Relationship Issues

I don’t like David.  There, I said it.  When we meet him, Shay is hanging on his arm.  In no time, he is baring his soul to Tally.  I mean, maybe he feels some connection with Tally that he never really didn’t with Shay because Shay is less serious.  I don’t know, it just comes across as forced.  I would have liked to see some time taken with that aspect.

I believe the relationships in The Hunger Games, for instance.  Collins didn’t flick a switch and decide that one of her characters was drawn to another.  This is what Westerfeld’s David deems to have done.  He seems to be suspicious for a nanosecond then suddenly he feels a connection with Tally.  Why?  Because she’s more serious?  I know it happens in real life, but it always bugs me when it does.  Teenagers rarely believe that the fears of adults are well-founded, so they jump into situations with little thought of the possible consequences.  This guy just feels flighty to me, not trustworthy at all.

EQ: What narrative elements are required to make a relationship believable?

Deus ex Machina

This is a perfect phrase to describe Westerfield’s attempt at closure. After 300 pages of escaping from a government-imposed surgery and social identity, Tally decides to go under the knife and Maddy finds the cure for the brain lesions in about ten pages.

At first, I was ticked that Westerfield let Tally “have it all”–beauty, a normally-functioning brain, and the guy. Then I began to read some of the arguements embedded in Shay’s pretty-talk.

“I like the way I look. I’m happier in this body. …you want to talk about brain damage?…You’re all full of schemes and rebellions, crazy with fear and paranoia, even jealousy…that’s what being ugly does (408).”

“It’s nice not being all raging with hormones (408).”

“From what I can tell, ‘cured’ means being a jealous, self-important, whiny little ugly brain. It means thinking you’ve got all the answers (410).”

Despite using words like “bubbly” and “bogus,” Shay has some compelling reasons for the benefits of the surgery. I’d love to never feel the sting of jealousy again. By putting these arguments in Shay’s mouth, Westerfield gives readers the opportunity to discredit them completely (after all, she is brain damaged..) but the arguments are logical and could be very persuasive.

All of a sudden, being pretty, feeling bubbly, and not really caring about anything sounds nice. What’s wrong with a world where everyone is beautiful? A level playing field? Westerfield’s brought us right back to the questions we had at the beginning of the novel, with no definitive answers. He may not be good at naming things, but that was a clever little plot structure.

So here’s my EQ: What arguments can be made in favor of the surgery? How is the surgery good for society? How do these benefits relate to the benefits of book burning in 451?

B & W Movies?

When Tally said that she watched lots of movies, even black and white ones, I seriously started to wonder how she could be so clueless about the world of the “Rusties.”  She doesn’t know what a train track is, but she has watched lots of movies from before her society existed in its current form.  Westerfield could have left out the reference to the movies being black and white.  I wonder if this is going to be a plot point or another gaping hole.

EQ: How can seemingly unimportant details help flesh out your setting?  How can it detract from it?

Plot Holes

I have been informed that my take on this issue is both well-founded and taken far too seriously.  I figure both analyses of this point negate each other, so I am going to talk about it.

If you want to write a dystopia novel, the first thing you should do is figure out what is broken about the society of the future.  Then you need to figure out how it got that way.  Finally, you need to figure out how the society in question functions.  Uglies fails in this last part, in my opinion.

You have the Littlies (I still hate that name) who grow up to become Uglies.  Uglies go to school until they are old enough to get surgery to become Pretties.  At this point they are made mentally pliable.  This is where they lose me.  I can’t understand the link from the New Pretties to the Middle Pretties.  Supposedly, the New Pretties’ purpose in life is to party all the time.  Then they pick professions and go on to lead lives of purpose until they become Late Pretties (or Crumblies) as they get older.

When do the Middle Pretties get their skills for these professions?  How does a society evolve (devolve) to the point where an entire segment of people are encouraged to party all the time on the government’s dime?  How do you convince these people to stop partying all the time and get to work?  Who does the unseemly jobs?

