# Is seeing "The Hunger Games" hypocritical? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 24, 2012, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-seeing-the-hunger-games-hypocritical/616670 "2012-03-24T04:09:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Pitchmeister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pitchmeister/32/3459_2.png) [@Pitchmeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pitchmeister)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-seeing-the-hunger-games-hypocritical/616670/21 "2012-03-24T15:52:40Z")
> [@CyclopticXander](#): > > Quick correction. The Legally Blonde musical somehow managed to be actually good. As in way better than the source material. Yes, it is. I have also seen Shrek and Sister Act, and both are among the best shows to come out in the last five years. It may be a boring choice, but that doesn’t make the shows themselves suck. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-seeing-the-hunger-games-hypocritical/616670/22 "2012-03-24T15:57:47Z")
GHOST the Musical is opening soon. They also put Xanadu on Broadway. Xanadu! Really! ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-seeing-the-hunger-games-hypocritical/616670/23 "2012-03-24T17:23:50Z")
You keep on using that word (hypocritical). I do not think it means what you think it means. ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-seeing-the-hunger-games-hypocritical/616670/24 "2012-03-24T17:33:03Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > … given we are watching children kill each other for our entertainment, exactly as the in-universe audience does? > > I mean, yes, we’re watching twentysomething actors pretending to be children pretending to kill each other, but essentially, we’re doing pretty much the same thing the book condemns the Capitol for. > > This is giving me real questions about seeing the movie. What do y’all think? Doesn’t that argument apply to almost any movie containing violence or crime? The \*Godfather \*movies don’t exactly condone the Mafia, but we watch them for entertainment. ---
**Author:** ![2sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/e47774/32.png) [@2sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2sense)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-seeing-the-hunger-games-hypocritical/616670/25 "2012-03-24T17:44:11Z")
> [@tnetennba](#): > > Yeah, really thought-provoking, challenging questions like “should kids kill each other for entertainment?” Speaking as someone who knows nothing more about Hunger Games than the current hype it does seem unlikely that it would contain any useful social commentary. It seems more likely such pretensions exist to give sophisticates an excuse to enjoy young adult entertainment. But I could be wrong. My wife is reading the book so it’s a good bet we’ll eventually see the film. ---
**Author:** ![CyclopticXander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@CyclopticXander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CyclopticXander)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-seeing-the-hunger-games-hypocritical/616670/26 "2012-03-24T18:20:30Z")
> [@2sense](#): > > Speaking as someone who knows nothing more about Hunger Games than the current hype it does seem unlikely that it would contain any useful social commentary. It seems more likely such pretensions exist to give sophisticates an excuse to enjoy young adult entertainment. But I could be wrong. My wife is reading the book so it’s a good bet we’ll eventually see the film. Yea all those obvious"lessons" have long since been imparted by other books. The third book in particular though does have some “message” value and some interesting moral questions presented with characters taking different approaches. It’s all been done in some way before, and a lot of people think the third book sucks, but I for one thought it was great and can’t wait to see it on screen. ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-seeing-the-hunger-games-hypocritical/616670/27 "2012-03-24T19:28:01Z")
What confuses me is the number of people who see the books as having sharp social commentary but don’t see that commentary as right wing – anti government, mind controlling media, etc. Strikes me as a tea partier conjecture about the second Obama administration. I only read the first book but it felt very black and white. I’m also surprised more people aren’t critical of the contrived plotting. One person (an editor of children’s books) though that was what was brilliant about it – that Katniss can survive the first book without having to kill any of the good characters, that she’s even spared killing Peeta with a game changing deux et machina that felt made up on the spot. I know if _I_ put that in a book the critics would savage me. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-seeing-the-hunger-games-hypocritical/616670/28 "2012-03-24T19:43:51Z")
> [@2sense](#): > > Speaking as someone who knows nothing more about Hunger Games than the current hype it does seem unlikely that it would contain any useful social commentary. It seems more likely such pretensions exist to give sophisticates an excuse to enjoy young adult entertainment. But I could be wrong. My wife is reading the book so it’s a good bet we’ll eventually see the film. Oh, really? You don’t see any connections between the Hunger Games, a story about a monied elite that destroys opportunity for others forcing impoverished young people to compete in vicious competitions, and Occupy Wall Street, a movement about young people protesting a monied elite that destroys opportunity for others forcing them to compete economically under crippling conditions? Whether or not it’s intended the parallels are freaking OBVIOUS. ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-seeing-the-hunger-games-hypocritical/616670/29 "2012-03-24T19:51:53Z")
LOL. ---
