Seconds, please!

Last Tuesday, I struggled through the day, fighting off restless yawns and prying my eyes open with copious amounts of caffeine, and I blame Suzanne Collins for it all.

If it weren't for her book, I would have fallen asleep on time (or at least not too late), I would have been bright and sunshiny for my first class of the day, and I wouldn't have had to practically glue a cup of coffee to my hand for the remainder of the day. How dare she?

Okay, but I actually loved the book. True, I was a bit tired and not as cheerful as my peers probably would have appreciated, but once I started reading The Hunger Games, I really couldn't stop. It actually pained me to run to the bathroom in the middle of reading, and if it weren't for the fact that I live in a hall and use a community bathroom, I would have lugged the book to the bathroom with me.

The entire idea of the book made me really sad, but the ties to our ancient history and our own obsessions with "reality" television had me on the edge of my seat as my head filled with hundreds of "What if's." I don't think we have gotten to the extreme situation in Panem, but I definitely think there was a bit of truth in what she wrote. Hopefully - if 'death games' become a reality - society would never reach the point of a lottery that citizens were forced to enter. Part of me thinks it would be considerably easier to watch someone fight to the death if they entered themselves willingly, but the need to know why they entered in the first place would drive me crazy. What could bring someone to that point? Fame? Fortune? Freedom?

Guilt? Maybe they would be fighting to pay back a debt (monetary or not)...I know it would be hard for me to watch regardless of the reason for joining. Whether it makes sense or not, there really is a big difference between watching a fake, yet realistic looking, death in a movie, and watching someone actually die in front of you.

I guess it would be the truest form of reality: Eat or be eaten, and never give up.

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So please, oh PLEASE, we beg, we pray, Go throw your TV set away, And in its place you can install, A lovely bookshelf on the wall. - Roald Dahl