that the world as she knows it is ending.

My major problem with the movie is the acting; the overt preaching environmentalism of the opening segment, the deliberately emotive juxtaposition of horrific imagery with first world gluttony and an invasive score that doesn't allow the viewer to analyse or think for themselves are other large reasons to dislike and could have been largely ignored if it wasn't for the absurdly over the top amateurish performances from the majority of the cast.

Dystopian Fiction - A Little Help From My Friends

For today's post I've asked a few of my friends on Goodreads to recommend some great dystopian reads that people may not have heard about or might be of specific interest to my film blogging friends. There's an interesting mixed bag, I hope you find something for your "To Be Read" shelf amongst them.

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (MaddAddam Trilogy book 1)
(recommended by Kemper)

A guy called Snowman is playing caretaker and prophet to a strange new race of people he calls the Crakers in the ruins of civilization. As Snowman forages for supplies, his recollections make up the story of what caused a massive biological and ecological disaster that has apparently wiped all the old humans out except for him.

Snowman’s past takes place in our near future where he was once known as Jimmy in a society where genetic engineering was commonplace and the privileged lived in compounds owned and maintained by the corporations they worked for. Jimmy/Snowman’s memories of his brilliant friend Crake and the woman he loved, Oryx, haunt him even as he struggles to survive.

Fascinating book that seemed all too plausible in its depiction of a future state where brainless, nerveless chicken blobs with multiple breasts are created in a lab for chicken nuggets and animals are routinely crossbred. And all this set against a society where the only thing that matters is the bottom line so the idea of questioning the ethics or morality of what’s being done makes you a traitor.

This is a story that takes the idea of playing god to a whole new level. When you can create any kind of life you can imagine, where do limits come in? And if you think that human society is beyond saving, what kind of people would have the arrogance to think they can come up with something better?

Monkey Planet by Pierre Boulle
(recommended by Becky at Escapism Through Books)

I thought that it was brilliant. I know that I have seen the movie long ago, and remember the big reveal at the end and Charlton yelling about damning everyone all to hell, but I don't remember much more than that. I'll have to watch the movie again.

I really loved the subtle cautionary tale running throughout the story. Maybe it's just my feminist liberal bleeding heart whispering to me, but I feel that Boulle just plain hated live-animal experiments and was determined to show people that the tables could be turned one day. Easily. But more than that, the book cautions us not to be complacent and lazy about our place in life and in the food chain and to keep striving and learning and bettering ourselves, but NOT at the cost of other life-forms. We're on top now, but only time will tell if we stay there.

And do we actually deserve to be? We, the "Lords of Creation," seem to think that we can do anything and everything we want to do. We're so filled with pride that we never think that OUR civilization could fall. Those kind of things are for history books, not real life. Yet we consume resources like they're going out of style, and pollute the earth like we have a spare, and just generally act like there's a "Reset" button somewhere that we can just press when we've reached the point of no return. Why shouldn't another species give running things a try? If they can do it better...

But that's the thing. They imitate us, so WOULD they do it better? At one point in the story, when Merou was being shown the experiments, I thought to myself, "They are proud of the fact that they are keeping the "animals" down... Taking any vestiges of humanity or rational thought away as soon as it is displayed in order to protect themselves. They are so fearful of the possibility of human uprising that they commit atrocities to prevent them." And then I thought to myself, "Oh, snap! So do we." We can justify anything. And so can Apes, who apparently learned from the best. In examining the Apes, we're looking at ourselves. Can we really pass judgment?

But, I was happy to see that the three "races" of Apes could cohabitate and cooperate in peace, which is more than we've accomplished so far. Our differences divide us, but the Apes recognize and relish their differences and use them well. But Apes still seem to rival Man in the fear department: the unknown is scary, so just destroy it and move on.

I do have to say that I was kind of annoyed with Merou's assumption that life forms in a far, far away galaxy would automatically be human to be intelligent. It just goes to show that our pride will be our downfall. But it reminded me of a quote from another science-fiction book that I enjoyed, Solaris by Stanislaw Lem:

"...We take off into the cosmos, ready for anything: for solitude, for hardship, for exhaustion, death. Modesty forbids us to say so, but there are times when we think pretty well of ourselves. And yet, if we examine it more closely, our enthusiasm turns out to be all sham. We don't want to conquer the cosmos, we simply want to extend the boundaries of Earth to the frontiers of the cosmos. For us, such and such a planet is as arid as the Sahara, another as frozen as the North Pole, yet another as lush as the Amazon basin. We are humanitarian and chivalrous; we don't want to enslave other races, we simply want to bequeath them our values and take over their heritage in exchange. We think of ourselves as the Knights of the Holy Contact. This is another lie. We are only seeking Man. We have no need of other worlds. We need mirrors. We don't know what to do with other worlds. [...:] We arrive here as we are in reality, and when the page is turned and that reality is revealed to us--that part of our reality which we would prefer to pass over in silence--then we don't like it anymore."

