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  • Battle Royale by Koushun Takami writer

    In a alternate Universe Japan, as part of an autocratic East Asian Super State, fights the gowing rebelliousness among the Youth with the BR Act. The Battle Royale Act chooses by lottery a number of different school classes and kidnaps each of them to a different Island. There the students are given three days to kill each other until only one survives. If more than one is alive by the end of that timespan all of them die. The book follows this event for one school class and the desperate attempts for survival by the different students.

    genressatire drama tragedy
    keywordsaddiction - child abuse - disordered eating - divorce - domestic violence - homophobia - major character death - rape or sexual assault - self-harm - sexism - suicide - education - friendship - love - revolution
    content warningsprofanity: yes - violence: graphic - sex: yes
    languagesEnglish
    length666
    source material
    related worksThe film Battle Royale directed by Kinji Fukasaku and starring ("Beat") Takeshi Kitano is an amazing piece of art that actually is one of the very few examples of a film being superior to its original novel. It maintains all levels of critique and satire while managing to not depict teachers as just rapists and murderers. (Though as Adorno pointed out in "Tabus über den Lehrerberuf" the teacher IS the executioner of the modern society.) The reason why I chose to add the novel instead of the film to this database is because of the legal trouble the film is in many western societies. In Germany for instance a fully uncut version is not available, even the cut available to adults only censored out the "countdown" texts, for obvious political reasons. Also the film has very graphic depictions of violence against, among and by teenagers and whlie the sexual violence is missing from the film it can still be very disturbing for many.
    availability of fanfictionBetween 100 and 1000 entries on FanFiction.net
    notesThe novel had a troubled history being illegal at time of release in its origin country, a fate which would forecast the trouble the movie would in western culture. What makes is special is the depth of its critique. Even though it might not be obvious at first, every single part of the novel was created specifically as a critique of our school system and society. From Bourdieu, Foucoult to Adorno the most prominent and important western critics of our concept of education can be easily found in these pages, which is a testament to either the research or understanding of Koushun Takami. Please note that aside of the obvious problems with violence that this novel poses, it is also a very harsh and thought out critique of our school system, so teachers who do not want to engage with this issue should avoid it. In fact I argue it is the best and most important piece of fiction ever created that critiques education on a fundamental level. The novel opens with a quote from George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia which should make it obvious which political attitude the author has. To write their own school critique in a Battle Royale like universe as fanfiction could be a great exercise for an advanced class.