I understand that these questions might be answered in later books, but from what I have heard form people who have read them, this might not be the case.  I also understand that some people feel that I am missing the point of the books.  My problem as a writer is that these plot holes are so glaring that I can’t look past them to enjoy the message of the book, especially when said message is beating about the head and soul with an Ugly Stick.

I am not trying to be pedantic, but if the message is this blatant, you should add some depth to the story by fleshing out the world and answering some of the obvious questions people are going to have about the society that dwells there.

While I am no fan of Ray Bradbury’s writing style, I so have to admit that he got this right in Fahrenheit 451.   The world in question was completely believable.  The people there did not fully buy into the society, but the vocal majority had the dissenters cowed into grudging submission.  The explanation of how their society’s current dystopic state formed was well conceived.  Furthermore, it explained how the society functioned in such a way that I could accept that everything was plausible.

I’m still waiting on Uglies to get to that plausible point.

EQ: How much of your world do you need to establish and/or reveal in order to achieve reader buy-in.

The Boss and The Books

Tally’s last conversation with the Boss reminded me of some of the questions we talked about after reading 451.

First, what are the similarities/differences between the Boss and Faber?

What forms of resistance do the characters use in each society? Is one more successful than the other?

Also, the Boss has gathered “a representative sample of two hundred years of Rusty-era visual culture. Priceless and irreplaceable artifacts.” Are magazines “priceless and irreplaceable?” Why does the Boss want to save visual culture rather than literary culture like the protagonists in 451?

EQ: What is so important about holding on to artifacts from the past? What are some mediums of culture (like books and magazines) privileged over other forms? What parts of the past should our society be holding on to? Why?

Dystopia-Coming to a School Near You!

Going back to the New Yorker article we read at the beginning of the semester, I was reminded of high school in the dystopic world of The Uglies. Everything from the Uglies v. Pretties, the boundaries between different sections of town, the complete indifference of adults…even the ugly names kids called each other!

This is definitely a story about belonging–belonging to the “in” crowd or not. Conformity versus independence.

So what solution does Westerfield pose to this unhealthy society, and the high school world it mirrors?

Run. Create a new society.

While this is a great solution for Tally and Shay, adolescent readers don’t really have the option to stop going to school and live in the woods. This is where emotionally I wished kids had some escape from the shallowness of high school, but in reality you have to fight your way through most of it. So how do we respond to the Smoke? Is there a place within a school, or our society that is like the Smoke– an alternative to the high school caste system ? And, like the Smoke, what is the sustainability of such a place?

I guess my EQ is–Is Westerfield’s alternative society-The Smoke-really the best solution? What about when you can’t run away from the cruelty in the world? Can we think of any better solutions?

One Last Look

Post Sept 17^th- Stop and Drop Journal

-          Up to pg. 382: Tally and David are able to break into Special circumstances, but they run into a few obstacles along the way. They end up knocking Dr. Cable out, and then Tally sees Shay. Yet, Shay is no longer really Shay—they have turned her pretty. Will Shay still be the same? Did they change her brain too? Does she know about Tally’s motives for coming to the Smoke now?

-          Up to pg. 397: Tally and David are able to rescue the others, including David’s mother. However, we find out that David’s father is already dead; we don’t know how or when he died. Tally and Shay escape on a hoverboard together, but as Tally is talking with Shay she realizes how different she is after her surgery. Shay’s brain has been changed as well, which is ironic because Shay was the one who fought so hard against the surgery at first. Have others been changed? What happened to David’s father? Will Dr. Cable find them after they’ve escaped?

-          Up to pg. 414: Tally and Shay are joined by the others except for Maddy and David. They need some time to grieve with each other over David’s father, Az’s, death.  Maddy also begins trying to figure a way in which they can reverse the damage done to people’s brains when undergoing surgery. She finally comes up with a pill that could possibly do so; yet, Shay is unwilling to take the pill because she could end up as a vegetable. Tally realizes the subject has to be willing, so volunteers herself. WHAT?! Doesn’t this mean Tally will have to become pretty too? Isn’t that just what she wanted in the first place?