Oh, it's so apt. We inherently assume that anyone of any worth or intelligence will be just like us. Even the "Little Green Men" type aliens that pop up in the Weekly World News magazines are still modeled after humans, and hell, they are nicknamed "men"! I just hope that one day we'll be able to see the bigger picture.

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
(recommended by Michael at Literary Exploration)

Yevgeny Zamyatin wrote his seminal dystopian novel We (1921) based on his personal experiences during the two Russian revolutions (1905 and 1917) and the first World War. The book ended influencing dystopian authors like Aldous Huxley and George Orwell. This book not only influenced the dystopian genre but could also be the influence towards the post-apocalyptic genre as this was set in a world where all was wiped out but “0.2% of the earth's population”. The book is set in ‘One State’ which has been organised to be a workers' paradise; everything has to work like clockwork and everything is based on logic and mathematics. This society is heavily surveillanced, has martial law and is heavily censored; a totalitarian world.

The protagonist, D-503, is an engineer who begins writing a journal (much like in 1984) to document Integral, the spaceship being built to invade other planets. D-503 is under constant surveillance by the Bureau of Guardians (the secret police) as is everyone else. He is assigned a lover O-90, but ends up having an uncontrollable attraction to I-330. This leads to nightmares and furthermore into what could be considered a mental illness. I-330 reveals to D-503 a world that was previously unknown to him. Will he hang onto hope or will reason get the better of him?

We was an impressive novel; not only with the themes that it explores but also with the technology and the simple fact that it was years and years ahead of its time. While some say We was released in 1920 and others 1921, there is no denying that, because of the subject matter, this was an impressive piece of literature. If it wasn’t for this book we may never of been able to enjoy Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932), George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) or even Kurt Vonnegut’s Player Piano (1952). By today’s standards this book would be overlooked but something innovative and so complex to be written so long ago makes this worth a read.

The Slynx by Tatyana Tolstaya
(recommendation by Jeffrey Keeten)

Our hero is Benedikt and he is living in a post-apocalyptic world where rabbits are toxic, food in general is scarce, and nearly everyone is exhibiting Consequences as a result of THE BLAST event that happened 200 years ago. Benedikt transcribes old books, written before the THE BLAST, and they are presented to the world as the writings of their leader Fyodor Kuzmich, Glorybe. The scribes begin to question that the writing style of their dear leader changes so much from book to book, but it is best not to have any association with Freethinking.

Anytime you feel different than you should you must be careful. "When you growl through your teeth, grumble and grouse--the anger feels good, it kind of rolls around all prickly warm inside you. You wanna show off your strength. Kick a fence. Or a dog if you meet one. Or smack one of the guys around. Whatever. There are all kinds of things you can do. But sometimes you don't feel like getting mad. It's like there's a sadness inside. Like you feel sorry for someone. Must be feelosophy.

Bureaucrats control every faze of their existence. These are for the most part self appointed people who have taken over collecting taxes, rationing of script, and managing the distribution of goods. Most are corrupt and cut a fat hog while the rest of the population is near starvation. The main source of protein and bartering power comes from one little critter that most of us don't even want to contemplate adding to our diet, and certainly it makes me shiver to think of my survival depending on my ability to build a better mouse trap.

Trade is determined by how many mice something is worth. Benedikt carries them around in braces under his jacket to barter them for more variety in his food diet. When he goes to see the widow Marfushka he must have enough mice for the legs to part.

"Benedikt went to see the widow woman Marfushka about the woman business: maybe once or twice a week, but he'd always go to see Marfushka. You couldn't exactly say she was pretty. In fact, her whole face was sort of crooked, like someone hit her with a battle ax. And one eye wandered. Her figure wasn't all that great either. She was shaped like a turnip. But she didn't have any Consequences. She was rounded out where she out to be and caved in where she out to be. After all, he didn't visit her to look at her, but to take care of the woman business. If looking's what you want--well, you can go out on the street and look until your eyes pop out."

