# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Anarchy refers to the state of a society being without authorities or a governing body, and the general confusion and chaos resulting from that condition. It may also refer to a society or group of people that totally rejects hierarchy.

In practical terms, anarchy can refer to the reduction or ending of traditional forms of government and institutions. It can also select a nation or any inhabited place that has no system of government or central rule. Anarchy is mainly supported by individual anarchists who suggest replacing government with voluntary institutions.

The word anarchy comes from the ancient Greek ἀναρχία ( anarchia) "without, not" and ἀρχή ( arkhi), "ruler, authority". Together these words refer to the state of a society being without authorities or an authoritative governing body.

Images for kids

Hunter-gatherers are considered to be living in an anarchistic society

Map of Somalia showing the major self-declared states and areas of factional control in 2006

The entrance of Freetown Christiania, a Danish neighborhood which claims autonomy from local government controls

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Anarchy refers to the state of a society being without authorities or a governing body, and the general confusion and chaos resulting from that condition. It may also refer to a society or group of people that totally rejects hierarchy. In practical terms, anarchy can refer to the reduction or ending of traditional forms of government and institutions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
DYSTOPIA | Common Characteristics & Examples in Popular Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Way back at Comic-con 2011, Scott Westerfeld graciously allowed me to corner him at the last possible moment - on the last day, after his last signing, literally minutes before they turned off the lights - to talk all things Uglies and more. (But I should probably warn you - after four days of Comic-con-ing, my brain matter was virtually leaking out my ears, so I'm a bit of an idiot in this interview...)

SW: I think the first kind of post-apocalyptic-y book I read - which is not the same as dystopian, but kind of the same - is the Tripods series by John Christopher. Those were totally formative for me (it was the same kind of thing: civilization has fallen, there are evil alien overlords). So I grew up with those and I think those were the first dystopian/post apocalyptic type of thing I read.

Byrt: With the Uglies, you were taking on fun things in terms of modern culture - our obsession with celebrity and our obsession with beauty. Were you inspired more by modern day things you wanted to take aim at, or did it come from that old love of dystopia?

SW: There was a part of the Tripods series, where when you turn 16 you get capped - you get this plate put in your head, which is supposedly a sign you're a man or an adult, and of course it turns out to be a terrible thing - and I pretty much ripped that off from John Christopher in the Uglies. And the other aspect of it was I had these friends, and a sister-in-law, that do special effects/visual effects, and one of my sister-in-law's jobs was to erase a boil from this famous movie actor's hands because He Can Have No Flaws! So I was watching the way that the people on the screen who kids idolize and want to be, are actually - not only are they chosen for being incredibly beautiful, but then they have these visual effects guys go through and fix every imperfection they have. So it was more about representation in terms of photography and movies than it was about plastic surgery itself.

SW: I think it's why we all, when everyone looks at any picture of themselves, their first reaction is: ggaahhh, what a terrible picture of me, why are my pictures so bad? And it's because you don't have a lighting guy and a makeup guy and a special effects person and everybody else who can go through it and make it perfect. It's not damaging, but I think it can be if you don't become aware of it. And so all I really want to do is, not so much send a big message about personal appearance not being important as just make people aware of it. Once you see through the curtain, you are armed and forwarned, and you make it less of a big deal. You just have to get over it - just like many other things in our culture, you have to realize that it's trickery and it has nothing to do with you.

Byrt: The evil sci-fi plot of distracting people from the really important things in life - do you think there's any parallel today, with our obsession with celebrity culture, in that people aren't paying attention to politics, etc?

SW: Well I think people have always been that way. We're monkeys, we're villagers, and the village gossip is always going to be more important to us that the fact that the crops are failing, or what else is going on. I think that's just a function of the way we're wired as social beings. So celebrity culture is probably not that different from Paleolithic village culture, where people worried about who Crog was sleeping with more than the fact the goat people were coming to wipe them out. It's not that surprising and it's not that different, it just - like all things - has been perfected by technology and capitalism.

