The Hunger Games

Now before you yell and scream "Non-unique!!1!" since the The Hunger Games is not something that is solely liked by Christian Homeschooled Speech and Debate Kids... well, ok, I'll concede uniqueness, but please hold off on the screaming. Not that I'd hear you over the sound of excited teenagers who still haven't recovered last night's this morning's midnight premiere. Anyway, even though tons of people like the Hunger Games, we like it in a different way. It's because we're not only homeschooled, but we also talk competitively. We're different. 

So yea, as everyone in America knows, The Hunger Games film came out today. My sister is fairly convinced that everyone in America was at the theater she visited last night. I wasn't. I was sleeping, though I would've loved to go. Other Americans I know of who did not go to a midnight showing of some sort are the various CHSADKs who are at a tournament this week, and there are several of those going on right now. Some people, I hear, went anyway, but I guess if you aren't going to be able to sleep at a tournament, you may as well not sleep in a movie theater.

At one of my homeschool classes yesterday, we had a mini-discussion on the first book of the series and whether or not it was considered good literature, ultimately deciding that it was, despite word-choice and grammar that might make a homeschooler cringe. I actually didn't notice either of those issues while reading, but maybe because I'm an interper and get really into character when I read. Actually, speaking of character, we kind of dismissed the actual writing aspects on the basis that anything resembling Dickens or Tolkien or another great author would have been out of place for Katniss, the main character and narrator. It's amazing how many good discussions could be pulled out of that book. I mean, it's a fiction novel about a society (our society, by the way) who basically abandons God and any system of morals or values, which consequently results in their having an evil dictator. The nerd in me thinks de Tocqueville could have come up with the plot had he so desired. The homeschooler, I mean. And then, there's the classic idea of good vs. evil, with good rebelling and fighting for freedom and if that doesn't make a homeschooler happy, I don't know what does.

Now watch as the Hunger Games phenomenon sweeps our little community even more. Girls will start wearing their hair like Katniss in tournaments. No, I guess they pretty much do that already, even if unintentionally. Well, people will soon talk of interping it. Wait, no, they already do that too. Maybe they'll use the Games as an application in LD? I don't know, but it would totally work. Or maybe they'll take archery and call it PE? Does anyone do that? THAT would be awesome.

You're homeschooled. May the odds be ever in your favor!