The document provides an overview and discussion of the young adult dystopian novel Red Rising by Pierce Brown. It summarizes the plot, in which a young man named Darrow infiltrates the ruling class of a hierarchical society. It then discusses themes of dystopia and crapsack worlds, the commercial success and potential film adaptation of Red Rising, background on the author Pierce Brown, and comparisons between Red Rising and other works like The Hunger Games in terms of plot points and themes of feminism. It also notes some critiques around the novel's potential use of tropes like fridging female characters and the simplistic portrayal of racial hierarchies.
2. WHAT IS RED RISING?
Red Rising is the first in a young adult Dystopian trilogy that makes no mystery of
its inspirations (the cover itself has this quote from a reviewer: “Ender, Katniss, and
now Darrow”) and the debut novel of Pierce Brown. The novel follows the rise of
Darrow, an enslaved youth who is selected by a rebel group to infiltrate the ruling
class for a chance at controlling a powerful fleet that might help free his people.
Red Rising is 100 pages of scenes from the Hunger Games and 300 pages of totally
rad fight scenes.
From TVTropes:
“A Dystopia is a speculative Crapsack World ruled by repressive forces modeled
after real-life politics.”
“A Crapsack World is a horrible setting where the jaded notion of "anything that
can go wrong will go horribly wrong" almost always applies, and it corrupts its
inhabitants into perpetuating that nastiness against each other. More succinctly,
trying to survive in one of these places is gonna suck.”
Hey girl, want to see
my red rising?
Source: Tumblr
3. BUT WHAT ELSE IS RED RISING?
From Wikipedia:
“[...]Universal Pictures outbid Sony Pictures for screen rights in a seven-figure deal.”
● This deal took place within one month of the book’s publication date, in February 2014
● Ever since the staggering success of The Harry Potter film adaptation series, studios have been scrambling to find the
next big young adult franchise
● See also: Ready Player One which is being directed by Steven Spielberg
● Since 1999, remakes, adaptations, and (more notably) mega franchises have been the biggest money makers for
studios
● Cracked put together a great analysis about the impact of the Harry Potter on the film industry, for better or for worse
4. WHO IS PIERCE BROWN?
“Pierce Brown spent his childhood building forts and setting traps for cousins in the woods of six states and the deserts of two. Graduating college
in 2010, he fancied the idea of continuing his studies at Hogwarts. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have a magical bone in his body. So while trying to
make it as a writer, he worked as a manager of social media at a startup tech company, toiled as a peon on the Disney lot at ABC Studios, did his
time as an NBC page, and gave sleep deprivation a new meaning during his stint as an aide on a U.S. Senate campaign. Now he lives in Los
Angeles, where he scribbles tales of spaceships, wizards, ghouls, and most things old or bizarre.”
5. THE HUNGRY GAMES
● The Hunger Games parallels:
○ Forbidden song
○ Secret meeting outside of the cell walls to hesitantly speak of rebellion and
appreciate nature
○ Gray color palettes inside the cell are contrasted by the outside world:
■ Page 30: “Flickering animals with green abdomens flutter through the black.
Great bugs with iridescent wings rise from the shadows. They pulse with
color and life. [...] My eyes have seen nothing but soil, the flare of the drill,
Reds, and the gray of concrete and metal.”
○ Ostentatiousness and often useless body mods of the ruling class
○ Food scarcity and reward for shedding more blood
○ Upper class stylists willing to risk their lives to dress up the hero
○ Eo / Gale parallels
○ Uncle Noral / Haymitch parallels
● Other Dystopian parallels:
○ References culturally important books from 1900s and earlier
○ All-encompassing surveillance
○ The Big Bad is full of philosophical soliloquies about the dangers of disobedience
You may have Dystopia enter the
battlefield as a copy of any book
on the battlefield.
“Cheat or be cheated.”