SW: The Uglies was successful, so I said to myself, well, they're going to have to publish whatever crap I write next, so I might as well write whatever I actually want to write. And so I made a big list of all the craziest things that I would ever put into a book - living airships, walking machines, girls dressed as boys to do cool stuff (all the stuff that's in there). And I sort of wound that all together into one big World Word I ish tapestry - and I played Diplomacy as a kid, so I liked the politics of World War I - and I just thought it would be a fun melange of things to do. And illustrated books - like the old fashioned boys own adventures - were also a thing I wanted to recapture, which is why the book ended up with these lovely Edwardian illustrations by Keith Thompson. So it was more about making a weird list of everything I thought was cool and chucking it into a book, which is not my usual receipe. Or anyone's I don't think. Hopefully.

Byrt: Do you feel responsible at all for the steampunk trend?

SW: Steampunk has been around since 1987 - I think, if anything, I may have legitimized steampunk in YA in the United States. It was already happening in Britain with Philip Reeve and Skybreakers, whose author's name I've forgetten -

Byrt: Ship Breaker?

SW: Skybreaker - there are many books in that series, why am I spacing... It's a British steampunk series. I think steampunk has been more common in the UK than the US. It just never crossed over here because it's all Victorian - I don't think we got it. All I've done is made it a little easier to sell in the US, and hopefully those guys will find a home here.

SW: Certainly the Skybreaker series, Philip Reeves' books, The Hungry Cities chronicles. Not YA, but perfectly good for YA readers is Cherie Preist's Boneshaker series - Ganymede, Dreadnought, all fantastic books, full of derring do and Steampunk goodness (it's Civil War steampunk, so it's very American). And many more I'm sure, but that's what I've got now though. Here, on Sunday, at Comic-Con...

SW: Yes! There is a company called Lola that does facial special/visual effects - they did Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt getting older and younger), they did mapping of the twins in The Social Network (the one actor playing two parts, so they had to map a face onto another body), and same thing with Captain America when they turned whats-his-face into a 90 pound weakling. They also just recently did the Harry Potter stuff, where they did the schlubification of the Harry Potter cast, to make them look old and schlubby looking. So what they do is facial special effects, and they are just the perfect people to handle something like Uglies, where you want people to be ugly and pretty and to really do something at a technological level to make it kind of real and interesting. So they are on board and they're funding the development, and they have a sister company called Hydraulx which can do all the hoverbord-y explode-y stuff. They have found this wonderful screenwriter, Jake (Pullman), and it's all sort of falling into place.

SW: Not at all, that's outside of my field of expertise. But they really are listening to me, we've had a lot of really good conversations. They get what the books are. They pay attention, not only to me, but to the fans. When I did a blog post a while back saying, what would you have me tell the producers of this film? There were 360-something comments, and they read them all. The next time I talked to my producers they were like, oh yeah, we went through that. They're going to get the books and the story, as well as the special effects. The story is going to be maintained and it's going to be awesome. Hopefully.

Byrt: And in the meantime you've got the Uglies manga coming out.

SW: Yes, there's the wonderful Uglies manga, by artist Steve Cummins and writer Devin Grayson, who has written Nightwing and Batman stuff for DC, and lots of other stuff. And I outlined the whole series, and it's going to be four 200 page mangas, all of which are from Shay's point of view. So it's basically the Uglies series, but told from a very different point of view. It starts 6 months earlier, back when Shay and Zane knew each other as Uglies, and the Prims were an Ugly gang rather than a Pretty gang. And so it's a very different take on the whole world, and you'll learn that Tally doesn't always necessarily percieve the reality of the situation.

SW: I'm approving every character design, every frame, every panel, every script line, so it's not really that bad. It is more about the fact that I've never written a graphic novel before and I have respect for the fact that if people get good at doing a thing, you should let them do it, and not pretend that you can do it too. Not to say anything bad about people who venture out bravely, like Suzanne Collins, into new media - I think that's amazing too, but that's not for me. But I've really enjoyed learning about how to write graphic novels from watching Devin and Steven and my editor at Del Rey manga all work together on this, and sticking my oar in when somebody says something that's not happy making.

