Legacy of a Novel
I’m reading The Hunger Games right now, having waited to see the movie first.* Tempted as I am to talk about it in terms of craft and structure, I saw something on television last night that brought a different concern to mind: a book’s legacy.
It was during the opening of American Idol when host Ryan Seacrest said to the contestants, “Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor.” My jaw dropped. I could not believe that he had said it. He stood there among the bright lights and pageantry of Hollywood and said words only spoken (without irony) by the over-primped darlings of the Capitol. All he was missing was body paint and an obnoxious hair color.
The crowd roared, of course. They were thrilled by fact of the reference.
But then I started thinking, “what if they were thrilled by more than that?” What if they don’t understand the significance of that phrase in the novel? Do they celebrate the sumptuous feasts Katniss enjoys in the Capitol, or do they understand what it means that the Capitol has such food available at all hours of the day, while the Districts struggle for meager bread to survive?
I know the answer to this, of course: some will understand the depths of the story, some will see only the surface, and others will fall in between. It’s probably that way with every novel. I remember the 1978 Superman: the Movie in which the character Lex Luthor (played by Gene Hackman) said, “Some people can read War and Peace and come away thinking it’s a simple adventure story.”
In some ways it doesn’t matter. The writer gets to pour his story into the pages, but the reader extracts her own story as she reads. We all have filters we bring to books, and I may well see things in The Hunger Games that Suzanne Collins never intended, and I may miss points she hoped I’d see. Ultimately, as long as the reader enjoys the novel, perhaps it doesn’t matter.
I do know this though: if “May the odds be ever in your favor,” becomes this generation’s “May the Force be with you,” I won’t kick and scream. I’ll just think of the story I enjoyed and raise three fingers to my lips…
*Too often if I read the book first, the movie irritates me by not handling things the way I would want them. I find I better enjoy both by seeing the movie first.
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Submissions Update: Since my last post I have submitted pieces to Cirque Journal, Bete Noire, Shenandoah’s Bevel Summers Prize Contest, Flash Fiction Online, and Mythic Delirium.
