Author Topic: Effect of the Animorphs series on reader's political leanings  (Read 1931 times)

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Offline Axeme

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Effect of the Animorphs series on reader's political leanings
« on: January 24, 2010, 10:53:00 AM »
I was just thinking ... Animorphs had profound influences on many of its devoted readers as they grew up.

There are some fairly deep underlying political themes in the book which are presented relatively simplistically for the youth audiences. I wonder to what degree KA has shaped a small generation of young adults in their perspectives on politics, the Iraq war, voting patterns, etc?

Thinking about it now, KA must be something of a liberal. She was born in the 50's, so is a baby boomer who would have been strongly influenced by the events growing up in the 60's such as the US civil rights movement, progressive agendas and the Vietnam War. I can think of at least a few instances where such themes crop up in the book:

1) Multiculturalism, prejudice and racism: Jake/Cassie relationship. Even numerous beautiful inter-species relationships such as Elfangor/Loren, Dak/Aldrea where key characters show the reader that true love can transcend the most stark cultural and physiological differences in classic Romeo/Juliet subtexts.
Ax is negatively portrayed for his views on a disabled Andalite and reprimanded by the other Animorphs for doing so, but is 'enlightened' through communicating with him, eventually respecting him as an equal.
There is also sporadic commentary on the nature of human discrimination in several books on the issue of various aliens such as the Hork Bajir living amongst humans.

2) Feminism: Andalites are a highly patriarchal however 'old fashioned' beliefs regarding the role of women are slowly changing during the war eg female warriors. In THBC, Aldrea, the protagonist is a smart, bold and adventurous heroine who is unable to be taken seriously by the highly masculine Alloran which leads to disastrous consequences. The patriarchal nature of Andalite society is not generally portrayed positively. Further, Rachel's 'warrior' characteristics contrast with her lover  Tobias, who was something of a wimp as a human and a bit soft. KA chose a female to represent the most violent and boldest animorph (although not the leader).

3) No clear Good Guys/Bad Guys... Enemies are people too: KA provokes her young audience to consider the Yeerks as multi-dimensional enemies - fighting for a better life, as well some who seek peace. Even though they are parasitic slugs, they have good guys as well as bad guys, just like every side in a war - The subtext being that all sentient beings (i.e. humans) are not that different, and that much of war is the result of misunderstand and lack of communication. The ultimate resolution to the war was to give the Yeerks morphing power.

4) Military Empire and American Foreign Policy: Some rough parallels can be drawn between Andalites (United States) and Yeerks (Soviet Union). The former are the galaxy's policemen - governed by the presumably democratic 'electorate' i.e. the people, the latter are an empire ruled by a ruthless dictatorship where generals kill their internal opponents and dissent and incompetence is brutally punished. Although Andalites start off as saintly good guys - the more 'real', arrogant and self serving they appear through the series. This is particularly true of their leaders. The loss of the Hork Bajir world draws comparisons to the US retreat in Vietnam - innocent lives being sacrificed in the name of war. Alloran in TAC is something of an Andalite version of the jaded Vietnam veteran after the events of THBC (although by no means converted into a hippie).
The story of the Hork Bajir in particular has something of a noble savage element to it - a strong, powerful species that lived in complete peace as innocent bystanders until war was brought upon it by technologically superior powers. i.e warring European nations carving up Africa.

I wonder if this has influenced how readers here interpret current world events? Young people are generally more liberal than older people, although my guess is that Animorph readers are more likely to be more accepting of diversity, probably more anti-war, and perhaps a little more cynical of recent American foreign policy. I think, for example, Animorph readers would be less inclined to buy into an 'us Vs them' mentality when thinking about the Muslim and Arab world, as conservatives might see the conflict.

Offline Dameg

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Re: Effect of the Animorphs series on reader's political leanings
« Reply #1 on: January 24, 2010, 12:12:48 PM »
Interesting. And I agree that it changed our minds, at least mine.
Some other stories made me pretty feminist (Yoko Tsuno and Fantaghiro, for example)
What we read/see when we're young can change us as well as our family or our experiences.
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Offline KitsuneMarie

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Re: Effect of the Animorphs series on reader's political leanings
« Reply #2 on: January 26, 2010, 11:55:05 PM »
I think what Animorphs did for me was start to open my eyes to what war could really be like and what it could really do to those involved.

