Think the Giver was the Start of the Dystopian Genre? Think again!

Have you heard of Universe 25? I’ve been working on a fantasy book for a while now, but I always have science fiction ideas brewing in the back of my mind. The other day Jon (my husband) told me about a crazy experiment done in the 1960’s that got my brain going down lots of strange sci-fi paths. 

I’m going to nerd out on you for a couple minutes, but trust me, even if you’re not a sci-fi fan you’ll find this interesting.

Technically Calhoun’s mice utopia experiments started in the 40’s, with the most well-known Universe 25 being studied in 1968. He put 8 mice in a luxurious habitat with ample food, nesting supplies, etc and watched what they did. At first they thrived, doubling their population again and again, but then their social structure broke down.

A group split off, and he referred to them as “the beautiful ones,” because they spent all their time grooming themselves and didn’t care about any of the other mice.Some males became domineering and took out their aggression on male and female mice, even to the point of cannibalism.Mice families would move nests and leave their young behind.

There are tons of articles and videos about it (here is one to get you started down the rabbit trail), and you can’t help reading it all and picturing them as humans. Eventually their societal structure broke down so completely they stopped reproducing and died out.

It sounds like something out of a sci-fi novel, and yet…it also sounds a bit like our western culture. Do I think it accurately predicts society’s downfall? No, they’re mice in a lab experiment in the 60’s. BUT it’s interesting and eerie to look at the comparisons. 

And it clearly explains why the dystopian genre even exists. 

Okay, technically it was based on the book Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, and the BOOK was based on the experiment, but still. The author visited the lab and it’s suspected he evened named Mrs. Frisby (who was Mrs. Brisby in the movie) after the blue frisbee the scientists threw around to relieve stress in their lab environment.

Now I need to rewatch the movie and check out the book, but the point is, I’m clearly not the first person to think Universe 25 is fodder for a good story.

Also, there is an oddly high number of rodent movies made for kids in the 70s/80s/90s – am I right? 

A Symphony of Stars by Barbara Kloss is out today! It’s the third in a series, so if you haven’t read either of the first two, check out Gods of Men (which is free on Kindle Unlimited) first!

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Here’s the back cover blurb for Gods of Men (I’d put in the blurb for A Symphony of Stars, but SPOILERS):

Sable hated the gods. She hated what men did in their name.

Magic is forbidden throughout the Five Provinces; those born with it are hunted and killed. Sable doesn’t know her music holds power over souls–not until, at age nine, she plays her flute before the desert court and accidentally stops her baby sister’s heart, killing her. Horrified by what she’s done and fearing for her life, she flees north, out of Provincial jurisdiction and into the frigid land of exiles and thieves, known as The Wilds. There, Sable lives in hiding, burdened by guilt, and survives as a healer. But now, fifteen years later, someone–or something–is hunting her.

On the run again, Sable’s best chance for survival is Jos, a lethal man from the Five Provinces, who claims to need her skills as a healer to save his dying father, and she needs the large sum of money he’s offered. There’s something about him Sable doesn’t trust, but she doesn’t have many options. A spirit of the dead is hunting her, summoned by a mysterious necromancer, and it’s getting closer.

Sable soon discovers she’s just the start of the necromancer’s plan to take over the Five Provinces, and she’s the only one with the power to stop it. But harnessing her forbidden power means revealing it to the world, and the dangerous Provincial, Jos, she’s beginning to fall for.

Fans of Brandon Sanderson, Sarah J. Maas, and Amy Harmon’s “The Bird and the Sword” will love this dark and epic fantasy adventure.

I splurged on her book box as a reward for finishing my NaNoWriMo novel in January, and it’s supposed to arrive April 2! Expect to see that on IG soon!

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