Friday, May 28, 2010

Adding to Summer Reading

Last night I created a page title "Summer Reading," listing the books I bought at the Scholastic warehouse that I planned on reading this summer. 

A few days ago, I happened across a blog about dystopian novels written by four (soon to be 5) dystopian authors called League of Extraordinary Writers.

Today, I read a post on League of Extraordinary Writers about Scott Westerfield's series Uglies. I've been thinking about reading (you know I mean buying) this series since a student last semester completed a Wordle project (I'll embed it when I'm on a computer from which I can access my blog) on it for her Language Arts class. It was something the author of the post "There's Nothing New Pretty Under the Sun" said that piqued my interest enough to move it closer to the top of my list of books to read. She says,

But in Westerfeld's story--which progresses through four volumes--the heroine becomes a true heroine fighting back against the establishment and the idea of being pretty.

"Fighting against the idea of being pretty." Wow. This is huge, with the media touting shows like The Biggest Loser and America's Next Top Model, all perpetuating the idea that people are supposed to look a certain way to be found attractive, or to have high self-esteem, to think that there might be a revolution against what pretty is.

I can't help but wonder, if that revolution ever came, if it would be televised. I mean, the mass-produced idea of what beautiful should be is everywhere--especially in the media. Not sure they'd want to change the perception they spent so much time building. 

I suppose we'll see.

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