Why Is The Hunger Games So Popular?

Okay, so we could discuss lots of things that makes The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and now Mockingjay so popular. The inventive plot. The quick pacing. The fact that it strikes a fear in our hearts, makes us realize what our world could become.

For me, it's the characters. Let's examine.

Katniss Everdeen: She's brave, even when she doesn't want to be. Everything she does, she's not sure about. (Who doesn't feel like that?) When she thinks she's screwed up, or when she's just doing what's natural, it comes across as being heroic, beautiful. (Who doesn't want their normal, everyday actions to influence people's lives?) She's loyal and caring, but at the same time she's got her opinions and she's not afraid to let anyone know.

She's brilliant.

Peeta Mellark: He's quiet, reserved, and undoubtedly in love with Katniss. His motives are purely to make sure she stays safe--or as safe as possible. (Who doesn't want someone like that in their life?) He's talented with paint and flour, sensitive, yet ferocious. (Who doesn't want a man who can cook as well as offer protection?)

He's adorable.

Gale Hawthorne: He's the childhood friend, the strong silent one through the first two books. (Don't worry, no spoilers here.) He's Katniss's equal in strength, in cunning, in temperament. (Who doesn't want someone who completes them in every way?) Even though he's not around much during the Games, he worms his way into the arena, into the reader's hearts.

He's swoonworthy. (Yeah, okay, I'm on Team Gale.)

President Snow: He's evil personified. The way he threatens Katniss in those subtle ways, the way he takes the individual pieces of her life and crunches them before her eyes. *shudder*

He's the perfect antagonist.

I could go on and on about Cinna and Haymitch and Rue and about a dozen others. I won't. Instead, I turn it over to you. Who do you love in The Hunger Games or Catching Fire? Why do you love them so much?

Also, if you think there's another reason for The Hunger Games coolness factor, spill spill! I'd love to discuss what makes this book (series) so successful.

Are We Getting Close to The Hunger Games?

I despise reality TV.

No, seriously--Jersey Shore, The Real Housewives of NJ, Keeping up with the Kardashians, the one where that vile woman hooks millionaires up with bimbos--they make me crazy.  I know, I know, I shouldn't take them so seriously but they key off this knee jerk anger in me.

Why?

Well for one, see above. That's a picture of the aftermath when Jersey Shore Cast member Nicole Polizzi (Snooki) was punched in the face by some agro meathead at a bar while filming the show. Reality TV is a form that revels in this kind of ugliness.  When the inevitable violence breaks out there's some pro forma handwringing (generally done over a video loop of said violence) and then it's back to business. I've never considered myself to be of delicate sensibilities, but I just can't take it.

The other reason is the manipulation involved. It's not exactly breaking news that reality TV isn't real. That reality TV is a misnomer isn't what bothers me though, what bothers me is how the form takes real three dimensional human beings gives them nicknames and reduces them to a stock series of (usually ugly) personality traits and contrived story arcs. Not only does this dehumanize the participants but it asks us to look at other people as objects that exist for our amusement.

Young girl punched in the face at a bar? That's not Nicole Polizzi, 22 year old from New York. That's just Snooki. That's entertainment. Doesn't that dehumanize us too?

As Beth discussed yesterday, one of Suzanne Collins' inspirations for The Hunger Games was classical myths. Well the other one was, you guessed it, reality TV. Collins said she was watching TV late one night, flipping past a barrage of reality TV shows that got mixed in with news of the Iraq war and Katniss and The Hunger Games was born from that combination.

I think one way to look at the series is as a very biting comment on this kind of "reality" spectacle. Sure, maybe we don't watch young people kill each other, but we do watch humiliation and violence (again, see above) and horrendous misogyny. Sometimes we pause for a moment of uplift, but then it's right back in the gutter.

Maybe what we see in the Hunger Games is an escalation of all the programs that show us hordes of  the most abhorrent people imaginable--the vain, the intolerant, the deluded, the rageaholics--trapped in shore houses and McMansions clawing at each other on their way to....what?

A little bit of money? Fame? The validation that comes from being seen?

I mean, geez, at least Katniss was fighting for her life!

In what way do you guys see Collins using Katniss and the struggles of her fellow tributes to comment on reality TV? How does the fact that all these people are on a reality TV show effect the plot of the story? Also what does this sort of reality game say about the government that sponsors it and the people who watch it?

(PS: Ok maybe not all reality TV is awful.  I have to admit that I'm a big Project Runway and Top Chef fan. At least nobody is getting punched out on those.)