Dystopia

Dystopia:

from Ancient Greek: δυσ-: bad-, ill- and Ancient Greek: τόπος: place, landscape

(alternatively, cacotopia,[1] or anti-utopia)

-in literature, an often futuristic society that has degraded into a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian. (wikipedia.org)

I have read and seen many other dystopian texts. My favorite by far is a young adult book called Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix. If you've seen the movie The Village by M. Night Shyamalan, then you basically know the plotline of this book (by the way, Haddix's book came out first). If you haven't seen the movie, then Running Out of Time is a novel about a community living in the confines of a reconstructed 1840's village when a diphtheria epidemic breaks out among the children. In the beginning of the novel, the people seem content to be there, but it is soon revealed that everyone is being kept there against their will. When Jessie, the protagonist, escapes to find medicine in the modern world (1996), she's forced to adapt to the reality of new technology and social interaction.

Super Sad True Love Story is a dystopian novel because it plays on common themes that mark a dystopia. Like Haddix's novel, Shteyngart focuses on the social decline, but SSTLS also puts particular emphasis on consumerism. Whereas in George Orwell's 1984, the control of the government was to be feared, nowadays, the obsessive need for more is more pressing. In a large part, the economic roller coaster that America is on is indicative of the connection to politics. SSTLS touches on this theme as the American state is completely controlled by the whims of Asian influence. Lenny Abramov is the unlikely (and somewhat tragic) hero that strains against the lack of intimacy and emotion that marks his world. Eunice Park becomes an outlet for his affections.

Intertextuality

INTERTEXTUALITY

Intertextuality is the shaping of a text by one or more texts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intertextuality). This makes me think of the saying that "we are all a product of our times". I think that, not only does Diaz make frequent reference to fantasy lore--Dungeons and Dragons, Dr. Who, and many other texts--he references history as a text. A good amount of the admittedly opinionated footnotes are references to historical places or events. These historical stories shape the novel and the ways in which the characters interact with each other. The era of Trujillo, in many ways, traps the Dominican people into a cycle of machismo and violence. Ironically, Oscar de Leon chooses "the Genres" and intelligence that is often ridiculed. He becomes a product of a different aspect of the times through otakuness. The text also feeds back into itself as an intertext. The story of Oscar's mother, Belicia, and the fuku that follws them is a story within a story that contributes in its own way as well.