i've been getting real pissed off by the weirdos both here and especially on twitter that love to shit on the hunger games and chastise people who praise its political tones.
do I think suzanne collins is karl marx? no. but first off, karl marx wasn't all that much of a genius either. his brilliance lay in the fact that he took political and economic abstractions and solidified them in ways people could understand. that is literally all that 'das kapital' is - a concrete translation.
much like marx, suzanne collins is also a translator, only her audience is young adults and teenagers.
most people aren't as dialed in as the internet would like to believe, and they need these things explained to them in a way even a fucking child can understand.
she knows how to make the most nebulous, heavy and convoluted political concepts feel accessible due to her background as a tv and children's writer, and she does it well. more people know edward burke, john locke and david hume's theories than they would otherwise, and they understand them at their most fundamental levels thanks to her writing.
that is where her brilliance lies, and just because she writes a series that has generated immense profit does not discount the very real political impact her work has had.
in that way, suzanne collins might be just as—if not more—relevant and consequential an author as karl marx for this current century.
