The Future...

A couple of weeks ago I started Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games.  I wanted to read the much bally-hooed The Mockingjay, the third in the series and thought I should began at the beginning. So I started Collins' futurist YA novel. Unfortunately I then got involved with Lisbeth Salander in Stockholm. But as Lisbeth's story is winding down, I returned to Collins' futuristic world and I'm very disturbed by it.
Collins' future is not rosy. It's bleak and divided into "Districts" - some wealthy and others poor - very poor.
These Districts run a Shirley Jackson-type lottery to determine what two teenagers will be sent to The Capitol to via in The Hunger Games - to the death. The winner's district and, more importantly his/her family, receive benefits, including food.
So that's Collins' future in The Hunger Games series, a future where people fight to the death for food.
Anyone remember Les Miserables or any of Dickens' darker stories?  Is this really "back to the future"?
Collins' heroine, Kasnip" is well-rounded and at a young age works daily to put food on her family's table. She volunteers to be the District's entrant into the "Games" so save her younger sister, who had "won" the lottery.

 Image from www.blingcheese.com

Collins takes Shirley Jackson's story to the max in this well-written and exciting series - as many YA novels are these days. This is a great lesson for writers - take a classic and stand it on it's ear.
I will be going back to the future as soon as I can get myself out of Stockholm.