uglies trilogy
FIRST THINGS
FIRST: Extras, book 4 of the trilogy, is now out. And what's more it's my very
first number one New York Times bestselling book. All four Uglies books have been New York Times bestsellers.
Uglies
is the first book of the trilogy. The second book is Pretties
and the third is Specials. It's about a world in which everyone
has an operation when they turn sixteen, making them supermodel beautiful.
Big eyes, full lips, no one fat or skinny. This seems like a good thing,
but it's not. Especially if you're one of the uglies, a bunch of radical
teens who've decided they want to keep their own faces. (How anti-social
of them.)
Midnighters
fans will know that I love a good action sequence, and this series is
of full of hoverboard chases, escapes through ancient ruins, and leaps
off tall buildings in bungee jackets. It's the sort of fast-paced book
I couldn't get enough of when I was young (still can't).
And now for some reviews:
"With a beginning and ending that pack hefty punches, this introduction
to a dystopic future promises an exciting series."
Kirkus Reviews (starred)
"Highly readable with a convincing plot that incorporates futuristic
techonologies and a disturbing commentary on our current public policies.
Fortunately, the cliff-hanger ending promises a sequel."
School Library Journal (starred)
"This book, the first in a trilogy, asks engaging questions about
the meaning of beauty, individuality, and betrayal. Highly recommended
for SF fans or anyone who likes a good, thoughtful adventure."
Kliatt (starred)
Here's an interview I did about Uglies with Check
Your Pulse, Simon
and Schuster's book newsletter for teens.
Q: How did you get the idea for a futuristic society
where everyone is made pretty?
A: We are definitely heading toward a world in which
lots of people will get to decide how they look. That will change what
we think of as beautiful, and what beauty means to us. So some people
stay the way they look, because that's cool or radical. Some won't change
because they're rich and powerful—like when famous directors go
to some fancy Hollywood restaurant in an old T-shirt and baseball cap;
it shows they can get away with it. Other people will try to outdo each
other, and manipulate themselves in ways that we don't consider remotely
pretty right now.
So thinking these thoughts, I wanted to write a future in which these
technologies were fairly common. And in my future, the local government
forces you to have an acceptable face—that is, a certain kind of
pretty face. Sort of like now, when adults try to control how teenagers
dress, cut their hair, use make-up, and get tattoos or piercings. This
is the stuff of rebellion.
(Also, I was inspired by Ted Chiang's excellent story, "Liking What
You See: A Documentary," about a technology that allows people to
switch off their ability to see human beauty, so they can concentrate
on the more important aspects of who people are. Fascinating stuff.)
Q: Do you agree with Tally when she claims people have
a genetic disposition to think symmetry is pretty?
A: I think genes do affect the way we perceive beauty,
but not completely. Nature and culture both play a role, just like in
everything else we do. According to a lot of research, people have evolved
to be attracted to symmetry—the left half of your face looking like
the right half. Symmetry is a quick way of telling if someone was well
fed as a child, which affects your intelligence, immune system, and general
health your whole life. We get a happy feeling when we see a symmetrical
face, because we think that person will be a good mate, or at least won't
cough and spray us with deadly germs.
But culture is just as active in making us decide which people are sexy.
A hundred years ago, Europeans thought being pale was hot, because it
meant you didn't have to work outdoors (so you were rich). These days
among white people, being tanned is hot, because it means you can afford
to go to the beach. But I think pale is coming back, because it means
you don't have skin cancer. People have genes, but they also have brains.
Q: Some people think we're all heading toward a society
where everyone looks the same—a natural result of diverse societies,
with people meeting and mixing. How is this different than making everyone
"Pretty" like they do in the book?
A: Certainly, humanity is starting to "average"
our looks. As more people immigrate across the world and intermarry, we'll
see a lot more faces that are a mash-up of Asian, African and European
features (and South American, Australian Aboriginal, Fiji Islander, Inuit,
etc.).
But intermarrying is different than the pretties in my book. Pretties
(like people who get nose jobs) are all engineered to look the same, which
is boring. When people marry across racial lines, however, they create
whole new ways of looking. How much cooler is that?
Q: How did the Rusties' society end? Will you ever write
about that?
A: Each book in the Uglies series will have
more of that story. But the short version is that the Rusties (who are
us, basically) were too dependent on oil. One day, a bacteria was created
that changed the nature of oil and made it wildly unstable. As this "oil-bug"
spread, everyone's car exploded, as did the oil fields we were all fighting
over. Food didn't get delivered to cities, planes stopped flying, and
transportation in general broke down. Relatively few of us survived.
Uglies takes place a long time later. It's a society that is
justifiably afraid of the whole global-meltdown thing happening again.
But alas, it's a society that has been made paranoid by its history, and
hates human innovation and difference. Which often makes it a less-than-fun
place to be a teenager (except for the hoverboards).
Q: Do you think that the importance of beauty varies
between different parts of the world? Is it just Americans with our reality
TV shows that are so focused on appearance and beauty?
A: Most cultures I know of are obsessed with beauty (though
different kinds of beauty, of course). All through human history we have
ornamented ourselves with clothes, jewelry, tattoos, brands, scars, suntans,
make-up, etc. Modern plastic surgery is no more or less crazy than sticking
a bone through your cheek.
What's different now is an explosion of new technology, which always makes
things interesting. And given that Americans are richer than the rest
of the world, we have more time to worry about this stuff, and more money
to mess with our faces. That puts us ahead of everybody else, and makes
us guinea pigs as well . . .
Q: Did you write this book as a cautionary tale?
A: Uglies isn't about dire warnings, it's about
thinking things through. The more we think about this stuff, the better
our choices will be.
But here's my cautionary tale: I have a gorgeous friend who has a really
big nose. When she was sixteen, she desperately wanted surgery to make
her look more like everybody else. Fortunately she kept her own face.
Because these days everyone agrees that though she'd be cute with a cute
little nose, she is totally striking and sexy now because of her fabulous
schnoz.
Don't forget, a few decades ago girls who were "too tall" were
given drugs to slow their growth. Now it rocks to be tall. My main advice
is: stick to make-up, clothes, hair dye, and minor piercings when you're
young. Everything else is way too permanent.