6. SONG OF PERSEPHONE
Listen, listen
Remember the wane
Of sun’s fury and waving grain
We fell and fell
And danced along
To croon a knell
Of rights and wrongs
And
My son, my son
Remember the burn
When leaves were fire and seasons
turned
We fell and fell
And sang a song
To weave a cell
All autumn long
And
Down in the vale
Hear the reaper swing, the reaper swing
the reaper swing
Down in the vale
Hear the reaper sing
A tale of winter long
My girl, my girl
Remember the chill
When rains froze and snows did kill
We fell and fell
And danced along
Through icy hell
To their winter song
My love, my love
Remember the cries
When winter died for spring skies
They roared and roared
But we grabbed our seed
And sowed a song
Against their greed
My son, my son
Remember the chains
When gold ruled with iron reins
We roared and roared
And twisted and screamed
For ours, a vale
of better dreams
And
Down in the vale
Hear the reaper swing, the reaper swing
the reaper swing
Down in the vale
Hear the reaper sing
A tale of winter done.
7. HANGING TREE (FROM THE
HUNGER GAMES)
Are you, are you are you?
Coming to the tree
Where they strung up a man they say
murdered three
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met up at midnight in the hanging
tree
Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where the dead man called out for his
love to flee
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met up at midnight in the hanging
tree
Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where I told you to run, so we’d both be
free
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met up at midnight in the hanging
tree
Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Wear a necklace of rope, side by side with
me
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met up at midnight in the hanging
tree
Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where they strung up a man they say
murdered three
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met at midnight in the hanging tree
8. FEMINISM AND RED RISING
Stuffed in the Refrigerator (From TVTropes):
“While it is strictly true that Tropes Are Not Bad, this one, especially as a
catchphrase, is often given a very negative connotation as it is all too often a
hallmark of supremely lazy writing - using the death of a character as "cheap anger"
for the protagonist, and devaluing the life of that character in the process, instead of
giving the villain something actually interesting to do that can involve all three
characters and more emotions than simple anger and angst.”
From Anita Sarkeesian (Tropes vs. Women):
"Writers are using the Women in Refrigerators trope to literally trade the female
characters’ life for the benefit of a male hero’s story arc. They are making clear that
women, even powerful female superheroes, are basically disposable." - Anita
Sarkeesian, Tropes vs. Women
Also see this list of 111 female comic book characters who have been fridged:
“Not every woman in comics has been killed, raped, depowered, crippled, turned
evil, maimed, tortured, contracted a disease or had other life-derailing tragedies
befall her, but given the following list, it's hard to think up exceptions:”
Hey girl, want to see
my red rising?
9. FEMINISM CONTINUED
Ironic sexism (from Wikipedia):
Hipster sexism, also known as liberal sexism and ironic sexism,[1]
is
defined by Alissa Quart in New York magazine as "the objectification of
women but in a manner that uses mockery, quotation marks, and paradox".
[2]
Hipster sexism involves the use of irony in a satirical manner to
subjugate women. It is a form of self-aware sexism that is deemed
acceptable given that perpetrators are conscious of the inherent sexism
and objectification of women in whatever action or statement is being
carried out by them. It is rooted in the idea that sexism is an outdated and
archaic institution which people do not engage in anymore, thereby making
the demonstration of sexism seem satirical and ironic.
See also: Shut up and Sit Down’s Review of Cards Against Humanity
Source: msbrit90
Damsel in Distress (From TVTropes):
A character, usually female, is put into immediate danger in order to put the cast in motion. Her plight unites the cast, causing them to put
aside their differences and work together to save her or provide the premise for The Quest.
She groans. “I’ve become the maiden in distress, haven’t I? Slag! I hate those girls.”
10. NAZIS IN SPAAAAAAAACE
Racial Hygiene (from Wikipedia):
Racial hygiene was a set of early twentieth century state sanctioned
policies by which certain groups of individuals were allowed to procreate
and others not, with the expressed purpose of promoting certain
characteristics deemed to be particularly desirable. The most noteworthy
example is the extensive implementation of racial hygiene policies by Nazi
Germany but similar policies were implemented throughout Europe, North
America and Southern Africa.
The “Golds” of Red Rising are the simplified and stereotypical image of the
Aryan race while the Reds are literally gingers, a trait most commonly
associated with Jews (“In European culture, prior to the 20th century, red
hair was often seen as a stereotypically Jewish trait: during the Spanish
Inquisition, all those with red hair were identified as Jewish.[21]
”).
Source: Iron Sky
"Men are not created equal; we all know this. There are averages. There are outliers. There are the ugly.
There are the beautiful. This would not be if we were all equal. A Red can no more command a starship
than a Green can serve as a doctor!"
