"Stephen King's The Running Man imagines a dystopian future where human misery is packaged as entertainment, where the government snuffs out personal freedoms and the rich reap untold profits while working people are enticed to attack themselves rather than the power structures that keep them oppressed. None of this was a stretch when King, writing under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, published the book in 1982, with Ronald Reagan in the White House and unemployment at its highest point since the Great Depression."
"The contestants on The Running Man -the show, not the movie-rack up a cash prize for each day they evade its "hunters," heavily armed stalkers who have practically unlimited resources to track them down and kill them, preferably live and in prime time. But they also have to watch out for their fellow citizens, who can earn a few dollars for turning them in and even more for doing the dirty work themselves."
A dystopian narrative imagines human misery packaged as entertainment, with the government snuffing out personal freedoms and the wealthy reaping vast profits while working people are enticed to attack each other instead of confronting power structures. The story originated during an era of high unemployment and conservative politics, yet its premises resonate with contemporary realities. A recent film adaptation follows the original plot more closely than the 1987 adaptation, shifting action from an enclosed arena back into the wider world and expanding antagonists to include ordinary citizens. The fictional game show rewards contestants for surviving hunter attacks while incentivizing the public to turn them in or kill them for money.
Read at Slate Magazine
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]