I grew up in North Carolina, where the American Civil War is something of a celebrated historical event. It's not that the gruesome aspects of the war aren't taught in school, but there certainly is some heavy emphasis on its glamorous facade.
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Offline Dameg

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Re: Effect of the Animorphs series on reader's political leanings
« Reply #3 on: January 27, 2010, 06:18:18 AM »
For me it was different... I had story about war, and horrible deaths, since I'm in elementary school ^^' My elementary school's name was Jean Moulin, the name of a resistant who was killed by the Nazis in the city where my school was. So we did spectacles, and learned a lot about WW2. And Lyon is the Capital of Resistance (not only during WW2 in fact ^^' Lyon always fight against Paris), so I grew up with stories about killed resistants, deported Jews, etc. (see this museum, with Hiroshima museum and the museum of Osaka about WW2, one of the saddest and most terrible I visited)
So Animorphs told me more about war, and what people think during war, but it wasn't as terrible as the real History...
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Offline Toc'

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Re: Effect of the Animorphs series on reader's political leanings
« Reply #4 on: January 30, 2010, 03:38:25 AM »
I also agree with most of the things you stated, although I don't know if it influenced me much.

What you call feminisn in the book had no influence on my thoughts for exemple.
I really enjoyed the multispecies couples' stories but again I don't think it influenced my thoughts.

As for the no real good guy or no real bad guy, there I think it definitely made me tick in a positive way. It's rare when a kids' book/series makes you look at things from different points of view and makes the "heroes" themselves wonder if they are actually doing the "good" thing.
The book number 20 in particular, with Cassie and Aftran, is the first one that really shows you the other side of the situation.
Like you I could make analogies between the different species in animorphs and what happens here in our real world. Not a single exact analogy with one situation, but plenty of analogies.


Quote
Alloran in TAC is something of an Andalite version of the jaded Vietnam veteran after the events of THBC (although by no means converted into a hippie).

Definitely! The parallel is even clearly established in the TAC.
When Loren started talking about her father who did the Vietman war and never came back totally the same and that Chapman laughed at her. Alloran who had been silent for the whole journey eventually said to Chapman to shut up, that only those who did it knew and that the others had to shut up.
(I don't remember the exact things he said, I haven't reread the book for a lonnnnnng while, but I remember this quite well).

 
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Offline Axeme

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Re: Effect of the Animorphs series on reader's political leanings
« Reply #5 on: January 30, 2010, 04:23:46 AM »

The book number 20 in particular, with Cassie and Aftran, is the first one that really shows you the other side of the situation.
 

#19 I believe  :)

I just re-read THBC which got me thinking about inter-species relationships - while there are a number of these going on, coincidentally, none involved a human getting it on with a physical alien.

Although Elfangor marries Loren, he becomes a human nothlit to do so. In Visser, Edriss and Essam are just using humans to mate with each other.

My guess is that these relationships are more palatable to (human) readers. In THBC, for example, we can kind of accept an Andalite choosing to become a HB, because Andalites are aliens and who knows what's going through the heads?

On the other hand, could we buy into a story where a human falls in love with the physical form of an alien? Or to put it another way, where a human falls in love with the form of a non-human?

Andalites are probably the most human-looking aliens in the books, but could you imagine, say, one of the Ani girls becoming a female Andalite nothlit and falling in love with Ax as an Andalite? I just don't think readers could accept it because they would try to think about what it would be like for themselves to actually live as an alien and love a non-human. I think there's some own species bias, because it's a lot easier for us to stomach another alien becoming another alien, or an alien becoming a human but not the other way around.

Offline Toc'

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Re: Effect of the Animorphs series on reader's political leanings
« Reply #6 on: January 30, 2010, 04:48:23 AM »
Yes, 19  ;D Sorry  :P


Hmmm
I'm not really sure that what you say is related to the thread you opened but I have to disagree.

At least what you say really doesn't work for me.
I liked reading animorphs because it permitted me to create a fictional world in my head and to jump in it to escape the boredom in my life ^^
I was a really imaginative child I guess and I could involve in my fictional world very much  ;D
Anyway, in my animorphs fictional world (cause I had many other fictional worlds based on books/series/movies/real life events, sometimes I made them cross :p ) I was part of the animorphs and I fell in love with Ax and I remember becoming an Andalite nothlit for this reason.

