Ignorance is Bliss

[thessalian]

dodgyhoodoo is reading "The Handmaid's Tale" at the moment, and marvelling over the parallels between the fiction and real-life world events. This from a woman who describes sci-fi as "flying squid". *shrug* Be that as it may, if she really wants to have such a narrow view of a genre, let her. Labels of that type are fluid, and frankly, we don't have to listen to her spout crap about what some pretentious types call 'speculative fiction' if we don't want to.

But then again, the not-listening should only go so far. Does the term 'cautionary tale' ring any bells? Half the reason people write this kind of story - "The Handmaid's Tale", "Ninteen Eighty-Four", "Brave New World", "On the Beach" etc - is as a warning. "Don't Let This Happen", says the tale. And what happens? People read it, think, "Oh, thank God it could never really happen" and forget about it. Or they don't read it at all. No excuse in the case of "The Handmaid's Tale", though - that was a movie too, and a pretty good one from what little I remember. I was fairly young when it came out, but Mum took me to see it despite it being rated R. Why? Because it was a good story with important messages and she thought I was mature enough to handle it and open-minded enough to learn something. And guess what? It worked.

So a culture of fascism and religious zealotry springs up in the West, and owing to some chemical warfare (or something) and the number of women who have taken permanent measures to ensure they never breed, few enough women are capable of getting pregnant. This combination leads to women being reduced to chattel - wives, servants, slaves or baby machines. Well, let's talk about this 'pre-pregnancy' crap. Let's talk about pharmacists making it difficult or impossible for people to get the morning-after pill, or even oral contraceptives. Some states in the US criminalising abortion. "Abstinence-only" sexual education in American schools. Being in an unjust war in the Middle East because the self-proclaimed leader of the free world insists that "God told him to". Anyone else seeing a few parallels and early warning signs?

Same goes for "Brave New World". Consumerism Uber Alles. Prozac = Soma. "Spending is better than mending". "1984"? Doublethink runs rampant, buzzwords = Newspeak, media is spun into oblivion, and Big Brother Is Watching. "On The Beach"? North Korea has nukes and is pissed off; we ignore them in favour of bombing countries we had no reason to fight with in the first place. End of the World scenario possible if North Korea decides to escalate. Even stuff like Stephen King's "The Running Man" - consider game shows like Survivor and even Big Brother. We torture people because it makes 'good television', and people go sign up as contestants willingly because it's a shot for something better.

I know a lot of people get sick of deconstructing literature after high school. Seriously, though, what's the point of writing something that poignant if people are going to see it as nothing more than a bit of good writing, if that? Does all literature have to be just passive entertainment, something that people read but don't take in? This has been an issue of mine for a long time - passive entertainment, in some cases, is fine (I don't reckon I learn a whole lot from watching Nightmare on Elm Street movies, for instance), but when a story does have a message, why in the name of whatever god you like don't we learn the fucking lesson? Is it too depressing? Too close to home? Too real?

Reality may bite, but that doesn't mean we just ignore it and hope it goes away. And when we start seeing parallels between reality and some of the more horrific future visions of authors whose stories can caution as well as entertain, there is a problem. And yet these works are still just ... entertainment. Just another trip to the Feelies for a bunch of somewhat jaded paranoid peace-seekers who seem to prefer ignorance of their increasingly fascist leaders to even thinking about the situation, much less doing something about it. If there is hope, it lies with the Proles ... but they're too busy watching Eastenders to bother.

The world frustrates me.

Comments

[lunarwhirl.livejournal.com]

I know. I haven't read it yet, but the mere thought of it makes me want to fucking bolt. D: