Michelle Hennessy – News Writer
With the massive following young adult fiction like the Hunger Games is receiving, and its apparent deeper social meanings, we can’t afford not to pay attention to it, according to English professor at the University of California, Jonathan Alexander Ph.D.
“The Hunger Games tells an incredible story about the role of the media and its effect on us,” said Alexander. “It’s fascinating to see Katniss and how she begins to become aware that her every move is being televised – by the end of the third book she’s an empty shell.”
The professor, who is also the chair of the Department of Women’s Studies and director of the Center for Excellence in Writing and Communication at the University of California, said his main focus is on the use of multimedia in the teaching of writing, sparking his interest in young adult fiction.
“I happened to be in London for the release of one of the Harry Potter books. I’ll admit that I don’t actually enjoy them, but I was the reluctant spouse that waited in line with my husband for 12 blocks to get the latest edition,” said Alexander. “That’s when I realized the enormity of it. There were people in line for 12 blocks for a book. This was a book. It is not possible for me to be interested in literacy and not be interested in young adult fiction.”
Alexander said Suzanne Collins, author of the Hunger Games, follows the same writing formula in all her books.
“In all of her books she uses 27 chapters broken into chunks,” said Alexander. “She learnt through writing for a whole other medium, she was a television writer for Nickelodeon. If I’m right about what the Hunger Games is about, the effect of the media on our society, then her formula for these books is made from writing for television which is what these books are about. That’s truly fascinating to me.”
English freshman, Olivia Ney said she had never thought about the meaning behind the Hunger Games before attending the talk in Engleman last week.
“I never really thought about the media’s impact on the games itself so finding that out and learning more about that was interesting,” said Ney. “I’ve also taken a course last semester (media studies) and it does tie together that the media is really cynical and has manipulative factors in it. You don’t really think about it but even women’s image and children, and how the woman have to be skinny and beautiful but then everyone has a different perception and I think the media has a lot to do with that and a lot of influence over people.”
Pre-nursing freshman, Adriana Spaziani said she also enjoyed learning about the deeper meaning behind it, though she said she often doesn’t get to read young adult fiction.
“I would love to read more but I don’t have time, I barely have enough time to read the material for my classes. I’m a nursing major, I’m studying my bio book before I go to bed, not the Hunger Games,” said Spaziani. “I liked learning about the different effects on the media, and like how the Hunger Games portrays it. Then also the economics of it and how it will somehow affect my life.”
During the hour-long talk, Alexander also showed videos of how multimedia projects are being incorporated into schools nationwide.
“I’m convinced that what people can do is talk back to media,” said Alexander. “Fan fiction is an example of that with people exploring in more details themes that were only touched upon in the original. Students are making movie trailers now, in some curriculums this is replacing the book report. Multimedia is playing a huge part now. I’m not going to overlook how it can have an effect on how people look at the world.”
Alexander said students are also beginning to explore content further than teachers and professors are teaching them.
“We often play it safe,” said Alexander. “Students will push themselves further than we can.”
