Cardinal Sins

Cardinal Sin #313: Posting about the Hunger Games twice within a few days after not blogging for two months.

This is what it looks like to commit Cardinal Sin #313:

This semester, I took a class called "Human Growth and Development." I didn't exactly apply myself, but I caught bits here and there.

This semester, The Hunger Games movie came to theaters! I did plenty of research on that topic - books, movie, soundtrack, articles, YouTube interviews, movie companion, internet memes, frequent discussions, and, yes, a cookbook (there's a recipe for mashed turnips, which looks kind of scary, but, I mean, what else are you going to eat in District 13?)

Anyway - here's where the two collide in my mind:

The central idea of the series capitalizes on adolescent cognitive development. The whole process of puberty involves lots of new hormones and brain growth - one result of this is that the limbic system (I FEEL!) begins to have new and improved capacities before the prefrontal cortex (I PLAN!). This causes the adolescent brain to revert to a state of egocentrism (humans also display excessive egocentrism around age 2-6, during which they develop their first theory of mind - or begin to understand that other people also have feelings and thoughts, and their feelings and thoughts might be different the ones that are bouncing around in their own early childhood head).

Adolescents have an intensively developed theory of mind and egocentrism at the same time. This produces some pretty great thought patterns, which relate directly to the wildly successful Hunger Games series:

1. Personal Fable - the adolescent idea that the self is simply destined to become great/famous/successful/etc. Like, I don't know, a 16-year-old girl who just happens to spend her time hunting and hiding in the woods before she nobly sacrifices herself to an authoritarian government for the sake of her beloved sister and ends up surviving a gladiatorial style pageant (complete with extreme makeover!) only to become a nationwide symbol of revolt against said authoritarian government. Yes, at some level, all adolescents desire to protaganize (not a verb) some great adventure that everybody knows about.

2. Invincibility Fable - the adolescent idea that the self is not subject to the same "that's dangerous, don't try it" rules as other people. According to this thought pattern, it is conceivable that, despite all probabilities, one won’t be killed by a conglomeration of knife-throwing girls, burns, lashes, general disregard for instructions, psycho brainwashed boyfriends, and trippy booby traps that would kill anybody else.

3. The Imaginary Audience - the adolescent idea that the self is subject to the constant scrutiny of everyone else in the world. Just as if the self was on TV 24/7. Or, in the words of T-Swift – “Everybody's wai -ting for you to breakdown/
Everybody's wa - tching to see the fallout/Even when you're sleeping, sleeping/Keep your eye-eyes open”. Music From District 12 and Beyond, Track 14.

Of course, Katniss is not your typical adolescent. Sometimes she sounds like one (“PEEETA OR GAAAALE??” I don’t know, K-dog, lemme call the WAH-mbulance... JUST PICK ONE). But I don’t think that the character is prey to these adolescent thought patterns herself – she frequently resents her fame, she knows that her survival is improbable, and she doesn’t THINK that everyone is watching her, everyone IS watching her.

The readers of the Hunger Games, on the other hand, are easily susceptible to the thought patterns that the series (that word is singular and it ends in s... what's the plural of "series"? "Serieses"?) allows them to indulge. It's a tale told in first person present - it's easy to envision oneself as the protagonist - the fated-for-greateness, survive-against-all-odds, important-to-everyone adolescent protagonist. Losing oneself in this fantasy is only too easy, to the deep regret of the part of myself that would like to spend time thinking about more important things.

HUNGER G!!!