-          Up to pg. 425 (the end): Tally decides to go back with Shay to the city in order to get caught on purpose. She first has to sign a document agreeing to take the pill once pretty. David is against her going back, and he is scared that they will try to change her memory like they did his father and kill her on accident. Yet, Tally and Shay return to the city and do get caught by a warden. Will Tally be made pretty? Do they try to change Tally’s brain too?

-          Predictions for the Pretties: I think Tally is rescued by David and her brain is changed back. She then convinces Shay to take the pill too, and they all begin to capture and change pretties back into their normal themselves.

EQ: If you could re-write the ending for the Uglies how would you write it? What would Tally decide to do?

Wait, what just happened?

-          Up to pg. 304: Special circumstances has arrived and Tally wakes up to complete chaos in the Smoke. She tries to convince herself that this invasion has nothing to do with her, but deep down I think she knows she is the one who brought them here. She attempts escape, and tries to escape with Boss’s stash of scared magazines but ends having to face a special because she doesn’t have shoes. Tally is captured and put into a pen with other smokies, and she seems to have resisted against the specials. Yet, Shay finds out that Tally caused this and she ultimately seen a s traitor to the smokies. What will happen? Will shay and Tally be reunited? Will Tally choose to become pretty because she fulfilled her promise to the specials—even knowing what she knows now?

-          Up to pg. 318: Dr. Cable calls upon Tally from the library of the Smoke. She wants Tally to bring back the pendant (but she probably knows that Tally has already destroyed it, which leads me to wonder why she let Tally go with another Special to find it?). Of course Tally has to outsmart the special, steal a hoverboard, and get out of the Smoke as quickly as possible. She out flies her pursuers and climbs into a cave where someone is there waiting for her. Who could it be? A Special? A Smokie? David? Tally?

-          Up to pg. 332: David is in the cave already when Tally arrives. She explains to him what all is going on, and they wait until th next day to head back to the Smoke. They find much destruction, and also find Boss-dead. Tally recalls Dr. Cable saying they would kill if they needed to. They begin to wonder who else they lost during the invasion, and David knows they have to see his parent’s house and if they are alive. Will Az and Maddy have survived the invasion? Were they captured? The Specials must realize how valuable the two could be knowing what they know about the surgery.

-          Up to pg. 347: David and Tally are lead to believe Maddy and Az were taken by Specials are they were able to get away. Yet, they know they have to go to the city in order to help the others who were captured. At this point, David still doesn’t know about Tally’s motive behind coming to the Smoke in the first place. Is going to tell David about why she originally came to the Smoke? Will he forgive her after/when he does find out?

-          Up to pg. 366: Tally and David make their way to the city and have to plot a way they can invade Special Circumstances in order to save everyone else. They decide they have to come up with a diversion of some sort in or to divert attention from themselves. They recruit some ulgies who question whether David is a real person or not—thinking he was made up this whole time. These new friends will be who they use to distract the Specials. Can they really trust these new “friends”? Will they all get caught in the process?

EQ: What types of questions do you ask yourself when are reading a text? Do you ever make predictions as to what you think will happen next?

Westerfield’s Words

As I read the Uglies I felt that Westerfield really had a way with imaginative words and a distinct which way he captured certain images. Yet, the dialogue exchanged between characters also drew me in many times as well. Sometimes the simplest phrase really put a specific character into perspective, and I could picture them in my head saying their line. Once Tally entered into the Smoke, I picked out some interesting phrases, sentences, and quotes from characters which really intrigued me.

-          Pg. 230: “The physical beauty of the Smoke also cleared her [Tally’s] mind of worries. Every day seemed to change the mountain, the sky, and the surrounding valleys, making them spectacular in a completely new way. Nature, at least didn’t need and operation to be beautiful. It just was.” I think these descriptive sentences really jumped out to be because of the change in syntax within the paragraph. Westerfield has these longer sentences with lots of adjectives and added information, and then all of a sudden you have nature being beautiful—and “it just was.”

