I finally watched THE HUNGER GAMES on TV last night. I had seen movie trailers and a few TV interviews on it over the years–and more recently this past month as the world awaited the second part of the trilogy. I had always assumed that “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson reflected much of the same horror. However, as I watched
THE HUNGER GAMES for the first time, I saw many more parallels to the world and to dozens of other movies. Finally, I looked up background on
THE HUNGER GAMES on the internet. I learnt quite a bit about Greek mythology and how it plays a role in THE HUNGER GAMES , too.–kas
Questioning The Hunger Games
So the movie of The Hunger Games is out, and it’s been an enormous success. Here are some questions the movie might raise:
- That whole death lottery things seems familiar. Haven’t I read that kind of story before?
Yes, in high school or freshman English. It’s a story by author Shirley Jackson called The Lottery. Hunger Games is in no way a “rip off” of The Lottery, but the premise of it does have some common thematic elements with the Jackson story.There was a short film made of The Lottery back in the 1960s. You can see itin two parts here. - Did Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins just come out of nowhere to write her bestselling trilogy?
Nope. She had a well-regarded children’s series she had written before, and she was a staff writer for Nickelodeon children’s television series. As a side note, the central premise of the series, according to Collins, is that it is about children and war. The deepest roots of the story go back to when her father came home from Vietnam. - Are fans really upset about the race of certain Hunger Games characters in the movie?
Maybe. At least a few moviegoers have tweeted their unhappiness with the fact that the characters Rue, Thresh, and Cinna are all black in the movie. Should they have been surprised? Probably not. Rue and Thresh are both described by Collins as having very dark skin, so the fact that they were played by black actors should come as no surprise. Cinna’s race is not described, but Lenny Kravitz certainly has the attractive, stylish look the character requires. The story even rose to the level of being covered inThe New YorkerBut this isn’t the first movie to have raised questions about the race of the actors cast in the film. - Are there really racist tweets out there about the casting of the film?
Yes, but I don’t know that it really was that many people making them. Keep in mind, the movie had a huge opening. The fact that something about the movie would upset a few of them, and that they would post that displeasure to the Internet should not be surprising. The above link is to a Tumblr blog that deals with the issues of the tweets. - How is The Hunger Games movie affecting young people?
Hard to say, though it would seem that it is making them more interested in archery. - What does a libertarian/conservative/law professor parent have to think about Hunger Games and sci-fi/fantasy in general?
Ilya Somin has had some great posts on the politics of Hunger Games and other sci-fi/fantasy stories up on the libertarian-focused legal blog The Volokh Conspiracy. Well worth reading.
Eslkevin's Blog 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunger_Games
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article is about the novel. For other uses, see The Hunger Games (disambiguation).
The Hunger Games
Cover of the novel, showing the title in white text on a black and grey background, above a depiction of a gold pin featuring a bird in flight, its wings spread and an arrow clasped in its beak.
North American first edition cover
Author Suzanne Collins
Cover artist Tim O’Brien
Country United States
Language English
Series The Hunger Games trilogy
Genre Adventure
Dystopian
Science fiction[1]
Action
Publisher Scholastic Press
Publication date September 14, 2008
Media type Print (hardcover, paperback)
Pages 374
OCLC Number 181516677
LC Classification PZ7.C6837 Hun 2008
Followed by Catching Fire
The Hunger Games is a 2008 science fiction novel by the American writer Suzanne Collins. It is written in the voice of 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in the dystopian, post-apocalyptic nation of Panem in North America. The Capitol, a highly advanced metropolis, exercises political control over the rest of the nation. The Hunger Games are an annual event in which one boy and one girl aged 12–18 from each of the twelve districts surrounding the Capitol are selected by lottery to compete in a televised battle to the death.
The book received mostly positive feedback from major reviewers and authors, including the author Stephenie Meyer. It was praised for its storyline and character development, though some reviewers have noted similarities between Collins’ book and Koushun Takami’s Battle Royale (1999). In writing The Hunger Games, Collins drew upon Greek mythology, Roman gladiatorial games, and contemporary reality television for thematic content. The novel won many awards, including the California Young Reader Medal, and was named one of Publishers Weekly’s “Best Books of the Year” in 2008.
The Hunger Games was first published in hardcover on September 14, 2008, by Scholastic, featuring a cover designed by Tim O’Brien. It has since been released in paperback and also as an audiobook and ebook. After an initial print of 200,000, the book had sold 800,000 copies by February 2010. Since its release, The Hunger Games has been translated into 26 languages, and publishing rights have been sold in 38 territories. The novel is the first in The Hunger Games trilogy, followed by Catching Fire (2009) and Mockingjay (2010). A film adaptation, directed by Gary Ross and co-written and co-produced by Collins herself, was released in 2012.