"Unwind"
by Neal Shusterman
As you know, Diamondhead, I'm an apocalyptic/dystopian sci-fi JUNKY. I read anything and everything from this genre and consider myself an apocalyptic cinema aficionado (fancy word for obsessed).
Sometimes for no reason at all, I quote random lines from my favorites--THERE IS NO RENEWAL!! 
or TAKE YOUR HANDS OFF ME, YOU DAMN, DIRTY APE! 
So, I always am more than a little interested whenever I come across a book or movie that fits this 'world gone cray-cray' scenario and boy, does Neal Shusterman's Unwind fit the bill.
Actually a Young Adult novel, it deals with some seriously dark and mature themes....who does and doesn't have the right to their own life, institutionalized murder (the "unwinding" process), and betrayal of youth by society and their own families. The people who should be protecting them at any cost, routinely betray them and lead them to their deaths, and this is all socially condoned as normal and routine behavior.
Set in a world after a devastating second Civil War called The Heartland War raged between pro-life and pro-choice advocates, peace was achieved by a horrifying resolution: between conception and thirteen years of age, a child must not be touched BUT between thirteen and eighteen years of age, their families could choose the option of "unwinding", a sanitized word for the legalized murder of these youth by taking their body parts and giving them to people in need of transplants.
WHAT?!
Both because abortion is outlawed and this sick alternative is available, teenagers are constantly being murdered for any and every ridiculous reason that enters their parents/guardians heads. For the protagonist, Connor, it is because he is going through normal teen rebellion, for the character of Risa, it is because she is not a perfect piano virtuoso, and for the character of Lev, it is because his religious fanatic parents plan to "offer" him up as a tithe for their "faith".
When reading the summary and detailed reviews of this book, I became interested in the complexity of these themes. Every human being has the right to life, yet within the world of "Unwind", the natural right of these youth to life is denied and they are treated as little more than property. It's a disturbing exploration into a society that has completely devalued the life of youth via psychological mind-tricks: it's not REALLY murder, it's just "unwinding".
In the book, parents and guardians begin to use this 'option' as a crutch or excuse for not being parents. With the case of teen rebel, Connor, his parents choose to simply 'eliminate' him instead of helping him work through what are essentially, transitory, problems.
It's a horrible perspective of what could happen if human beings lost all sense of responsibility for others.
I plan to get this book from my local library, and then perhaps, give a full review when I'm done!
(by the way, I have no idea why my post came out in caps.)
--MyVintageSoul
https://twitter.com/#!/MyVintageSoul
Unwind: Short Film
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9snP4HuRsr4
Amazon and Good Reads
http://www.amazon.com/Unwind-Neal-Shusterman/dp/1416912045 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/764347.Unwind
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Don't worry about the caps. It must be a glitch with Blogger. I also typed in print and my posts have come out in script. Can't seem to fix it either. I'm working with the old Blogger dashboard as long as they have it. They're replacing the old dashboards with the new ones in a few months and I'll have to switch over then.
--DiamondHead
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It's really true that there's 'nothing new under the sun'. Your description of this book Unwind, immediately reminded me of stories I heard of what the Nazis did to German children long before they began killing Jews and other non-Aryans. German children and youths were also killed for being in a sense, perfectly normal--like your character "Conner". Hitler decreed that German men be sterilized if they had even some slight physical defect. And many German men and women were denied the right to have children. This storyline also seems like some crazy crap ultra-right Republicans/Conservatives might do in a dystopian future. It's a form of eugenics repackaged. Doesn't matter that they "allow" children to be untouched in the womb. The important point is that they still don't value life. Children are "unwound" later on if they don't "measure up". I wrote a lengthy commentary on this very subject a while back.
This (and so-called, aryanism) is what is at the heart of eugenics. It's always about imperfect people passing judgement on others and stepping into the role of judge, jury AND executioner. VERY right wing! I've seen people harshly criticize right wingers for protecting life inside the womb while at the same time devaluing life outside the womb. You can't have it both ways without looking like a hypocrite--which is also what they've been viewed as by some liberals. This is young adult material? It's pretty heavy stuff for teens, IMO.
--DiamondHead
--DiamondHead
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It's really true that there's 'nothing new under the sun'. Your description of this book Unwind, immediately reminded me of stories I heard of what the Nazis did to German children long before they began killing Jews and other non-Aryans. German children and youths were also killed for being in a sense, perfectly normal--like your character "Conner". Hitler decreed that German men be sterilized if they had even some slight physical defect. And many German men and women were denied the right to have children. This storyline also seems like some crazy crap ultra-right Republicans/Conservatives might do in a dystopian future. It's a form of eugenics repackaged. Doesn't matter that they "allow" children to be untouched in the womb. The important point is that they still don't value life. Children are "unwound" later on if they don't "measure up". I wrote a lengthy commentary on this very subject a while back.
This (and so-called, aryanism) is what is at the heart of eugenics. It's always about imperfect people passing judgement on others and stepping into the role of judge, jury AND executioner. VERY right wing! I've seen people harshly criticize right wingers for protecting life inside the womb while at the same time devaluing life outside the womb. You can't have it both ways without looking like a hypocrite--which is also what they've been viewed as by some liberals. This is young adult material? It's pretty heavy stuff for teens, IMO.
--DiamondHead
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