I LIKE Reading About Happy Families, Okay?

[bloodyrosemccoy]

Been wanting to write some of Kuen’s books, in the American Girl Central Series format because I AM A GIANT NERD.* Kuen’s my redheaded sprite doll—you can see her here—an original character who goes back years in my head. I figured it’d be fun to showcase her world the way the AG books do with their historical characters.

The problem is, Kuen lives in a shameless utopia.

See, when I get all pushed out of shape about larger societal problems, yeah, I try to fix what I can, but my escape is to retreat into designing my own utopia. Yeah, yeah, I know, nobody likes utopia in stories, but I think that’s largely because an author’s idea of what makes a wonderful society reflects a lot of the author’s opinions and crazy biases. But by god it sure is therapeutic to sit around designing a world where things went right the first time. And I see nothing wrong with aspiring for utopia. First we just have to all agree on what that is.

Anyway, I try to work at it. Sure, I cheated and made Kuen’s people inhuman, so I can gloss over any possible objections of unrealism by pointing out that Sprites’ Brains Are Different From Humans’. But I also try my damndest to give them a working infrastructure—yes, I worked out the plumbing and the power grid and the government and whatnot. And I also made it so that not everyone is deliriously happy all the time—utopia’s more just my attempt to fix all the completely out-of-whack systems our own world has in place. These people are on their own for being happy within their system.**

But it’ll be interesting to see if I can keep that up when I write the stories—it’s like trying to run a simulation. We’ll just have to see if I can pull out a functioning, interesting story in a world of sunshine and bunny rabbits. Wish me luck!


*More nerdiness: I also have picked a color and a symbol for each of my dolls, as per the AG standard. To reiterate: I AM A DOLL NERD.

**Also, sprites’ brains being Different From Humans’ isn’t always an advantage. You get the odd supervillain much more frequently.

Comments

[cjtremlett.livejournal.com]

I think it's an interesting challenge. Writing about a utopian society and still making it interesting. It can be done, I'm sure. Without resorting to what I've seen in a few books, where either it turns out that the utopia isn't as great as it seemed, or there's a distopia next door making trouble. I can't think of anything I've read that featured a utopian society without one of those issues.

I do get sick of the depressing societies featured in too much SF/Fantasy. I like happy people, too! Happy doesn't have to mean happy all the time, and it doesn't mean everything's perfect. But it's far more hopeful than a lot of what seems to be popular right now. Not mentioning any GRRM names.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I guess it's an experiment to see if cooperative problem-solving can make as interesting a story as competitive problem-solving. OH GOD I SOUND LIKE A MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER.

I get really sick of dystopias. I think their popularity is due to a false correlation: happiness is shallow, suffering is deep. Hell, the Something Is Rotten In Utopia trope also illustrates it pretty literally--happy utopia is only a facade concealing the misery that is the TRUE state of humanity, or something. Dammit, I am an optimist, and I think it's possible for deep, purposeful happiness to exist without making someone else miserable.

I guess a lot of it is a matter of taste, though--and my tastes run toward the happy. I love flawed, but not dystopic, fictional societies. I just wish there wasn't such a stigma on the really utopian ones.