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By Suzanne Collins The use of warlike sports to control futuristic, totalitarian societies is a fascinating topic. Some treatments, such as Pierre Boulle's Desperate Games, have followed Orwell's notion of the "ten minute hate," namely that an outlet for restrained emotion must be provided lest it be turned on the state. Others follow the 1975 film Rollerball in portraying sport as a means to reinforce the ultimate futility of individual endeavor. The Hunger Games, a new novel by young adult fantasy author Suzanne Collins, is posited as a show of dominance by the Capital City over the twelve remaining districts. In practice, Collins combines the other two themes, however, and it is unclear as to whether, due to a rising tide of decadence, the demand for entertainment is altering the government's control of the form and content of The Hunger Games. The Hunger Games has received a tidal wave of enthusiasm from Independent Children's Booksellers based on its hypnotically compelling quality. It is true that about a third of the way through the book it is as though the reader has walked around a corner and stepped into a water slide. All else falls away. One can't do anything but read the book. There are a few elements of this book which Collins will have to address if she is to ultimately make her trilogy succeed. For example, the rule change introduced mid way through the Hunger Games, and the manner in which the narrator, Katniss, is able to force the Gamemakers to sustain the rule after their attempt at reversing it, doesn't entirely convince. Without question, however, with such an unusually dynamic, gripping, and highly developed opening gambit, one hopes that in the concluding volumes Collins fully embraces the challenging issues she has so deftly raised in this outstanding first book. |
