Chain-Gang All-Stars, is set in a near-future dystopia where convicted felons can opt into the CAPE program, and if they survive 3 years of brutal battles they will be freed. Do you think it’s realistic that this type of entertainment would become so popular? With so many extra-judicial killings we’re exposed to on a regular basis, are we being primed for this type of spectacle? What did you think of Wil and Emily, the seemingly “normal” characters who watch the battles and the reality show? How do you think professional sports, cults of personality, and fandom factor into the narrative?
All too true - I could easily see people watching this kind of sport. And I can see the winners gaining fans. I am a little over half through and it is such a vibrant book. Maybe too many characters for my mind but I do know it is depressing. It makes me even more aware of our present day prisons. We are in a mess!
The truly great dystopian novels are great because they present an extreme future but one that is completely plausible. And I think this is a great dystopian novel. Our lust for violence in this country, plus the acceptance that people who do wrong “deserve” whatever they have coming to them, and the way we dehumanize incarcerated people, makes me believe this could happen.
The “normal “ couple are important to the story. They show how people accept so easily what the terrible things we have been taught is ok — the death penalty, the prison-industrial complex that perpetuates cycles of violence and recidivism, extra-judicial violence by cops and citizens like the killers of Armaud Arbury and Jordan Neeley.
As I struggle with the divisiveness of our country between: Right and Left, Blue and Red, Dems and repubs, poor and wealthy, black and white, educated and illiterate... this book is not as farfetched as it reads.
The people with power have always used the powerless like puppets. Convicted folks are not only stripped of many rights, but of their humanity, making them pawns in a game whose rules they don't even understand. They want to live to see yet another day, even if it's just like the day before.
Gosh it seemed so realistic to me. I think the author did a great job using things like our collective willingness to ignore the violence of football (especially toward black bodies), our willingness to live in a country with the death penalty (and its subsequent implications that if you do something bad, you deserve to die... which has obvious ramifications in vigilante thought), our inability to recognize when fame becomes abuse, and the idea that life is something that must be earned to be deserved to the near-future world of the story. I don't normally connect with dystopian worlds, but this seemed so close to the world we already live in that I didn't even bat an eye. I do think that the level of inoculation we get from the news and from media further enhances the likelihood that something like this could realistically exist without too much pushback--we are primed to be passive, trained to view intervention as the work of other people, and rewarded for keeping quiet even when we know something is wrong in our gut. Emily's reaction (and eventual concession) seems to typify this transition, and it was painful to recognize how much I could see of my own compromises in her passivity.
I loved how Nana shows the evolution of Emily, a white woman, from being initially disturbed and put off by the the violence to being all in with the competitors' personalities and drama. Speaking as a white woman, I think society is invested in preserving my purity and my moral superiority, but Nana took that on by showing how little it took for Emily to act on her appetite for drama and violence. I'm grateful that he took time to portray members of the audience and help me see that their conversation and engagement is not much different than we see with current reality shows and violent sports.
I truly don’t think we are. We have always had some form of using the penal system for entertainment, and there are already reality shows set up in and around prisons and jails. We don’t recognize the humanity of criminals and prisoners, and that leaves them vulnerable to these types of exploitation.
I get the opportunity to go half on a one-on-one conversations with Nanw Kwame tomorrow at the Santa Fe International Literary Festival. Any burning questions you'd like me to ask? I'll credit you and this Substack (Shoutout to Roxane Gay) if I use it tomorrow! https://www.tor.com/2023/03/29/nana-kwame-adjei-brenyah-tour/
The above does not correspond to where our society is going. And it is not like that now. One of the primary features of the hypocrite lying American society is the pretense of equality, fairness, goodness, compassion. But that is the fakery. No one would put on such a display as what is described above. They will do the opposite: they pretend they "care." -and then they kill you. Out of "love," right?
Prescient. Reality TV in itself is a bit of this experience. And also the extra judicial killings caught on video constantly... it’s just like that episode of Black Mirror.
