<–Question of the Week: 11/6/16 Question of the Week: 11/20/16–>
The Question of the Week is posted every Sunday and will consist of a question followed by my answer and explanation to the same. Some questions will only require a simple answer that could potentially be followed by an explanation. Many questions will be writer oriented, but not all. Everyone is encouraged to answer in the comments and discussions/follow up questions are more than welcome!
What’s your favorite dystopian narrative?
More than anything now I want to write a meta about how closely Final Fantasy VII aligns with current society (which was a major conclusion in “The Seventh Is the Darkest”), and I thought this prior to the US election. Stories, no matter their media, serve as mirrors to our culture in addition to warnings. This is just one of the many reasons FFVII is my favorite game and story, and while I sure as hell don’t want to live in that world, I can’t deny it’s my favorite dystopia. Environment destruction, government corruption, lack of bioethics, gross (and in game physically manifested) disparities between the rich and poor, amongst other things are blatantly displayed and sadly ignored as significant due to video games being considered bastard media by a good portion of the population 
Second place goes to Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games, another narrative that is disturbingly close to our reality. Glorification of violence for the sake of the show and the sacrifice of the future (children) as a form of systematic terrorism.
What’s your favorite dystopian narrative? What about it draws you? What about it reminds you of something in society/culture?
I look forward to your answers in the comments!
<–Question of the Week: 11/6/16 Question of the Week: 11/20/16–>
The Shameful Narcissist Speaks 
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To be honest, Black Mirror covers pretty much every dystopian ‘near future’ I can think of with a couple of exceptions. The idea of technology being allowed to progress to make our lives easier but at the cost of something much greater is always an interesting narrative to me.
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That’s on my list of shows to watch! I actually had no idea what it was about, but I was told I should check it out.
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It’s fantastic (although very British at times!) and only has a few episodes which makes it an easy watch. Best of all, the episodes are all stand alone, so missing one does no harm! That’s the perfect series for me. Let me know if you get around to watching it.
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I am so okay with very British 🙂 I’ll definitely let you know when I check it out!
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I definitely agree with your choice of Hungergames. My husband keeps calling Trump President Snow!😕
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The FFVII one is extremely eerie and disturbing, too. I talked about it a few weeks ago when I did The Emperor Card. The president in the game is a heartless business man who’s corrupt company is literally killing the planet. His base is a tower in a city that was actually based on New York D: These are troubling times, and it really irks me how much narratives and their power to predict are ignored (see the Simpsons episode about this very thing).
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Having just finished Station Eleven, I would say that it is a plausible way for the world to go. Essentially an stoppable flu that spreads rapidly, incubates quickly and leaves people dead in 48 hours. (However, I would never call it my favorite dystopian. Just merely one that seems possible.)
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The incurable disease apocalypse is a definite possibility. Huh, I read a book with a similar premise. It wasn’t the world though, just this one town, and it fell a bit short, too. The Devil’s Alphabet It had such potential, but didn’t use it.
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That’s always disappointing.
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It was. The author could’ve done so much with it. He introduced this angle that might’ve explained the virus as coming from an alien universe, but it went nowhere.
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That’s a pretty sweet notion actually. Why wouldn’t you run with that??
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It was like he just ran out of energy with all of his ideas. Shame.
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I think that my favourite dystopian series is the Hyperion / Endymion series by Dan Simmons…I guess you could say that it starts out dystopian, then ends on a utopian note in a way. Four books in all, and I re-read them every couple of years. Excellent series, in my opinion!
“The Dark Tower” series by Stephen King comes to mind as well, now that I think about it.
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Hyperion looks excellent. I just added that to my TBR list, and The Dark Tower is already there. How do you feel about the TV (I think) adaptation that’s in the making?
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I hadn’t heard of the TV adaptation, but I’ll probably give it a pass. Most movies that are based on books do a poor job, so I don’t think that a TV show will do any better.
For instance, I’ve never watched GoT and have no plans to, but I’ll give the book a look at some point.
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The TV show is…well it was really good at the outset, but then slowly declined after Season 4. The books are far better, which is the typical rallying cry, but the nuances and details are so much more exquisite in the writing. If you give it a read, I’d love to know what you think! Also, while the books definitely have a lot of assault, the show goes over the top with it and again misses the nuances of many situations and puts it where it doesn’t exist in the story. It’s irritating.
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LOL – you articulated the exact reasons why books tend to be far better than the shows and / or movies that are based on them!
😎
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Mine is Beyond Good and Evil. I raced through that game trying to put an end to the DomZ’s evil human trafficking activities. So horrifying!
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I’ll have to check that out! I love a good dystopian story.
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It’s such an underrated game! The sequel has been stuck in development limbo for many years now. I hope it sees the light of day eventually.
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