I wouldn't have mind reading a similar story in the series.
Pink Piggy: Anyway, these are standard assumptions in economics. I have no problem with them. Quantum theory also seems weird but it is accepted, that is the way of science.
Brown Piggy: Quantum theory makes no claim about the motivations or welfare of quantum particles.
Pink Piggy: You just do not understand the mathematics involved. This is typical uninformed criticism of economics.



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Offline Dameg

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Re: Effect of the Animorphs series on reader's political leanings
« Reply #7 on: January 30, 2010, 07:33:54 AM »
I agree with Tocade ^^' I think that Loren loved Elfangor as an Andalite and would become an Andalite if she had to, but obviously, it was easier for Elfangor to become a Human (Loren wouldn't be accepted by the Andalites, and Elfangor wuld have to fight against the Yeerks again. As Elfangor became a Human, he was free.)
And another example of love who transcend the races: Tobias-Rachel, even if Tobias was a Human before, they were in love when Tobias was a hawk. So I know it's different, but in a way it shows that they could love each other like that (even if Rachel wanted Tobias to become back a Human).
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Offline Myitt

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Re: Effect of the Animorphs series on reader's political leanings
« Reply #8 on: January 30, 2010, 04:00:57 PM »
I think I always had fairly liberal-leaning tendencies, even as a kid I was very environmentalist and interested in war stories and peace marches and human rights; while those aren't just liberal ideals, I think they helped to lay the foundation for my adult beliefs.  The very pro-environment sort of imagery in Animorphs really fed what I was already interested in.  I'm sure lots of things influenced me over the years, shaping what I felt strongly about, but yeah, I'd say Animorphs really made me look at the shades of grey in any situation.  It's not the main driving force, but I guess it helped me look at both sides of any situation, and not vote for someone or say that I believed something without really making sure I saw the way both sides thought or felt.  If anything, it probably made me more mistrustful of all politicians, given the corrupt nature of most of the Animorphs politicians x3


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Offline Estreen_Esteem

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Re: Effect of the Animorphs series on reader's political leanings
« Reply #9 on: January 31, 2010, 02:09:39 AM »
 I think the series really pushed forward my critical thinking skills. And these abilities definitely led to being more progressive, politically.

 Also this:

"The loss of the Hork Bajir world draws comparisons to the US retreat in Vietnam - innocent lives being sacrificed in the name of war. Alloran in TAC is something of an Andalite version of the jaded Vietnam veteran after the events of THBC (although by no means converted into a hippie)."

 is a very keen insight, although I think the Andalites were more needed there than we were in Vietnam, by far.

"The story of the Hork Bajir in particular has something of a noble savage element to it - a strong, powerful species that lived in complete peace as innocent bystanders until war was brought upon it by technologically superior powers. i.e warring European nations carving up Africa."

 This is also interesting, especially considering their biologically low-IQ. And they literally were invented to work for the more intelligent species.

Offline Shark Akhrrana

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Re: Effect of the Animorphs series on reader's political leanings
« Reply #10 on: February 01, 2010, 03:28:07 AM »
wow that's deep. I think it did influence the way i think about politics. but not that much when i was a kid but later on when i reread the books when i was older.  I made the connections deeper i suppose.

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Re: Effect of the Animorphs series on reader's political leanings
« Reply #11 on: February 01, 2010, 06:32:15 PM »
The series affected me in a lot of ways, but not necessarily in political issues. I found the moral conflicts to be the most fascinating.
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Offline Shenmue654

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Re: Effect of the Animorphs series on reader's political leanings
« Reply #12 on: February 02, 2010, 11:18:29 AM »
What probably influenced me the most in the series was how it shows the terrible and cruel nature of war and intolerance. I don't know what I thought of war as a child, but I doubt it was anywhere near as complicated in my head as Animorphs showed it to be. The series was probably my earliest experience with bizarre political power dynamics and winning battles that were bitter and awful. I think through this and other things in my life I came to understand what war really was.

The other thing that really struck me was how the bad guys and good guys aren't necessarily always the bad guys and good guys. They all have their own personalities and reasons for what they're doing. The most horrible people of all in our history are as human as we are, though not as humane. To some extent this had already occurred to me at an early age, but Animorphs emphasized the tragedy that such relationships between people sometimes causes.

Offline voodooqueen126

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Re: Effect of the Animorphs series on reader's political leanings
« Reply #13 on: February 07, 2010, 05:22:42 PM »
Although the political message of Animorphs is clear, I still find it didn't really influence my political opinions, I remain conservative.