Writing YA Dystopia: Two different thoughts

In a couple months I have to teach a class about writing dystopian fiction, so I'm reading as much as I can on the subject. The question that everyone seems to be asking is: why do teenagers love it so much?

While I don't think that there's a single answer, and I don't mean to claim that all readers have the same motivations, some answers seem much more likely to me than others, and one answer in particular bugs me.

Before I start pulling out the quotes from other stuff I've been reading, let me tell you my theory (which, admittedly, isn't terribly original):

Dystopian fiction is almost always about oppression and control, and there is no group of Americans who views themselves as more oppressed and controlled than teenagers. They're at an age where they are becoming more and more capable--physically, mentally, etc--and yet they're still not allowed to make many choices about their lives. They are in a very structured environment, moving every hour at the ring of a bell to a different room where they learn things they're required to learn, whether they want to or not. Depending on their school, they might not be able to wear what they want, sit where they want, or even set foot off campus during a certain period of time. After school they may work at a job which gives them responsibility, but still no real choices--they can use their minimum wage salary to buy some consumer goods or some fast food, but they can't use that small amount of money to change their situation in life. At home they have to follow their parents' rules, continue studying things they don't appreciate, and do chores--forced labor--for a system they have little or no say in (kind of a taxation-without-representation scenario).

I'm not saying high school or parents or homework are bad. I'm just saying that it's easy to see how teenagers view themselves as oppressed and controlled.

I remember when I was in high school we'd protest everything. The school was less than a mile from the state capitol building, and there was more than one occasion when students would walk out and march up the hill shouting something or other. And it seemed like I was school board meetings every couple of months, joining my friends in the only way we could make our displeasure known. And lest you get the wrong impression, I wasn't much of a hooligan--half the time I was protesting in favor of the status quo, protesting against other protesting teenagers. But the point is: teenagers want to fight for something. They want choices, and they want a voice.

Consequently, it's not at all surprising that teens suck up books like Matched and The Maze Runner and The Hunger Games as though they were the last drops of water in the desert. These books are metaphors of the teenage condition, yet they all have heroic teens who break free from their oppressor's controls.

So, that's my theory about why teens love dystopia. Here's the theory that bugs me:

As author Paolo Bacigalupi put it in a recent New York Times article: "I suspect that young adults crave stories of broken futures because they themselves are uneasily aware that their world is falling apart."

As my brother, Dan Wells, put it on his blog: "Dystopia is huge right now, especially in YA. This is probably due to the fact that we live in one–or, more correctly, this is due to the fact that YA readers are finally paying close enough attention to realize that we live in one."

I have no quibble with either Bacigalupi's assertion that the world is falling apart, or Dan's claim that we live in a dystopia. Both of those claims are subjective, but I'd tend to agree with both, to some extent. No, my complaint is with the idea that our political and cultural climate is what's turning teens on to dystopian fiction--and I especially worry that if you write a story with that mindset it could easily lead to pedantic, plot-driven fiction.

Teens may be paying more attention to world events, with knowledge more readily available at the click of a button, I think they're also more media savvy, and if there's anything that teens DON'T want, it's to be preached to. I have many friends who read James Patterson's Maximum Ride series with pleasure, until it became clear that the book's underlying message was about the dangers of global warming, at which point they quit reading (and some of these friends are environmentalists themselves).

It's not that this second theory about dystopia (from Dan and Bacigalupi and others) is wrong--it's that it's a dangerous mindset for authors to have as they approach their writing, because it implies the most important aspect of the book is the plot: that teens want to read dystopia because they want "What If?" scenarios and extrapolated futures. And I think that's just plain not true. Above all else, most readers want (and teens especially) to be able to relate. They want an emotional connection to characters and situations. They want to say "This character is like me!" not "This corrupt government is like my corrupt government!" If that's lacking, then no amount of frightening, not-too-distant-future dystopia will make the book worth reading.

Disclaimer: both Paolo Bacigalupi and Dan Wells are both fantastic, award-winning authors who write great books with great characters, and I'm sure they'd agree with me that emotional connection is extremely important. I'm merely saying that, as advice to authors, I don't think you should approach YA dystopia with that kind of top-down look.