**Author:** ![CyclopticXander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@CyclopticXander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CyclopticXander)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-seeing-the-hunger-games-hypocritical/616670/30 "2012-03-24T20:34:25Z")
I saw a segment of MSNBC today about how liberals and conservatives both seem to like it but take entirely different messages away from it. Most successful writers tend to lean liberal (no cite, entirely anecdotal and wikipiaing all my fave authors). But it’s always just so easy to make the big powerful government the badguy, which conservatives immediately relate to the US federal government. Look at the short story “Harison Bergeron” or Star Wars or Joss Whedon’s Firefly/Serenity. In none of case did I think the artist intended it to portray a conservative message. Big 1984 style oppressive government is just the easy go to enemy, and conservatives read into to that what they will. Overall I think it’s just a waste of time to try and parse these works out politically unless that was the entire intended point of the piece (an in Atlas Shrugged). ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-seeing-the-hunger-games-hypocritical/616670/31 "2012-03-24T21:10:27Z")
The YA community is quite progressive. I don’t know anything about Suzanne Collins specifically but she probably doesn’t go to tea party rallies. The editor of Hunger Games is David Levithan, whom I have met and know to be pretty liberal (he’s also gay, not that it bears very much on the politics of Hunger Games). So I don’t think either meant the Hunger Games to be right wing – I think it was more just lazy, big evil government, etc. Like with Orwell, the “message” is cloudy enough for anyone to think it proves their point. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-seeing-the-hunger-games-hypocritical/616670/32 "2012-03-24T21:22:00Z")
Anything that keeps kids of my lawn, in reality or in fiction has my vote. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-seeing-the-hunger-games-hypocritical/616670/33 "2012-03-24T22:04:59Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > Oh, really? You don’t see any connections between the Hunger Games, a story about a monied elite that destroys opportunity for others forcing impoverished young people to compete in vicious competitions, and Occupy Wall Street, a movement about young people protesting a monied elite that destroys opportunity for others forcing them to compete economically under crippling conditions? Whether or not it’s intended the parallels are freaking OBVIOUS. Um…I just came here to hunt OWS weirdos with a bow. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-seeing-the-hunger-games-hypocritical/616670/34 "2012-03-24T22:59:41Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Um…I just came here to hunt OWS weirdos with a bow. You are hunting the wrong OWS weirdo in virtual reality as I play SL Gor Evolved, where combat is the draw and bow skills are how you win in combat. Prepare to call yourself “Pincushion Smith”! /me draws his bow and aims it wildly, causing those who know him well to duck and cover. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-seeing-the-hunger-games-hypocritical/616670/35 "2012-03-24T23:29:36Z")
> [@tnetennba](#): > > Yeah, really thought-provoking, challenging questions like “should kids kill each other for entertainment?” No, questions more like, “How far is it from _Jackass_ and _COPS_ to the Hunger Games?” One subtext that underlays dystopian fiction is: what trends or institutions exist in the real world, that could lead to this? The Hunger Games are fiction, but exploiting children for entertainment is not: sexual trafficking of children is a billion-dollar industry. And as far as kids killing kids, well, that’s not rare, either; see “Crips and Bloods” and “Gangster Disciples” and “Columbine”. Don’t get me wrong, I probably will see the movie, and don’t _really_ think it’s unethical; but it raises an interesting question, no? ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-seeing-the-hunger-games-hypocritical/616670/36 "2012-03-24T23:37:15Z")
Regarding politics, [recent Yahoo article](http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-talk/hunger-games-politics-223719796.html). Summary: you can read a conservative or liberal message if you try hard enough. Collins does have a pro-existence of global warming viewpoint. I have not seen or read this series, but it does remind me a lot of _Battle Royale_. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-seeing-the-hunger-games-hypocritical/616670/37 "2012-03-24T23:52:00Z")
It wouldn’t be hypocritical of \*me \*to watch it, as I would \*totally \*pay to see kids kill each other. ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-seeing-the-hunger-games-hypocritical/616670/38 "2012-03-24T23:54:58Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > but it raises an interesting question, no? No, not really. I’m sure teachers using it can facilitate grandiose, self-serving discussions with self-righteous teens but I don’t know how it would affect anyone’s behavior. That’s the problem with dystopian ficiton – it’s usually a strawman argument. People just end up using it as a Godwin-type argument to support whatever it is they already support. 1984 redux. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2012, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-seeing-the-hunger-games-hypocritical/616670/39 "2012-03-25T00:00:18Z")
It is also hypocritical to download the song “Don’t download this song” by Weird Al. ---
**Author:** ![Normal\_Phase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Normal\_Phase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Normal_Phase)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2012, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-seeing-the-hunger-games-hypocritical/616670/40 "2012-03-25T00:38:46Z")
No. To the extent that the Hunger Games is a social commentary on current popular culture, it’s a commentary on reality TV, where the audience derives entertainment from watching bad things (and sometimes good things) happening to real people. The important part is that they are real people. The Hunger Games is fiction. Nobody’s getting their jollies from watching actual human beings being embarrassed or manipulated, much less murdered. It’s not the same thing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-seeing-the-hunger-games-hypocritical/616670.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-seeing-the-hunger-games-hypocritical/616670.md?page=3)