Kiki Smith: 'Constellation' (1996)

Kiki Smith: 'Constellation' (1996)

So what's the rescue plan?

(inspired by @hungergameshyperfixation post)

When Caesar is first introduced in The Hunger Games, Katniss describes him like that:

"Caesar Flickerman, the man who has hosted the interviews for more than forty years, bounces onto the stage." (THG, 9)

It's without a doubt the movie's influence that I do not see Caesar as having been on stage for forty years. While we have no canon information to the contrary, people have usually taken this line as a truthful statement.

Yet, this feels like such a teenage thing to say. Age is so relative when you're younger, two years are an "eternity", your teachers must have been teaching for over "ten decades" and parents are always "so very old" it's impossible to imagine getting that old yourself.

It's very much my own preference on how old Caesar is & that his story paralleling Plutarch's requires a similar age. Still, I am curious how Katniss would even know something like this to make this assessment—if we don't assume the forty is a hyperbole, which I can easily envision.

It seems unlikely that Katniss would have seen arenas before her time. That's not to say there weren't reruns, but electricity seems so fickle that I doubt the TV was running, nor do I think the Everdeens would have tuned in during the times it was.

The only way Katniss might know is that Mrs. or Mr. Everdeen commented on Caesar's presence the first few times she's had to watch the Games. Something akin to "he's always been there" or "I remember seeing him when I was your age". But if we assume her parents are around Haymitch's age, I doubt they have memories beyond the 40s ADD. This would move Caesar closer to three decades than four.

There could be the possibility that they blend in old footage during current Games, such as an interview with young Beetee. While I can see this as a possible explanation, it seems a bit counter to Katniss other statements. She does mention that some years are rather vague due to her father's death—which they might not be if there were frequent callbacks on TV. She also mentions having vague memories of Tigris from the first Games she's watched, which indicates she's not seen much from before she was born, either.

At the point that Katniss is making this comment, i.e. when we first meet Caesar, she yet lacks the insight of the tapes that Effie hands them in Catching Fire. Out of all the places, this would have been the easiest to give a brief insight into Caesar's timeline. For example, mentioning watching some tape in the 30s ADD and Caesar is present in there. Instead, we only see Caesar during the 50th Games, which only has him on stage for (a minimum of) 25 years.

Many readers are taking much of what Katniss says with a grain of salt while the forty years line is taken as a canon fact. I know this is mostly because of (A) Caesar not being a very thought about character and (B) the terrible high chair line in TBOSAS with fans taking it as a fact that this must have been Caesar.

In my own interpretation, Caesar started in his early 20s during the late 40s ADDs. This would make him the same generation as Haymitch and Plutarch, which feels much more natural in terms of generational divides between the likes of Katniss, Haymitch and Plutarch, and Snow.

truly

Julien Fournier Fall Winter 2023-24