January 28, 2014

Top Ten Types of Worlds I'd Never Want To Live In

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week we're discussing the top ten worlds we'd never want to live in. Rather than simply listing ten specific novel worlds, I'm going to mix it up with some more general types of worlds that I've never, ever want to inhabit. Because that's more fun.

First, some specifics:
World of Lois Lowry's The Giver — A world without collective memories? Where you're told just how advanced/self-sufficient you should be at each age? Where you're given a career, a spouse, and children by the governmental system? Where you die when the government decides you should? Where there's no color at all? No thanks.
World of Neal Schusterman's Unwind — Absolutely nothing about this world is okay. Nothing. Abortion is not something that should be an option years after the child was born - it's not abortion at that point, but murder. Also? Unwinding is the creepiest, most disturbing thing I've ever read about.

A little more generally:
Worlds with an intense class system  Sure, I sometimes have fun trying to imagine which class I'd place myself in if I was part of this society. But class and rank systems are inherently unfair and are a great breeding ground for insurrection. (ex. Divergent by Veronica Roth)
Worlds undergoing an alien invasion  I don't believe that many aliens making the effort to travel to Earth would completely lack ulterior motives. As in, I'm pretty sure any aliens that travel to Earth would be planning on colonizing or destroying our lives. (ex. The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey)
Worlds undergoing a Biblical apocalypse  Have you read the Book of Revelation? It contains some pretty terrifying stuff. Mass destruction, plagues, vengeful angels. Honestly, I'd prefer not to be around if for any Biblical apocalypse. (ex. Angelfall by Susan Ee)
Worlds undergoing a zombie apocalypse
  Mostly because I know I'd be one of the first people to get eaten. Just eaten, with no potential to even turn into a zombie. Not that I'd want to have that happen to me either. (ex. This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers)

And even more generally:
Any dystopian world  Because let's be frank: a key facet of any dystopian world is the oppression. Even though most portrayals of dystopian worlds feature a revolution of some sort, there's a reason that the uprising happens. Dystopian worlds suck and generally exist to limit and control one's rights. Also, there's no way I'd be brave enough to fight against a powerful governmental system. Nor lucky enough to survive such a rebellion.
Any paranormal world  This is with the caveat that I'm not a paranormal being myself. I think it would kind of suck to be surrounded by all these paranormal beings and know that I'm normal and therefore boring. I don't want my distinguishing trait in such a world to be my humanness or play the role of the bait/sacrifice/be constantly in danger, and that's generally what happens to humans in paranormal-being infested worlds.

These are just the tip of the iceberg, really. I wouldn't want to live in a large percentage of the fictional worlds I read about, although I still do love reading the stories that take place within them. Please let me know what types of worlds you'd never want to live in!
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Amanda

Amanda loves few things better than sitting down with a cup of tea and a book. She frequently stays up far too late, telling herself she just needs to finish one more page. When she's not wrapped up in the stories of others, Amanda works as a children's librarian in a public library.

6 comments:

  1. I can't say that I'd refuse to live in any paranormal world myself, because I rather like SOME paranormal beings and settings, but I'm with you on the dystopian scenarios. I just recently read Uninvited by Sophie Jordan and I think that particular scenario - a world of horrible prejudice - would be the worst of them all.

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  2. Amanda, like you I wouldn't want to live in a lot of these worlds but I'd love to live in Hogwarts, Narnia, the Seven Kingdoms from Kristin Cashore's work, Libba Bray's paranormal Roaring 20s, and the world of Kate Elliott's Cold Magic. I'm not going near these dystopias or apocalyptic locations, though. Nopeeee! ;)

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  3. Good list, I agree that the world of The Giver isn't one that I want to live in the whole no color thing brothers me almost as much as the release thing did. I agree that any world that has an apocalypse isn't one where I'd like to live because I wouldn't survive there either and even if you did life would be kind of miserable. I believe that no one should ever want to live in a dystopian world because those worlds are screwed up and I agree with not wanting to live in a paranormal world since it's not a save place but I don't think being human automatically makes you boring I've seen characters that are human in paranormal series that are written and used very well in that they're a big help to the group rather than the designated victim.

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  4. The Unwind world is crazy freaky. I'd totally be the first to get eaten too although I'd like to think that's not the case but I try not to lie to myself. lol I love a good dystopian story but they would sure be hell to live in. Great list!

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  5. It's funny that you mention you probably wouldn't want to live in the majority of fictional worlds you read and yet you still enjoy reading the book because that's how I feel as well and it's very curious why that would be. Of course I completely agree with all your choices here. I bet I wouldn't be able to last one minute in an apocalypse setting! Yup, definitely one of the first ones to go.

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  6. The Biblical apocalypse in Angelfall... nope. Those guys creep me out, the scorpions? *shudder* And definitely nothing with an alien invasion. I would suck at surviving any of these. lol

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