Barnes 1 the Movement Are You Really Awake?
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Barnes 1 The Movement Are you really awake? Thesis Project by Lauren Barnes University of Central Oklahoma April 2020 Barnes 2 Abstract: The Movement is a young adult dystopian fantasy novel, 207 pages long with 70,383 words, which takes place one hundred years in the future when a select few can gain access into people’s minds as the main character struggles to understand the truth of her society. Relevant creative work in the YA dystopian fantasy genre include: The Giver by Lois Lowry, Scythe by Neal Schusterman, the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and Ready Player One by Ernest Cline among many others. YA dystopian fantasy novels provide young adults with a deeper examination of the world around them steeped in fantasy settings and themes accessible to them and this novel hopes to add to that conversation. The Movement presents a possible future to America’s invasive politics and advertisements by creating a world where the fight has moved into the mind and how one could defend themselves. Two of the major creative challenges revolved around the storyline itself: content and length. Completing a novel and creating a storyline with enough happening to keep the reader interested can be difficult. Through extensive scheduling to create a successful writing regimen and letting the story develop naturally, opposed to attempting to plan the entire novel prior to writing it, the Movement was completed with future possibilities to continue Maya’s story. This novel hopes to add to the YA dystopian fantasy genre by pairing dreams and mental landscapes with consent in a form accessible to young adults during their formative years. Barnes 3 Table of Contents: Prologue 5 Chapter One: Let’s Start from the Beginning, Three Months Ago 7 Chapter Two: I Think I’m Falling Apart 21 Chapter Three: The Crazy Blog 37 Chapter Four: That Time I Hit My Best Friend 41 Chapter Five: Wake Up Call- Life without Callie Sucks 49 Chapter Six: The Defenders 58 Chapter Seven: Stick with Me Here because Kai’s Story is Important 70 Chapter Eight: The Enemy of My Enemy is…Conner, Apparently 80 Chapter Nine: Two Months Ago Now- Welcome to My First Journey into the Mind 97 Chapter Ten: The Big Reveal that Didn’t Actually Solve any of My Problems 122 Chapter Eleven: The Last Place I Thought I’d Ever be at Night 132 Chapter Twelve: Vegetarianism and Uncle Kevin, an Unexpected Combo 143 Chapter Thirteen: Welcome to the Defenders B-Team 152 Chapter Fourteen: My Secret Double Life that I Guess Wasn’t Too Secretive 165 Chapter Fifteen: The Time I Didn’t Hit My Best Friend and that’s Called Personal Growth 176 Chapter Sixteen: The Movement I Wasn’t Ready For 185 Chapter Seventeen: The Missing Piece of the Puzzle 204 ❏❏❏❏❏ Index 213 Barnes 4 It's called the "American Dream" because you have to be asleep to believe it. —George Carlin Barnes 5 The Divisions as per the New American Government (Established 2042): The Affinities: This top tier of abilities is a small, elite group who are well-versed in the creation, implementation, and control of dreams for themselves and others, as well as displaying a mastery for projections of a hallucinatory nature for oneself and others on a large scale. Along with the aforementioned abilities, an Affinity could also possess traits that have yet to be discovered and researched because their mental possibilities are limitless. The Visionaries: The second highest tier of abilities are capable of controlling the dreams of themselves and others. Along with controlling dreams, some advanced Visionaries are able to project hallucinations during a person’s waking hours that can appear to be real, but different from the Affinities in that they can only project these hallucinations to one person at a time. The Daydreamers: Members of society shown to have the lowest amount of abilities. The Daydreamers are capable of controlling their own dreams while some members also possess the ability to project small visions for themselves primarily, possibly for others as well, for short periods of time. The Constants: The members of society with no known affinities, abilities, or extra capabilities. The Constants should be looked upon as hard workers who continue the traditional values of the United States in today’s New America. These members are reminders of our country’s past that may require assistance when necessary by others with affinities in a gesture of goodwill. To My Reader, It’s been 100 years since our first Affinity president, Sarah Abrams, took office and everything changed. The United States of America was gone and replaced by New America, a rebranded country with less state borders but more government interference. Once a group of people capable of, essentially, mind control through dreams and hallucinations were elected to office, the lives of the Constants (or what we’re better known as by people with abilities—the Deprived) suffered. Along with the separation of abilities, came new laws and regulations to keep those with powers in line. Most of the time, though, if an offender has enough name recognition or money the rules can be bent a little because even though a lot about New America has changed, some things will always be the same. The Supreme Court was replaced with a group of nine called the Dream Keepers, they all had to be Affinities, and were in charge of Barnes 6 certain areas of the country to ensure the laws of the affinities were upheld as well as deciding what government or business messages could be allowed into our minds. The laws all concerned the misuse of entering into someone’s mind and the protocols that accompany the entry: the person must be consenting and the images displayed must never be portrayed in a negative light, only dreams that contribute to successful sleep of the subject. A big question in the beginning had revolved around how subjective good dreams are from person to person. All questions were answered hinging on one major caveat: consent. If the person is willing and agreed to it, would we not know what the subject would prefer? No one ever focused on the obvious follow up question that was always missing: If there’s no consent, no care to the subject, then what if the images produced aren’t considered a dream but a nightmare? I’m writing this today, in hopes of bringing to light the secrets of our country, to say brother and I were members of a group called the Defenders and, while their motives may have changed over time, I’m determined to stick with our original goal. We’ve been hiding the fact we know the truth about the affinities that New America has kept from us. In keeping all of my own secrets though, we haven’t succeeded— yet. Believe it or not, I really am trying to save us all. It’s just not working the way I thought it would, so I need to start this recount of everything that’s happened by saying: To all of those who suffered, or continue to suffer, because our intended actions with the Defenders didn’t go as planned⸺ I’m sorry. I really fucked up. -Maya Davis *Any names or places mentioned here are 100% real and accurate in the name of honesty—even if it makes me look bad in the process too. Plus, to be honest, most of the people I mention here are assholes and I just wanted you guys to know it too. Barnes 7 Chapter One: Let’s Start from the Beginning, Three Months Ago “Hey.” My brother walked into my room and sat on my bed. “I figured you’d want me to be the one to tell you.” “Oh great.” I pushed the hair out of my eyes and glanced in the direction of my computer screen. “What is it? Do I need to hit refresh?” Mason nodded. “I’m too scared to do it. Just tell me. Wait, what time is it, anyway?” “5:30.” He said. I glanced at the clock beside my bed with a groan. “I know you wanted to be alone, but then the news anchor announced the results.” I looked back towards my computer, the last time stamp reading 5:15 because I couldn’t bring myself to keep hitting refresh. He waited for my eyes to meet his after my finger finally hit the button. “He won, Maya. Storm won.” My computer screen confirmed. Nicholas Storm, our newest Affinity leader with barely a college degree to show for himself but plenty of ancestral wealth to get him there, was one of the worst people I’d ever read about. He knew nothing about the political events taking place across the world and his only degree is in Affinity Management, which is better translated to: I was born with these affinities so now, eighteen years later, I want my parents to pay for me to party while I pretend to learn more about my hereditary abilities. “Does Dad know yet?” “He stayed up all night, too, until the final results were announced. He really wanted something to change,” Mason shook his head as his words trailed off. Storm’s opponent, Evans, would have been the first Constant in office in one hundred years, but I knew he’d be overlooked. I had tried to be positive, though, despite our history. “I figured. He must have been pretty upset,” I whispered. Once I saw the results leaning towards Storm, I went to my room to sulk alone and hope the results would somehow start Barnes 8 going in our favor.