Life, the Universe, & Everything

Okay, now for a quick blog update. This Thursday the LTUE was here, and I got to learn some new things about the world of literature. One of these things was the difference between a utopia and a dystopia. A utopia is basically a society where everyone is at peace. Some examples include Plato's Atlantis and James Gurney's Dinotopia (which wasn't mentioned at the discussion). A dystopia is when things look good on the outside, but on the inside it's not so pretty. A dystopia usually hides something ugly, like in the story The Giver, and there's usually someone or something that doesn't want to bring about change for the better. Other examples of dystopias in books are The Pretties by Scott Westerfeld and The Maze Trilogy by James Dashner. Speaking of James, I actually got to meet him!
How cool is that? I gave him a copy of The Myths of Dymos: Power of Vedion. Today was the last day of LTUE, and I was able to go and get my copies of James Dashner's The 13th Reality series signed! He also mentioned how he liked a question I asked during the utopia/dystopia discussion. My question was "What's the difference between a dystopia and a dictatorship?" He said that it made him think more deeply about it, kind of made you rethink the whole thing. The answer was usually a dystopia involves a post-apocalyptic event. I also ran into a reader of this blog, J. Scott Savage! My only regret was I didn't have copies of his books on me for him to sign. I have them now, but it's too late to get them signed. I'll just have to keep a lookout for the next time he's in town. There was also this great discussion on why we write about places that don't exist. Basically we do that to provide an escape for people who are prisoners. I think that's basically another way of giving people a temporary vacation.