We don't really get a good picture of the schools, do we? I mean, we know they exist and they teach a version of the Dark Days. Probably another wasted propaganda opportunity for the Snow regime.
Your course in better dictatoring continues to be of the highest quality.
The schools are definitely a wasted opportunity. Apparently they actually teach some stuff about the revolution, and honestly, I think President Snow and his predecessors would have been much smarter to officially ignore it as soon as possible and let it die out of living memory. What's the point of being a dictator if you don't even try to rewrite history?
Revolution? What revolution? No one has ever revolted against the authority of the Capitol, and if they did, it was a sad little thing that didn't get very far, and definitely has nothing to do with the Hunger Games.
I know we've discussed this before and I don't have anything new to add, but HONESTLY, SNOW. Linking the Hunger Games directly to a moldy old rebellion that didn't even succeed, and explicitly framing them as punishment (who needs to punish rebels who aren't even alive anymore and were just a lot of mad cranks and whiners to begin with?) just gives a whole load of significance to both the Games AND the historical rebellion that is NOT HELPFUL to the Snow regime.
You don't even have to rewrite history, per se. You just have to apply a heavy coat of gloss. Though probably ignoring the old rebels' existence entirely is a better bet than including them in a wacky 200-word "Colorful Panem!" textbook sidebar in between confusingly-worded pages about the development of the district system and the heroic volunteer effort to repair the railroads following a cataclysmic setback that was no one's fault in particular
( ... )
The cataclysmic setback was clearly an aftershock of the disasters that destroyed the world in the first place. Clearly!
Or! Or! Maybe the textbooks could blame it all on District 13 saboteurs, who snuck into Panem and caused CHAOS AND DESTRUCTION until the rulers of Panem were forced to take action to protect their people. That way, it's all blamed on an outside source - no homegrown rebels at all! - but also preserves the story of District 13's destruction. The warning is less obvious in this presentation, but it should still be clear to potential rebels.
Which reminds me: Do we know how long ago the world was destroyed? Is it within the past two hundred years, or legendary past, or what? I'm trying to figure out how Panem: Heritage and Hope (approved for secondary schools in Districts 4-12) is going to deal with the Old American material.
I don't think we ever get a date on it. We know the rebellion was 75 years ago, after which the Hunger Games were put in place, so...hmm.
I'm leaning toward the rebellion happening not too long post-world-destruction - when democracy and all that jazz was still within living memory. Maybe ten or twenty years after? But IIRC there's nothing in the book to say how long ago it was.
Katniss doesn't seem to know diddly about Old America, though, so either she spent those classes staring out the window thinking about food or President Snow condensed the Old America material down to "The hopeless decadence of Old America led directly to the Dark Days. Thank God the Hunger Games have saved us from being decadent like that now. Moving on!"
I think a lot of writers don't have much of a sense of time--of simultaneously how much can change in a short time but also, equally simultaneously, how much stuff just sticks around. (Thinking about what--based on what you've said--Katniss et al. known and what they don't.)
This is so true. I think a lot of post-apocalyptic stories fall down because the authors underestimate how much stuff would stick around - even just in a purely physical sense; our society would leave a lot of ruins, for instance. All those roads we built won't just disappear.
Or stories, or folk history. I would be very surprised if people in a post-apocalyptic United States didn't at least know who George Washington was.
Revolution? What revolution? No one has ever revolted against the authority of the Capitol, and if they did, it was a sad little thing that didn't get very far, and definitely has nothing to do with the Hunger Games.
That brief, devastating, heartbreaking outbreak of RED, so early in our nation's glorious history. So many lives unnecessarily lost, the tragic waste of resources. How fortune that we train our children better now, that they prove their strength and their loyalty in the arena of the Games. No other district will ever again weaken like 13 did. Those lost, sad people will never be us.
Love this--RED is a dangerous disease, and this is the prime example! Eliminate RED--but don't let's penalize those early sufferers by dwelling on their tragic, life-destroying, delusional behavior....
Yes: If the rebellion is to be talked about at all it's with a tragic headshake. If only they all could have received prompt medical attention.
Those poor people. This is why it's so important to report early signs and symptoms of RED: the disease is so contagious, otherwise it might burn through the district like wildfire, and it would all end in tragedy just like District 13.
They barely touch on District 13 in history at all; it's all wrapped up in their Public Health lessons. This is why you need to report symptoms of RED as soon as you see them, children! It may destroy your friendships, but that's better than letting this brutal disease destroy your friends' lives!
Your course in better dictatoring continues to be of the highest quality.
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Revolution? What revolution? No one has ever revolted against the authority of the Capitol, and if they did, it was a sad little thing that didn't get very far, and definitely has nothing to do with the Hunger Games.
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You don't even have to rewrite history, per se. You just have to apply a heavy coat of gloss. Though probably ignoring the old rebels' existence entirely is a better bet than including them in a wacky 200-word "Colorful Panem!" textbook sidebar in between confusingly-worded pages about the development of the district system and the heroic volunteer effort to repair the railroads following a cataclysmic setback that was no one's fault in particular ( ... )
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Or! Or! Maybe the textbooks could blame it all on District 13 saboteurs, who snuck into Panem and caused CHAOS AND DESTRUCTION until the rulers of Panem were forced to take action to protect their people. That way, it's all blamed on an outside source - no homegrown rebels at all! - but also preserves the story of District 13's destruction. The warning is less obvious in this presentation, but it should still be clear to potential rebels.
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I'm leaning toward the rebellion happening not too long post-world-destruction - when democracy and all that jazz was still within living memory. Maybe ten or twenty years after? But IIRC there's nothing in the book to say how long ago it was.
Katniss doesn't seem to know diddly about Old America, though, so either she spent those classes staring out the window thinking about food or President Snow condensed the Old America material down to "The hopeless decadence of Old America led directly to the Dark Days. Thank God the Hunger Games have saved us from being decadent like that now. Moving on!"
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Or stories, or folk history. I would be very surprised if people in a post-apocalyptic United States didn't at least know who George Washington was.
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That brief, devastating, heartbreaking outbreak of RED, so early in our nation's glorious history. So many lives unnecessarily lost, the tragic waste of resources. How fortune that we train our children better now, that they prove their strength and their loyalty in the arena of the Games. No other district will ever again weaken like 13 did. Those lost, sad people will never be us.
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Yes: If the rebellion is to be talked about at all it's with a tragic headshake. If only they all could have received prompt medical attention.
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