Back when things started getting revved up to this level of dysfunctional there was a thought going around that the reason people were so willing to start protesting was the proliferation of dystopian books of the early 2010s. The Hunger Games had trained us for this. Fight the power? Readers knew exactly what that looked like.
That’s why I’ve been getting annoyed at some books I’ve been reading recently.
For example, in The Lost, a woman finds herself in a community where lost people and things go. My major problem with this book is that she fights the reality of her situation. She is described as a reader. But she absolutely could not accept that her reality had shifted. I personally wanted to leave her lost because I felt that the world was probably better off without her and her lack of imagination. How can you be a reader and have that little imagination?
I feel like if a white rabbit showed up and started talking to me, I’d just nod and be surprised that it took this long for it to finally happen.
If a new acquaintance turned out to be a witch or a werewolf, I’d be jealous – not freaked out.
Seriously people, we’ve trained for this. Fantasy readers have filled our brains with these possibilities since we were kids. There is no reason why we wouldn’t just go along with the flow.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go play with my new friend I found in the woods.
What do you think? Would you go with the flow or would you paralyzed with disbelief? Would it be different between readers and non-readers?
