April Stearns

June 8, 2014

Film 136C Final Essay

The Uglies series, by Scott Westerfeld, are three science fiction novels that take place in a future dystopian universe about three hundred years from now. In this new society, people are divided into several different categories depending on their age, but the most important categories are “Uglies” and “Pretties.” Uglies are regular teenagers who have not had plastic surgery done yet and therefore are considered unattractive. However, at the age of 16, everyone goes in to be completely transformed with technological procedures. Throughout the series, the reader will learn the government implements these procedures not only to change people’s looks, but also to change their minds. The use of technology on the human body and mind in the Uglies series touches on many themes in the history of new media, including the history of technology’s memory, the separation of social groups, and digital rebellion in a posthuman world. The Uglies series represents a version of a posthuman world that results from our attempt today to benefit many aspects of our lives by making our routine simpler through electronics. The novels display this type of behavior as resulting in a society where everything is oversimplified to the point of almost becoming lifeless.

In the novels, it is explained that the old world fell apart because of the overuse of oil, which caused devastating wars and the destruction of cars and oil fields. Therefore, a new structure came about with new social titles and regulations. Including Uglies, who are children between the ages of 12 and 16 going through puberty. Their title is understood to describe the unattractive qualities of adolescence, such as acne and awkward sexual feelings. However, when citizens turn 16, the government provides them with a plastic surgery operation that is supposed to perfect their body in both looks and health. In other terms, they transform everyone to look exactly the same. The operation restructures their body and face, almost making them look unrecognizable other than any aesthetic quirks or qualities that the operation could not erase. Along with this, changes are made to the nervous, immune, and neurological systems. The recipients receive new skin grafts, cheekbones, teeth, and sometimes even eyes. The novel follows the story of a young girl, Tally Youngblood.

Shortly before turning 16, Tally befriends a girl named Shay, who has plans to escape their society and head to the Smoke, a rebel group made by people who oppose the operation. After Shay escapes, Tally goes in to get the traditional surgical procedure. However, she is instead taken aside by Special Circumstances and told she must go search for Shay and the rebel society. If she does not do this, she will not receive the surgery to become a Pretty. Throughout her journey, Tally learns just how corrupt the government, or Special Circumstances, is in the society she is living in.

The reader discovers that, through the procedure, Pretties also have lesions attached to their brains. Lesions are made to make them more bubbly and compliant and less likely to cause any sort of controversy. It also takes away any hint of individuality they might have, and by doing this the society is supposed to stay very peaceful. The reader also finds out that Special Circumstances is run by many individuals who can look out at the entire society, and if anyone betrays the rules there are detrimental costs. Individuals working for Special Circumstances also have very unusual aesthetics resulting from cosmetic surgery to make them intimidating, such as sharp teeth, black coal eyes, hands that sensor vibration, and more. The way these individuals rule over this possible future dystopian world is foreshadowed by themes in Walter Benjamin’s Theses on the Philosophy of History.

Remembering our history has become much easier with the advancement of technology and cybernetics, but the power control created through this can be problematic. We can look far back on our phones to see when we last called a person or scroll back to several years ago on social media to see what we posted about. On a larger scale, technology can be used in governments and societies as a source to point out mistakes our triumphs of the farfetched past. This is brought up in Benjamin’s article, which discusses the relationship between technology, the past, and the present.  Technology allows us to grab onto pieces of history, such as events, and focus on that image. Benjamin states this “means to seize hold of a memory as it flashes up at a moment of danger” (255).  This means that our grasp of images of the past may focus solely on powerfully bad or dangerous events, rather than recognizing history as it wholly was. Benjamin also brings up that this could become a tool of the ruling class. In other words, governments can use it for their advantage. This is what explicitly occurs in the Uglies series as the horror of the past universe is what leads to the posthuman colony Tally lives in.

