Dystopian Capitalist

My book: Still wanting to write about the dystopian capitalist future, a la Jennifer Government. See also my post on Orgarden City. I've started reading Asimov's Nemesis just to get a sense for future writing, exposure to scifi from one of the acknowledged greats. I didn't ever read him, because one book I read of his, I could not understand very well. Of course I didn't understand Faulkner either, but the style was enough to keep my interest. Bradbury on the other hand has a great concept in Fahrenheit 451 but I could not get past his style. I won't be reading Bradbury. Asimov on the other hand is relatively accessible in the book I'm reading, and actually I'd be interested to find the book I read as a teen which was so confusing the first time around. I think it was one of the Foundation books, but I don't know.

I also saw Idiocracy last night, from Netflix, and it wasn't absolutely awful. It was a great concept, but admittedly small budget. The atmosphere clearly harks back to Brazil, but the comedy echoes Mad TV (never mind that the leading female is from SNL). There's a great capitalist bit in there about a Gatorade-like product completely replacing water for everything, including watering crops. Then when water is re-introduced, the company's stock goes to zero and its computer automatically lays off its workforce. The fact that the head of that company is played by Thomas Hayden Church is only a reminder that it's been 10 days and I still haven't seen Spidey 3.

The other dystopian future with a capitalism-gone-wrong as a side point was Michael Bay's The Island. There's enough money out there that people can actually buy clones of themselves. The movie never really verged into serious assessment of the morality of whether or not the clones are human beings, nor was it very serious in general, but the idea that money can buy an entirely new functioning body, not only is the height of capitalism (the offer of eternal life) but could be treated seriously in my book. The one I've yet to write.

Sometimes I feel that the best I'll be able to do is a re-hash of what's been done, only mixed a little differently. Where would Star Wars be without the knights of the round table, damsels in distress, and evil tyran lords Lucas used to piece together a fun new tale of intergalactic adventure?

And then I think of Nabokov. Entirely original even in this world of regurgitated concepts. I can see the end result but I (seem to) have no way of getting there. Entirely original? The concept stresses me already.