The Hunger Games

The Hunger games is a story that follows the typical formula of people suffering, in a competitive manner, for others' entertainment.  I am surprised how popular this book is becoming, seeing as how the same concept has been produced over and over again in the past.  For example Battle Royale, Lord of the Flies, Gamer, Mad Max, and so on.  You could even go as far as saying Metropolis.  In that film people suffered, so that others could live in comfort.  I suppose that Suzanne Collins, being a TV writer, was able to apply this type of story to the newer generation--the generation of reality TV, videogames, and Twilight.  The book is written very much in a videogame format--play this level, level up, etc.

The romance aspect of the book was sort of sickening to me.  Not that romance in general bothered me, but specifically the way the Panam played with Peeta--the way she led him on with out knowing what she wanted.  It was so un-romantic, so realistic, so in touch with the way romance works today.  Of course thats a personal preference, but when I want to read an action packed romance story, I want there to be true love and everything else.  (as cheesy as it is)

I thought it was handled far better in Battle Royale.  The main character meets his love interest, fall in love, and defeat the game itself.  What a romanticized story.  But at the same time how great is that?  That whole novel was a better take on this concept if you ask me.  It was far more in depth as far as character development goes.  It was also more explicit and violent, which is always more fun, especially when you dealing with this type of subject matter.

However, the way that Collins aligned the story with reality TV was very interesting and very relevant. It juxtaposes anyone who watches reality TV with the sponsors in the story and hopefully makes them question why they find reality TV so entertaining.  Which makes it kind of ironic that the trailer for the movie premiered at the MTV music video awards.

Even though I prefer other vessels of this concept, I think its cool how much these novels are blowing up.  Hopefully people will get the point.  Or at least question the point.