SW: Yes I am! It's the one novel-y thing I've written - unillustrated, not a graphic novel, just a regular prose novel. But we'll see what comes of it...

SW: I'm surprised at how readers, male and females, are a bit more robust than marketing categories would have us believe. And I think once you've found an author that you really get, I think you follow them anywhere. So I'm not worried about that.

SW: My adult books - The Risen Empire and The Killing of Worlds - are total space operas. I have gone there. I don't know if I'll ever go there in YA form, but it has happened. That itch has been scratched.

Thanks again to Scott Westerfeld for taking the time!

Shay's Story, the Uglies manga, is out now.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Way back at Comic-con 2011, Scott Westerfeld graciously allowed me to corner him at the last possible moment - on the last day, after his last signing, literally minutes before they turned off the lights - to talk all things Uglies and more.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
By on

Suzanne Collins's 'The Hunger Games' has plenty of blood, guts, and heart
Thanks to a cruel futuristic government, 24 children are chosen by lottery to compete in the annual Hunger Games-a fight to the death that's televised live. How did you come up with that idea?
It's very much based on the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, which I read when I was eight years old. I was a huge fan of Greek and Roman mythology. As punishment for displeasing Crete, Athens periodically had to send seven youths and seven maidens to Crete, where they were thrown into the labyrinth and devoured by the Minotaur, which is a monster that's half man and half bull. Even when I was a little kid, the story took my breath away, because it was so cruel, and Crete was so ruthless.
You're not kidding.
The message is, mess with us and we'll do something worse than kill you-we'll kill your children. And the parents sat by apparently powerless to stop it. The cycle doesn't end until Theseus volunteers to go, and he kills the Minotaur. In her own way, Katniss [the heroine of The Hunger Games] is a futuristic Theseus. But I didn't want to do a labyrinth story. So I decided to write basically an updated version of the Roman gladiator games.
What inspired you to write it?
One night, I was lying in bed, and I was channel surfing between reality TV programs and actual war coverage. On one channel, there's a group of young people competing for I don't even know; and on the next, there's a group of young people fighting in an actual war. I was really tired, and the lines between these stories started to blur in a very unsettling way. That's the moment when Katniss's story came to me.
Why did those programs speak to you so deeply?
When I was a kid, my dad fought in Vietnam. He was gone for a year. Even though my mom tried to protect us-I'm the youngest of four-sometimes the TV would be on, and I would see footage from the war zone. I was little, but I would hear them say "Vietnam," and I knew my dad was there, and it was very frightening. I'm sure that a lot of people today experience that same thing. But there is so much programming, and I worry that we're all getting a little desensitized to the images on our televisions. If you're watching a sitcom, that's fine. But if there's a real-life tragedy unfolding, you should not be thinking of yourself as an audience member. Because those are real people on the screen, and they're not going away when the commercials start to roll.
What was the most difficult part of writing the story?
When you're going to write a story like The Hunger Games, you have to accept from the beginning that you're going to kill characters. It's a horrible thing to do, and it's a horrible thing to write, particularly when you have to take out a character that is vulnerable or young or someone you've grown to love when you were writing them.
You began your career writing children's TV. Are you still doing that?
I have been freelancing on a Nick Jr. show called Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! I adore it. It's a very fun preschool show that's set in this imaginary town called Wuzzleburg. When I was working on The Hunger Games -there's not a lot of levity in it-I'd do a Wubbzy script. It's an enormous relief to spend some hours in Wuzzleburg, writing an 11-minute episode, where I know things are going to work out just fine and all the characters will be alive at the end of the program.

Rick Margolis is SLJ 's executive editor. The Hunger Games (Scholastic) is the first book of a trilogy. Turn to page 176 to read a starred review of it.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A Killer Story: An Interview with Suzanne Collins, Author of 'The Hunger Games' | Under Cover

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
By on Suzanne Collins's 'The Hunger Games' has plenty of blood, guts, and heart Thanks to a cruel futuristic government, 24 children are chosen by lottery to compete in the annual Hunger Games-a fight to the death that's televised live. How did you come up with that idea?

