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Roadtripping with Ally Condie

14 Comments 11 November 2011

I am extremely fortunate to have Ally come guest blog today, but both of us having gone through blog tours and interviews where you get asked the same questions over and over again, I thought we’d change things up a bit.

Ally: The setting for CROSSED is based largely on southern Utah, where Ally was born and raised. Rob also loves southern Utah and has traveled there extensively. So we have put together a guide for you, encompassing five fun-filled days in some of the world’s most beautiful terrain (and that is not an exaggeration), where wildlife and the occasional polygamist still roam free (also not an exaggeration).

As we put together this blog, it became apparent that our priorities for travel are perfectly in sync (with the exception of an unfortunate disagreement partway through the hypothetical road trip). Our first priority is beautiful scenery that you can enjoy with your family. Our second is food. We both knew exactly where and what we thought we should eat at all times. So, without further preamble, we present:

ALLY AND ROB’S GUIDE TO A SOUTHERN UTAH ROAD TRIP

Ally: Let’s say you take this trip in early fall, so as to avoid both the summertime crowds and the worst of the heat. Let’s say you start in Vegas. Just because. If you start in Salt Lake City instead, simply reverse the order of this trip.

Virgin River Gorge

Drive about an hour and a half from Vegas to St. George on I-15. You will see some beautiful, desolate space and then drive up through a crazy, twisting canyon (Rob, help, what is the name of that canyon???)

Rob: It’s the Virgin River Gorge, and I recently got to drive a 30 foot U-Haul through it. It’s nerve-wracking (and spectacular).

Ally: I can’t decide if it’s more nerve-wracking coming up through it or going down into it. I think the latter. Because you know if your brakes are gone you are gone too. If I had to drive a U-Haul through that canyon I would probably cry. Then die.

And on that pleasant note… drive on. Once you reach St. George, stop. You can eat at a number of places but I quite like Larsen’s Frostop where you can get a slushy with an iceberg of ice cream immersed in it. Also fries and fry sauce. DO NOT LEAVE UTAH WITHOUT TRYING FRY SAUCE. Spend the rest of the day in Snow Canyon hiking.

Snow Canyon

Rob: Just outside of St. George is Tuacahn, which is an enormous amphitheater with the gorgeous red rocks as the backdrop to the stage. I’ve never even seen a show there—I just visited the amphitheater during the day—but it was breathtaking.

Ally: The next morning, drive to Zion National Park. It’s best to spend days and days in Zion but we’ll assume that you only have one day/night. You can do the Emerald Pools hike (one of my kids’ faves) and also no trip is complete without hiking at least to the bottom of the Narrows. This is the kind of slot canyon that Ky and Cassia escape into during CROSSED. (The full Narrows hike is, of course, the best, but you’ll have to get a permit and it will take a full day and if you aren’t an experienced hiker, etc., it might be problematic. Also, the Subway is an awesome hike but again, you will need a permit.)

I also highly recommend Angel’s Landing (no permit required, but definitely not for little kids because it’s dangerous at the end). It is very steep but you will be rewarded with ridiculously beautiful views.

Rob: Angel’s Landing is one of those must-do-before-you-die things. At some points you’re literally clinging to chains so you don’t drop a thousand feet to your death. But it’s absolutely worth it.

Angel's Landing. Yes, that's the trail.

Ally: The chains! The chains are so scary! I always worry they’re going to pop out of the rock while I’m hanging on to them.

For dinner, I recommend that you eat at the Bit and Spur Restaurant and Saloon that night. Camp in one of the many campgrounds, or stay at the Zion Lodge.

Rob: Speaking of restaurants, before you get into Zion stop in Springdale for some Bumbleberry Pie. I don’t know what a Bumbleberry is, but it’s delicious.

Bulloch Drug

A: Bumbleberry Pie! How could I forget?

Utah Shakespeare Festival

The next morning, wake up and drive to Cedar City (it will take you a little over an hour). This is my hometown. This is the most beautiful place in the world. There you can hike more slot canyons at Kanarra Falls (about 5 min. outside of Cedar City), go to the world-renowned Utah Shakespeare Festival, and eat at the Pizza Factory (get the breadsticks). For a treat, go to Bulloch Drug (owned by my brother-in-law’s family!) for an ice cream soda at their old-fashioned soda fountain. Watch the sun set over the red hill.

