Description
Book SynopsisA philosophical exploration of Suzanne Collins''s New York Times bestselling series, just in time for the release of The Hunger Games movie Katniss Everdeen is the girl who was on fire, but she is also the girl who made us think, dream, question authority, and rebel. The post-apocalyptic world of Panem''s twelve districts is a divided society on the brink of war and struggling to survive, while the Capitol lives in the lap of luxury and pure contentment. At every turn in the Hunger Games trilogy, Katniss, Peeta, Gale, and their many allies wrestle with harrowing choices and ethical dilemmas that push them to the brink. Is it okay for Katniss to break the law to ensure her family''s survival? Do ordinary moral rules apply in the Arena? Can the world of The Hunger Games shine a light into the dark corners of our world? Why do we often enjoy watching others suffer? How can we distinguish between what''s Real and Not Real? This book draws on some of history'
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments: “It’s Like the Bread. How I Never Get Over Owing You for That.” ix
Introduction: Let The Hunger Games and Philosophy Begin! 1
Part One “Having An Eye for Beauty Isn’t Necessarily a Weakness”: The Art of Resisting the Capitol
1. “The Final Word on Entertainment”: Mimetic and Monstrous Art in the Hunger Games 8
Brian McDonald
2. “Somewhere between Hair Ribbons and Rainbows”: How Even the Shortest Song Can Change the World 26
Anne Torkelson
3. “I Will Be Your Mockingjay”: The Power and Paradox of Metaphor in the Hunger Games Trilogy 41
Jill Olthouse
Part Two “We’re Fickle, Stupid Beings”: Hungering For Morality in An Immoral World
4. “The Odds Have Not Been Very Dependable of Late”: Morality and Luck in the Hunger Games Trilogy 56
George A. Dunn
5. The Joy of Watching Others Suffer: Schadenfreude and the Hunger Games 75
Andrew Shaffer
6. “So Here I Am in His Debt Again”: Katniss, Gifts, and Invisible Strings 90
Jennifer Culver
Part Three “I am as Radiant as the Sun”: The Natural, The Unnatural, and Not-so-weird Science
7. Competition and Kindness: The Darwinian World of the Hunger Games 104
Abigail Mann
8. “No Mutt Is Good”—Really? Creating Interspecies Chimeras 121
Jason T. Eberl
Part Four “Peeta Bakes. I Hunt.”: What Katniss Can Teach us About Love, Caring, and Gender
9. Why Katniss Chooses Peeta: Looking at Love through a Stoic Lens 134
Abigail E. Myers
10. “She Has No Idea. The Effect She Can Have.”: Katniss and the Politics of Gender 145
Jessica Miller
11. Sometimes the World Is Hungry for People Who Care: Katniss and the Feminist Care Ethic 162
Lindsey Issow Averill
Part Five “As Long as You Can Find Yourself, You’ll Never Starve”: How to Be Yourself When It’s All a Big Show
12. Why Does Katniss Fail at Everything She Fakes? Being versus Seeming to Be in the Hunger Games Trilogy 178
Dereck Coatney
13. Who Is Peeta Mellark? The Problem of Identity in Panem 193
Nicolas Michaud
Part Six “Here’s Some Advice. Stay Alive.”: A Tribute’s Guide to the Morality and Logic of Warfare
14. “Safe to Do What?”: Morality and the War of All against All in the Arena 206
Joseph J. Foy
15. Starting Fires Can Get You Burned: The Just-War Tradition and the Rebellion against the Capitol 222
Louis Melançon
16. The Tribute’s Dilemma: The Hunger Games and Game Theory 235
Andrew Zimmerman Jones
Part Seven “It Must Be Very Fragile if a Handful of Berries Can Bring It Down”: The Political Philosophy of Coriolanus Snow
17. Discipline and the Docile Body: Regulating Hungers in the Capitol 250
Christina Van Dyke
18. “All of This Is Wrong”: Why One of Rome’s Greatest Thinkers Would Despise the Capitol 265
Adam Barkman
19. Class Is in Session: Power and Privilege in Panem 277
Chad William Timm
Contributors: Our Resistance Squadron 291
Index: “A List in My Head of Every Act of Goodness I’ve Seen Someone Do” 297