# data[].attributes.headline
The Rising Popularity of Dystopian Literature

# data[].attributes.subject
The Rising Popularity of Dystopian Literature

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Dystopian fiction has grown as a genre and continues to evolve today. One of the first dystopian novels to become famous was George Orwell's 1984, which is still one of the top-selling dystopian novels today. Recently, there has been a rising popularity of dystopian novels. These novels have been transformed into popular movies that have made millions of dollars. There is a uniqueness to these novels that made them immensely intriguing to people and famous in today's society.

The concept of dystopian literature is to not only entertain readers, but to let them understand the ideas and characteristics of a dystopian society. These characteristics are shown through our own society but at a more drastic level. The reader gains more knowledge by finding ways in which the topics the author writes about is relevant to today's society. This style of writing is so popular because it makes readers think of interesting topics that seem realistic, yet fictional. The rising popularity of dystopian literature among adolescent audiences is prominent in today's pop culture due to its relevance in young adult's lives, its direct comparisons to current events in today's world, and its originality in relation to other genres.

The relativity of dystopian literature to young adult's lives is a component to why the genre is so popular. The reasoning behind this is how the stories are written. Young adult dystopian literature today is mostly in an adolescent's perspective. For example, The Giver by Lois Lowry published in 1993 was one of the first dystopian novels written in a teenager's perspective. Most of all dystopian novels are now written in this style, such as The Hunger Games, Divergent, and The Maze Runner. No one knows why there was such a gap between the dystopian novels from Lois Lowry's The Giver to Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games. Lowry is honored to think that she was one who started this fad, but she now says, "Dystopian fiction is passé now." ( Lowry). Dystopian literature dates back much further than 1993 with George Orwell's 1984 being written in 1949.

One component to the relativity of young adult dystopian literature is that they are written in a teenager's perspective, which is unusual for traditional literature. Young adults, with the drama and the hormones, are trying to figure out who they are and what they want to be in life. With dystopian novels, the character is perceived as someone with independence and ambition. For example, "So I learned to hold my tongue and to turn my features into an indifferent mask so that no one could ever read my thoughts" ( Collins 6). This explains Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games and how she understands herself as an individual. This gives reassurance to the reader who is at similar age to the protagonist of the story. They admire how the author shows the protagonists insecurities and concerns such as their love interests and body image. The readers, especially in young adult dystopian literature, can take themselves to an alternate universe in which the character lives and feel like they are in the story. This concept makes it easy for them to relate to the protagonist.

Societies within young adult novels and how they are structured connect to the universal high school experience. The Hunger Games is about the protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, who fights to the death against other adolescents in an arena due to the government creating life or death game situations in order to control society and its actions. The Hunger Games can be compared to high school as a "...cutthroat race for high-school popularity becomes an annual televised fight" ( Stevens). Readers may see high school as a dystopian society because of the political stigmas that could possibly exist. There are social classes, upper class being the popular kids and lower class being everyone else. The "popular kids" run the school and mandate the status quo. This assumption is made for the stereotypical high school student. young adult dystopian novels can give young readers different types of advice whether it is love, conflicts with the school, or other classmates.

Divergent written by Veronica Roth is another dystopian novel that can be compared to a high school environment. Divergent is about a teenager protagonist, Beatrice Prior, who faces the faction Erudite to prevent them from overtaking the government. She is Divergent, a person who has the characteristics of each faction. This is perceived by other citizens as dangerous because it is rare and is considered a threat to society. In the young adult novel, there are groups of people called factions. There is Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Erudite (the intelligent), Amity (the peaceful), and Candor (the honest). These factions can be compared to cliques within a high school like the jocks and nerds.