R: Curses! Ally drove a different direction than I did (presumably due to her ridiculous Cedar City bias). Don’t go that way. Drive east through Zion (through an amazing mile-long tunnel in the cliffs) and through the less-traveled half of Zion, which is just as geologically amazing, though very different. Then stop at Mount Carmel Junction for more pie at the Thunderbird Lodge (I like pie) and head north.

Spring Hollow

Stop in Glendale and, if you can find it (you might have to ask the locals, because I don’t think it’s marked) hike up the slot canyon to Spring Hollow.

And then we meet up with Ally again, who has headed east out of Cedar City and is back on Highway 89. From there we head to Bryce Canyon. We’re only a few hours from Zion but the geology couldn’t be more different. One of the early pioneers who settled nearby famously referred to Bryce Canyon as “one hell of a place to lose a cow”. Bryce has a ton of great hikes, but you can also just hit all the canyon rim overlooks and it’s still worth it. Camp there, and be sure to wake up early to watch the sunrise over the rocks.

Bryce Canyon

Near the Hogback

Then we take one of my favorite drives ever, east from Bryce and along a road that has just about everything southern Utah has to offer: bleak wasteland, amazing rocks formations, and pine-covered peaks. There’s a section of the road called the Hogback, where the road is along a ridge with thousand-foot drop offs on both sides.

A: Now Rob and I are in a fight, because he dissed Cedar City. But I’m going to eventually forgive him because, while he slighted my beloved city, he is right about two very important things 1) pie is good and we should eat lots of it and 2) the Mt. Carmel area is very gorgeous.

Capitol Reef

Drive on over to Torrey, Utah, the gateway to Capitol Reef National Park.. Go fishing at Bicknell Bottoms if you like fishing (and have a permit). Hike Grand Wash and/or Hickman Bridge (two of our favorites). Pick an apricot from the little orchards planted by the pioneers and marvel at how anyone managed to build a village in such a beautiful and difficult place. This is another spot that inspired a lot of the setting for CROSSED (think the stream, the settlement, the plain, etc., if you’ve read the book).

That evening, if you have a little extra money, eat at Café Diablo. If you don’t, try Austin’s Chuck Wagon Restaurant. (This is also a great place to stay.) Go for an evening drive to see the pronghorn. Let your kids choose a rock from one of the rock shops. When they pick a blue one that is obviously not a color found in nature, grit your teeth and bear it. They will care about authenticity later! Or maybe not at all. (This is actually about two days’ worth of things to do, so you might have to pick and choose.)

R: This proves that Ally is awesome. Torrey is one of my favorite places on earth. If you don’t want to camp, there’s a great little bed and breakfast just east of town, the SkyRidge Inn, where I ate the best breakfast I’ve ever had.

Petroglyphs at Capitol Reef

Capitol Reef is actually my favorite national park in Utah, in part because it’s the least-visited. It’s just quiet and serene and beautiful. Also, one of my great interests is the anthropology of the southwest, and Capitol Reef has some gorgeous rock art.

From there, head east again, and take a lunch stop at Goblin Valley, which by this point is God just showing off that He has a million awesome ways to make rocks. When I was a Boy Scout, Goblin Valley was the ideal place for endless hours of Capture the Flag.

Goblin Valley

TIP: If it’s winter, and you see a dirt road heading north out of Goblin Valley and you and your wife say “Hey, this looks fun”, and you’re driving a tiny little sedan, and there’s a sign that says “Don’t get out of your cars and explore because there are old mines with possibly unstable dynamite”, and there’s mud a foot deep, then you PROBABLY SHOULDN’T TAKE THAT ROAD, DUMMY. (My wife and I made it out, eventually.)

A: I now leave it up to readers to decide who is the more responsible traveler and whose path they should follow back at the point when our paths diverged back near Cedar City.

Arches National Park

R: The right way to go is up to the interstate, and then back down to Arches and Moab. I admit that I’m not a fan of Moab (even though it’s beautiful) because it’s always really crowded.

