Extras - Literary Analysis

497 Words2 Pages
Scott Westerfeld’s Extras is an interesting explanation of a world not far from our own where popularity is literally money and people must discover what matters most to them and what they are willing to do to overcome life as an extra. Westerfeld is fascinating and awe-inspiring as he takes a different angle on the world in this adventurous book with a hint of a love story. Three years after the events of Specials freed the world from the “pretty” lesions, which forced them to be compliant and manageable, society begins to settle into a new form. Each city has been forced to find a way of dealing with the new pressure on its resources. In Japan, one city has chosen a “reputation economy” rewarding citizens either with merits for productive responsibilities or with face rank, a measure of popularity. Every resident has their own feed and obsessively scouts out their own face rank, hoping to gain fame and drop their status of an “extra”. Aya Fuse attempts to win fame as a “kicker” or amateur journalist, filming stories with her modified hovercam, Moggle, and posting them for the city to see. Hiro, Aya’s older brother, is in the top one thousand prominent people, and Aya is extremely envious of him. She asks him, “What’s it like, being famous?” The reason Aya cares so much is that she strives to be famous, and would do anything it took to reach her objective. In Aya’s search for an amazing story, she meets up with the Sly Girls. These seemingly ordinary girls live on the wild side by riding on top of a super fast mag-lev train while trying to stay away from the kickers. Aya is forced to sacrifice Moggle in order to be a part of their clique so she can gain access to their story. Later, she rescues her hovercam and uses it to unlock the greatest story ever kicked, a secret so dark that it upsets the entire social order of her world. This secret is so important
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