Author Topic: 'Hunger Games' Taps the Desire for Freedom  (Read 930 times)

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Online Pablo de Fleurs

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'Hunger Games' Taps the Desire for Freedom
« on: December 08, 2013, 04:01:41 PM »
'Hunger Games' Taps the Desire for Freedom
Amy Payne | December 8, 2013 at 8:25 am

When The Hunger Games movie debuted last year, we published this post about how the novels truly represent the human desire for freedom. Since the second movie in the trilogy was released last weekend, it’s appropriate to spotlight that message again.

Why does the movie adaptation of The Hunger Games have more than 3 million fans on Facebook? More than 1,000 showings of the film, which opens tonight at midnight, have already sold out. It’s simple: Readers of the book have put themselves in the story.

It’s a gripping first-person narrative that prods the reader to wonder, “What would I do in this situation?” again and again. And it’s a fight for liberty—personal and collective—that is relatable. Like many enduring tales, The Hunger Games features everyday individuals fighting evil against all odds. In their country of Panem, entertainment and oppression have melded into a frightening mutation (or, to use a term coined by author Suzanne Collins, “muttation”). The iron-fisted Capitol keeps the districts (the states of Panem) down by pitting them against each other in a televised annual spectacle, the Hunger Games. Each district must send one male and one female “tribute” between the ages of 12 and 18 to compete in a fight to the death. The winner is lavished with wealth and food, which is scarce for most.

The Capitol is a gluttonous place where citizens’ needs are more than met, giving them time to fixate on adorning their bodies and seeking entertainment. They are the main audience for the Hunger Games, though the impoverished people in the districts are forced to watch as well.

While the Capitol could be a metaphor for Americans’ obsession with entertainment, desensitization to violence, and voyeuristic pleasure in “reality” TV, the notion of a government with absolute control—and citizens struggling for their freedom—extends from the American Revolution to the tea parties of recent years.

“We’re thankfully a very faint shadow of Panem in the United States, but increasingly we live at the mercy of politicians irrespective of party,” writes John Tamny in Forbes. “If this is doubted, try to evade your taxes, and when you get a letter from the IRS asking for them, ignore the letter.”

Tamny calls the novel “a boisterous comment about the certain horrors of big government.” And though Panem is an overblown caricature, the theme resonates. The government dictates the work citizens are allowed to do, the places they’re allowed to go, and the tribute they must pay to the Capitol. There is little hope because there is no prospect of freedom. There is no opportunity for individual achievement or innovation, and many turn to the black market—the closest thing they have to a free market—just to obtain food.

Author John Eldredge, who says “We’ve lost the fact that reality is a story,” has written at length about the power of a narrative that draws us in and makes us feel like we are part of a greater cause.

“In Algebra you can say, ‘I understand that!’ But in a great story you say, ‘I want to live like that,’” Eldredge says.

This is the reason the story of The Hunger Games inspires—the timeless truth that freedom is worth fighting for.

http://blog.heritage.org/2013/12/08/hunger-games-taps-the-desire-for-freedom/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social
2 Timothy 1:7
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but of power & of love and of calm, a well-balanced mind, discipline and self-control.

Offline IronDioPriest

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Re: 'Hunger Games' Taps the Desire for Freedom
« Reply #1 on: December 08, 2013, 04:38:12 PM »
I've seen both Hunger Games movies, and both were inspiring. It looks like the next film will move into open resistance.
"A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means."

- Thomas Jefferson

Offline Glock32

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Re: 'Hunger Games' Taps the Desire for Freedom
« Reply #2 on: December 08, 2013, 05:42:09 PM »
I haven't seen the films or read the books. I've just read what others say about them. Based on what I have read about them, I think the most intriguing theme is the idea that their Capitol, full of well fed and pampered occupants, lords over the "Districts", when it is the districts that actually do all the producing and endure all the sacrifice.  Kind of evokes another Capitol and its own "districts", no?
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Offline Weisshaupt

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Re: 'Hunger Games' Taps the Desire for Freedom
« Reply #3 on: December 08, 2013, 06:16:55 PM »
The left has been trying to fight the movies by claiming they are about "wealth disparity"  as if you could ignore the hand in hand govt/business totalitarian fascist thing - which both of our major parties are leading us toward.

But yeah, if only those officials in the govt had even MORE power, then  that wealth disparity would go away .


They have to try and co-opt the narrative.. or they might have another Firefly on their hands.


Offline IronDioPriest

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Re: 'Hunger Games' Taps the Desire for Freedom
« Reply #4 on: December 08, 2013, 10:53:25 PM »
Good movies. This doesn't hurt the entertainment value either...

"A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means."

- Thomas Jefferson

Offline trapeze

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Re: 'Hunger Games' Taps the Desire for Freedom
« Reply #5 on: December 09, 2013, 01:51:30 AM »
I was surprised that I liked them as much as I did. Going in (and not knowing anything about the story) I was prepared for another crapfest like "Twilight" but was relieved that it wasn't so.

The final book will be split into two movies, though, from what I have seen at imdb.com Which is not really a surprise since "The Hobbit" has somehow been made into a three parter.
In a doomsday scenario, hippies will be among the first casualties. So not everything about doomsday will be bad.

Online ToddF

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Re: 'Hunger Games' Taps the Desire for Freedom
« Reply #6 on: December 09, 2013, 08:03:32 AM »
Just watched the first one on Netflix and yes, I agree, better than 99% of Hollywood drek, today.

I also saw the capital city as Washington DC, and how it has sucked the life out of the remaining country.  Plus, can you just see anti-American Democrat garbage preventing one from moving, for example, from Seattle to South Carolina, like Boeing?  Or any Democrat s**thole to a red state, for that matter.

The best science fiction extrapolates from today's events, in a believable way.  From reality TV to the political situation, the Hunger Games does it in spades.

Offline IronDioPriest

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Re: 'Hunger Games' Taps the Desire for Freedom
« Reply #7 on: December 09, 2013, 02:29:33 PM »
Just watched the first one on Netflix and yes, I agree, better than 99% of Hollywood drek, today.

I also saw the capital city as Washington DC, and how it has sucked the life out of the remaining country.  Plus, can you just see anti-American Democrat garbage preventing one from moving, for example, from Seattle to South Carolina, like Boeing?  Or any Democrat s**thole to a red state, for that matter.

The best science fiction extrapolates from today's events, in a believable way.  From reality TV to the political situation, the Hunger Games does it in spades.

... and Katniss.  ::pimp::

"A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means."

- Thomas Jefferson

Offline Libertas

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Re: 'Hunger Games' Taps the Desire for Freedom
« Reply #8 on: December 10, 2013, 07:19:09 AM »
Aye, nice.  If you go for young and purdy...

 ;D
We are now where The Founders were when they faced despotism.

Offline AmericanPatriot

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Re: 'Hunger Games' Taps the Desire for Freedom
« Reply #9 on: December 10, 2013, 07:42:14 AM »
Now, Libertas.
For me, old, fat and ugly   ::hysterical::

Offline Libertas

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Re: 'Hunger Games' Taps the Desire for Freedom
« Reply #10 on: December 10, 2013, 08:21:28 AM »
Yeah, stay outta trouble with them!
We are now where The Founders were when they faced despotism.

Offline IronDioPriest

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Re: 'Hunger Games' Taps the Desire for Freedom
« Reply #11 on: December 14, 2013, 12:34:52 AM »
... and did I mention Katniss?

"A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means."

- Thomas Jefferson