Benedikt's life takes an abrupt turn when he decides in a moment of starry eyed lust to ask the beautiful Olenka to marry him. Her family is wealthy and part of his new father-in-law's job is to track down old books. It is illegal to own books printed before the blast and even though most of the population has been made afraid of being in the same room as a "toxic" book from the past there are still people brave enough to squirrel books away in old wells or hidden in walls. It is a life changing moment for Benedikt when he finds that his father-in-law has a room full of books, and once Benedikt gets over his inherent superstitions, and begins to read, he is absolutely lost to the world of books. He inhales them. He spends so much time reading that his wife complains that he isn't paying attention to her anymore. He begins helping his father-in-law to find more books. He becomes an insane (more than just gently mad) bibliophile. He becomes desperate when he realizes that he has...READ THEM ALL.

His father-in-law, a few cards short of a full deck, dangles the prospect of liberating the books held by Fyodor Kuzmich, Glorybe and what ensues is not only hilarious, but a wonderfully constructed piece of social commentary.

The world after the blast has slid backwards. Food is an issue. There is never enough of it and too much of what used to be a staple of the Russian table has proven to still be toxic from the blast. Half-human, four-legged Degenenerator's are used to pull sleighs, and the sarcastic word exchanges between one in particular and Benedikt elicited more than one snicker from me. The book receives high marks for originality, humor, and "feelosophy". "Don't you shake your beard at meeee! I with utmost confidence HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (book vs movie)
(Originally posted by Michael at Knowledge Lost)

Normally I would stand by a simple truth; “The book is always better than the movie” but that is not always true. In the case of The Hunger Games, I’m not going to say the book is better than the movie.   I think they were both great but I can’t pick one over the other. If you haven’t been living under a rock, you would have heard of this book and the movie adaptation but just in case you haven’t, let me quickly sum it up. The Hunger Games is the story of a 16 year old girl that takes the place of her younger sister to compete in the annual televised event ‘The Hunger Games’. This is an event where a young boy and girl are called up randomly to participate in a fight to the death for survival for the entertainment of the rich and powerful.

Katniss is a strong character, with all the normal awkwardness you would expect from a teenager; having to deal with love, death and loneliness in this dystopian world that she lives in. But in the book it tends to focus a little too much on the cutesy teenage girl aspect and less on the darkness of her situation. The movie does have this same element but a lot of this has been cut down to make room for the main plot line.  When it comes to the violence, the book seems more violent and the movie felt a little anti climatic at the end. Also I’ve found in the movie the tributes were very two dimensional and very annoying but when reading the book I didn’t notice this at all. Capital’s fashion was terrible in the movie and I was glad I didn’t have to be subjected to seeing it while reading the book. In the end, the movie slightly departs from the book but it really sets up the next movie (If it gets made) really well.

While I’m talking about this movie, I want to know what was with all the racism with the twelve year old from Division 11? In the book it mentions she had dark skin but people seemed so shocked when in the movie she turned out to be an African American. It shouldn’t matter what colour her skin was all that should matter is that Amandla Stenberg played the role perfectly.

The faults I had with the movie balanced out my problems with the book. I don’t think I can pick one over the other. I’m interested in seeing how the series plays out as a movie adaptation but at the same time I don’t have much of an interest to continue the series. I think as a stand-alone book, it’s fantastic; but if I try to predict the rest of the series and all I can see are love-triangles, fighting authority and a lot more romance. If this isn’t the case, I might read the other books; but at the moment I just think it works better as a single story. Problem is, if they are making the movies I feel inclined to read the book before seeing the movie.

 

Top Ten: Dystopian Movies

Dystopian futures are a really popular trope in cinema, until I tried putting this list together I didn't realise that a lot of my favourite movies can be classed as having dystopian themes and if you take a look at the Science Fiction chapter of my DVD guide you'll find the majority of them are set in a dystopia of one kind or another. To avoid repetition this Top Ten will try to skip selecting the same old faces and attempt to offer ten films yet to be mentioned during dystopia week or previously at any length here on blahblahblahgay.


Gattaca (1997) Dir. Andrew Niccol

Back To The Future Part II (1989) Dir. Robert Zemeckis

Planet of the Apes (1968) Dir. Franklin J. Schaffner

A Scanner Darkly (2006) Dir. Richard Linklater

Dark City (1998) Dir. Alex Proyas

The City of Lost Children (1995) Dir. Marc Caro & Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Delicatessen (1991) Dir. Marc Caro & Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Wings of Desire (1987) Dir. Wim Wenders

Akira (1988) Dir. Katsuhiro Ôtomo

Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) Dir. George Lucas

What's your favourite dystopian movie? Should I have written something to accompany these screenshots? Is Star Wars Episode V a better example of a dystopia from the Lucasfilm franchise? Leave your comments below.

Book Review: The Death of Grass by John Christopher (1956)

The world-famous novel of the ultimate famine!