A: My experience is the same. It’s so pretty, but part of the fun for me is NOT seeing people all the time when you’re trying to be out in the wilderness.

R: But if you’re feeling adventurous, and this stops being a roadtrip and becomes a backpacking trip, head further south, down to Blanding and Cedar Mesa. There are amazing Anasazi ruins all over that area. I recommend the Grand Gulch. It’s several days in the backcountry, but totally, totally worth it.

(And then, if you want to go just a bit further south, you hit the iconic Monument Valley, which appears in almost every Western movie ever.)

Monument Valley

Crap! We’re nowhere near Salt Lake City now!

A: But we probably can find some really good food somewhere. I’m sure of it.

Many thanks to Ally for joining me on our imagined road trip. Hopefully you’ll keep some of these pictures in the back of your mind as you’re reading CROSSED. And by the way: CROSSED is awesome. Go and buy it.

Writing

Dystopian Blog Series, Day Five: Social Commentary in Dystopia

3 Comments 27 May 2011

At the recent Storymakers conference, I taught a class on Writing Dystopia. This week I’ll be turning that class into a series of blogs:

Monday: Defining Dystopia
Tuesday: History of Dystopia
Wednesday: Elements of Dystopia
Thursday: Elements of the Dystopian Hero
Friday: Social Commentary in Dystopian Fiction

In this final installment of the dystopian blog series, I want to talk about the social commentary that is inherent to dystopian fiction.

On Tuesday we talked about how dystopia is reactionary; it looks at a social problem and extrapolates that problem to its frightening extreme. When looking at the origins of almost any dystopia, the authors often frankly coming upon a troubling subject and then imagining how the world would be different if that subject became more and more prevalent:

From Ally Condie, about Matched:

“The real catalyst was a conversation I had with my husband about marriage in the fall of 2008. He posited the question: What if someone wrote the perfect algorithm for lining people up, and the government used it to decide who you married, when you married, etc.?”

Publishers Weekly wrote about Suzanne Collins inspiration for The Hunger Games:

Collins says the idea for the brutal nation of Panem came one evening when she was channel-surfing between a reality show competition and war coverage. “I was tired, and the lines began to blur in this very unsettling way.” She also cites the Greek myth of Theseus, in which the city of Athens was forced to send 14 young men and women into the labyrinth in Crete to face the Minotaur. “Even as a kid, I could appreciate how ruthless this was,” Collins recalled. “Crete was sending a very clear message: ‘Mess with us and we’ll do something worse than kill you. We’ll kill your children.’ ”

Some authors take it a step further, where the social problem is not just the inspiration, but the author specifically wants to make a political/philosophical point:

Ray Bradbury wrote about Fahrenheit 451:

There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. Every minority, be it Baptist / Unitarian, Irish / Italian / Octogenarian / Zen Buddhist / Zionist / Seventh-day Adventist / Women’s Lib / Republican / Mattachine / FourSquareGospel feels it has the will, the right, the duty to douse the kerosene, light the fuse….Fire-Captain Beatty, in my novel Fahrenheit 451, described how the books were burned first by the minorities, each ripping a page or a paragraph from this book, then that, until the day came when the books were empty and the minds shut and the library closed forever.

The New York Times wrote about Ayn Rand’s inspiration for Atlas Shrugged:

Rand said she “set out to show how desperately the world needs prime movers and how viciously it treats them” and to portray “what happens to a world without them.”

Almost every dystopia fits this mold: taking a current problem and extrapolating upon it. Uglies addresses body image. Brave New World is about our disposable consumer culture and our obsession with hedonistic pleasure and entertainment. We talks about conformity and Communism.

