So-- I have to confess that I did not get off to a great start with my Book a Month Challenge choice. January's theme is "Time", and it seemed like a good opportunity to read a nonfiction title (I lean toward the fiction side of things). I chose Calender: Humanity's Epic Struggle to Determine a True and Accurate Year by David Ewing Duncan. The topic? Very interesting, a great vantage point from which to observe the way we humans interpret the world around us and how that has changed over time. The writing? Not so great. The prose seemed muddy and unclear. I kept rereading passages, expecting that I would get it eventually, but alas, that did not happen. I admit it-- I gave up, about 4 chapters in.
On a recommendation from a fellow librarian, I decided to read Scott Westerfeld's Uglies. It's a young adult novel, set in a future (Future? Future time? TIME? Get it?!! Of course you do! It's painfully obvious!) where everyone is "ugly" until their sixteenth birthday, when they receive surgery that makes them "pretty". The new pretties are the elite of society who party all night and mesmerize with their symmetrical loveliness. Tally Youngblood, the novel's 15-year-old protagonist, can't wait to be pretty, but her new friendship with another ugly named Shay threatens to postpone her pretty-making surgery indefinitely. Tally ends up joining a group of rebels called Smokies, who have discovered a troubling "side effect" of the pretty surgery. The Smokies are determined to live life a different way, and soon Tally finds herself immersed in their cause. I found the story engrossing and fast-paced, and I am in love with the slang Westerfeld uses throughout the novel. If something makes you uncomfortable, it's "nervous-making". If something is particularly cool, it's "bubbly".
The whole "let's make observations about our current culture through the vehicle of science fiction " idea is really one of my favorite things about the genre, and there is a wealth of social critique to be had in Uglies. Appearance--the increasingly radical things we do to look a certain way, as well as the question of who defines the cultural norm of appearance-- is certainly a hot-button topic in these 21st century days. Uglies also looks at what happens to both an individual and a society when that individual fails to fit in or conform. Is Tally a rebel and a hero, or a troublemaker whose nonconformity threatens to destroy the very world she lives in? Also, what do we lose as human beings when we attempt to create a uptopian society where everyone is supposed to be the same and equal? Can we truly create equality or will there always be those who are different?
Read Uglies, and let me know what you think.
Titles Read:
Calender: Humanity's Epic Struggle to Determine a True and Accurate Year by David Ewing Duncan
Uglies, Pretties, Specials by Scott Westerfeld
Further Reading:
The Giver by Lois Lowry-- This is another YA title, and another look at a uptopian, future society. I obviously love YA books, and I will tell you why. They are often better written than books intended for an adult audience-- a YA author has to try to capture and hold the attention of a twitchy, hormone-addled audience that would rather be doing something, *anything* else than reading. So YA novels tend to be beautifully concise and eloquent, full of heart and truth. The Giver is just such a book, and if you haven't read it, you should.
The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood-- These are adult fiction titles, both dystopian and disturbing in what they unveil about the human psyche. The Handmaid's Tale is set in a theocratic society where women submit to men, and all interactions between the sexes are highly regulated. Oryx and Crake takes the dystopian theme one step further and is set in a future where humanity's obsession with technology and the manipulation of the natural world have ended in global catastrophe.
Are you participating in the Book a Month Challenge? Please post your review in the comments!
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For the BAM Challenge book, I read
The Time Traveler: A Scientist’s Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality
by Ronald L. Mallett, PhD.
At the age of 10, Ronald Mallett lost his father to a heart attack. Inspired by an illustrated version of H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine, Mallett is determined to build a time machine, so that one day he can again visit his father. As an African-American growing up in the 1960s, Mallett faces a number of obstacles. Despite the prejudices faced, he finds comfort in the books he reads, keeping secret his desire to traverse time.
Mallett uses humor when appropriate to tell this sentimental story about his life. He never overcomplicates his explanations of scientific theories. One neither needs to have read or seen the movies he notes as influences or be a science expert to understand the theories outlined. Mallett does a fantastic job of giving the reader enough information, when needed, to read the story unimpeded.
Excellent and touching quick biographical read. I’ll remember this as one to suggest to high school students for biography assignments.
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