Top 10 Must-Reads for the Everyday Sci-Fi Dystopian Fan

With "Elysium" in theaters right now and the appeal of post-acopalyptic fiction in full-drive ahead, the popularity of dystopian fiction is ever-increasing.

Dystopian fiction is the genre that rooted from the original idea of a Utopian society, a phase coined by Sir Thomas More.

Being the opposite of a utopian society, a dystopian one is oppressed by the government and many times induces its citizens to believe it is a world of perfection through means of propaganda or entertainment as pacification.

I read through many of the dystopian novels written from the 18th century to the 21st, here were a few of my favorites.





10. The Running Man by Stephen King (Richard Bachman)

Tells the story from the perspective of a man named Ben Richards who lives in the year of 2025. The global economy has collapsed and Ben must earn money in order to buy medicine for his gravely ill daugther, Cathy. His wife has resorted to prostitution. In his desperation, he signs up to participate in a game show. A deadly violent game show in which he is pursued by hunters and earns top dollars for every hour he stays alive.



 

9. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

A military science-fiction book set in the future. Human beings narrowly escaped complete mass wipeout from the two previous wars fought against the insectoid alien species, "Buggers". In preparation for the next, third invasion, humans have gathered the world's most talented children to be the next fleet commanders. They are tested through a series of "games", including zero gravity, in which their survival skills are tested to the limits.

 

8. The Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Told in the perspective of a young sixteen year old girl named Tally, The Uglies Series takes place 300 years from now. At the coming age of 16, every teenager receives a special plastic surgery in which their appearances and their personalities are changed- forever. Tally is excited for her surgery where she'd finally become "pretty" but when her friend Shay runs away to the rebel City of Smoke and the government gives her an ultimatum, Tally is forced to track down her friend. The secrets she discovers in the City of Smoke was nothing she imagined.


 


7. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

The tale takes place in the near future in a theocratic military dictatorship run by the Republic of Gilead. Earth is extremely polluted and heavily diseased with STDs. The overthrow of the United States government began with a staged terrorist attack that eventually suspended all constitutional rights and stripped women entirely of their identities. The story is told in the perspective of Offred, once a mother and a wife, she is now forced to be a concumbine for a high ranking commander. In the midst of wedlock sex and betrayal, she finds herself in the middle of a secret rebellion brewing against the Gilead empire.



 

6. Soylent Green by Harry Harrison

Becoming increasingly closer to our time, Soylent Green takes place in New York City, in the year 2022. New York City has become over inhabitated with a population of about 40 million people. Homelessness, poverty, and food scarcity is common. People are given food rations produced by the Soylent Corporation, a company who produces processed foods. The Soylent Corp.'s newest product is Soylent Green, a wafer product advertised to be "high-energy plankton". While New York City Police Department detective Robert Thorn investigates the murder of William R. Simonson, a director of the Soylent Corp., he discovers life-changing, disturbing information about the Soylent Green wafer.

 

5. The Giver by Lois Lowry

The book is told from the viewpoint of a young boy in his twelfth year of life. The society has eliminated pain and hardships by converting the people to "Sameness". He and the other children his age are given their life-long jobs. He inherits the position of the "Receiver of Memory" where he is given the responsibility of holding onto the past so hidden away from the people.




4. V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd
Originally published as comic series in the 1980s, V for Vendetta takes place in the late 1990s in Britain after a major epidemic. The British government turned into a totalitarian state. V, a mysterious man with the mask, plots a string of terrorist attacks while killing off former officials who know of his identity. He fights back to show that someone is capable and willing to stand up against the government.


 

3. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Cloud Atlas is a collection of 6 stories from various time periods that eventually tie together to spell out one concept. It spans from the nineteenth century South Pacific to the post-apocalyptic future. Each tale is revealed to be a story that is read or observed by the main character in the next.



 

2. 1984 by George Orwell

A truly profound book, George Orwell depicts what would happen in a totalitarian government that controls all aspects of our life-even our thoughts. Citizens are mind-controlled and trained to be obedient and abstinent by the Party and the almighty leader, Big Brother. Sex has become a feelingless, uncomfortable duty to the Party. Winston, a Party member, finds himself in love with Julia, another Party member and together they engage in months of secret affairs. They're faced with unimaginable horrors as the Party will do anything to control their minds.


 

1. A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Considerably the most relevent to our society today, Huxley describes the World State, where pleasure is always in fashion. People have recreational sex beginning at an early age, take drugs called soma to feel high, and are casted into class systems through advanced means of technology, training their minds as to be perfectly fit for their job positions. In a world where emotional feelings are suppressed with drugs and the idea that "everyone belongs to everyone", a figure enters their world from the "uncivilized" outside, changing their outlooks forever.