As stated above, the dystopian universe in the Uglies was created from the rubble of the world we live in now. In the first novel, Tally emphasizes how people in her society grow up to learn all about the oil-fused war that destroyed the past population. The dangers that led to the devastation were highly emphasized. She states “on school trips, the teachers always made the [destroyed population] out to be so stupid. You almost couldn't believe people lived like this, burning trees to clear land, burning oil for heat and power, setting the atmosphere on fire with their weapons” (60). Education in this universe clearly revolves around pointing out the mistakes and dangers of the past, which teaches citizens that the new world is a much better, more progressive place. This type of education creates a very narrow lens on history, and technology plays a part in that. The past the novel looks down on is one that is not as technologically advanced as their present; oil was needed in the past for cars and other purposes, but because of the growth of technology, it was unneeded in this new universe. Therefore, the society’s citizens look upon themselves as progressive, or better-off, thanks to their technology. Benjamin highlights how the ideals of assuming that advanced electronics, advanced thinking, and the passage of time makes a society automatically more progressive is troublesome. This is because it can be seen as used by the ruling class to keep working classes thinking they are redeemers. Citizens in unfair conditions think of the struggles of their ancestors and are told they are way better off. This is why all the citizens of the Uglies accepted the path their world forced them to take with no question.

In the Uglies series, most citizens didn’t question their society’s traditions because it was what they knew to be right. The government, or Special Circumstances, of their world used the skewed memory of the past and their technological advancement to control citizens in this way. Tally and other citizens saw people in the past universe as “stupid” because they did not have the technology necessary to be a better society, or to not need oil. Therefore, it was easily assumed technology equals progress. This theme of the novel is also relevant to our society today as we tend to correlate the progression of our technology and cybernetics with a more futuristic or better-off society. It is not often considered today, or in the novels, that the overuse and role of technology is not helpful or uncorrupt. However, as the series goes on, Tally and the reader learn that the technology used in the plastic surgery is actually corrupt due to the brain-numbing lesions secretly attached to their skulls. The corruption of the society in the Uglies can also be seen in the formation of different social groups. Carolyn Marvin discusses the way technology separates social groups in When Old Technologies Were New.

Technology today has allowed us to separate social groups in many different ways as there are stereotypical types of people who are technologically advanced, as well as those who are not. An example of this is how younger generations, such a millennials, consistently stay in touch with their cell phones and social media pages, while older generations are less motivated to become comfortable with these new forms of technological communication.  Marvin’s novel discusses how late 19th-century and early 20th-century technologies acted as generalizing and differentiating forces, meaning they both brought communities together and separated them. Electricians and the readership of popular science were brought together because of their advanced knowledge, and they were looked up on. However, there were outsiders to this movement. Marvin describes the outsiders as being “defined as those who were uneasy and unfamiliar with technical procedures and attitudes, especially literate ones” (15). Women are one example of outsiders because they were seen as having lesser intelligence and therefore incapable to understand the logic of technology. Different social groups are clearly separated in the Uglies series depending on their experience with and feelings toward technology, which is what creates the revolution in their corrupt government.

In the universe within the Uglies series, the separation of social groups appears to depend on a person’s age, at least for the most part. Uglies are looked down upon because they have not yet had the surgery necessary to be considered beautiful, but this is only because they are not 16 yet. After the surgery, they are Pretties and are meant to have a life of happiness and bliss. On the other hand, there are also Specials, who are part of the government. As I stated before, they have surgery to make their features look scarier or to strengthen their senses. They are considered to be the most intelligent force of the universe as they watch over and look down upon everyone else. Finally, there are uglies-for-life and runaways. While the surgery simply does not work on uglies-for-life, runaways are those who escape the society to avoid the surgery and brain-numbing lesions that will be inserted in them if they become one of the Pretties. The runaways are a clear example of a differentiating force in the universe as they are both figuratively and literally outsiders. The first book the series, Uglies, states “Everyone knew about uglies-for-life, the few people for whom the operation wouldn't work. You didn't see them around much. They were allowed in public, but most of them preferred to hide” (83). This highlights how people who are not turned into one of the Pretties are looked down upon by everyone else. This is especially true for the runaways, as most people in the universe can not understand why someone would avoid the traditional operation, and Specials are consistently on the hunt for them.

