Sue Knott's Blog: Knott The Screaming Type - Posts Tagged "hunger-games"
Ruh-Roh...am I contributing to the delinquincy of America's youth?
When I decided to write a parody of The Hunger Games, I knew I wanted to "sexualize" the story to underscore the inappropriateness of the kids-killing-kids theme. Americans for some odd reason, tend not to see how inappropriate violence is, but show some nipple, and we're all over it.
I brought in Lardyard to help me with this because I wasn't sure I could come up with the kind of frat-boy type humor I needed. (No one I know embodies the maturity of a teen boy than Lardyard.) I thought we had a good balance of raunchy-but-not-too-raunchy humor. There are boobs, jerking off, lust...but no actual sex in the book. I was satisfied that we'd make our point, entertain teen males as well as females, and not introduce readers to any sexulaity they weren't already all too familiar with.
Now, I find that not just teens, but children are reading The Hunger Games. I would have thought childicide would be too mature a topic for them. And I worry that they might then think about reading my parody. The cover does a good job of indicating the content (The H.Unger Games Gone Wild...with a picture of duckling in a bikini top). Still, I have no way of assuring middle schoolers don't buy it. You'd think they'd have some way to rate books, just as they do for movies, wouldn't you?
It's no fun feeling like you have to be everybody's mom. But, it does take a village to raise a child. So, this is a warning: my Hunger Games parody is for high schoolers and older. Young'uns must wait a few years.
I brought in Lardyard to help me with this because I wasn't sure I could come up with the kind of frat-boy type humor I needed. (No one I know embodies the maturity of a teen boy than Lardyard.) I thought we had a good balance of raunchy-but-not-too-raunchy humor. There are boobs, jerking off, lust...but no actual sex in the book. I was satisfied that we'd make our point, entertain teen males as well as females, and not introduce readers to any sexulaity they weren't already all too familiar with.
Now, I find that not just teens, but children are reading The Hunger Games. I would have thought childicide would be too mature a topic for them. And I worry that they might then think about reading my parody. The cover does a good job of indicating the content (The H.Unger Games Gone Wild...with a picture of duckling in a bikini top). Still, I have no way of assuring middle schoolers don't buy it. You'd think they'd have some way to rate books, just as they do for movies, wouldn't you?
It's no fun feeling like you have to be everybody's mom. But, it does take a village to raise a child. So, this is a warning: my Hunger Games parody is for high schoolers and older. Young'uns must wait a few years.
Knott The Screaming Type
I suppose this will be musings about writing, books and writing books...maybe even about booking writers. I suppose, since it is my blog, I'll also throw in whatever else I think you, dear reader, mig
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