ASHAVAN DOYON
  • Home
  • About the Author
  • Books & Fiction
    • The College Rose Romances
    • Gerry’s Lion
    • Sam’s Cafe Romances
    • Stouten Duet
    • Novellas and Shorts
  • Blog
  • News & Events
  • Contact Ashavan

THE PASSION STROLL...

a blog by author Ashavan Doyon

Waking Up in a Dystopia

1/26/2017

0 Comments

 
I was struck today by how much I feel like I’m living in a short story I read as a child. The Children’s Story, by James Clavell.

Written in response to his daughter coming home from school as a child so proud to have learned the Pledge of Allegiance, but without any understanding of what the words meant, the story illustrates with devastating clarity how quickly cherished ideals can be broken down.

It takes place in what seems to be an elementary school classroom. America has been taken over. The teacher is replaced by someone who is to instruct the youth, and in the course of about twenty-five minutes, this new teacher manages to deconstruct the students’ beliefs to an extent that they end the story cutting the American flag into pieces, because it belongs to all of them, so they should be able to share it.

This story cut me to my core as a child, because the words and tools used by the teacher to change the minds and hearts of the children would work. I see them working. I feel like America is that classroom, and we’re being taught that America means something else.

And just like those children, many of us are believing it. Enough to cut the flag into pieces. Enough to slice up our country into a mockery of what I was taught it was supposed to mean.

In many ways The Children’s Story shook me more than the dystopias of my college days: Brave New World, The Handmaids Tale, We, 1984. More troubling because all of those seemed unlikely and far away. Too implausible. The Children’s Story shook me because I felt like it could happen.

​Right now, I’m forced to wonder—is it already?
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Ashavan Doyon

    Writer of the mysterious, fantastic, and the romantic. Sometimes sappy. Often angsty. Always searching for the sexy. Stories about men who love men.

    Categories

    All
    ARDOR
    Blog Talk
    Cover
    Holiday
    New Release
    Promo
    Prompts
    Puppies
    Serials
    Thoughts
    Work
    Writing

    Archives

    April 2025
    March 2025
    October 2024
    August 2024
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    October 2022
    April 2022
    January 2022
    June 2020
    April 2020
    October 2019
    August 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016

    RSS Feed

Visitors to www.ashavandoyon.com are subject to our PRIVACY POLICY. This site uses cookies to improve the browsing experience.
  • Home
  • About the Author
  • Books & Fiction
    • The College Rose Romances
    • Gerry’s Lion
    • Sam’s Cafe Romances
    • Stouten Duet
    • Novellas and Shorts
  • Blog
  • News & Events
  • Contact Ashavan