The Hunger Royale?

Tuesday (May 1) was my third wedding anniversary and so Ky and I dumped the kid and took off to eat Mexican food and watch The Hunger Games.

The huge wave of social interest in the Hunger Games has pretty much passed, and I realise that this is fairly late in the day for me to bring it up, but there are a few things about the books, (and I suppose the movie) that I would like to applaud and discuss.

Let me just state outright that I have no interest or intention of making this a political blog. Like religion, politics can be extremely polarizing and is a matter of personal choice. I believe that everyone has the freedom to be as opinionated and passionate about their religious and political choices as they want to be... I just won't be doing it here. (Well I'll be trying not to)

I hestitated in picking up The Hunger Games, because it seemed far too similar to Japanese author Koushun Takami's 1999 novel Battle Royale where a class of children are selected to fight to the death in an arena and the last child standing was declared the winner. (glitch in the matrix much?) I stubbornly insisted to myself that there was no way in this world of the internet that Suzanne Collins could have possibly failed to note that someone else had written nearly this exact scenario.

Battle Royale: gore fest.

I got over myself and did read the books though, all three of them, and they were good.
This isn't a book review so I'm not going to go on about the issues I had with characters and the movie. (Though I will just say that all those racists who thought Rue should have been white should go back and read the book again. Your ignorance makes me angry)

Like Battle Royale, The Hunger Games uses the shocking situation and the violence of the main story to reflect criticism on political powers.
Government (Hegemony really) subdues the downtrodden population of Panem and The Republic of Greater East Asia by having their young people kill each other, the horror of which quenches any possible desire to rise up against the existing power. (Only it back fires and two children make it out. Yes, this happens in both stories...)
 
In a book aimed at young people, I think the messages conveyed are important to introduce (or remind) people of their responsibility and accountability for the actions of their governments.
Collins clearly spells out her message when she explains (I think in book three) what she has been illustrating all along through the outlandish, fickle and superficial population of the Capitol, when she explains that Panem is named after the latin "Panem et circenses".
Originating in Rome (obviously) the term was coined for a population which no longer cared for their democratic rights and had effectively traded them for panem et circenses, or bread and circuses. Bread provided to Panem by the hard work of twelve impoverish districts, circuses (or entertainment) provided annually by the death of their children broadcast on live television.

In a world where reality TV is so prevalent, and entertainment is made from increasingly unreal situations, it isn't too hard for us to imagine a situation like this. (The Truman Show anyone?)

What do we find entertaining? and at what cost are we entertained? Where does our food come from? What do we trade our political accountability for? How do current politicians 'buy' our votes? (I said I wouldn't make this a political blog so I will refrain... but the budget was just announced in Australia and I'm not the only one who questions the motives behind the school children hand out)

I don't think its healthy to be paranoid or to invent conspiracies, but I do think it's important to ask questions and I think it is a great thing for books like The Hunger Games and even the far more violent Battle Royale (maybe for only slightly older readers?) to bring these issues into the spotlight.

Even couched in entertaining prose...
That's what I think, and even though I didn't really like Katniss Everdeen (personal opinion) and even though Peeta was treated terribly (he's my favourite) and even though on the face of it, it does just seem like the American version of Battle Royale, I still have to tip my hat to Suzanne Collins.

Nice one.

I wish I could write. My novel would totally be turned into a movie...