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Hunger Games being banned?

abecedarian said:
It just makes more sense to me to read the books our kids are interested in, and talk about the issues they raise with them. If a book or movie is loaded with bad ideas, that will become evident with exposure and discussion. That's a simple and natural way to share one's values and beliefs. Much more effective that mindlessly slamming something we've not even closely examined ourselves. Read, watch, discuss.
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Yep. I agree with that. I've never censored my kids reading. I would just read what they were reading and if there was something in it we needed to discuss we did so. I'm not a big fan of knee jerk reactions. I remember when Harry Potter first hit the best seller lists there was a mom who wanted them removed from the library. We politely told her she was welcome to censor what her own child read, but not what the others were reading.

My youngest hasn't read Hunger Games yet, but we had an interesting discussion about dystopian society and the movement towards a lot of that kind of literature lately.
 
Just reading the foregoing posts leaves me feeling relieved that our kids are grown up and I don't have to be worrying about what they are reading as they can make their own decisions now. And to the previous poster who suggested that those who didn't like the idea of Hunger Games probably hadn't read Lord of the Flies - well I did and wasn't thrilled by that either.

BeerGood - your remark about horror being entertaining - yes I guess there's probably a thrill for some people watching something that is scary and knowing that it's not real but it's not for everybody and I would suggest that it's not for every child either. Some young ones may be more suggestible than others. I'm sure there are some children who get scared but don't tell anyone why they are scared.

I'm not in favour of censorship but some things seem somewhat out of control these days. I find it perplexing. :confused:
 
canuck said:
Just reading the foregoing posts leaves me feeling relieved that our kids are grown up and I don't have to be worrying about what they are reading as they can make their own decisions now. And to the previous poster who suggested that those who didn't like the idea of Hunger Games probably hadn't read Lord of the Flies - well I did and wasn't thrilled by that either.

BeerGood - your remark about horror being entertaining - yes I guess there's probably a thrill for some people watching something that is scary and knowing that it's not real but it's not for everybody and I would suggest that it's not for every child either. Some young ones may be more suggestible than others. I'm sure there are some children who get scared but don't tell anyone why they are scared.

I'm not in favour of censorship but some things seem somewhat out of control these days. I find it perplexing. :confused:
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Eh. People have been complaining about popular media being out of control since Socrates. Lord Of The Flies came out in 1954 and is at least as violent, so "these days" seems to stretch out a bit. :) Having read The Hunger Games, it's nowhere near as graphically violent as, say, the Stephen King and Dean Koontz books or the slasher movies teens were consuming in the 80s. Of course, the difference then was that
a) there was no such thing as a "Young adult" genre back then so there was somewhat less of an incentive for moral guardians to cry "SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN!" Not that they didn't, of course. (In fact, I remember my teacher congratulating me for reading at an adult level when I started devouring King in 6th grade.)
b) those books were primarily aimed at boys. Girls are supposed to want to read about princesses and ponies. If I had a teenage daughter, I'd much rather she read about Katniss Everdeen figuring out how to stand up for herself and fight back, than about Bella Swan deciding her life is worthless if her boyfriend leaves her.

I would argue that horror and dystopias can do more than just "thrill". The Hunger Games is, in a lot of ways, a direct descendant not only of Golding but of Huxley, Orwell and Bradbury. Whether it's a good descendant of those, you'll find out if you read it. Personally I think so. (Of course, a lot of people want to ban Huxley, Orwell and Bradbury these days too.) There's a reason our culture spits up dystopias from time to time. Teenagers aren't idiots; they see the same issues in the world as adults do, they watch CNN too, they retweet #occupy, they want entertainment that addresses that (and promises that it's survivable) too. The Hunger Games does exactly that.
 
I wasn't sure whether or not to read the books but now I've decided. I need to check if they're available at the library.
 
canuck said:
Just reading the foregoing posts leaves me feeling relieved that our kids are grown up and I don't have to be worrying about what they are reading as they can make their own decisions now. And to the previous poster who suggested that those who didn't like the idea of Hunger Games probably hadn't read Lord of the Flies - well I did and wasn't thrilled by that either.

BeerGood - your remark about horror being entertaining - yes I guess there's probably a thrill for some people watching something that is scary and knowing that it's not real but it's not for everybody and I would suggest that it's not for every child either. Some young ones may be more suggestible than others. I'm sure there are some children who get scared but don't tell anyone why they are scared.

I'm not in favour of censorship but some things seem somewhat out of control these days. I find it perplexing. :confused:
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I swim a little against the grain here and tend to agree with you a little bit Canuck. I am not for censorship, but I do think every child is different, and some might not be ready for this sort of thing. But again that is the parents decision. The problem comes when parents are irresponsible. I also think the idea that modern media, music, tv, movies, video games etc., don't adversely affect kids behavior is just plain wrong. Children are highly influenced by these things, a lot of times for the worse. I see it every day unfortunately because I am around a lot of different kids.
 
They're not available at the library... So it may take me a while to read them but eventually I will.
 