All too true - I could easily see people watching this kind of sport. And I can see the winners gaining fans. I am a little over half through and it is such a vibrant book. Maybe too many characters for my mind but I do know it is depressing. It makes me even more aware of our present day prisons. We are in a mess!
The truly great dystopian novels are great because they present an extreme future but one that is completely plausible. And I think this is a great dystopian novel. Our lust for violence in this country, plus the acceptance that people who do wrong “deserve” whatever they have coming to them, and the way we dehumanize incarcerated people, makes me believe this could happen.
The “normal “ couple are important to the story. They show how people accept so easily what the terrible things we have been taught is ok — the death penalty, the prison-industrial complex that perpetuates cycles of violence and recidivism, extra-judicial violence by cops and citizens like the killers of Armaud Arbury and Jordan Neeley.
As I struggle with the divisiveness of our country between: Right and Left, Blue and Red, Dems and repubs, poor and wealthy, black and white, educated and illiterate... this book is not as farfetched as it reads.
The people with power have always used the powerless like puppets. Convicted folks are not only stripped of many rights, but of their humanity, making them pawns in a game whose rules they don't even understand. They want to live to see yet another day, even if it's just like the day before.
Gosh it seemed so realistic to me. I think the author did a great job using things like our collective willingness to ignore the violence of football (especially toward black bodies), our willingness to live in a country with the death penalty (and its subsequent implications that if you do something bad, you deserve to die... which has obvious ramifications in vigilante thought), our inability to recognize when fame becomes abuse, and the idea that life is something that must be earned to be deserved to the near-future world of the story. I don't normally connect with dystopian worlds, but this seemed so close to the world we already live in that I didn't even bat an eye. I do think that the level of inoculation we get from the news and from media further enhances the likelihood that something like this could realistically exist without too much pushback--we are primed to be passive, trained to view intervention as the work of other people, and rewarded for keeping quiet even when we know something is wrong in our gut. Emily's reaction (and eventual concession) seems to typify this transition, and it was painful to recognize how much I could see of my own compromises in her passivity.
I loved how Nana shows the evolution of Emily, a white woman, from being initially disturbed and put off by the the violence to being all in with the competitors' personalities and drama. Speaking as a white woman, I think society is invested in preserving my purity and my moral superiority, but Nana took that on by showing how little it took for Emily to act on her appetite for drama and violence. I'm grateful that he took time to portray members of the audience and help me see that their conversation and engagement is not much different than we see with current reality shows and violent sports.
This book is very hard to read bc there is truth in the fiction. Chilling.
I truly don’t think we are. We have always had some form of using the penal system for entertainment, and there are already reality shows set up in and around prisons and jails. We don’t recognize the humanity of criminals and prisoners, and that leaves them vulnerable to these types of exploitation.
I get the opportunity to go half on a one-on-one conversations with Nanw Kwame tomorrow at the Santa Fe International Literary Festival. Any burning questions you'd like me to ask? I'll credit you and this Substack (Shoutout to Roxane Gay) if I use it tomorrow! https://www.tor.com/2023/03/29/nana-kwame-adjei-brenyah-tour/
The above does not correspond to where our society is going. And it is not like that now. One of the primary features of the hypocrite lying American society is the pretense of equality, fairness, goodness, compassion. But that is the fakery. No one would put on such a display as what is described above. They will do the opposite: they pretend they "care." -and then they kill you. Out of "love," right?
Prescient. Reality TV in itself is a bit of this experience. And also the extra judicial killings caught on video constantly... it’s just like that episode of Black Mirror.
I just ordered it on Audible- thanks for the recommendation 👍
This could easily become popular entertainment and also it sounds like it's very similar to the plot of the movie "The Running Man".
WHy do these not go through? I am trying to write and it does not go through. I am not a paid sub?
This is horrible. I don’t like the elevation of violence to entertainment.
Has anyone gotten to the puzzle Staxxx says about the pinprick of dark and being in the same place? What does she mean by this??