Tried With Fire

By now everyone and his brother has read and/or watched The Hunger Games , so here’s another book review to add to the pile... Plot summary: The story takes place in what was formerly the United States. Panem is its new name, a tyrannical government with 12 vassal districts that are predominantly controlled by slow starvation and martial law. As punishment for a past rebellion and to keep the populace under its thumb, two “tributes”, a girl and boy, are chosen at random from the children in each district to participate in the annual Hunger Games. These are fights to the death in a specially prepared arena for the televised entertainment of the Capitol’s hedonistic citizens and the torture of the districts. The victor’s reward is fame, money, and above all no fear of starvation ever again. The heroine, Katniss Everdeen, from District 12 volunteers to take her 12-year-old sister’s place to save her from almost certain death. Her fellow tribute is Peeta Mellark, the son of a baker,...

I started reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins after reading reviews by several Christian bloggers whom I respect. My daughter was interested in the series as well, so I'm reading it more as a worldview chaperone than for the story itself. This is a departure from my usual fiction reading. For years, I stuck to "safe" books - characters and story lines with more-or-less black and white morality and all loose ends neatly tied in a bow by the end of the book, which of course must have a happy ending. I was also a card-carrying fear monger, so there was the "Oh no! It could happen to me!" motive in avoiding anything nasty that could lodge in my memory bank as potential irrational monger-fodder. But my theology has changed, which has changed me. (Thanks be to God!) Yes, there are nasty things in books and even nastier things in the real life, but I belong to a God who rules over all things, which cannot move an inch unless He decrees it. Whether I like t...

I was reading ahead in our literature curriculum. The second lesson deals with analyzing the worldview of different writers. The text lists key philosophers from ancient Greece to the 20th century. As I was reading through the list, several names sounded familiar to me although I had never studied philosophy. Then I remembered...