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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU to think hunger games is shit, derivative + not worth the angst?

96 replies

alistron1 · 04/04/2012 17:50

My DD's are into this, have read the books and TBH it's not a patch on Stephen King/Margaret Atwood etc in terms of dystopic fiction. The only worry I have about it is that like Harry Potter, Twilight etc young people are being marketed substandard fiction.

OP posts:
TheOriginalSteamingNit · 04/04/2012 18:47

It's a bit derivative in places (or maybe that's just intertextuality Wink) but a jolly good film which kept me, dd (10) and friend gripped this afternoon.

As I remember the books get a tad involved after book 1, but I certainly wouldn't say it's shit.

No reason a child who's read this won't go on to read Atwood etc, either.

BeerChicksPotter · 04/04/2012 18:49

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bettybat · 04/04/2012 18:49

But why would you even compare them to Atwood? I don't get it. It's like comparing Stephen King to Graham Greene and pronouncing SK as shit. It makes no sense.

LauraShigihara · 04/04/2012 18:51

Thanks Beerchicks - I was racking my brains there.

TheOriginalSteamingNit · 04/04/2012 18:51

I guess OP is thinking of Handmaid's Tale, but yes, they're really not in the same market!

nkf · 04/04/2012 18:55

Handmaid's Tale is very different unless you intend to count all dystopian novels together.

I'm always puzzled by this insistence on originality. Or that something mustn't remind someone of a book/film they read/saw 10 years ago.

I will mention Shakespeare here simply because he is commonly regarded as having a way with words. Nearly every one of his plays is what you would call a rip off of an earlier story. If my memory serves me correctly, The Tempest is the only truly original one.

Originality is, I think, often the least interesting thing a writer has to offer.

BusinessTrills · 04/04/2012 18:59

YANBU to dislike a book, I find it rather strange that you are asking if it is unreasonable, everyone has different taste.

I don't understand what you mean by "not worth the angst" at all.

maybenow · 04/04/2012 19:01

i've just read the hunger games and while i wasn't exactly blown away, i am 35 have read brave new world and orwell and was brought up before reality tv hit our screens.

I think the book would be perfect reading for a young teen who is growing up now in the world of reality-tv, they're in a different world, and i have nothing against re-tellings of important messages new for each generation's cultural context... having just seen 'bridalplasty' on living tv i am not sure how far we are from a real-life 'hunger games' except that the kids won't be forced to take part, they'll probably volunteer!

bettybat · 04/04/2012 19:02

Possibly but you know, I was forced to read many an Atwood and find her unbearably stifling Grin

In that sense you're right - my comparison was wrong. I thought OP was comparing apples and oranges and none of it made sense.

OK - it's like comparing Raymond Chandler to Dashiell Hammett, and saying Raymond Chandler is shit. Both wrote hard-boiled detective characters and used many similar plot devices. They're not even really comparable because RC was a beautiful prose writer and DH had some fantastic stories. The point being - you can have similar stories, in similar genres, and have them both be valid in their own right.

I hate all this - oh it's the same as X, but it's shit because it's the same and it's not as good. Yes, sometimes that happens and you get lazy writers/film-makers. But they are pretty freakin' obvious to spot - like the gajillion chick lit books, or the gajillion teen horror movies, or the gajillion murder/detective stories with cardboard cut out characters! It's just so lazy to pronounce something as shit because it's similar to something else.

flyingspaghettimonster · 04/04/2012 19:09

Would rather my kids read books like 'Z for Zachariah', but it sounds like the short of thing I would have loved as a kid. I read stephen king before he was age appropriate and dean koontz... Which often had me cowering under the bedcovers...

AllDirections · 04/04/2012 19:11

I've recently read the book as have DD1 (15) and DD2 (11) and we watched the film today. The book is far better than the film but it was good to see the film too.

The storyline has led to many interesting and valuable discussions with my DDs and with some of their friends too.

hattymattie · 04/04/2012 19:17

I thought of Atwood but of Oryx and Crake rather than the Handmaid's Tale. I think Hunger Games is good teenage fiction and vastly superior to Twilight. Lots of stuff to discuss and relatively well written. Atwood is definitely adult material.

igggi · 04/04/2012 19:19

I'm on holiday and have just finished the three books, one per day - so I guess I must have enjoyed them!
Not getting the 'substandard' reference - what standard? And do you think your average 15 year old boy would read Atwood? I don't think she was writing with teenagers in mind.

alistron1 · 04/04/2012 19:29

Laura and Beerchicks - exactly Grin

Anyone holding up Harry Potter as a 'good thing' for kids lit. has obviously never had the pleasure of reading Tolkien.