On Topic: Procrastination

As a blogger and a high school student struggling to meet far stretches of her own expectations, there's one word I know by heart. And I can almost guarentee you do too.

Procrastination.

Oh, that glorious word that walks hand in hand with pulling all-nighters to finish an anatomy project or serious melt-downs during the last week of summer vacation from all that forgotten AP summer homework.

One second I'm typing furiously away at the keyboard going at my report, the next second I'm completely distracted and absorbed by some internet article about pickles.

Yes, procrastination is undeniably innate in our human characteristics.

It's not a hard choice whether to finish that research report due next week or to watch YET ANOTHER episode of Criminal Minds. {yes, it is my guilty pleasure}

But before you know it, time seems to literally fly out the window and your research report is due tomorrow morning!

 So what do you do?

Well, you rush the thought process and get the dirty job done. Turn it in. Get a C or lower grade.
Then you go home and cry.
And vow how you're never going to procrastinate ever, ever again...until the next season of Big Bang Theory comes on.

And so in this continued cycle of misery and heartbreak and failure, here's some great ideas to stop that procrastinating once and from all. 

Kate's DIY Help: How to Stop Procrastination 

1. Make a to-do list
This will make you feel accomplished and awesome every time you cross out n activity.

 

 2. Finish the hard stuff first
You'll feel like a weight has been lifted off and it gives motivation for the little things.

3. Do two minute tasks
Do the really simple, quick things on the list like take out the trash, feed the dog, call your in-laws (depends on your courage), and check your inbox.

4. Create a work only environment

Put that bag of Lays chips away, clear off the collection of paper receipts from your desk, and focus only on work. No social media, so keep that iphone far away.

5. Give yourself some breaktime
If you really can't seem to concentrate, take a break! Go for a 15 minute walk with your dog, eat a snack, take a nap, or go pee. But NEVER check up on social media, because that can last up to an hour.


6. Don't be a perfectionist
Get the job done, do the job right. But that doesn't mean every speck of dust needs to be handpicked off the shelf.


7. Grab a friend
Notice how I said "a" friend not "Friends"? This is strictly work time, not a nerd-get-together party. So keep the noise down and focus on work only topics; do not wander down into the "omg, stacy did you see what she wore yesterday" lane. Focus.

MLA Format

On the case of correct MLA formatting for essay writing.






Photosource: homeworktips.about.com


1. Write your first and last name, followed by the name of your instructor, the class subject, and the date in {date, month, and year} format. The entirety of the page should be 1 inch spaced on all sides.

2. The title of the essay is not to be in any other font or size.

3. The body of the essay is double-spaced between lines and 1 inch spaced from the the sides. 

4. Always end the last sentence of an essay with the thesis {good-tip although it has nothing to do with MLA}

5. The header should include your last name and the page number.

To Kill a Mockingbird

by Harper Lee

A summary about the story that describes some key characters.

To Kill a Mockingbird

by Katy Z. 

18 December 2012

 

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is a story about how a young girl, Scout, while explaining the story of how her older brother’s arm became injured, also went through the journey of coming  to understand the deeply etched racial discrimination in her community during the 1960s.  She was taught to learn and understand others’ perspectives before making judgments on them and to practice sympathy. She, following her father’s footsteps, slowly took on the belief that racial discrimination was unfair from the many lessons she learned from the people and events around her.

The town of Maycomb, Alabama, the setting for To Kill a Mockingbird, is a racially discriminative, conservative little Southern community. Many of the deeply set conventions and beliefs about racial segregation and society codes created the plots of the story to arise. In example, “She was white, and she tempted a Negro. She did something that in our society is unspeakable: she kissed a black man” (Lee 272). Experiencing unjustly biased trials of the accused black man, Tom Robinson, Scout slowly began to understand the unfairness of society and of the community she had grown up to trust all her life.

The most influential figure in young Scout’s life was her widowed father, Atticus Finch. Atticus was a prominent and respected lawyer of Maycomb County. He was empathetic and understanding of his children, Scout and her brother Jem, always trying his best to teach them the right way to behave and the righteous way to treat others. He suffered harsh remarks and attacks from the community when he agreed to defend Tom Robinson’s case. For example, “Atticus was leaving the post office when Mr. Ewell approached him, cursed him, spat on him, and threatened to kill him” (Lee 291). However, Atticus treated the disrespect courteously which would have had a profound effect on both Scout and Jem.

