#and in the uglies series for example there is a sense of the geographic scale of the north american continent despite the current populatio

[dykeseinfeld]

not to sound like a 13 year old but i've got particular beef with the idea of the districts of panem lining up with the geography of north america like i Get it i've seen the maps i understand the intent of the author and how it makes sense culturally but deep down inside it just feels wrong to me and i can't do it.

it's like u say "nuclear war wiped out most of the planet" and that's supposed to make me accept that the extraordinarily strong culture of american statehood just collapsed into 12 regional districts like that?? fine i guess if we account for a long long gap of time between nuclear war and the original inception of panem. maybe.

but also. the way it's described clearly implies each district is able to gather its entire population in one square on one day for reaping day and honestly strongly implies that each district + the capitol are comprised of only one urban center (of varying sizes) each implying that the area of these districts Has to be so much fucking smaller than it appears on any of the maps that float around. where is all the empty space. the north american landscape is Huge even with the amount of coastline taken away due to oceans rising and that space is like. a huge huge factor in living here. there is not that sense of geographic scale and empty spaces between districts except like. the forests outside of 12 (speaking of like. katniss is able to walk the entire fence by herself in less than a day to check for weak points. these districts are small. even if 12 is smaller than say 11. that's ridiculously tiny all of these districts have to be small and definitely not entire regions of the continental united states)

also many many other ppl have made this point lmao but. the foreign policy of panem is not mentioned except for those vague notions of a nuclear war in the distant past and it is just. stretching imagination beyond belief to imagine that if panem truly is north america president snow literally is only concerned with domestic policy even the most isolated authoritarian regimes on earth today still have to deal with foreign policy on some level (and north america is lucky to have near self sufficiency w resources bc oil and such but. we do not have rare earth metals to sustain the technology level of panem. i'd be willing to discuss the hypothetical that panem has zero computers and batteries it's not impossible but.)

all in all it's very clear that culture/resources of 12 is inspired by and modeled on appalachia and that the more extreme repression/resources of 11 are inspired by and modeled on agriculture and racist government styles of the deep south etc etc and that makes sense bc like. suzanne collins is deeply entrenched in american culture and so is the hunger games as a series and she absolutely nails the culture and political connections bc it's an extremely adept commentary on modern american society but. the geography just doesn't make sense and raises too many questions and i wish you all would accept like me that it takes place in a fantasy land of pure allegory