Ender's Game, yes. Again, eugenics come into play in that society, but it's brushed over in the course of the story to focus on the issues of children in war. I had to read Handmaid's Tale for a college class, and frankly it put me to sleep. If I wanted to be bashed over the head with gender issues and feminism and the evils of an authoritarian society, I'd slam my head against Bell Hooks instead.
The problem with stories like Handmaid's Tale, The Fifth Sacred Thing, Logan's Run, Atlas Shrugged, 1984, etc., is that they're not really science fiction, nor do they often posit a realistic government/society. It's pushed to an extreme to illustrate the author's point about the evils of that society. I refuse to believe that at some point in the future we would care so little for children and/or the act of procreation (regardless of gender or sexuality) that children would become a commodity. Nor do I believe that a society would willingly accept murdering everyone over thirty as a viable way to control the population. And while there have been fully authoritarian governments on this planet, outright dictatorships, it doesn't seem to have coexisted with poverty and bad health and limited resources - and stayed a government for long. Look at the Soviet Union, for instance. Three, four generations isn't much compared to the longevity of some government systems.
Socialist democracies may, by definition, control many things that in the US are privatized: health care, public transportation/communication, entertainment - hell, in Sweden I was informed there's a list of what tobacco products can be imported, and retailers must order from that, period. However, the democratic aspect of this socialism does mean that, within specified boundaries, people do retain some control of their country's future.
In some ways, China might be a more applicable example if it weren't for that society's emphasis on boy-children. This has produced a number of hidden pregnancies (with contraceptives harder to come by in that regime), which are then dumped if they're not male. A curious side-effect, as a Chinese friend pointed out to me, is that the new generation of Chinese children (up to about age 16 or so now; I think the law was introduced in the mid-80's?) are unbelievably spoiled. Previously, a family was expected to have several children, and any wealth was spread between the children. Having only one child - and that being *it* for your chances - means the one child gets the full effect of the attention and affection that any parent will naturally give their children. It's apparently running rampant now for these only-children to be quite selfish, demanding more and more as the One And Only Child in the family. This is especially distressing to many older Chinese, given their tradition of filial piety to the family; having the roles reversed in just the course of one generation has to be somewhat of a bizarre shock.
But then, that's part of what I mean by the unlikelihood that people would be consistently callous in the areas of children and family. Once the child is born, I would expect my posited world to have scores of children who have everything possible lavished upon them, as living proof of the parents' fertility. Almost as though children become a form of visible weath, in their own right, off-setting any second-class citizenship the fertile minority might feel against a neutral majority.
More to consider, eh? Not that this might ever show up in a story - again, I'm not into pendantic lecturing - but it does make for some interesting tensions and constraints on any characters. And that's part of the fun...
no subject
Date: 22 Nov 2004 05:02 pm (UTC)The problem with stories like Handmaid's Tale, The Fifth Sacred Thing, Logan's Run, Atlas Shrugged, 1984, etc., is that they're not really science fiction, nor do they often posit a realistic government/society. It's pushed to an extreme to illustrate the author's point about the evils of that society. I refuse to believe that at some point in the future we would care so little for children and/or the act of procreation (regardless of gender or sexuality) that children would become a commodity. Nor do I believe that a society would willingly accept murdering everyone over thirty as a viable way to control the population. And while there have been fully authoritarian governments on this planet, outright dictatorships, it doesn't seem to have coexisted with poverty and bad health and limited resources - and stayed a government for long. Look at the Soviet Union, for instance. Three, four generations isn't much compared to the longevity of some government systems.
Socialist democracies may, by definition, control many things that in the US are privatized: health care, public transportation/communication, entertainment - hell, in Sweden I was informed there's a list of what tobacco products can be imported, and retailers must order from that, period. However, the democratic aspect of this socialism does mean that, within specified boundaries, people do retain some control of their country's future.
In some ways, China might be a more applicable example if it weren't for that society's emphasis on boy-children. This has produced a number of hidden pregnancies (with contraceptives harder to come by in that regime), which are then dumped if they're not male. A curious side-effect, as a Chinese friend pointed out to me, is that the new generation of Chinese children (up to about age 16 or so now; I think the law was introduced in the mid-80's?) are unbelievably spoiled. Previously, a family was expected to have several children, and any wealth was spread between the children. Having only one child - and that being *it* for your chances - means the one child gets the full effect of the attention and affection that any parent will naturally give their children. It's apparently running rampant now for these only-children to be quite selfish, demanding more and more as the One And Only Child in the family. This is especially distressing to many older Chinese, given their tradition of filial piety to the family; having the roles reversed in just the course of one generation has to be somewhat of a bizarre shock.
But then, that's part of what I mean by the unlikelihood that people would be consistently callous in the areas of children and family. Once the child is born, I would expect my posited world to have scores of children who have everything possible lavished upon them, as living proof of the parents' fertility. Almost as though children become a form of visible weath, in their own right, off-setting any second-class citizenship the fertile minority might feel against a neutral majority.
More to consider, eh? Not that this might ever show up in a story - again, I'm not into pendantic lecturing - but it does make for some interesting tensions and constraints on any characters. And that's part of the fun...