A Shared Text moment occurs when a book or film has become so much a commonplace among members of an extended family or community that references can be made to it in other contexts to make points of meaning without fear that those in the conversation will not understand the points because they have not read or seen the film in question. Harry Potter is the first ‘shared text’ of the 21st century, for example, and it is something of a sport here at HogwartsProfessor to pick up references to Muggles, Quidditch, Owl Posts, and He Who Must Not Be Named in newspaper articles, teevee advertising, and editorial cartoons.

Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games is rapidly gaining ‘Shared Text’ status, if, as often as not, references to the story in print media and online still come with some helpful explanation.

Much of the discussion, for example, about Hunger Games and specifically the Film because of its great success at the box office is about its political meaning. As I’ve discussed elsewhere, that is because its spiritual allegory has been hijacked by the Gamesmakers who chose to downplay the one (and the anti-Hollywood theme) to score political points instead. Be that as it is, partisans on the left and right of the American political spectrum, statists and tea party members, are invoking the Hunger Games to make their assertions and denials. The story is entering our speech as Shared Text and specifically our competing political monologues.

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I kid you not. You can buy a piece of cinematic history! Think you can move into Tara or Forest Gump’s plantation mansion for only a million dollars and change? I think not. Read Buy District 12 from Hunger Games for $1.4 million:

83-year-old owner, Wade Shepherd, lives across the empty village, and originally purchased it to “protect his interests” after the last resident moved out in 1987. While Shepherd never mentioned the exact reason why he’s putting the town up for sale, there’s probably no better time than now: “I’m getting too many visitors. Day and night, they’re driving through, taking pictures, getting out and walking. I’m just bombarded with people,” he told the Associated Press. Your $1.4 million will get you several District 12 locations you’ve seen in the movie, including the Everdeens’ house and the Mellarks’ bakery.

For photographs of the Henry River Mill Town property, assuming you have US$1 or 2 million burning a hole in your pocket, see Prof. Baird-Hardy’s recent shots here and Dr. Amy H. Sturgis’ pictures taken well before the town was considered for the film shoot here. Note the sign in this photo advertising the property for sale a few years back (2008), I assume at a bargain price compared to the current going rate. At a little under $20,000 an acre today, I’m thinking Lionsgate elected to pass on the deal and build a new ‘old’ District 12 in another abandoned mill town somewhere else in Appalachia.

Your thoughts? Hat tip to RevGeorge!

I’m a newcomer to ‘Brant’s Blog’ but if his Katniss and Her Friends: Why ‘The Hunger Games’ Resonates is any sign of the quality of the thinking there, I’ll be back. The heart of it goes something like this:

Katniss finds a boy/man who is flawed, but self-sacrificing, protective, warm, and committed to not being changed by the culture. He will not, he says, become a self-seeking “monster.” The Capitol, the culture, is patronizingly charmed by that… as it is fully committed to changing him into a self-seeking monster.

Katniss knows truth matters. She’s no philosopher, but she knows loyalty matters. She knows sacrificing for the vulnerable matters. She knows there is such a thing as Good, even if she can’t articulate it. The Capitol, the culture, tries to convince her otherwise. [Read more…]