The Death of Grass by John Christopher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Essential Must-Read Seemingly Forgotten Dystopian Classic

Blurb: The Death of Grass is an entirely original kind of science-fiction - it is not about space-travel, time-travel, or mechanical men. It recounts the terrifying changes on the face of the earth when the balance of nature is upset - and it takes place not in the future but now.

The characters are middle class people who live serenely until the grass begins to die - upon which their personalities begin imperceptibly to change with the changes that creep over the landscape. The fearful national policies and immediate personal dangers they are faced with are horrible in their impact, and in the dangerous obstacle race for safety (and for life itself) the reader feels himself to be personally and desperately involved.

Thoughts: Recommended to me by the Goodreads recommendations engine during one of the brief periods when it was working, I was initially drawn to the wonderful premise of a simple "what if" science fiction question, namely in this case "what if a virus kills all forms of grass worldwide?" Grass meaning wheat et al not just the wonderful stuff used as a playing surface for tennis, cricket and croquet. It's a premise that would also later go on to form the basis of the brilliant award winning dystopian post-(post?)-cyberpunk thriller The Windup Girl.

But this is very definitely a post-atomic approach towards the genre, with a message that could be picked up by Greenpeace and hippies the world over even today and used as a warning against the way we are destroying our planet. This novel recounts the terrifying changes on the face of the earth when the balance of nature is upset - not at some nebulous date in the future but right now or the now of 1956 at least. Perhaps a re-issue from Al Gore on 200% recycled paper is required?

The story starts off with a global disaster and slowly becomes more and more personal, with a denouement focussing on one barricaded village and a handful of people. The characters are normal people, described in the blurb as middle class, with peaceful lives until the virus begins to take hold and food becomes scarce. In the beginning they make a point of being proud of the British attitude towards hardship, the famous Dunkirk spirit etc, but the predicament slowly changes all of them in irrevocable ways. They must undertake a journey of ever increasing hardships as society falls apart thanks to weak governments (things haven't changed much since 1956 huh?) and the panic of the masses leading to riots (as seen in London just last year but with the desire for new shoes and TVs replaced by a need for food.) And as a reader you can't help but take the journey alongside them thanks to the quality of the writing. Sure it's easy to judge these people for the decisions they make but there's a power at work in Christopher's writing that puts you in the band of survivors and suddenly it's harder to disagree with the man leading you to safety.

I'm not sure how much it actually helped me to enjoy the book but Brief Encounter is one of my favourite movies of all time, being able to imagine Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson as the protagonist Johnny and his wife Ann was an excellent bonus, even if just as a way to understand the speech patterns peculiar to the British middle classes of the era.

It's easy to imagine the stark landscape shorn of all grass, not least because of the volume of post-apocalyptic movies that have been released in recent years. The Book of Eli has an overall colour tone perfectly suited to a grass-free planet but features human attrocities in explicit detail, something Christopher only hints at in this book. It's much better for that too, bad things happen but the prose only really "arrives" in the aftermath and studies the reactions of these ordinary decent people to extraordinary events.

I'm left thinking about The Road and how bleak it was, John Christpher comes close but without being so overt and rubbing your well-fed, happy face in to it. In comparison you don't need to feel bad for being content and living a peaceful existence after putting this book down.

Powerful, thought provoking stuff, despite its content a highly enjoyable read and at under 200 pages not bloated, not rushed but perfectly paced. I give this book my highest recommendation. And shall finish with a transcription from the blurb on the front of my beautiful 1st edition Penguin:

An unusual and absorbing piece of science-fiction about the relentless transformation of England when the balance of nature is upset.

'The Death of Grass sticks with commendable perserverance to the surface of the earth we know...John Christopher has constructed an unusually dramatic and exciting tale.' DAILY MAIL



View all my book reviews

A Brief History of Dystopia

For today's post I welcome Michael from the excellent literary blog Literary Exploration to take us through a brief history of the dystopian genre.

It's worth noting that very few dystopian movies were written directly for the screen and were in fact based on classic pieces of literature.

Dystopian fiction has been around for a long time; interestingly enough, it was an offshoot of utopian fiction which started growing in popularity in the 1900’s. I’m a little surprised that utopian fiction seemed to be the predominate genre but if you look at the history of dystopian literature you can see why. The spikes in popularity seems to have started from the lead up to the world war two and the cold war and then as a result of 9/11 and the war on terror. Escapist fiction; as a way to substitute the problems with the world with a more nightmarish world.

I thought it might be nice to have a quick look at the genre over time and highlight some essential reads (which stick out to me) for people that haven’t experienced all the joys of this genre. While there were dystopian novels before my first choice, I thought I would start with the one book that may be called the first purely dystopian novel.

