A Bad Idea *Hunger Games Spoilers Ahead*

Have you heard the news? Lionsgate has recently announced that they will open a Hunger Games theme park in Atlanta, GA. Can I ask why? Don’t get me wrong, I am a complete Katniss Everdeen fangirl who didn’t mind the totes heartbreaking death of (SPOILER ALERT) sweet Prim (with war comes collateral damage) and even embraced the film adaptions (mostly because the always charming Jennifer Lawrence slays it, per usual) despite the severe miscasting of Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark, among other things.  But somehow – and maybe this is just me – but I have never once after reading one of the Hunger Games books said to myself, “huh, wouldn’t that just be a complete lark? I would KILL (literally, natch) to be able to experience the sadistic thrill of murdering a bunch of teenagers for the amusement of a bunch of one percenters who dress like they are on an extended acid trip! Will there be actual blood when I’m cracking open some 12 year old girl’s head, or is it just going to be some lame simulation?” Nope. Nope. Nope. The ONLY Hunger Games “Experience” that I would enjoy would to be a devil’s threesome situation with lil’ Joshie boy (hey, he may be miscast and a full head shorter than me, but still, objectively hot) and that Hemsworth brother.  

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The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios in Orlando, FL, Japan, and the one currently under construction in Hollywood, CA all do so well because part of the thrall of the HP universe is that nearly every fan wants to be a wizard. I’m sure at one point – or if you’re anything like me – you maybe had a wonderfully irrational thought that your Hogwarts admissions letter somehow got lost in the owl post and one day ol’ Dumbledore (who never kicked the bucket in this particular fantasy) will pay me a visit to rectify that grave mistake.  No Hunger Games fan (at least not the sane ones) would ever volunteer to participate in the games.  Like the Hunger Games, the drama in HP surrounds the machinations of a hateful archvillian who casts the threat of war, death, and loss over the narrative and who our protagonist must defeat in order to save the world; unlike the Hunger Games, there are chapters, and arguably entire books, where war, death, and darkness aren’t the focus of the narrative. There are light-hearted moments of the awkwardness of adolescence, there are impossible beasts, objects, spells, feats of the imagination; there is magic.

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Even if that magic is sometimes dangerous and terrible in its own right, and even if some of the darker themes and events that occur in HP seem to mirror that of the muggle world (the Holocaust, racism and ethnic cleansing/genocide, wars, etc.), it still seems like an impossible fever dream. If you squint hard enough, the Hunger Games, with its elements of class warfare, physical violence (read: No wands, spellcasting or potions. Just guns, bullets, bombs, machetes, axes, drones, manufactured killing machines, etc.), and social inequalities could easily be a dystopia not that far off from 21^st century America.  If I wanted to see or experience any of those things, all I would have to do is turn on the 6 o’clock news. It’s all just a little too close for comfort if you ask me.  Like the summer blockbuster, the purpose of theme parks are so the visitor can step into a piece of artificial escapism (and buy $8 butterbeers) and forget about the world’s problems… not be reminded of them.