"DIVERGENT"

We watched Divergent on HBO recently. It's yet another of the ever-growing Young Adults in Dystopia genre, and the first of yet another trilogy, this adapted from the novels of Veronica Roth. The movie didn't meet with much critical acclaim.

Ingredients are as per popular YA in Dystopia recipe: Young female (or male) heroic figure, set in a city or country in post-war, post-environmental catastrophe, or amid some pre- or post-apocalyptic state of affairs. Visions of the future in YA novels are always dark and post-something nasty. Whether such scenarios are meant as an allegory for general adolescent and teenage angst, or as a precient peep into the future by the authors of these novels and the movie-makers, is up to audiences to decide, if they even think that deeply about what they've watched or read.

Divergent is pretty run-of-the-mill YA dystopian fare. Husband wasn't keen on it, while I quite liked the movie. An astrologically-tinted lens applied to some parts of the storyline is an interesting experiment.

The story is set in a walled-in, devastated, Chicago. (Nothing is mentioned about other parts of the USA, or indeed other parts of the world - perhaps the novel or sequel enlightens readers on this front). The city's population is segregated into "factions", determined by individual temperament. People within each faction provide the service for which they are best fitted, personality-wise. The factions are: Abnegation (public servants - they pretty much run things for the community); Erudite (highly intelligent egg-heads who would like to overthrow Abnegation's seeming seniority); Amity (the farmers and peace lovers); Candor (lawyers, judges); and Dauntless (the brave and fearless "protectors").

At age 16, after going through some techno-assisted aptitude testing, each person must decide to which faction they choose to belong - for life. To be outside of these distinct factions is a definite no-no. Factionless individuals, those who decline to belong to a single faction, or are thrown out of the faction they chose at age 16, are relegated to remain a part of a poor, hungry, and homeless group.

Anyone with a "feel" for astrology might understand why I soon began, from time to time, viewing the movie through a wider, astrologically-slanted lens. The humors: sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic ; the elements: Earth, Fire, Air, Water; the modes: Cardinal, Fixed, Mutable; and, naturally: "What's your sign?" Human nature, identity, conformity..... labels. Labels can be useful, but are never a good thing when taken to extremes, ignoring diversity.

This, first film of the trilogy, sets the scene. We watch development of the young heroine, Beatrice, who comes from an Abnegation family. At age 16, somewhat conflicted, she chooses to join the Dauntless faction and changes her name to Triss. We're taken through her initiation and training, her learning to confront and deal with her inner fears. We meet her Dauntless companions, some of whom are clearly sociopaths! We also meet the Erudite faction's leader, Jeanine - another version of Thatcher/Clinton/Wicked Witch of the West, this time played by Kate Winslet.

Ms Winslet is one of a couple of slightly older and more widely known star names in the cast, no doubt included to entice adult bums onto cinema seats. Ashley Judd is the other, playing Beatrice's mother. The rest of the cast were new to me, including the lead actress Shailene Woodley, and her love interest (well there always has to be one) Theo James, who I would have recognised had I been a fan of Downton Abbey. Full cast list HERE. The two young leads played their parts very well, I thought.

Beatrice/Triss has no sociopathic tendencies, she doesn't fit in completely with the Dauntless faction - this is something gradually realised by her, as well as by shrewder members of the Dauntless leadership. I'll reveal no more detail, except to say that the film's title describes its heroine, and others who have become factionless, the Divergents, and are feared by leaderships because of their ability to think and act differently from those whose diversity of thought and skill have become stunted by continued segregation and manipulation.

Whether young adult audiences will watch this film and realise that, as well as a tale of a young woman's rite of passage, padded by a mild love story, there's a not very veiled criticism going on, an allegorical representation of some of today's problems. A potentially menacing whisper of what it would be like to live under a totally controlling leadership is there for any paying attention.

Jeanine (Thatcher/Clinton/Wicked Witch of West) says more than once during the movie that the original plan to segregate the city's population came about because of human nature. Human nature had been responsible for the horrendous war that left the city (and presumably the world) in such a calamitous state . I have to, reluctantly, agree with Jeanine on this point. I've often written on this blog that human nature (which astrologers contend is brought about by the place planet Earth has in our galaxy, and perhaps in the universe as a whole) is at the heart of our troubles.

No doubt, initially, segregation was tried with good intention, but arrangements and rules had been allowed to become too extreme, overly authoritarian - human nature at work again. (They say, "You can't fight city hall" - even less human nature!) The city had become nothing less than a fascist regime, using social engineering, mind manipulation via chemicals, and no doubt other nasties, possibly to be revealed in sequels. Chemically-induced mind manipulation was at its worst in Divergent's version of dystopia when used on members of the Dauntless faction (supposedly the brave and fearless "protectors") to force them to follow orders - orders which would result in genocide - or at least in "factionicide".

Divergent uses elements which have appeared in just about any other Young Adults in Dystopia movie or book one could name, whether of the blockbuster or lesser-known variety. While it's interesting to discover how many different ways there can be of cobbling these elements together, it'll surely soon be time to create some new ideas and fresh material!

