I've been working with the amazing Becca in Minnetonka Public Schools who is one of the teachers piloting Luna Uni in her 8th grade honors ELA classrooms. As part of our work together, I've been creating supplementary videos as student-facing supports, the same way I have with Tyler Pelletier and Thomas Charltray, the two teachers working with Luna Uni in South Portland schools (now in their second year of implementation, with wonderful results!).
As she was introducing the setting of Luna Uni - a utopian future where prison, money, war, environmental disaster, and crime are artifacts of a bygone age - her students had questions. Why was the setting was non-violent, and how could a non-violent setting could be dramatic, engaging, and intense for both audience and authors? She asked me for a video for her students, and I did my best:
And the students - wonderfully! - came back with more questions!
I wrote a response, this time. I didn't want to become the primary source of "answers" about a setting that, ultimately, belongs to Becca and her students (not me!), but I did want to at least explain the rationale behind the non-violent setting and the way I think about how to discuss this sort of thing with students.
Below are my responses to each of their questions. If you're interested in having these sorts of discussions with students, or just better understanding how a non-violent setting might work, read on!
1) Is there still grief and loss?
Yes, of course! I'd start by asking them if they think grief and loss are only external. Probably few of them have had experiences with direct violence or imprisonment, but does that mean they haven't hurt? Loss, grief, danger, drama - these are all fundamental to the human experience, and none are going to disappear just because life isn't UNJUST. The source of emotions isn't injustice - it's being alive!
Injustice is often framed in our culture as being the ONE REASON for drama, but nuanced storytelling acknowledges that drama doesn't come from evil vs. good, and problems can't be personified and punched into being "solved" (any more than imprisoning people magically makes them more likely to become productive, happy members of society). Ask students to think of ALL THE DRAMA they've had just in the LAST YEAR! Health issues, friend drama, crush drama, trying out for teams, dreaming big about the future, pushing to build skills, worrying about family, worrying about themselves, struggling with people you're beefing with - there's just COUNTLESS ways to make things tough for characters!
This week's Transdimensional High episode is a great example. It's got a really awful moment between a kid and his mom in which both are very fond of one another, but they hurt each other badly. I'm linking the second episode of a two-parter that's part of the TDH overall arc. FWIW, the arc is a GREAT example of how "school drama" can be HIGH drama, and how a "utopian" world can have underlying issues that need dealing with (though there is some law-breaking and injustice involved, to be fair!).
Finally, I always remind students that it's THEIR WORLD: if they wanna try to figure out a way to do a "prison" or "crime," they're welcome to! It's just it won't be common, since there's no real reason for it - follow through with questions to flesh out what they want to make it!
For example, I once had a student play a "war bot." The first question was who made this creation, and why? We decided the bot was a relic from a long-ago war - a soldier in a conflict between worlds long forgotten. They'd been rediscovered, and now had to find their way in a universe with no cause for conflict ... who would they become? How would they adapt? It ended up being a central theme of the tale we told, and with them re-activating countless sleeping war bots to create a new planet of their own (not, as one might expect, for war; rather, the first bot had realized they'd been controlled, and awakened it's brethren to a new universe in which they could have their own destiny, as a people).
Whatever the decision, make sure the pieces of the world fit - that conflict or contrast between origins can make for a really compelling plot, if you follow up with the right questions!
2) So like ... no prisons at all??
Nope! There could be planets where people can be put to live peacefully, away from others? But … they’re not needed when needs are met. Crime and antisocial behavior disappear when you eliminate desperation, poverty, health issues, etc. Witness how low crime is in every other developed nation (and check the book the Spirit Level for scientific basis). "Why do you feel the need for prisons?" would be my question.
I had a whole unit on this in my AP, collegiate writing class. To be clear, the main question is: what purpose do prisons serve? Are they punishment to deter crime? Do they actually achieve that end? (Short answer: the US incarcerates a larger percentage of it's population than any other nation - and sports a higher rate of crime, too, so ... nope). Are they to "rescue" the population from dangerous people? See answer to #1.
Are there other options? YES! SO many other countries have extensive rehabilitation programs - in combination with the sort of social supports that prevent crime. In terms of analogy, you can ask this: would punishing you more, excluding you from class and placing you in another room with other kids who'd "been bad" make you MORE or LESS likely to hate school and the people who put you there?
If you look into what incarceration does, it doesn't help people avoid becoming a part of an underground economy after leaving; in fact, it does the opposite. Formerly incarcerated people can't vote, have almost no job opportunities, and have no easy way to make new connections or community after leaving jail. Their community has become the people they were incarcerated with (or the ones they were with who were part of the activity that got them incarcerated), and they now have FEWER options for making a new community or changing than before jail. In effect, they are pushed towards illegal activity, as their options for legal success have become MORE limited, not less, than when they were jailed. It's not a humane or functional way to help people, prevent crime, or foster a safer society. If you want to get into the question of why we, as a society, imagine they're important and that it would completely impossible to run a society WITHOUT prisons, you quickly get into anthropology, sociology and cultural studies.
In short: no utopian future society would allow prisons. Rehabilitation programs? YES! All sorts of therapy? HECK YEAH!
Enough to ANNOY people? Maybe!
Check out Luna Uni episode 1 for more. It has the very FIRST Lunies facing the Coreworld Council, and being offered the chance for MORE therapeutic treatment OR a chance at a weird, wild adventure that will keep them from causing trouble IN the Coreworlds (hint: they don't pick more basket-weaving!).
3) How did the Bot Revolution succeed if there was no violence?
Read up! The RLA (Robot Liberation Army) got every bot to strike, simultaneously, across the Coreworlds. It completely shut down the Coreworlds, making the utopian lifestyle everyone was used to impossible. No logistics, transportation, communication, education, manufacturing … you can imagine it didn’t take long for the Council to give in to bot demands (which were dang reasonable: personhood rights)!
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