Harry Potter was a smash hit about a boy discovering he’s a wizard and going to school in a magical world full of wonder and adventure. Twilight didn’t hit quite that high a note, but the story of a teenage girl who learns her classmate is a vampire and falls in love with him did quite well. The Hunger Games popularized the dystopian genre with a bow wielding teenager stepping up to survive death games, have angsty romances, and fight the power.
As far as I can tell, nothing has quite hit that same kind of high since and it may be awhile until the next truly big wave. But if it were up to you, what would the next big thing be about?
I was thinking something similar. Dialectical materialism is something that doesn’t really get taught, but totally could open up how kids see and understand the world.
Like why can’t we switch away from carbon-producing energy when green technology already exists? Because the people with real political power have interests opposed to that. Their interest is maximizing profits, and nothing is better for that than extracting resources. If everyone has their own solar panels, then the market can’t be monopolized by a few actors to control prices and maximize their profits.
Why is politics divisive? Because the planet-wrecking profit-seeking capitalists want to keep people divided instead of uniting against them. They easily buy influence in media and political parties to make sure the agenda is steered toward other fights.
So, anyway, an optimistic post-revolution episodic space adventure that works in the history of overcoming capitalism and other contradictions and saving humanity sounds really nice, and that’s basically what Star Trek is.
I’ve heard One Piece has similar vibes but I haven’t checked that out yet.
In theory, a YA book series like that would rock.
In practice, I don’t see how any current YA author is not going to screw it up by making it one more piece of divisive politics: ie here’s the villain, oh look, they’re exactly like the stereotype the average liberal has of the average conservative! Star Trek was able to tread that line of being political but in a universal way, showing characters deal with serious moral questions but not turning into culture wars IN SPACE. From what I’ve seen of recent YA fic dealing with political issues, I don’t see them producing something as universally inspiring as Star Trek anytime soon. I’d love to be proven wrong on this, though.