Hunger Games

   This book struck me as a more digestible version of an Orwellian or Huxleian future for younger audiences.

  This is timely in that it is staged as a “reality show” and not only that, but we are reading it just as the Olympic competitions are starting.

  The most stark contrast that I see is between the regular “tributes” and the “career tributes”. This part of the novel was a bit played down, or rather put in the background, but should be explored. As a parent, I was intrigued that other parents would groom their children from birth to not only be prepared to participate in these games, but to volunteer for them. This is the type of vicariousness and disconnected disregard for children that seems to be more and more prevalent in a society of media and brief fame today.

   As celebrities reach fame at younger and younger ages (Olsen twins were acting at two years old), we also see evidence of self-destructive behavior in these kids, who are told by adults that they are indestructible. Of course this is not nearly on scale of the career tributes of the hunger games, but if the idea is carried to an extreme, it fits.