So, I wrote that review last night about \u201cDo Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.\u201d\u00a0 And afterwards, I was surprised at just how negative my review was.\u00a0 I went to great lengths to stress that I thought it was a well written story.\u00a0 But I couldn\u2019t disguise how little I liked the reading experience.\u00a0 I characterized the problem as being a matter of story type.\u00a0 It was an extreme example of dystopia where all the characters reflected a dismal outlook and nothing happy or positive intruded on the gloom.<\/p>\n
And that got me thinking.\u00a0 Maybe my dislike of this genre was short-sighted.\u00a0 Possibly I was shutting myself off from treasures that lurked around every corner.\u00a0 And in agreement with that idea, I remembered how I had never been able to get myself to finish 1984.\u00a0 I skimmed through it several times but always got bogged down by just how depressing and irritating I found all the characters and plot.<\/p>\n
So apparently, I am a literary lightweight.\u00a0 My guess is that I read fiction for enjoyment.\u00a0 And apparently, I don\u2019t enjoy being depressed.\u00a0 That must explain why I gravitate toward action\/adventure and scientific razzmatazz.\u00a0 I like reading stories where things happen and even if the bad guys are winning the good guys don\u2019t roll over and play dead.\u00a0 Even better, I like it when the good guys are also the smart guys and win in the end.\u00a0 But either way I want there to be someone I can empathize with.\u00a0 And no one can empathize with someone whose highest aspiration is to own a sheep (living or mechanical) and have it live on the roof of his apartment building.\u00a0 PKD\u2019s world is made up of mental cases of one type or another and while you may pity some crazy people, they\u2019re really no fun to read about.\u00a0 Unless they\u2019re somehow funny.\u00a0 And these people weren\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Maybe that makes me shallow but that\u2019s where I stand.\u00a0 If I was writing 1984, I\u2019d have an underground that did more than just exist as a shadow.\u00a0 I\u2019d have them organize and expand and then one day rampage through the politburo and have Big Brother\u2019s head nailed to the highest flag pole in the capitol.\u00a0 Or even if they fail, I\u2019d have them go down fighting, not meekly cower under their beds waiting for the thought police to drag them off to the dungeon.<\/p>\n
But I do wonder whether that puts me in the majority or the minority.\u00a0 Possibly I\u2019m in the majority among my age group but in the minority among the current cohort of readers.\u00a0 So, I\u2019m very interested in how the rest of you out there come down on this question.\u00a0 Are dystopias fun or not?\u00a0 And I\u2019m talking about the real dreary, hopeless worlds.\u00a0 No shreds of joy or hope.\u00a0 Just misery and dysfunction as far as the eye can see.\u00a0 Tell me what you think and list a few examples of the various levels of joyless horror and how you would characterize the experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So, I wrote that review last night about \u201cDo Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.\u201d\u00a0 And afterwards, I was surprised at just how negative my review<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[241,2510,237,4,242],"tags":[5220,265],"class_list":["post-36982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-literature","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-book-reviews","tag-dystopia","tag-science-fiction"],"yoast_head":"\n