For example, "Beatrice Prior... is a lifelong Abnegation who chooses at the last minute to become a Dauntless-basically, an Amish girl gone Goth" ( Stevens). This idea sends a negative message until readers meet the main protagonist, Beatrice Prior. Beatrice is born with a gift that makes her fall under none of the categories of these factions. She represents all the factions because she shares each of their characteristics. The government disapproves of this society of people because they do not fit neatly into a certain faction and could convolute the entire social system. She teaches the reader that it is okay to be different from everyone else because it brings out the beauty in people when you understand who they really are. There is a moral to the story in many of the young adult novels. In Divergent the underlying moral is to be oneself and show that it's acceptable to be different from those who feel they must hide who they truly are.

Young adult dystopian novels are known for their metaphors such as comparing the issues within the book to the current affairs in our world. Dystopian themes touch many controversial issues we face today, from school shootings to Middle Eastern women challenging cultural gender norms. The most covered subject in this genre is the government and its corrupted ways. In young adult dystopias, the problems are more recognizable and easily solves by the reader compared to real world issues. For example, "...it introduces...the problems of today's society and allows them to escape to a world where good and evil are more black and white than our own" ( Khood). Though a majority of the young adult population knows almost nothing about current events, these dystopian novels put them in a frame of mind conducive to thinking critically about current events. Dystopian novel authors make this concept intriguing by adding love interests and drama. Teenagers are not interested in what goes on in today's world because much history needs to be factored into each problem in order to understand the predicament. With dystopian novels, the problem is clear and needs almost no information to be explained.

The idea of rebelling against the government to teenagers is quite outrageous until they see how it is done in dystopian literature. Though this genre is fiction, the situation seems realistic because the problems within the novels can be compared to problems within our own country or world. These ideas give hope to young adults to think that they can speak up for what they believe in whether it is in school or about the government. For example, "... they reflect the economic unrest in America today and allow teenagers to believe that they can make a difference." ( Khood) These brave characters in these novels are admired by millions of adolescents and they want to be like them with their heroic courage. This mind-set gives them confidence that their voice matter no matter what the topic is over.

Young adults now do not comprehend the idea of government and how powerful it can be especially in America because of our democratic government. We are not enlightened in how cruel governments and militaries are around the world. By reading these kinds of novels, we get a main idea of how insane some societies and governments can be. Parents might have a problem with this concept because they do not want their children to be exposed to these extreme ideas. Teenagers like how dystopian novels are honest with their readers and they treat them like adults with the ideas they display. An example of this is, "...politicians, military people and corporate moguls are capable of doing awful things - meaning dystopian novels feel kind of honest" ( Astor). The bluntness given from these authors is attractive to the reader because teenagers do not enjoy things that are sugar-coated. They want honesty and to be treated like adults so they enjoy reading this sort of writing style.

With everything that is happening in young adult's lives, young adult dystopian novels are an escape from reality. Teenagers are forever known for their "best and worst" years of their lives. From high school parties to girls' first love heartbreak, teenager's lives are like a rollercoaster. These novels parallel to teenager's moods in how they escalate situations in an instant, and then a completely different mood is set up while reading. Young adult dystopian novels are known for their intense plot twists. These twists make these novels intensely popular because it causes adolescents to engage themselves into the book. The characters are so well liked and "we're fascinated by the terrible things these characters face, and by how some react bravely and some react cowardly or with resignation" ( Astor). Dystopian novels are much more than just books; they are problem-solving situations. All these combined intriguing components have greatly escalated the allure and popularity of this genre.

One of the most interesting parts of the most popular dystopian novels is that the protagonist is a female. Though the main character is a female, she has a powerful male presence in the story and takes on stereotypical male obstacles. This is because the authors of these books want to make the character relatable to both genders or want to make strong female characters as a challenge to society's gender norms. An example of this is, "...readers can experience a level of freedom from oppression and freedom to play with gender not possible in the real world." ( Smith). This is a good way for male adolescents to see a female's perception in a male fitted situation. With these roles, a male or female could play both roles and there would be no need in changing any part of the book.

This makes it attractive for both genders to read rather than a specific one. Young adult dystopian novels "...encourage different ways of thinking about gender and sexuality, departing from what is normal and teaching acceptance of varying forms of identity and self-expression" ( Smith). The idea of a female playing a non-feminine role has instantly attracted a huge audience and made this genre extremely popular among all ages.

