Looking for summer reading recommendations? I just read the first two books of The Hunger Games series in about 48 hours, and now eagerly await the third, due out this August.
Though science fiction is not usually my genre of choice, these books are fascinating, horrifying and very unsettling. If I were to boil down why they’ve left such an impression on me it would be this: The series is about the oppression of a majority at the hands of a very powerful, very privileged, and technologically superior minority. The lucky few that live in The Capitol have never experienced want, and concern themselves mainly with perfecting their physical appearance, consuming luxury goods and gorging themselves on the finest of food; when they’ve eaten too much, they simply purge the contents of their stomach with a cocktail and go on eating. Every aspect of their lifestyle comes at a great human cost, but they are completely oblivious to that, they’re too busy watching children from the districts that supply their food kill each other on TV. Every year, each district is forced to send 2 children to compete at The Hunger Games. All the gory details are broadcasted nationwide; viewing is mandatory. It’s a reminder that everyone else exists for the benefit and at the mercy of The Capitol.
Without going into all the ways the books reflect the world we live in, and there are many, I will just say that flipping through an American magazine while living in Mwanza is increasingly difficult. There are times when I revel in the escapism, but more often, I end up feeling ill. I'm also struck at how the themes presented by The Hunger Games echo an Old Testament passage read recently, "Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy." Ezekiel 16:49
My thanks to Juliet Vedral for introducing/sending these books to us in the first place.
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