a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by b_b
b_b  ·  3733 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: YA fiction teach children to submit to the free market, not fight authority

Totalitarianism isn't bound by state or corporation. It's about control, and can come in many flavors (as was pointed out by PKD, apparently unbeknownst to the author of this piece). Rebellion against control is the tie that binds, not whether or not it's the state or corporate interests that are pulling the strings. Leave it to the Guardian to fuck this up. We shouldn't be citing Sarah Palin's review as evidence that these stories are conservative by nature. The woman is barely literate, and her followers probably aren't attuned to subtlety enough to get themes deeper than Danielle Steele to being with. Of course big movie studios are going to try to get your kid to beg you to buy them shit. It's up to you as a parent to try to explain what the subtext of movies are. It's your failure if you don't. These movies present a good opportunity to have a conversation with kids about all sorts of complex, 'adult' issues. I think it's great that they're popular right now, and if I had a kid, I would encourage them to read Hunger Games, and the Giver, which I read as an adult, and which I think is a really good children's novel. If there were current film adaptations of Brave New World or 1984, would this guy offer the same critique?