Towards the end of the story, the man, Arthur (otherwise known as Boo) Radley, that Scout, her brother, and her friend Dill were infatuated with saved Scout and her brother Jem’s lives. After considering Arthur as mentally violent and demented for their whole lives, they realized the fault in their beliefs. As the story came to a conclusion, Scout finally comes to embrace her father’s words on understanding others.

Overview: Tender is the Night

by Scott Fitzgerald

Tender is the Night

by Katy Z. 

Thematic Statement:

The plot of Tender is the Night revolves around two major themes- the distortion of between relationships and the destruction of jealousy. Many discreet ideas allude to the unhealthy relationships between the characters in the novel. As Nicole Diver and her father Warren shared an incestuous relationship, Justina Bieber in our GC lives in a fantasy-like, borderline-obsessive world with her father, Justin Bieber. Just like how Dick eventually succumbed to his own faults, Emily, who’s supposedly Brittany’s best friend, secretly plans ways to destroy Brittany’s image because she’s jealous of her and ends up destroying herself as well.

Summary:

Tender is the Night takes place on the French Riviera and Switzerland in the early 1900s. Rosemary Hoyt is a young actress who meets Dick Diver and falls in love with him on the same day. Dick and Nicole Diver are seemingly the perfect, glamorous couple but underneath it all, they possess many problems. Rosemary and Dick engage in an affair and the end of Book 1 ends with the turning point in the Divers’ lives; their lives go completely downhill from there. Book 2 starts explaining how Nicole and Dick met at a mental facility in Switzerland. Dick is Nicole’s guidance counselor due to her traumatic, incestuous relationship with her father. They get married and the story returns to the present time. Dick begins to unravel and his world slowly collapses. Nicole divorces him to have an affair with one of their mutual friends. The novel ends with Dick leaving to America but never actually settling down again.

Character Anylsis: Darnay vs. Carton

On the comparison between the foil characters in Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.

Tale of Two Cities: Darnay vs. Carton

by Katy Z.

            In every well written novel there exists two opposing forces of personalities. This allows the reader to fully understand and grasp the characteristics of each individual-by learning his or her counterpart. In Tale of Two Cities, the characters Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton are very different in their nature and background. As the story progresses, similarities begin to surface as well. Locating similarities induces the reader to analyze further in depth. In the novel Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens, Sydney Carton is the opposite reflection of Charles Darnay’s life and personality traits.

           Charles Darnay, a successful business man and husband, appears as though he has the ideal life that every man, especially Carton himself, would want. He proposed to the woman of Carton’s dreams and successfully won her hand in marriage. His quick nature to forgive and forget has, in the novel, offended Carton.                                                                                             “’On the drunken occasion in question, I was insufferable about liking you, and not liking you. I wish you would forget it.’ ‘I forgot it long ago’ ‘Fashion of speech again! But, Mr. Darnay, oblivion is not so easy to me, as you represent it to be to you. I have by no means forgotten it, and a light answer does not help me to forget it” (Dickens 205).                                                                                                                            Darnay, however, has a deadly secret that relates back to his father-in-law’s past and may ultimately be the cause of his death.

            Sydney Carton, on the other hand, is a waste of life and talent, drinks alcohol fervently and works under a lawyer who takes all the credit. He despised Darnay because he was all he could have been.  “Why should you particularly like a man who resembles you…he shows you what you have fallen away from, and what you might have been!” (Dickens 87). His pessimistic behavior shrouds a cloud of negativity over him; he, himself, believes he is a hopeless cause. “[I am a] self-flung away, wasted, drunken, poor creature of misuse as you know him to be” (Dickens 150). He loved Miss Manette, Darnay’s later wife, with a burning passion that Darnay never portrayed, “let me carry through the rest of my misdirected life, the remembrance that I opened my heart top you, last of all the world; and that there was something left in me at this time which you could deplore and pity” (Dickens 151). Besides the incessant alcoholic problems he lives a fairly honest life of assisting an aspiring lawyer.

             These two characters are not from the same background and live very different lives but have their points of similarity. Both Darnay and Carton love Miss Manette dearly and would do any service for her, but Carton to a further extent of sacrifice and devotion, to the possibility of obsession. One interesting similarity is their appearance, which largely resembles each other’s.  “they were sufficiently like each other to surprise, not only the witness, but everybody present, when they were thus brought into comparison” (Dickens 76). These peculiar resemblances of the two characters’ appearances contradict their obvious differences in personality.

            Both characters, Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton, possess very strikingly similar appearances but they in their character could not be any more different. Comparing these differences allows the reader to better understand the significance and personalities of the two individuals. The contrast between the passion-stricken Carton and the blandness of Darnay creates diverse characters. This ultimately results in a fantastic story.