Going all the way back to our Monday topic, I really think that this social commentary is an integral part of the definition of a true dystopia. A book with a vaguely dystopian setting, but which lacks this distinct issue-based element, is probably a different genre altogether: sci-fi, or post-apocalypse, or something else.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this week-long blog series. I’ve definitely enjoyed writing it. I know I’ve defined things pretty narrowly, and that some people have broader definitions; I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Writing

Dystopia Blog Series Day Four: Elements of the Dystopian Hero

No Comments 26 May 2011

At the recent Storymakers conference, I taught a class on Writing Dystopia. This week I’ll be turning that class into a series of blogs:

Monday: Defining Dystopia
Tuesday: History of Dystopia
Wednesday: Elements of Dystopia
Thursday: Elements of the Dystopian Hero
Friday: Social Commentary in Dystopian Fiction

Yesterday we talked about some common elements in dystopian fiction. Today, we’re going to look at common elements in the dystopian hero. A dystopian her0 generally:

Helps the reader understand the problems with the society. We talked yesterday about how the society, structure and setting are integral to the story, and the main character is the lens through which we see that setting. Whether the protagonist initially understands the societal problems (like Katniss in Hunger Games) or doesn’t (Cassia in Matched), the readers still learn through the main character. Dramatic irony (when the reader knows something a character doesn’t) is a staple of dystopian fiction. Cassia doesn’t recognize the problems in her society, but the reader absolutely sees them. Even in 1984, where Winston is dissatisfied and unhappy, there is still a hefty dose of dramatic irony: he’s hates his job and his marriage, even though readers realize that Winston’s problems are much much worse than just that.
Discovers secrets or restricted information. Like we talked about yesterday, dystopian societies hide information from their citizens, and the discovery of this information is almost always the catalyst to spur the protagonist to action. Think of Tally in Uglies, who discovered the truth about the both the Pretties and the Specials, or Winston in 1984, who is fascinated with “true” history, and gets a copy of The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism, a treasonous book written by the #1 enemy of the state.
Feels trapped/isolated. While the protagonist is learning more about the problems of their situation, they are trapped, both physically and socially. Their physical isolation comes in the form of constant surveillance and inabilty to to speak freely or act freely. But the social isolation is worse: the philosophies of the society are so rigid and ingrained that it’s often very difficult to find anyone who dares/wants to discuss societal problems.
Is often more ideological than practical, and is willing to take huge risks. To some extent, this can be said about characters in many types of fiction, but its especially prevalent in dystopia. Dystopian protagonists are rebels. When they decide to take an action, whether it is to attempt a revolution, or disseminate information or simply escape, they understand that the consequences are very dire. Aside from the threat of punishment, they also know that they are rejecting society and friends–often everything they have ever known. And, very often, they don’t know what the consequences will be even if they succeed: What would escape mean? What would take the place of the current society?
Is almost never an outsider. While the protagonists of utopian fiction were outsiders, very often travelers who visited a new civilization and learned about its society in great depth, the dystopian hero is almost always an insider. Winston worked for the government, actively censoring history. Cassia, while not privy to dark secrets, was completely immersed in the society to the point of being oblivious to the problems happening around her. Even Katniss, who lived in the outer provinces and was well-aware of the problems of society, still counts as an insider because she has grown up in and accepted the reality of her society. “Insider” doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re complicit in the nefarious actions of the society (though it can); it simply means that they’re a long-term member of this society–what they’re seeing (and what the reader sees through them) isn’t new and strange.

You know what’s truly heroic? My Kindle giveaway. Go enter, for the good of humanity. (Click here for more info.)

Writing

Dystopia Blog Series, Day 3: Elements of Dystopia

3 Comments 25 May 2011

At the recent Storymakers conference, I taught a class on Writing Dystopia. This week I’ll be turning that class into a series of blogs:

Monday: Defining Dystopia
Tuesday: History of Dystopia
Wednesday: Elements of Dystopia
Thursday: Elements of the Dystopian Hero
Friday: Social Commentary in Dystopian Fiction

We’re now diving into some of the more specific elements of the dystopia genre. Obviously, not all of these elements are present in every dystopian, but, generally, these are so common/important in dystopian fiction that they almost define the genre.

Warning! There will be a couple of minor spoilers as I give examples, but they’re almost all from classics of the dystopian genres that you’ve all likely read or heard about.

