February 4, 2011

Dystopia Vs Historical Fiction

I recently read a book that sparked this curiosity in me. Apart from realistic contemporary reads, my favorite genre has always been High Fantasy. In the last three years though, I've developed a passion for dystopia, and last year I discovered a love for Historical Fiction, hence the YA Historical Fiction Challenge was created to force myself to read more of it. But it wasn't til I read Wither, that I attempted to compare both.

Wither (The Chemical Garden Trilogy)Wither by Lauren DeStefano is an upcoming 2011 dystopian title. Yet it is a future with almost no technology, where men may have several wives, where women are valued merely for their reproductive function, and where women are sold like merchandise and forced into unwanted marriages. Weird right? Could easily be Historical any day. The novel is incredibly atmospheric and the overall feel of it, at least to me, was historical. So it posed the question in my head if these two genres could actually be alike. Then I thought back to when I read The Forest of Hands and Teeth, which if you take away the fact that there are zombies in it, could also have a historical feel. Now, by historical I'm not referring to an event in history but the feel of it being set in the past. Another quality I find similar is the fact that when you read historical you tend to mentally compare modern life to what you read, and the same thing happens with futuristic novels.

What if the world actually got so messed up that we went back to how they lived in the past? What if, in a Y2K scenario, technology dissapeared? Do you actually sit and think about what could happen in the future?

Do you think these two genres are similar?

8 comments:

  1. i think that the dystopians and the historical fictions both focus strongly on setting and social structure...which might be where their similarities arise.

    i'm totally with you about TFoHaT feeling like a hist-fic too. but maybe that's mostly because it reminded me of The Village...

    thanks for giving us something to ponder. :B

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  2. If you want to explore a similar plot with a similar tone (nexus of dystopian/historical fiction), check out THE HANDMAIDEN'S TALE by Margaret Atwood. I'm curious to see how this one stacks up to hers.

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  3. I love it when these two genres come together. It's so interesting to think that the world could get so screwed up that it actually moves backwards in terms of technology and comfort and such. I can't wait to read Wither!

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  4. What an interesting concept...dystopian and historical fiction sharing similar focuses. Having read your post, I'm totally agreeing with you and running through my mind different titles that I considered dystopian, trying to put them in the historical fiction genre and vice versa. Great post!

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  5. That's actually why I love historical fiction, high fantasy, and dystopian, but don't read many contemporary-set books. because I love to read about a different time and place, how their society works, how someone might live in a very different world, how their lives are different from the lives of people today.

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  6. and that is the beauty of books..they make you think.

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  7. I definitely agree with you... especially about Wither, just because it really had a Gothic romance-y feel to it, with the setting. It easily could have been historical in that way. I guess the main difference between most historical and dystopian, is that because dystopians are generally in the future, the characters have a more modern mindset, are more forward thinking. Of course there are exceptions to that too, when civilizations have been broken, and things are like the Dark Ages. Very interesting to think about!

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  8. Wow, I've never really thought of the two genres being alike but they are! Great post!

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