I've been wondering, ever since reading this thread, about my different reactions to Hunger Games, Lord of the Flies and Lovely Bones.

Of these, I have read only The Hunger Games (the book).

Based on what I have heard about Lord of the Flies, I think I can flesh it out well enough in my mind to be not very interested in it, and I haven't read it. I put Lovely Bones aside, after the first page made very clear the degree of graphic reality that would be brought to the story -- too much for my taste, so I put it aside, despite recommendations in favor of it from
many readers and reviewers.

So it may be that Hunger Games is less gritty, more honey-coated than the alternatives it is compared to, even though teens fighting it out to the death as spectator sport does not seem very appealing to begin with.

Maybe I'll see Hunger Games (the movie), maybe not. It doesn't seem like a must-see to me.
 
It seems irrelevant to me to compare the violence in the movie to the violence in the book, especially if you have not read the book. IMO, movie violence is more difficult for people to process because it is visual and we do not need to imagine it. You have better filters when you read because you have only your imagination to guide you. That being said, many folks do have a graphic imagination. I would argue that they do so because they've SEEN violence on some form of visual media.

As far as some children not being ready for this material, probably true. It is labelled young ADULT for a reason. I work with teens as well, and I do agree that there are lots of parents who don't take enough interest in their kids reading material. That sure doesn't inspire me to censor their reading material though. Instead, it makes me want to tell every adult who DOES work with teens that there are some amazing opportunities for rapport building and guidance if you talk about what a child is reading.

Its lovely to be able to discuss this with other readers. It always interests me to see what motivates others, and why they think as they do. Thanks all for sharing.
 
Peder said:
I've been wondering, ever since reading this thread, about my different reactions to Hunger Games, Lord of the Flies and Lovely Bones.

Of these, I have read only The Hunger Games (the book).

Based on what I have heard about Lord of the Flies, I think I can flesh it out well enough in my mind to be not very interested in it, and I haven't read it. I put Lovely Bones aside, after the first page made very clear the degree of graphic reality that would be brought to the story -- too much for my taste, so I put it aside, despite recommendations in favor of it from
many readers and reviewers.

So it may be that Hunger Games is less gritty, more honey-coated than the alternatives it is compared to, even though teens fighting it out to the death as spectator sport does not seem very appealing to begin with.

Maybe I'll see Hunger Games (the movie), maybe not. It doesn't seem like a must-see to me.
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A suggestion if you do decide to watch the movie..wait til you can rent it. Sometimes big screen is just too up close and personal for some films. We did this with the later Harry Potter movies and our youngest son. Being able to look at other objects in the room if a scene is too intense helps.
 
abecedarian said:
A suggestion if you do decide to watch the movie..wait til you can rent it. Sometimes big screen is just too up close and personal for some films. We did this with the later Harry Potter movies and our youngest son. Being able to look at other objects in the room if a scene is too intense helps.
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There are movies we have rented or own that we have interrupted to stop watching when they got to be too much. Never had a regret yet.
Just because it is filmed or printed doesn't mean it has to be viewed or read.
There are too many anyway. :cool:
 
Peder said:
There are movies we have rented or own that we have interrupted to stop watching when they got to be too much. Never had a regret yet.
Just because it is filmed or printed doesn't mean it has to be viewed or read.
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That's true too. Free will is a great thing:flowers:
 
Peder said:
So it may be that Hunger Games is less gritty, more honey-coated than the alternatives it is compared to, even though teens fighting it out to the death as spectator sport does not seem very appealing to begin with.

Maybe I'll see Hunger Games (the movie), maybe not. It doesn't seem like a must-see to me.
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I would definitely say that Hunger Games is less gritty than Lord of the Flies; a lot of the deaths in HG are not actually covered in detail, but instead you are just told that they had died during the day (there is an announcement each night that shows who has died). The deaths that the protagonist actually witnesses are really not gory/gritty at all, or at least IMO. The idea behind the book is actually a lot more gory than the book itself. You don't really get a chance to connect with many of the characters either, so this could also explain why I didn't really feel any strong emotion during the scenes that involved death.

I did hear that they blurred out the death scenes in the movie so that it could get an R13 rating, so again, they probably aren't too gritty at all.
 
The Hunger Games concept is a bit more violent than something like Narnia.

There are passages in the Bible that are conceptually just as violent and in some cases a lot more disturbing though so I'm not sure why Hunger Games would be specifically targeted as too violent.

Have you read parts of the Old Testament? (men committing adultery and murder; brothers selling brothers into slavery; lies, deceit, betrayal, murder --> repenting/turning back to God, being redeemed) or the New Testament (you know that little part where the religious rulers saw there was a man who called them a brood of vipers and basically loved sinner and saint alike so they turned one of his closest followers against him...turned him over to Roman authorities and had him beaten, crucified...and still couldn't conquer him in the end)
 
People just like to control other people too much.

I often wonder how awesome some books could have been if the author wasn't afraid of offending certain audiences.

Anyways, the most sexually explicit things in the Hunger Games trilogy are kisses. Lol.
 
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