-          Pg.234: “The vibrasaw purred through heavy vines, parted tangled underbrush like a comb through wet hair, and sliced cleanly through metal when the odd misstroke brought the cutting edge down onto the track.” Not only did the imagery of this passage stick out to me—“like a comb through wet hair,” but the fact that these actions seemed glamorized in Tally’s eyes where at first she couldn’t believe they cut down trees.

-          Pg. 244: “Eating alone reminded her of the days after her birthday, trapped as an ugly when everyone knew she should be a pretty.” Being ostracized by everyone is something which tends to follow Tally, however I think the fact she considers herself “trapped as an ugly” is ironic because she now has the chance to be pretty. Yet, she considers her friendship with Shay to be more important and than her own feelings.

-          Pg. 267-268: “Tally remembered crossing the river to New Pretty Town, watching them have their endless fun. She and Peris they’d never wind up so idiotic, so shallow. But when she’d seen him… ‘Becoming pretty doesn’t just change the way you look,’ she said. ‘No,’ David said. ‘It changes the way you think.” The fact which Tally seems to figure out what being pretty means and David finally says is outloud is a great play on the one-way dialogue exchange between these characters. She even uses the word “idiotic to describe the New Pretties right before David explains the surgery changes the way they think.

-          Pg. 278: “ ‘But first you see my face. You react to symmetry, skin tone, the shape of my eyes. And you decide what’s inside me, based on all your reactions. You’re programmed to!’ ‘I’m not programmed. I didn’t grow up in a city.’ ‘It’s not just culture, it’s evolution.’” The word programmed is what caught my attention within this passage. It seems as if Tally even knows that everyone walks around like computers, being instructed what to do and where to go. She then blames it on evolution because if you just do what you’re told then they won’t end up like the rusties, right?

EQ: In your own writing, what methods do you use to capture the reader’s attention? Long, detailed sentences? Vivid imagery?

Wester-topia

Westerfeld has the perfect writing “formula” and it is all about marketing.  I admire the guy, I wish I could do the same.  He chooses his language, dialect, vernacular, diction, syntax, and more, to develop his characters and implement his plots . . . and it all targets teens – perfectly!  However, Westerfeld creates a lexicon and philosophy of his own, which he probably takes into his other books.  For example, what he says about the Rusties is true, we are wasteful and destructive to mankind and the environment. When are we going to learn that nothing good comes from war?  When will learn that the gooey sap that comes from the ground is the reason we kill? Uh-oh! better get off my grand stand here.

Now, back to the author and how he uses figurative language, etc.  He is very good with metaphors and similes. For example: (pg 97) “Teeth replaced with ceramics as strong as a suborbital aircraft wing (what in the heck is that?), and as white as the dorm’s good china (now, that is profound!).”

(pg 101) I love this simile when Tally is describing a middle or late pretty (I like these labels better than “seniors”) “like some regal animal of prey.”  Westerfeld almost describes a stalker.

(pg 199)  I might have mentioned this before that Westerfeld carefully incorporates technical content about social topics concerning teens of today.  For example, he chooses words that are technically correct about Anorexia.

(pg 105) Westerfeld’s metaphorical description of Dr. Cable (steel cable) is associated with sharp things.  For example, he emphasizes Dr, Cable’s voice as having an edge hidden, like a piece of metal. Her face is also “sharp” and angular. She grows colder, like steel. (pg 107) Dr. Cable retorts like a razor blade sliding back into her voice.  These are very vivid descriptions that design this character in a very devious and cruel way.

(pg 309) The author uses “slang” to engage his teen readers.  They react well to that.  In this scene, the Special is trying to locate a hover board and tells Tally that it is under “the rapchuck, which is an old-fashioned thingie where the roofline connects with the abbersnatch.

Westerfeld uses figurative language such as:  slang, metaphors, similes and even some synedoche (Pretties, Specials, clear-cutting, SpagBol) to add linguistic punch to his writing.

I might add more to this later.

EQ: What are some current public policies that you find disturbing, and do you think you could do anything to help change them?