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (1921)
A highly influential novel based on the authors experience of the two Russian revolutions (1905 and 1917) and the First World War. While this book is considered to be an influence for Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932), George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) or even Kurt Vonnegut’s Player Piano (1952), it’s one book that is unfortunately often overlooked.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932)
Huxley refers to this book a "negative utopia" and looks at the idea of the government making a world so perfect and controlled that it really has the opposite effect; or does it? Are you really unhappy if you don’t know you are unhappy?

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (1949)
No dystopian list will be complete without this novel; actually these three novels could make up the definitive influences of every dystopian novel to follow. Big Brother is watching. Orwell writes a satirical novel of what he sees as the dangers of totalitarianism.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953)
It’s a pleasure to burn; this novel looks at book burning, mass media censorship and the importance of books. Fahrenheit 451 is set in an unspecified time in a hedonistic anti-intellectual America.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (1957)
Set in the not too distant future this brick of a book has a look at the disappearance of innovators and industrialists and a collapsing economy. I’m not going to lie, I’ve not read this book but I couldn’t give a list of essential dystopian novels without this book.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (1962)
In a culture of extreme youth rebellion and violence, how can the government gain back control? Mind control and the removal of free will seems like a good idea, right?

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (1985)
In this dystopian novel Atwood takes a look at a totalitarian society and the issue of woman’s rights within it. While I thought this was more like a social critique than a novel, it is still an essential read.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (2005)
Sheltered from the outside world these children were brought up to believe they are special and need to be protected, but they are only protected from the truth. This is more a book of love and friendship set in a dystopian environment.

Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart (2010)
Super Sad True Love Story is a novel set in a very near future—oh; let’s say next Tuesday—where the world is dominated by Media and Retail. The story is centred on a thirty nine year old Russian immigrant, Lenny, and what could likely be the world’s last diary. The object of his affection, Eunice, has her side of the story told by a collection of e-mail correspondences on her "GlobalTeens" account.

If you look at this list you can see the changing of the dystopian genre; what started as satirical looks at the fears of the world gradually changed to lighter stories of love and friendships. This brings me to the rising popularity of Young Adult Dystopian fiction. This seems to deal less with the social aspects made famous in dystopian fiction and more about friendships and endless love triangles. The lack of freedom, obsessive governments or biological issues have been replaced with post-apocalyptic romances. Not that there is a problem with this new wave of dystopian fiction (I’ve read a few good ones), I just find that the books with more social aspects offer so much more than a good read. What are your thoughts and what would you call essential dystopian reading?

In addition to his blog Michael can be found on facebook, twitter and a whole bunch of other social networking sites.

Dystopian Movies - A Little Help From My Friends

For today's post I am sharing the blogging love with some great reviews of classic dystopian films.

First let me point you towards Stevee at Cinematic Paradox who writes about watching Battle Royale for the first time. Being a teenager myself when I first saw this movie I guess I was the target audience, or at least I would have been if I was Japanese, and I absolutely loved it. I didn't really consider the science fiction/dystopia element just accepted that perhaps this could happen and with the growing gulf in understanding between one generation and the next in Japan it might be soon.
As far as dystopian visions go this is a plausible Societal change and serves to create a powerful statement whilst at the same time working as fantastic entertainment.

Next up is The Void who will take you on a journey to La Jetee, the brilliant short film from Chris Marker that is comprised of a selection of still photographs and a voice over. You may or may not know but this short heavily influenced David Peoples when he wrote Twelve Monkeys for Terry Gilliam. The first time I watched this film I didn't realise it had been the basis for Twelve Monkeys and the whole way through I was noting how similar it was, right down to camera placement and mise-en-scene, not just story. After a little research and putting my mind to rest I watched it again without having to think about Twelve Monkeys. A incredibly powerful piece of cinema that creates a mood like no other movie can, Marker gives us a post-apocalyptic dystopia.

The incredibly talented Alex over at Film Forager spends some time with everyone's favourite gun enthusiast Charlton Heston with her take on Soylent Green - beware spoilers for those of you who don't know what Soylent Green is yet. I think it's all good fun for early 70s science fiction, my favourite part, being the noir fan that I am, is the performance of Edward G. Robinson and the brilliant riot scene. Another movie that ends with Heston screaming too. A fine example of a Corporate dystopia thanks to the evil company that seems to run the show in the world of Soylent Green. Based on the novel Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison, this is a book I can't wait to find.

Got any links you want to share? Drop them in the blahs and I'll add you to the post.