Fuse: An Overview
"Fuse" by: Julianna Baggott is the second book in a trilogy. It is a post apocalyptic, young adult book about a world that has been ravaged by an atomic bomb. The book is set 9 years after the event. There are two types of people in the world. The people who were saved from the bomb by hiding in a dome, "pures" and everyone else outside of the dome which the Pures call the "Wretches." Every Wretch as a deformity caused from the blast. The deformity is that each human is fused to something. For example the main character Pressia (pronounced Presha) has a baby doll head as a hand because she was holding a baby doll when the blast went off. Not only can people be fused to objects but they can also be fused to other people, or they can even be fused to animals, or the ground. "Fuse" follows a 16 year old girl named Pressia Belze. It's the second book of a trilogy so it is basically just a continuation. Basically Pressia and her companions. A young man named Bradwell, and a boy about her age named Partridge, who is a Pure and escaped from the Dome in the first book. These three characters, among others are attempting to take down the corrupt government who runs the inside of The Dome.
I am only fifty pages in at the moment so not a lot has happened yet, but I have already come up with a couple ideas for what my topic could be about. My first idea is to study the history of atomic bombs. It's a highly controversial topic and also fascinating because of the risk that something in this book could happen in real life if a country was actually crazy enough. I could focus on Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well as the continued development of atomic weapons in modern day. Another idea I had was focus on disabilities or deformities. A big part of "Fuse" is each character's deformity because it has become a part of their identity. The main character, Pressia is deeply self conscious of her hand and tries to hide it as much as possible, and even though she has lost the use of one of her hands because of the doll head it doesn't prevent her from being able to take care of herself and she is just as capable as anyone else. I thought I could surround my project around the stigma of many disabilities that people might thing prevents people with disabilities to live a whole life. my third idea, is studying the post apocalyptic world of Young Adult Fiction. It's a genre that has become very popular since The Hunger Games was published and many Young Adult books are post apocalyptic and normally involved teenagers doing the impossible of taking down a corrupt government. I could research why this has become so popular and what makes it so appealing to teenagers. This could be an interesting topic but I'm not sure how to turn it into a full blown novel.
So those are my three main ideas at the moment. I think the one I'm drawn to the most is disabilities, and hopefully as I continue to read I'll be able to gather more evidence for the topic.
You know what you also might think about is the post-atomic bomb literature and movies. During the Cold War fear of a bomb attach was rampant. The culture fed our fears with literature and movies ("The Day After" terrified me). Just an idea since you seem to enjoy this type of literature. But, doing the historical research about the legacy of genetic deformities in the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is also great!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a really engaging book! I love how, as we learn more about literature, we can find meaning even in fun page-turners that aren't necessarily "classics" or "AP." I especially like your idea of researching disabilities and their surrounding stigma; even though the book is science-fiction, the way the characters cope with deformity sounds very similar to how humans in our society today would respond. Researching this topic would definitely provide some insight into the characters' actions and motivations, as well as help you notice smaller details or connections the author has woven into the text. For my book, I researched miscarriage and grief, which is similar to your topic in that it's an emotional response to an unpreventable medical event. This research helped me understand some of the author's artistic choices, such as how the isolated setting of an island parallels how one would feel after losing an unborn child: alone, and at the mercy of the unpredictable force of nature. Perhaps looking into deformity and stigma might help you uncover why Baggott chose to set her characters in the post-apocalyptic time period; I'm sure there are some connections here.
ReplyDeleteYou should also start thinking about your "golden thread." If you chose to research a different topic, such as the post-atomic bomb literature as per Ms. Romano's suggestion, disability could be your thread. However, you should keep your eyes out for other important symbols or subjects that arise during you reading.