Monday, August 20, 2012

Dystopia

What did you think of the futuristic society in the final chapter, with everyone's opinions for sale and everyone communicating through "handsets" and the constant whir of helicopters overhead?
Posted by at

3 comments:

kc said...

That was supposed to be important, I guess, but it's not something that really stuck with me from the book. I did think about how the adults used the handsets but wanted to keep them from the kid, as though they were aware they were conducting their lives in a kind of crass, sketchy, shallow way but couldn't help it. It's sort of funny how they wanted to keep their kid from adopting a lifestyle that they themselves were clearly addicted to. People are capable of such self-serving mental acrobatics.

It made me also think about how people used to lose touch and how getting back in touch would require some effort, like tracking down an address and writing a letter. And some people would just disappear from your life altogether (maybe for the better). And now everything is so easy. You can basically keep tabs on anyone, which makes life so much less interesting (and more creepy) in some ways. Also, people have a lot of platforms on which they can create the personality they wish to project. They can package and present themselves in very calculated ways and simply interact with one another through various controlled portals.

I mean, that whole thing about how that concert at the end was wholly "marketed" was pretty amusing and didn't seem far off from the herd mentality that infects a lot of social media. Those forums make people feel hip and in the know, and they all compete to see who is the most hip and the most in the know, but they're all just a bunch of doofs falling for the same bullshit.

(OK, I guess it did stick with me)

2:26 PM, August 21, 2012
Erin said...

I guess I asked this question because the "future" chapter seemed so out of place to me. Thinking about it, I'm not sure why, because a novel about time might logically address the future as well.

I found it to be a slightly depressing ending to the book because of what you describe (crass, shallow, creepy, fake lives), and maybe that's OK, now that I think about it, because the rest of the book wasn't exactly uplifting in its message about the nature of our lives.

11:25 AM, August 24, 2012
kc said...

Yeah, that ending was somewhat bleak. I think the author probably thinks the vast bulk of humanity is full of shit and full of themselves. I kind of liked that about her. But I saw some upbeat threads in the book too, like the way Sasha turned out — from weird klepto gal to mostly respectable, caring (and interesting) adult. And even Bennie; I like how he deeply cringed with shame to think of certain moments of his past — I think that's a hallmark of character and the capacity for change, to feel actual shame about actually shameful things you have done. And he would feel it suddenly and acutely. There's not enough of that in life. Mostly people just seem to engage in endless, selfish cycles of minimizing their weaknesses and wrongdoing. To have that capacity for shame — that's meaningful to me in a world where nothing is Holy or Beautiful or intrinsically Moral; where everything is Profane and Ephemeral and Trending.

11:56 AM, August 24, 2012

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)