Sci vs Fi

The Hunger Games vs Harry Potter

Both series sold hundreds of millions of copies and turned their protagonists into archetypes that show up everywhere now. But the philosophies underneath them couldn't be more different, and the contrast starts at the origin stories.

J.K. Rowling conceived Harry Potter on a delayed train from Manchester in 1990, drawing on mythology, Christian allegory, and the British boarding school tradition. Suzanne Collins arrived at her vision by channel-surfing one night during the Iraq War, flipping between a reality TV competition and actual combat footage until the two images blurred into something she couldn't shake loose. That difference shows up everywhere in the finished work.…