Let the Game Do Its Work: A short history of spectacle dystopia

by J.M. Berger

From Rollerball to Battle Royale to The Hunger Games, readers and moviegoers have flocked to spectacle dystopias -- a genre of fiction in which a dysfunctional society is centered around a terrible, violent form of entertainment. J.M. Berger, author of Extremism and The Turner Legacy, provides a short history of the spectacle dystopia from its almost-forgotten origins in 1878 through modern incarnations such as The Running Man and The Purge franchise, looking at how these works came to be and how they have spilled over into the real world in unexpected and sometimes dangerous ways. "Let the Game Do Its Work" is a history of this popular genre, and also a guide to help readers discover obscure works that they may have missed. Note that this is a short monograph, not a full-length book.

About the author

J.M. Berger is the author of Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam and coauthor (with Jessica Stern) of ISIS: The State of Terror. He is a fellow with the Counter-Terrorism Strategic Communications Project and a nonresident Fellow with the Alliance for Securing Democracy.

Reviews

[Malcolm · Rating 4 out of 5]

"But if the mesmerizing power of dystopian spectacle is a myth, what does our enduring fascination of the genre say about us? How did Battle Royale break records? Why did The Hunger Games become a multibillion-dollar commercial behemoth?"

Let the Game Do Its Work is essentially a long essay on the topic of "spectacle dystopias," such as The Hunger Games, The Purge, and The Running Man. It starts with the history of the genre, harkening back to the gladiator fights of Rome. The piece takes its title from a quote in the 1975 movie Rollerball, which I hadn't heard of before this book. Within these types of narratives, the murder game of choice is often justified as a means of social control or a catharsis for humanity's supposed natural proclivity for violence. Berger describes how these various forms of spectacle dystopias operate across different novels, short stories, and movies, examining the in-world justification for such systems.

More interestingly, Berger extends his examination to the real world and discusses how these depictions in media reflect or influence our reality. I was particularly disturbed by how some people have tried to emulate the "spectacle dystopia" methods seen in media, despite the entire point of the source material being to condemn such practices. According to the author, even The Purge movies (which I haven't seen) act as a commentary on how such lawless, "cathartic" events would harm the poor more than the rich, and ultimately violence does not yield any real catharsis at all. I would've liked Berger to go even deeper on the impact dystopian literature has on the real world. I'm fascinated by the two-fold question of "How does our perception of society shape what authors write about, and how do the depictions of violence in fiction influence our behavior in real life?"

I'll admit that I downloaded this title (for free) thinking it was a full-fledged book on the history of dystopias in general and not just one type, but that's my own fault for not reading the description more closely. I hadn't come across the term "spectacle dystopia" before, which is a good label for this subgenre. So, I went in expecting a look into the likes of 1984, We, and Brave New World, but those are different forms of dystopias.

Overall, Berger provides a lot of valuable food for thought, and I do hope he'll flesh out this piece into a longer work, even as the era of the spectacle dystopia seems to have come to a close. But perhaps the next Hunger Games is already on its way...