In the post-Rusty, post-Prettytime era, Extra Aya Fuse has a pathetic face rank of 451,396. Her best friend is a hoovercam named Moggle. She wishes she could be more like her Big Face brother, Hiro, whose face rank is less than a thousand. But she needs to find the perfect story to kick if she wants to be anybody in the Reputation Economy after the Mind Rain. And that perfect story is the legendary Sly Girls and their panic-making Mag-Lev surfing.As you can see, reading Scott Westerfeld's Extras, the 4th novel of his New York Times bestselling Uglies series, requires the understanding of a whole different language in this postmodern, futuristic, science-fiction world. A world where currency no longer exists. A world where the only thing that matters is fame.
Let me put it this way. Everyone is this world is Perez Hilton: constantly looking for a story, breaking a story, and relying on increasing hits to survive. Except instead of a computer blog, it is kinda like, planted inside of you...you are kinda...a computerized, mega-version of yourself. And with the flick of a finger your "eyescreen" flashes before your eyes (note the girl's eyes on the cover of the book), allowing you to instantaneously submit stories to your feed, read other people's stories, ping and be pinged, play thumb-twitch games, summon your hooverboard or instruct your hoovercam...
...okay, I'm probably losing you in the lingo again, so back to Perez. The bigger the story you kick (break), the more famous you are likely to become, which means your face rank gets better (highest being "1"), which essentially makes you more powerful and rich. And 15-year-old Aya is onto something BIG...bigger than she could have ever imagined...that is sure to make her the most famous Extra of all time...and the world will depend on it.
Being that Extras is the 4th book in the series, I'm sure I missed a lot in the previous books, Uglies, Pretties, and Specials (all of these terms are different groups of people in this world...again, Aya is an Extra, or someone who really doesn't count for anything significant...there are also tech-heads, surge-monkeys, manga-heads, pixel-skins...ok, too much lingo again). And it took awhile to pick up on all the strange lingo. Personally, science-fiction doesn't do it for me. But I found the idea of fame as a form of economy and a typical way of life fascinating, and even familiar.
Everyone is "ranked" and has an accessible feed. There are cameras recording everything. I couldn't help but link this to the current cultural trend of blogging, MySpace, YouTube, and Facebook -- the computerization and globalization of social networking and information, and essentially life in general as an increasingly cyber experience, linking and tracking everybody. Aya feels like life is meaningless without her hoovercam recording it. Without increasing her face rank and getting the world to take notice of her, she feels she has no identity.
Teenagers today are growing up in a similar culture, and Extras certainly opens up a discussion regarding the benefits, consequences, and relevance of an increasingly less private, globalized, technologically-driven world, and how it impacts one's identity. I would be truth-slanting if I said I didn't think these were important ideas for students to brain-rattle over, and even though I haven't been infected by Radical Honesty, I promise, EXTRAS is very kickable in high school.
Here is a video of author Scott Westerfeld discussing Extras and some other reasons why this book is educational:
4 comments:
I'm not a big science fiction freak either, but it seems like this book could serve as an interesting juxtaposition to modernize either Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 or Ayn Rand's Anthem.
I was exhausted after reading your review- not because of your writing, but because of the vocabulary I had to learn. I think, however, that younger readers would get the new lingo though. It is a fact that it is easier for younger children to learn a foreign language, so why couldn't younger readers learn a made-up language while they read a book? Also, this book might teach the art of note-taking while reading. Making sure to jot down, look-up or ask questions about words, ideas and concepts that are not understood.
thanks for the connection to the interview with the author, Lauren--that provides a terrific context for understanding why authors of all kinds are focusing in on complicated issues of identity, celebrity, and technology, apparently inspired by developments in these areas that are increasingly obvious in our society.
cheers,
tp
Really like the link to the video with the author! This really looks like an interesting book.
It sounds like it may take several pages to get the "language" down pat though! I think teens should definitely read this because our society is becoming more and more like the society in "Extras." People, especially teens are so concerned about pop culture, and instead of wanting to be teachers, doctors, lawyers, etc. they just want to be famous. So much emphasis in our society is on appearances that is is overwhelming especially for a teen. This looks like it would be a great read! Nice review!
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