As to the person who wouldn't want their kid reading King or Atwood - why not? My teens all love King, and my DD's have read The Handmaidens Tale. By your rationale let's ban wuthering heights, dracula or the woman in white...

Far better books than this recent crop of sanitised 'teen shit'

OP posts:
alistron1 · 04/04/2012 19:31

igggi - so we should only expose our kids to authors who have teenagers in mind?! Ridiculous. We should encourage our kids to like good writing and good stories. Derivative shite like hunger games/twi light/harry potter is none of the above.

OP posts:
BeerChicksPotter · 04/04/2012 19:41

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LumpyLatimer · 04/04/2012 19:41

YABU. VU. VVVVVVU.

HG is not about youngsters fighting about each other, for a start. That's just the starting point!

It is a fabulous satire on reality TV/the was govmt uses/controls media. Just to mention 1 thing.

It satirises obsession with fashion/beauty and body modification/cosmetic surgery

It's a rare occasion of a book with a female character who's not just hoping to 'get the man'

It's about family, loyalty, rebellion, politics, mercy, justice, environmental issues, the fracturing of community...oh just a thousand things

do not mention HG and Twilight in the same breath. It's BLASPHEMY I tells you!

bettybat · 04/04/2012 19:43

OP you keep saying derivative, like it's a bad thing. Have you read them, or just watched the film?

No one said only keep your teens reading the crappy teenage stuff churned out - I remember Sweet Valley High and the Point Horrors churned out when I was 11-15. They were dreadful, repetitive crap. In fact, SVH seemed to outright promote sexual violence and an obsession with being a perfect size 8!

I also read Tolkien, Stephen King, Atwood, and many, many other so-called adult books aged 11/12. I was obsessed with Simone de Beuvoir, and read Colette, Rilke, Greene, Cocteau at 13 - so? I read a lot, avidly. That doesn't mean I didn't also enjoy less "literary" writers, less "adult" fiction too. There was a young horror writer I loved called Christopher Pike, who was like a Stephen King marketed for teenagers. Some of his books touched me in a way I still think about sometimes.

I hope my future children read like I did, I learnt and felt so much. But there are many writers out there putting out "derivative" stuff and it's still valid, still good within it's own right. I didn't particularly get much out of Harry Potter but I can see the appeal, see the value. I'm currently reading His Dark Materials - should I not because it was in the teenage section of Waterstones? They are bloody good books!

If you're as a discerning reader as you're making yourself out to be, and if you've read the books, you'd have picked up on the themes in it that are far from shit.

hattymattie · 04/04/2012 19:47

I loved Tolkein as a teenager but read Harry Potter as an adult - also enjoyable - frankly anything that gets kids reading gets my vote. Mine have read Tolkein/Twilight/Harry Potter and the Hunger Games. I don't see why one needs to exclude the other. They are all different but have strong lead characters (although not so keen on Twilight myself). Atwood - haven't read the Handmaids Tale but Oryx and Crake definitely has some shall we say weird passages that I'd prefer my teenagers to be very late teens before reading.

igggi · 04/04/2012 19:49

alistron do you know many teenagers? (I don't just mean your own obviously gifted ones). You do sound pompous I'm afraid! I work with teenagers and the chances of getting many of them beyond the first elf song in LOTR is minimal, yet lots are keen to read HP. What's wrong with that? We want them to be readers for life. Fwiw I've downloaded the HG and an Atwood story for my holiday reading, liking one does not mean you can't like the other!

Mrsjay · 04/04/2012 19:52

my Daughter has read the books she is recently turned 14 and she loves it and saw the film yesterday and loved that too , TBH im not sure what its about but if anything gets a child reading and interested in books is fine by me , even if its rubbish like twilight , Harry potter is a fanatstic series and i Think in years to come it will become a classic of childrens fiction ,

MaryZ · 04/04/2012 19:53

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Mrsjay · 04/04/2012 19:57

I read stephen king books at 13 and my youngest daughter would be scared witless by him I loved horror , I dont see what is wrong with age appropriate books ,

TheOriginalSteamingNit · 04/04/2012 22:50

Stephen king is also very sexist, I think.

post · 05/04/2012 06:01

You lost me when you put 'pleasure' and 'Tolkien' in the same sentence.