This past weekend the movie “The Hunger Games” opened to millions of adoring fans. Over 35 million books have been sold in “The Hunger Games” series and the books currently sit atop of Amazon’s best seller list. It seems that our culture is shifting to an interest in dystopia. Almost everyone I talk to who read “The Hunger Games” said they couldn’t put the book down.
Move over Harry Potter and Twilight. You have been replaced.
Dystopian novels and movies are all the rage. But, why now? Isn’t dystopia for sci-fi fans?
One of the major reasons why “The Hunger Games” is so en vogue, much like Harry Potter was, is because people love a good epic battle between the forces of good and evil. Especially, if there are young people involved. Erik Feig, president of production at Lionsgate, the studio behind “The Hunger Games” and “Twilight” sheds light on this type of entertainment:
Young-adult literature is a genre that takes place at a specific time in your life when everything seems to be high stakes. If you set stories in different worlds with unique protagonists and an element of wish fulfillment, I don’t think people will ever be tired of it.
The concept of dystopia in literature has been around for a long time. Books like “1984,” “Brave New World”, and “Fahrenheit 451” were standard reading for many high school students. However, in the last 25 years books like “The Handmaid’s Tale”, “The Giver”, and “V for Vendetta” have become very popular.
If dystopia is defined as a society characterized by human misery, squalor, oppression, disease, and overcrowding, it would seem our interest in dystopia has led to a reemergence of an old fear.
This American shift in the interest of dystopia centers around that our future, in light of the events on September 11, 2001, is not going to be as bright. In many ways, 9/11 changed the way we look at our world. As the sprawling post-war boom of the 1950′ s and 1960’s grew, where students practiced bomb drills, we were concerned with nuclear war. But, the era of the threat of nuclear war fell with the Berlin Wall. We started to feel safer now that communism was not the enemy anymore. Since 9/11, we feel that future is threaten by a new fear of terrorism. We now think our future is bleak.
The reemergence of dystopia into our collective psyche sheds light onto one thing: we often think the past was better than it really was and the future can never be as bright. However, the future can only as bright if we make it that way. Let us not be deceived into thinking that we cannot achieve the hope of a better community and nation we long for. Let us never give up.
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