When You're Hungry At Work, Eat Bacon

Last night I finished reading the last book in the Hunger Games Trilogy, Mockingjay. I decided to read the Hunger Games trilogy because I really enjoy distopian fiction. I enjoy imagining the possibilities and/or ramifications resulting from a writer's decision to change his/her reader's expectations of fundamental social structures such as gender roles, racial stereotypes, or class markers.

First, some background on the genre. Dystopian fiction requires writers to create alternative, off-kilter universes with just enough of a base in their reader's "reality" for their reader to engage with the story. Writers create these unique societies in the hope that their readers will critically engage with the social structures that underlie the society in which they live. Dystopian fiction is not the same thing as science fiction which tends to include imaginary, but more or less plausible, realities set in the past or future.

As with any literary genre, some dystopian writers create more believable universes than others. Take, for example, Animal Farm by George Orwell. In "real" life two pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, could never kill their leader, seize power, and oppress the other farm animal, all before Napoleon gets greedy, kills Snowball and adopts the slogan "Napoleon is always Right." Any 12 year old could point out that this farm is one screwed up place where no one could possibly live a happy life. Yet Orwell created "real" life on the farm to parallel real life in Soviet Russia under Joseph Stalin. By showing his readers the reality behind the propaganda of "all animals are equal," Orwell readers question the realities of communism.

With Animal Farm as a yardstick for measuring dystopian fiction, I was bound to be disappointed by The Hunger Games. Halfway through Mockingjay I felt like I was watching a Die Hard sequel where Bruce Willis should have died 45 minutes ago, but somehow the movie drags on for another hour. I'm not saying that I wanted the series to end with Katniss martyred for the rebel cause, but such a depressing ending left me unsatisfied with Collins' ability to teach me a new, essential truth about the human experiance.

I know The Hunger Games falls into the "teen fiction" sub genre, but I'm sick of publishers  promoting novels for teens designed to be PG-13 blockbusters. You know which novels I'm talking about. Twilight by Stephanie Meyers. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series. The Princess Diaries series. All of these novels are designed to encourage cookie-cutter individuality that does not threaten the status quo.

What  irked me about the Hunger Games was that it threatens the integrity of dystopian fiction. Katniss recognizes that her society is corrupt, but she becomes the rebel's Mockinjay as an extension of her role as her family's protector. I think if she could have protected her family without destroying Panem she would have. For sure the Hunger Games politicized her, but they drove her to destroy her society rather than reform it.  Hungry

In becoming the Mockingjay Katniss becomes like Animal Farm's Boxer who labors incisively for Snowball (President Snow) and Napoleon (President Coin) with only the promise of humanities goodness to help her sleep at night. The Hunger Games trilogy fell flat for me because I finished the series glad to have finished it, not inspired to see my relationship to the world around me through new eyes.