here are additional potential ramifications of the latest election steal;

I’ve had this post in the back of my mind for years now.  But this week’s mid-terms have brought it to the forefront of my thinking.  

There are very few movie experiences I’ve had in my life that rival the first time I watched The Hunger Games.  So much of my reaction was due to where I was at the time and how, frankly, shitty my life was then.

It ranks for me right up there with seeing the Death Star blow up (age 10), to being rendered speechless for an hour after watching Full Metal Jacket (age 19) to sobbing uncontrollably for 40 minutes after a midnight showing of Schindler’s List (age 25).

I watched The Hunger Games for the first time while flat on my back broke in late 2012 by myself in the post-midnight dark, metaphorically and physically.

For 2+ hours I sat there in horror clutching a pillow because all I could see was my daughter needing a protector and knowing at that moment I wasn’t that person.  

But as raw as my reaction to it was that night, it was the exact thing I needed at that moment to pick myself and keep going. 

So, the cynics in the audience can forgive me if they think me an old softy for falling so hard for a piece of what I can honestly look at as thinly-conceived allegory.

Sometimes timing is everything.  

When I put my economist’s hat back on, Suzanne Collins’ world is not well thought out.  It doesn’t hold up to deep scrutiny.  Most stories like this don’t and, honestly, they aren’t supposed to.

As a writer, however, I’m still bowled over with her daring to write the books in first-person, present tense. Between a story metaphorically so very true and this bit of technical prowess I have nothing but immense respect, one professional to another.

But as allegory, especially political allegory, The Hunger Games is uniquely powerful, addressing the fundamental evil of our society using our children as emotional blackmail to coerce our compliance to a system that is truly monstrous.......more.......