Some of these dystopian novels have such an influence on women's lives because it introduces to them the idea of females playing a non-feminine role. The female roles in these novels are masculine to some degree, but they also have feminine characteristics. All of these concepts are so popular because it causes such controversy. This includes males and females who are on the fence about these ideas that this controversy caters to. The authors create a good balance of making sure the character is not too masculine or feminine so that the protagonist can be relatable. For example, "Her comfort with her masculinity is assumed, and her transgression of traditional femininity is in fact not transgressive at all." ( Smith) The protagonist is pleased with who she is and this is symbolic to independent women. They learn to be their own individual and do not depend on other people for happiness or survival.

Given all of these examples of the rising popularity of dystopian literature, there are many purposes to this original genre. One purpose being that it is more relatable to the audience. This genre of books has an emotional effect on people and how they feel about the world and on different issues they face. The basic focus of dystopian literature is to make readers think about how these dystopian societies relate to the real world.

In the end, the dystopian genre has been alive and thriving for many years. Teenagers' love for dystopian novels have created a whole new business for movies, merchandise, and more. No one can predict whether this genre will continue its popularity but it will allow our present generation more open-minded due to the ideas these novels share on government, military, society, and culture. The real question is will young adult dystopian literature continue it's popularity or slowly disintegrate and begin another fad in literature?

Works Cited

Astor, Dave. Why Do We Like Dystopian Novels? Article Byline Information . 19 October 2012. 25 October 2014 <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-astor/why-do-we-like-dystopian-novels_b_1979301.html>.

Collins, Suzanne. "Chapter One." Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. New York: Scholastic, 2008.

Khood. The Hunger Games and Importance of Dystopian Literature . 28 April 2012. 25 October 2014 .

Lowry, Lois. The Giver Author Lois Lowry Says Dystopian Fiction Is Passé Janey Tracey. 13 August 2014.

Smith, Hannah. "Permission to Diverge: Gender in Young Adult Dystopian Literature." University of Puget Sound Sound Ideas (2014).

Stevens, Dana. "Why Teens Love Dystopias ." Slate (2014).

What do you think? .

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Rising Popularity of Dystopian Literature

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Dystopian fiction has grown as a genre and continues to evolve today. One of the first dystopian novels to become famous was George Orwell's 1984, which is still one of the top-selling dystopian novels today. Recently, there has been a rising popularity of dystopian novels.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to recognize a dystopia - Alex Gendler

# data[].attributes.body
How is this Dystopia? How do you feel

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
One Day in the Future -- What if humans were extinct? What would the planet be like then? This isn't a nightmare or a dream because there is no dreamer. Imagine a future world in which humans are gone, extinct, what record would remain to memorialize our existence.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The meaning of the word dystopia has changed since British MP John Stuart Mill first used it in 1868. Mill - who was also the first person in the history of Parliament, believe it or not, to advocate suffrage for women - coined the term to criticize the government's policy in Ireland: "It is, perhaps, too complimentary to call them Utopians, they ought rather to be called dys-topians, or caco-topians. What is commonly called Utopian is something too good to be practicable; but what they appear to favor is too bad to be practicable." Nowadays, we associate the word with any work of fiction that depicts a "bad place," typically set in the near future. Here's my roundup of books that help track the evolution of the "bad place" in literature, from Tudor times to 2013.
Samantha Shannon is the author of the new book "The Bone Season."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
8 Dystopian Books Just As Good As 'The Hunger Games'

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The meaning of the word dystopia has changed since British MP John Stuart Mill first used it in 1868. Mill - who was also the first person in the history of Parliament, believe it or not, to advocate suffrage for women - coined the term to criticize the government's policy in Ireland: "It is, perhaps, too complimentary to call them Utopians, they ought rather to be called dys-topians, or caco-topians.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Appeal of Dystopian Novels for Teens

# data[].attributes.subject
The Appeal of Dystopian Novels for Teens

# data[].attributes.body
What do you see? What do you feel?