What I Have Against "The Hunger Games":
1. Don't pretend it's pretty.
Wipe off the shiny love-triangle topping, and all you have is a story of children killing children.
2. Don't try to hijack my soul:
The author creates a soul-hijacking frame lucky readers get to peer through: “Now think, readers, about whether you’d dare kill your peers...”
3. Don't call it an age/maturity issue:
The argument about Hunger Games is not really about the age/maturity of the reader/viewer. This is about exposing anybody to a kill-or-be-killed state of mind. It is horror, made worse by the fact that it's child-on-child, not soldier-on-soldier --which would be scary enough!
4. Don't tell me what not to protect my children from:
I take care in determining what enters my own and my children’s minds. That is my job. Just as it is my job to keep their hands from a hot stove, it is my job to keep hands from reaching for media that can burn and scar with gruesome images and disturbing themes. Once those images and themes are in our minds, they’re almost impossible to get out.
5. Don't tell me when and how to immunize myself about the evil of the world:
I know the flu is out there. But I don't go licking public doorknobs to try to catch every disease. I don't consider it over-protective to choose not to watch something. Ideas that we consume, both good and bad, stick. They shape how we see the world. Why over-expose ourselves to the message that evil exists, repeatedly and deliberately. It is in the news and in the scriptures. Why go searching for an entertaining depiction of grim evil?
I want to raise children who don’t succumb to despair, violence and tragedies and instill in them lots of hope, love, faith and the desire to right wrongs, not stare at them like people stare at car wrecks.
Well, there is a great dialogue going on at www.helpingmomsconnect.com about the upcoming movie-- I think it comes out the day after tomorrow-- "The Hunger Games." That discussion helped me form these thoughts. The discussion is here:
http://www.helpingmomsconnect.com/2011/06/11/is-hunger-games-appropriate-for-kids/
There is so much good in this world to read and do. In a lifetime, there won’t be enough time to experience all that’s worthy.
I don’t want to waste my own or my children’s time on something that is just almost worthy of our time, almost decent, almost inspiring, almost educational, almost good.
No way are we going to see this movie. I don’t care how many other people are. We have lots of other things to do.
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