Totally agree, I’m no apologist. But the USSR had coal mines as well, with similar levels of exploitation and poverty. So to me it always felt more like a comment on poverty rather than “this is a coal mine in West Virginia”.

Too many mixed aesthetics in HG to be a critique on capitalism alone imo

Read Chuck Klosterman’s “but what if we’re wrong?”

There is some extended discussion of how present day art becomes “classic”, and how certain art becomes representative of an era even if it was not widely seen that way at the time.

To me it just seems like a vague, authoritarian aesthetic. Like clearly the “you live in a district and can’t leave” is inspired by the soviet union or communist China, but the “people in the capital are entertained by bread and circuses” feels more like a capitalist critique imo.

It’s a YA novel and I don’t think it is really a critique of anything except authoritarianism / “the man”