Similarly to the ruling idea that technology equals progress, many people in the universe of the Uglies series do not question the tradition of separating these social groups. They consider themselves a progressive society, so being divided based on being one of the Uglies or one of the Pretties is automatically thought of as the right thing to do. People who do not want the operation, such as runaways, are looked down upon for being unlike others by not accepting this idea of progress. This is similar to our culture today as people are looked down upon or considered weird for rejecting technological advancements today. An example of this is people who prefer not to have computers or cell phones, or people who do not wish to get advanced surgery. The progressive ideals of the universe in the Uglies are what leads to the separation of their age groups, which helps aid the control the corrupt government has over its citizens. The advancement of technology can be seen in this series as creating the division between citizens, creating both insiders and outsiders. Power is handled this way to bring control to a new universe, but it does not last in the series because of the rebels, including Tally, who discover the government’s manipulation. This can also be analyzed in Gabriella Coleman’s “Anonymous in Context: The Politics and Power Behind the Mask.”

Power is rebelled against in the Uglies series the same way it is in our society today, and both ways revolve around the use of technology. Coleman’s article discusses the history and meaning behind Anonymous, a worldwide internet group of activists known for taking part in hacking and public stunts to send political messages. They were originally founded by simply acting as internet trolls but have grown to making big differences in controversial situations and receiving a lot of coverage from journalists. Coleman states “Although Anonymous may at times appear to be chaotic, participants rarely choose targets randomly. Operations tend to be reactive; existing local, regional and international events and causes can trigger action from Anonymous” (12). This means Anonymous discovers an existing event and acts out against it to make a point. Although their publicity stunts can happen outside of the internet, they were founded as an online community and take plenty of action against others over the web. Although the runaways in the Uglies series do not originate from the internet, they are an anonymous group of protestors who are fighting against the way advanced technology is used in their society.

One example of a rebellion group in action in the Uglies series is at the beginning of the third novel. Special Circumstances are attempting to track down a runaway at a party. The runaway is offering pills to Uglies that will stop the brain lesions from numbing down their minds after the plastic surgery. Before escaping, the runaways make a clear point to the government trying to stop them: “The Smoke Lives.” They also escape by displaying abnormally advanced technology, such as sneak suits and electrical weapons. The growth of the runaways and their skill is a clear reflection of what Anonymous is today; it started as a small group of seemingly harmless rebels but transformed into a strong movement. This movement that uses technology against a system using technology corruptly makes a big statement about the role technology has in our society today.

The focus on technological progress in history and the separation and oppression of social groups in the Uglies series is a result of the universe’s technological advancement. The corruption within this structure is what led to a rebellion by the runaways that ended up overthrowing the government. The reason why the structure was corrupt is because technology is overused to the point of trying to make everything oversimplified, and in the meanwhile stripping people of their rights and liveliness. We do the same with our electronics today. We can communicate, pay our bills, make reservations, and more through our phones by focusing on this electronic piece more than the world around us. As a result, creators will invent more pieces of technology to make our lives simpler until there is no point in living in a world outside of technology anymore. The Uglies series can be seen as providing an example of how this will result. Technology does allow governments and people to control others, and technology is still even used when rebels are trying to protest this behavior.

The Uglies series ends when the government is overthrown, but Tally also rejects the new society the runaways are trying to create when she realizes they are also trying to control others through their own rules and power. She comes to the conclusion that she should get to choose whatever she does with her body, which is a metaphor for getting to choose how to take part in the technological advanced world. Although this is the resolution in the Uglies series, we will have to wait to see where technology will take us in our world today.

Works Cited

Benjamin, Walter. Illuminations. Ed. Hannah Arendt. Trans. Harry Zohn. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1968. Print.

Coleman, Gabriella. "Anonymous in Context: The Politics and Power Behind the Mask." Internet Governance Papers (2013): 1-22. Web.

 Marvin, Carolyn. When Old Technologies Were New: Thinking About Electric Communication in the Late Nineteenth Century. New York: Oxford UP, 1988. Print.

Westerfeld, Scott. Pretties. New York: Simon Pulse, 2005. Print.

Westerfeld, Scott. Specials. New York: Simon Pulse, 2006. Print.

Westerfeld, Scott. Uglies. New York: Simon Pulse, 2005. Print.