Soft focus dystopias and commentary
First, I said that stories that tell of the world as it is are “out of favor,’” that “we avoid them,” and “publishers push” the happier tales, not that descriptive tales don’t exist. They do exist and we gravitate to them for a reason — they have something of value to offer us.
Second, when was the last time you read commentary about these stories, or read the original stories, or read modern dystopia? I could get into a whole sideline about soft focus dystopias (cc Kady M.) which highlight things that the intelligencia think are wrong with the world, but preserve modern virtue for everything else. I’d start with the Hunger Games arena that provides violence as entertainment but is somehow missing sexual violence. Recall too that this is not Game of Thrones first round of bi-partisan offense. The rape of Sansa was decried as unnecessary to the plot, and I made a similar point then.
Kids’ shows are no different, as I cover in this intro about a Netflix reboot of an 80’s cartoon, which itself was an American kid friendlier version of Japanese anime.
The descriptive stories exist, no doubt. And the powers that be resist them.
