Let's rewind

Dear Joshua,

For our week on dystopian literature, I chose to read a second book since I knew this would be a good genre for you. (Yes, I like it too...) My professor brought some books in for those of us who chose to read a second book for this week. Laying on her desk were a handful of books, one of which was M.T. Andersons Feed, the first book I reviewed for this blog. I picked up one that had a fuzzy human figure holding up their hand, pressed to what looks like a screen. I was instantly reminded of Requiem for a Dream, particularly when the mother is tripping on the speed she thinks are diet pills (which, I guess in some sick and twisted way, could be true). If you've never seen the movie, wait until mom and dad are gone, watch it on dads giant TV and try not to cry yourself to sleep that night. That scene at the end...*shudder*.

Task at hand! I chose that book with the cool cover (Unwind by Neal Shusterman) only after reading the first sentence on the inside flap: “In a society where unwanted teens are salvaged for their body parts, three runaways fight the system that would ‘unwind’ them.” I was hooked. So basically, in this futuristic world, no one is donating organs and the pro-lifers and pro-choicers are still at odds with each other. So to kill two birds with one stone, it is now common legal practice to retroactively abort a child once they are between the ages of 13 and 18. They are “unwound” and 100% of their body parts are distributed to other people. How does this satisfy the pro-lifers? The kids are still technically alive. Ever heard of muscle memory?

This book could have easily been made preachy. The author could have imposed his views but he chose not too. You only get the idea that chopping up body parts and distributing throughout the country (Need a left big toe? No problem!) while keeping these people alive is wrong. Duh. So we have to ask ourselves how on earth we would ever get to such a point. Here’s a link to an absolutely true report from 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6171083.stm

I’ll stop right here for now. I suggest you read the book and start tackling ethics on your own. The things you find in Unwind are issues that are going to be discussed, fought over, and voted on for a long, long time.

--Paige