The Maze Runner

We saw The Maze Runner at the weekend. My idea - husband would probably not have chosen the film but, having seen it, declared it "okay" (his usual response after watching one of my favourite dystopian themed films, to which I've dragged him along).

I had no great expectations of this, yet another in the current glut of "YA" (Young Adult) novels adapted to film. Movie moguls must have found this genre to be a good way of nurturing a new generation audience , possibly spurred on by the success of TV's Twilight series (no relation).

I got to wondering what my generation had, comparable in novel or film form, during our "young adulthood". Was it Little Women, Treasure Island, Gulliver's Travels, Moonfleet and so on? I don't recall going to the movies to see film version of those though. I'd watch anything at all, whether I understood fully what was going on or not. I'd go to the cinema with anyone who'd take me. The first movie I remember seeing, with my parents, maybe at age 6 or 7, was Cover Girl, with Rita Hayworth. Later, when parents were busy with their business, Grandad Scott would take me to the movies once a week, sometimes twice. We'd see all kinds of black and white films, most of which I didn't understand but found always fascinating. That was during childhood, rather than young adulthood though. Once into teen years I saw every musical film available, loved them all! They were my young adult fare.

But I digress.

The Maze Runner, is adapted from James Dashner's book, the first of a trilogy which has since spawned a prequel. I'd read that this film reminded some reviewers of Lord of the Flies. I understand why. The story features a group of teenage males, who find themselves alone in a very strange environment. There are also whispers from Logan's Run and any number of recent YA offerings. I was even reminded too, at times, of The Great Escape.

The young guys are trapped within an area known as "The Glade", surrounded by high walls outside of which lies a perilous concrete maze. After sundown the maze is patrolled by nasty murderous entities called "Grievers". The walls into the maze slide open during daylight hours, enabling "runners" to exit and explore, trying to find a safe way out...but out to what?

Why they are there, how they can escape, argument as to whether they even wish to escape, form the basis of the tale.

YA movies centre on adventures involving teens "saving the world", or simply saving themselves, without aid from adults. There's minimal, if any, romance and certainly no heaving naked copulating bodies ten minutes into the film (a blessed relief!) No bad language, maybe a veiled message or two. Plots, which mainly travel well-trodden paths, can be cleverly multi-layered to appeal to adults, as allegory, in the best of YA offerings. I didn't find much to be allegorical in The Maze Runner. Messages? Maybe. I found the story to be considerably less layered, less thoughtful than The Giver for instance, far more comic-bookish. I haven't read anything by James Dashner, but it appears he appeals to his young target audience well enough and doesn't need to include any layering.

I haven't decided whether I'll be making an effort to see sequels, and don't feel any strong urge to read the books. I did enjoy the film. The acting is very good overall; maze scenes are excellent. The movie's closing scenes were, for me, off-key - a bit clumsy and clunky, not up to the quality of the rest of the film. The immediate impression I got, from those last scenes, was that lots of lies are being told. Maybe in the sequel films some allegorical content will grow from that, but I'll not be holding my breath.

An upcoming movie I'm most anxious to see, a real sci-fi story with space ship an' all, is Interstellar, due for release in the USA on 7 November.

Dystopian, Plutonic/Scorpionic and Teenaged.

The other day I came accross a mention of the growth in recent years of a new sub-genre in the Young Adult Fiction category: Young Adult dystopian novels. A selection of such novels, with mini-synopses, is included in a list at Bart's Bookshelf.

What all these have in common, of course, is that the novels' main characters are all teenagers, struggling to live and survive in worlds filled with difficulty and oppressive elements of one sort or another. These assorted difficulties and challenges possibly stand as metaphors for problems teenage readers are experiencing in their own lives, in (relatively) non-dystopian surroundings.

I'd guess that today's young people, growing up in a world of Facebook, Twitter, wall-to-wall internet, video games, laptops, smartphones, i-pads etc.etc. would not be content to read the kinds of books my generation was reading at their age. Although.....actually, thinking back, my favourite reading theme at that age was about escape from prisoner-of-war camps during World War 2 - the basic feel of a need to escape, from something, was still there.

The recent crop of YA dystopian novels are, presumably, written by adults. Adult authors would seem to be tapping into some communal need to exhale some of the crappy stuff going on all around them, every day, as well as filling a desire of young readers who need an escape valve for their own "issues".

We shouldn't be surprised to see some of these novels adapted for the cinema soon, following today's current leader, The Hunger Games. Teenage dystopia is, in fashionista-speak, "the new black".

Astrologically - anything to be said? Hmmmmm - Pluto (things dark and scary) transited its sign of rulership, Scorpio (dark and scary) roughly 1984 to 1995, those years, or at least the middle to end of the span, cover the birth years of the generation now among the targeted readers of Young Adult dystopian novels. A young readership probably already satiated and bored of Twilight's (no relation) tales of vampires or werewolves, has moved on now to Dark Dystopia.