My First RIP Proposal

   With how much I truly enjoyed reading Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We, in addition to learning about his life and the time period he lived in, I would like to relate my project to Zamyatin or to We itself-or perhaps both. I am a bit unsure about what exactly I would like to do, however one of my top choices would be to create a children’s book relating Zamyatin with his journey through writing We. One of the main focuses of the children book would be to look at how creativity (arts, literature) was highly constrained by the government and how Zamyatin disregarded that guideline in order to continue his passion of writing literature-most notably I will be referring to We. However, I do not want it to seem as though I am writing a biography about him, so another option of mine is to write a children’s book that correlates much to the dystopian genre. Because I am leaning more towards creating my own story for a children’s book, I will discuss that in greater detail. The main point I would like to express through my writing is a dramatic foreshadowing story on life with technology and no parents, with the desire of creating a perfect utopian world for kids, but eventually ends in ruin. The children’s book could possibly be published because it discusses current conflicts children are having presently, and many people are debating what will the next generation end up like because of the increasing influence of technology; in parallel, I would like my book to have an extreme conclusion of such a high-tech centered world.

   My primary audience would of course be children, but the focus would be centered on 8-13 year olds because I believe that is the time where they want to have a mind of their own and are beginning to learn much about the world. I would much like it to relate to kids presently, who use technology (video games, cell phones, computer) religiously, and do not interact with their families and friends as much as children did when technology was not predominant. I would like it also to correlate with kids who don’t appreciate having parents, because that has become a current problem in the twenty-first century as well.

   The advantages I have with going this direction is the plethora of examples I have gotten to learn regarding the dystopian genre, in addition to my current point of view as well as living in the generation that is known as the “texting” generation. It would be advantageous of me to incorporate my personal opinion through an exaggerated life of a current problem young children are facing. My disadvantages, however, would be the actual construction of such a genre in context to where children can see the overall picture and correlate it to their lives. The book needs to be well constructed in order to convey the message, which I think could become quite challenging. I think this would be hard for me because I am not very creative when it comes to story-making, and children need to be entertained in order to be engaged in reading. I am also not the best drawer, so it is a challenge that I need to think about.

   In order for my overall storyline to flourish cohesively, I would need to do research several articles that discuss the consequences of technology on young children, in addition to other problems kids are facing at the moment. I would like this children’s book to make the audience think about themselves personally and possibly become a catalyst to change something in their life to be more active as well as engaged with the people around them. Another way to research would be to look up similar books that do signify a dystopian genre in order to see how they related the genre to a young audience. I will know if I succeeded in this project when a reader feels some type of emotion or relevance to the world they live in or what they are doing, and can see that technology on youth can be corrupting. I also believe a successful project would be constructed through identifying the basic characteristics of a dystopian genre, but making it easy to interpret and understand from a children’s point of view. Lastly, it would also need good visuals and an overall creative design and perspective in order to embellish the story as well.