return to a theme - Pretties by Scott Westerfeld

Close on the heels of Wintergirls, I read Scott Westerfeld's Pretties, the second in his series that eerily twists a major theme from Wintergirls around a strong sci-fi premise, and all too literally shapes the characters to fit the scene. There's a one-two punch going on here: Westerfeld created a compelling world for his characters to live in, and characters who stand a good chance to survive and even change it.

In many ways, I thought Pretties outshone the first in the tetralogy, Uglies. The first book in a science-fiction or fantasy series always has the advantage of the reader's wide-eyed wonder. Janet Rowling dithered on her way to introducing the main character, and it worked, because the wizarding world was so fun to watch, especially how an awful muggle like Uncle Vernon interacted with it. JRR Tolkien shows us the placid Shire and introduces the simple hobbits, and simpler dwarves, long before moving on to a plot. And Westerfeld's alt-future world is compelling, but his writing in the second book feels stronger.

One of the fun developments is the protagonist Tally's increasingly complicated relationships, with her friends, her allies, and her society's authorities. Part of the complication is due to the rules of the society Westerfeld set up, in which a central authority tinkers with perception and memory. When this point is abstracted, the premise sounds almost like a postmodern sociology text, but it works well as a plot element. It's also reminiscent of Philip K. Dick, though much friendlier and more action-packed. Dick's characters spent more time in a fog of self-delusion, or believing they were deluded, or not knowing something basic like if they were human, whereas Westerfeld's fly around on hoverboards and have major, dramatic confrontations.

Still, the themes of body image, friendship, and betrayal will resonate with teen readers today. He's cleverly worked the familiar into the strange, and halfway through, this feels like a series I'll continue to enjoy.

Do you have any more words like “searing"?

In Wintertgirls, Laurie Halse Anderson disassembles a very troubled teenager. It’s almost a therapy session, but one page into it, we can’t help but like and almost admire her protagonist, Lia. And soon, very soon, be terribly afraid of her.

Lia’s very good at convincing herself that she’s wrong. Her interior battles take place in interior monologues with strikeout text, bursts of self-loathing, and very bad decisions. Her outward impulses are generous and thoughtful. However, she is trapped in an echo chamber that is coming to light more these days.

She is dying from words.

The brilliance of the book is that it makes for a great read. I’m resisting any adjectives like “searing” because they fall short, and are overused. There is a fishhook quality to this book. I flinched on every page, and couldn’t escape needing to know the outcome. The bait was constantly replenished, too – deft characterization (I knew who Elijah was the moment he appeared), hard scenery (every place is a place we’ve seen, often in pain), and high tension.

Anderson’s book is more than brilliant. It’s also good. It’s part of what should be a national conversation about the terrifying new stresses our social and media environment puts on teens. Maybe we shouldn’t complain so much. Our distant ancestors lived, if they were fortunate, to the ripe, old age of 25 or 30. Kids today (don’t read this in a “get off my lawn” voice), at least in most of the developed world, do not want for physical comfort, food, educational opportunities. The disparities of wealth and access to power that do exist are even highlighted by some as examples of how wealthy we are.

So why should we be concerned with girls who have negative self-images? what is the difference between body image issues and self-esteem?

Low self-esteem weeds the winners from the losers. This is very useful if you need to cull the children in order to have enough food for adults, and if the adults all have to be hard as nails. We have drifted from that – well, for some, it’s an ideal – to the principle that happiness is a human’s right, at least to pursue, if not obtain. And if we’re all equal (again with the Enlightenment ideals), then we should stop culling ther children, and let them develop in their happy differences.

In so many respects, this works. We have consumer-protection laws that reduce the incidence of lead in children’s toys because it’s bad for them. We stopped accepting child labor (onshore) because we felt bad for the kids. There are foundations today focused on evening out the opportunities in schools, because we feel bad for the kids.

And bullying is making the news increasingly as a threat to our kids. It has always existed. It’s long been a concern of parents, more recently one of politicans, to restrict it, or to ignore it as natural, a way of sorting out the bosses from the followers.

One strain of bullying affects teenage girls’ self-image. And it’s not only bullying by kids against kids. It’s bullying by our entire society against kids. The reason, I think, lies in the use of concept marketing instead of product marketing.

Do you ever see a fat person drinking soda in a commercial? Do you ever see sick people going to the beach in paradise on an airline commercial? How about car ads? Drug rehab center ads on late-night tv?

We ingest a steady diet of these images, and tney become us. We are what we eat. And the difference between the ideal and the real causes pain to some, and is a stick others (bullies) use against them.

Anderson’s Lia is that girl. She’s trapped. She doesn’t need the bikini models to tormet her anymore. She is so far past them, she can taunt them instead.

If you can face Lia’s demons, you ought to give this book a read.