Teenage Future Dystopia: What the hell happened to the rest of the world?

[Nickolai77]

It could be because authors imagine highly developed world building isn't something of great interest to your average teenager, whose understanding of the world is based largely around their experiences with school, friends and family. The target audience for the Hunger Games- some 12-16 year old female American, isn't going to be terribly interested in the political and economic aspects of the fictional world that don't immediately concern the characters, let alone what happens in other places like Europe and Asia.

That said, I can think of some good examples of highly developed worlds (I.e- Star Wars universe) that certainly capture the interest of young people, so I wouldn't really agree that teenager's aren't interested in fictional worlds outside of their real life experiences.

I think though that highly developed world building for dystopian teenage fiction isn't something high up the priority list for the authors- far behind things like plot and character building and the general concept behind the novel.

 

[briankoontz]

There's all kinds of nasty shit going on all over the place in the real world - where's the international community to step in to get rid of NSA data collection, for example?

Where's the international community to step in to handle Ferguson, Missouri?

Everybody's got their own problems. The United States has one of the wealthiest populations on the planet so it really shouldn't need much outside help. This, as far as we know, typically remains the case in fictional future dystopias based in the United States.

Wealthy countries should help out non-wealthy countries, not the other way around.

 

[Zontar]

There's all kinds of nasty shit going on all over the place in the real world - where's the international community to step in to get rid of NSA data collection, for example?

Where's the international community to step in to handle Ferguson, Missouri?

Everybody's got their own problems. The United States has one of the wealthiest populations on the planet so it really shouldn't need much outside help. This, as far as we know, typically remains the case in fictional future dystopias based in the United States.

Wealthy countries should help out non-wealthy countries, not the other way around.

But that doesn't make sense in these fictional countries. Even with the more well off taken into account the US is pretty much always dirt poor in these settings, and there isn't even lip service to the idea that there are other countries out there, when in such a case there'd be either an invasion or a massive propaganda war.

 

[Spartan448]

I've always assumed that in all those post-apocalyptic dystopian novels and games that only ever talk about America, the rest of the world is perfectly fine and unchanged. Literally the only problems are in the US.

 

[briankoontz]

But that doesn't make sense in these fictional countries. Even with the more well off taken into account the US is pretty much always dirt poor in these settings, and there isn't even lip service to the idea that there are other countries out there, when in such a case there'd be either an invasion or a massive propaganda war.

Which works of fiction are we talking about? I'm going to watch Divergent tomorrow, but as of now I've seen both Hunger Games movies and I haven't seen The Giver. So I'll just cover the Hunger Games universe detailed in the first two movies here.

The Capital is very wealthy, even it's "ordinary" citizens are well off. Little is said or shown of most of the other districts, but the impression I get is that some (probably the lowest numbered ones) are reasonably well off, with the highest numbered ones (District 12 the poorest) being very poor. So *overall* the country of Panem is not poor, and if the capital would spread the wealth among the population there would probably be no poverty.

The movies aren't intended to give overviews of the world's comprehensive condition, but based on the wealth of the capital there's every reason to believe that it commands a strong military, both to keep the other districts in check and to oppose outside threats.

I can't even find on Wikipedia what was the cause of the dystopia, so it's very difficult to guess at the condition of the rest of the world. The point stands that none of the characters in the movie ever point out that there IS a "rest of the world".

Lots of countries in the real world go through crises without having an invasion as a result, though you wouldn't know this from modern American antics in the Middle East. Japan had an economic crash in 1997 - no invasion. Argentina had a great depression starting in 1998 - no invasion. Well, I guess you could call the International Monetary Fund moving in an invasion. But we have no idea about the condition of the rest of the world to deduce whether something like that could or "should" happen in the Hunger Games universe.

We have to believe that Panem is not self-sufficient, so there must be imports from and exports to other nations. But that's outside the scope of the plot of the movies so it's ignored.

We're just finding out about the Resistance at the end of the second movie. Logically, this Resistance should reach out to people in other countries for help, but if the criticisms about the insularity of these types of fiction holds true the plots of the last Hunger Games movies will ignore that avenue.