The society/social structure plays an enormous role in the story. I would say that, of all the elements listed here, this one is the most essential to a true dystopia. A society in a dystopia is never merely a backdrop; it is a driving force to both character and plot. I’d go so far as to say that if you’ve created a society that isn’t a central element to your story, then your book probably isn’t dystopian: it’s likely sci-fi, or post-apocalyptic, or cyber-punk or something else.
Strong elements of control, and lack of certain freedoms. As we talked about on Monday, a true dystopia is a utopia with a fatal flaw. Generally, it is that flaw that allows for the utopia: constant surveillance (lack of privacy) ensures complete safety; lack of individual choices allows for the society to make decisions that benefit the group as a whole. In The Hunger Games, the lack of freedom came in the form of mandated entry into the games, and the games were used as a propaganda machine to control and dominate the outer districts.
Restricted information. This is more obvious in some dystopians, like 1984, where the protagonist’s job is to edit and alter history, or in Fahrenheit 451, where the firemen burn books for the “good of humanity”. But while other dystopias may not be as overtly concerned with censorship or historical revisionism, almost all of them control information, often hiding it from the public. The title character in The Giver is one of the only people to know the history of their society. In Uglies, characters don’t know the negative consequences of what happens when they are made into Pretties (and those negative consequences only increase the society’s ability to hide information).
Citizens/characters are dehumanized to some extent. In many dystopias, not only are freedoms taken away, but many of the elements of humanity are taken away as well. In The Giver, the citizens have lost the ability to experience pleasure or pain. In Brave New World, citizens are encouraged to take drugs to pacify and distract them. In The Hunger Games, teens are forced to kill. In We, citizens wear identical clothes and have numbers instead of names, losing much of their personal identity.
Conformity. Individuality and dissension are bad/immoral/illegal. In all of these societies, the state/government acts with totalitarian control. While some citizens may ostensibly have more freedom than others, none can freely oppose the philosophies of the regime. The government will act swiftly to ensure that one bad apple doesn’t rule the entire barrel, either through “re-education” (as in 1984), imprisonment, execution, or something similar (characters in We get lobotomized for speaking out).
There is the illusion of a perfect world. The ultimate goal of the society, through all of the above elements, is to create a world that is peaceful/stable/equal/etc. And in most dystopias, there is a large portion of the population who believes that the society has succeeded, that this is a utopia. One of my very favorite elements in Matched is that, unlike many dystopians, even until we get to the last few chapters (of the first book) the main character really doesn’t see the society as evil and wrong. It’s the only world she’s known, and though she may be discovering disturbing truths, it takes a long time for her to even conceive of the idea that the society as a whole might be bad (rather than have a few isolated problems). Even in The Hunger Games, which starts from an outsider’s (Katniss’s) perspective, we can see that the people in The Capitol view their society as idyllic–they don’t even recognize how horrible the games are.

Again, not all of these need to be present to have a dystopia, but these are all very common and important to the genre. (Going back to definitions, I think using these elements as a guidepost, rather than the vague “bad place” definition, will be much more useful if you’re thinking of writing a dystopia.)

You know what isn’t an illusion of a perfect world, but the REAL THING? My Kindle giveaway. Go enter. I promise that entering this contest does not automatically commit you to being a citizen in my totalitarian society. Pinky swear. (Click here for more info.)

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Roadtripping with Ally Condie

Dystopian Blog Series, Day Five: Social Commentary in Dystopia

Dystopia Blog Series Day Four: Elements of the Dystopian Hero

You know what’s truly heroic? My Kindle giveaway. Go enter, for the good of humanity. (Click here for more info.)

Dystopia Blog Series, Day 3: Elements of Dystopia

You know what isn’t an illusion of a perfect world, but the REAL THING? My Kindle giveaway. Go enter. I promise that entering this contest does not automatically commit you to being a citizen in my totalitarian society. Pinky swear. (Click here for more info.)

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Roadtripping with Ally Condie

Dystopian Blog Series, Day Five: Social Commentary in Dystopia

Dystopia Blog Series Day Four: Elements of the Dystopian Hero

You know what’s truly heroic? My Kindle giveaway. Go enter, for the good of humanity. (Click here for more info.)

Dystopia Blog Series, Day 3: Elements of Dystopia

You know what isn’t an illusion of a perfect world, but the REAL THING? My Kindle giveaway. Go enter. I promise that entering this contest does not automatically commit you to being a citizen in my totalitarian society. Pinky swear. (Click here for more info.)

About me

Best Books of 2011!

Coming Soon!

Rob's Tweets

Archives

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