We are getting hit by an avalanche. That’s right, an avalanche of youtube advertisements, 3D posters and movie trailers, all to celebrate the next installment of the Hunger Games trilogy. Lord help us. If you haven’t already realised this, I am not a big fan. I found the second book of the trilogy just disappointing. Having survived a crazy situation of ‘kill-everyone-until-there’s-no-one-left’, the characters surprisingly enough get to go straight back into another game of ‘kill-everyone-until-there’s-no-one-left’. I think it’s worn a little thin, don’t you?
But that’s not the point here.
I just recently finished reading Battle Royale. That’s right, the creme de la creme of sadistic-game-show novels. Look on the internet and you will find time and time again people comparing Battle Royale to the Hunger Games. Apparently HG wasn’t inspired by BR, but I’m going to take that with a grain of salt. There is one striking similarity between the two, and that is that both are incredibly popular.
Despite the fact that these books force children into horrifying situations and brutally kill them, often with graphic descriptions, Battle Royale has become a cult classic and The Hunger Games is now a million dollar franchise. That’s not all. One of my favourite books of all time, The Lord of the Flies, features children killing one another as well. Although it was criticised for being so violent, especially because the violence involved young people, it is now a classic.
- Kill Theory (2009) is a movie where a crazy evil guy forces a group of teenagers to kill one another until one person is left
- The Tournament (2009) is a movie about a tournament devised by rich, bored people, who pick contestants from the special forces and underworld groups to kill each other until one is left, for a cash prize
- Gantz (2000-13) is a manga series about a group of students who, on reaching the afterlife, realise they have to kill aliens before the end of the human race occurs (or something like that)
- The Lottery (1948) is a short story in which townsfolk are told to draw slips of paper out of a lottery; the chosen person is then stoned to death to ensure a good harvest
- The Running Man (1982) is a Stephen King novel about a game show in which a couple of men run to escape ‘Hunters’ before time runs out; individual members of society can also receive cash if they see the men
- The Long Walk (1979) is a Stephen King novel where teenage boys must endure a grueling walking race until only one is left alive
- Series 7: The Contenders (2001) is a black comedy film about a game show where contestants are given guns and told to kill each other for the cameras
- The Condemned (2007) is a film in which convicts are brought together and told to kill each other for a broadcast
- The Most Dangerous Game (1924) is a short story about a man who enters a game situation on a deserted island where he must elude capture for three days
A couple of things stand out about this list. First of all, none of these have become best-sellers or cult classic movies, although they tick the crazy-killing-game box.
Perhaps the write-a-bestseller-like-Suzanne-Collins list should go something more like this:
1. Crazy game show scenario
2. Include small children
3. Include a revolution against society
For some reason, it’s the combination of a brutal game show and a revolution against society that makes these books so popular. But the two pretty much go hand in hand already; you have to have a totalitarian society already (in most cases) if the characters are going to be caught in any scenario where they have to kill each other off. And in that circumstance, the most sensible thing for any decent protagonist to do is to decide to team up and rebel against society as a whole.
I don’t really know why people are so fixated on this idea, but it seems to have been that way for a while. Remember right back to the Roman era (you can remember that far, can’t you?) when there were gladiator fights in pits to entertain the richer Romans? Doesn’t that sound strikingly familiar? Suzanne Collins states that this is one of the places where she drew her inspiration for HG.
But there seems to be an extra element added to this that makes it so popular. The inclusion of very young people. My sister pointed out that a lot of these books that become extremely popular are aimed at a Young Adult audience, so perhaps it is a result of YA readers out there being excited by something completely different that has finally become available to their genre by the inclusion of age-appropriate characters.
Or maybe there’s just something morbid in us that likes to see children be brutally killed? It’s definitely controversial. I feel that literature, for a while now, has been like those murder mysteries I like to watch on TV. They will kill off old ladies and women and men, but never children. Anybody under 20 years old is strictly avoided. Well, they’ve finally broken past that and it’s hell for leather.
What do you think makes violent/mass murder novels so popular? Why do you read them?
Because personally, I love them.
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