Laura Miller writes …Like a lot of other people, I spent a good chunk of last week talking about “The Hunger Games”. Because I’ve written about the books for various publications over the past couple of years, journalists called me up for quotes about the series’ appeal.
Along with the usual questions about depictions of violence, the popularity of dystopian narratives in young adult fiction and whether or not Katniss Everdeen is a “good role model” for girls, there usually came a point where the interlocutor observed that the movie was going to make the books hugely popular.
Well, yes. But also: no. “The Hunger Games” series was already hugely popular, long before the movie was even shot.
The first book alone has spent well over two years on the USA Today bestseller list. The films will doubtlessly promote the sales of even more books, but isn’t that a bit beside the point? The books made the movie a hit, not the other way around. The real story of this weekend’s record-breaking box office returns for the movie version of “The Hunger Games” is the awesome cultural power of young readers, especially young girls.