Great article by Laura Miller called Fresh Hell: What's Behind the Boom in Dystopian Fiction? Here are a couple of good quotes on The Hunger Games as a social commentary on the adolescent social experience, as she calls it:
- "'The Hunger Games' is not an argument. It operates like a fable or a myth, a story in which outlandish and extravagant figures and events serve as conduits for universal experiences."
- If, on the other hand, you consider the games as a fever-dream allegory of the adolescent social experience, they become perfectly intelligible. Adults dump teen-agers into the viper pit of high school, spouting a lot of sentimental drivel about what a wonderful stage of life it’s supposed to be. The rules are arbitrary, unfathomable, and subject to sudden change. A brutal social hierarchy prevails, with the rich, the good-looking, and the athletic lording their advantages over everyone else. To survive you have to be totally fake. Adults don’t seem to understand how high the stakes are; your whole life could be over, and they act like it’s just some “phase”! Everyone’s always watching you, scrutinizing your clothes or your friends and obsessing over whether you’re having sex or taking drugs or getting good enough grades, but no one cares who you really are or how you really feel about anything.
This American Life retracts one of their stories. Apparently Mike Daisey has confused fact with fiction. Here's an interesting article linking Daisey with Jason Russell - remember Kony 2012?
Robert Barron talks about Palm Sunday.
Doug Harrison notes here the five things you should never give up for Lent.
Don't miss Downton Arby's.
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