Brian's been working on a big project lately, and last night he was at work until 11:30 pm. After I put the kids to bed, I sat down to relax. I should have picked up a book, but instead I flipped through the channels. I noticed that The Hunger Games was on ABC Family, so I figured I'd tune in to see what all the fuss was about.
It was a bad move. Now, I know a lot of people love these books and love these movies. But I have just one question for those people: Why?
I realize I don't think like a lot of people in this world. I'm certainly my own person, and sometimes the way I see things and my beliefs make me an outcast. To that, I say at least I think for myself. I have no problem stepping back from the crowd if I don't believe in something, and The Hunger Games is not something I am able to enjoy or applaud.
At first I was shocked. I'd heard it had something to do with kids killing kids, but I didn't realize that innocent children were being forced to fight to the death with twenty-three other innocent children in a woodland arena for the rest of the country to watch on television. The whole concept is so disturbing that I nearly turned it off after fifteen minutes. However, this Katniss character seemed like a fairly reasonable young woman who recognized what poppycock this tradition is, so I decided to hold out a little longer. I thought that perhaps this book series carries and anti-war theme, and the heroine figures out a way to end the madness. I'd be on board with that, so I gave it a chance.
I looked past the bizarre, Willy Wonka-ness of the Capitol's characters, but their blood-thirsty attitudes, complete disregard for human life, and penchant for violent entertainment was difficult to stomach. I recognized the parallels of the Career Tributes with today's terrorist groups that raise killing machines and the absurdity of it all, so I continued to watch with the hope that this was somehow going to be stopped before it even started. Silly me. There are three books and four movies. How did I think that something wasn't going to happen?
Then it started. And I watched through my hands. Within seconds blood was flying, and three or four kids were dead. It was gruesome and gory, and the only reason I kept watching is because I know that my little Elizabeth read this book. I let her read this book. Why did I let her read this book? I didn't think I'd have to read everything first! We are going to have to talk about this in the morning.
Within minutes, half the kids were already dead, and the other half were walking through the forest in terror. Katniss hiked so far away from all the other kids that the people running the show set a forest fire to either kill her or force her to get closer to her competitors. Huh. So maybe I went too deep with this. Is it more about making a mockery of reality television? Maybe. But I feel like it takes it too far. I admit that I still don't know what it's all about because halfway into it, I'd had enough and turned it off to go to bed. Then I had three or four different nightmares about it, and woke myself up in the middle of the night shaking thousands of imaginary bees off myself.
So yes. I was highly affected by The Hunger Games but not in the love-struck way so many others were. I didn't read the books, but I have a sneaking suspicion that they're on par with those horribly-written Twilight books. Young-adult fiction isn't really my cup of tea, but where I find Twilight laughable I find The Hunger Games absolutely distressing. This is what we've come to. This is what our society deems appropriate for teens and preteens to read. How can that be anything but distressing?
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