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NEWS AND VIEWS THAT IMPACT LIMITED CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT

"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with
power to endanger the public liberty." - - - - John Adams

Saturday, April 8, 2017

The Hunger Games - Book Review



I Catch Up With Literature




By Gary;

Phenomenon.

A strange word. Certain things coming along that massively impact and sweep society along in a certain direction.

The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and Harry Potter were three of those forces.

But then came along The Hunger Games. The Hollywood version certainly attracted me and millions of others with $3 Billion in box office.

What I missed was the trilogy of Hunger Games books which has sold over 65,000,000 copies in the U.S. alone and has been translated into 51 languages.

More important, the trilogy had sold 26 million copies before the movie was even released. The books had touched a nerve. I figured I needed to check out the books.

One thing bothered me. The Hunger Games books were placed in the "young adult" section of the library.  I know what children's books are, but "young adult" is a nebulous category.

J.R.R. Tolkien may have written The Hobbit for young people, but I never looked at it that way.

I think part of this is the snobbery of the over educated Elites who think crap like The Old Man and the Sea and War and Peace are the only real representations of "adult" literature.

Total BS.  I would put H.G. Wells, Robert E. Howard and Conan Doyle light years ahead of junk produced by so-called "real authors" like Steinbeck.

The dystopian future of The Hunger Games is just as powerful in its way as Orwell's 1984.

In both cases a corrupt and brutal all-powerful state oppresses, starves and murders its own people so a small part of society can live in luxury and power.

Reading through the three books I can see plots and character development that was left out of the movies.

One character left out of the movie was the Avox - traitors against the state who were tortured and had their tongues torn out only to become slaves to the dandified Ruling Class.

Another example is Haymitch, the mentor of Katniss.  The fact that Haymitch murdered his way to win the 50th Hunger Games is not addressed well in the movies.  Alcohol is Haymitch's way to escape the horror.

The movies improve on the books in many ways.  The books are also better that the films in others.

I urge fans of the movies to read the original and compare.

May the odds be ever be in your favor.




The Hunger Games
has produced mountains of art by rabid fans







1 comment:

Anonymous said...

nice drawings