Mostly about "Hunger Games"

[alexandral]

I am living a pretty uninteresting life at the moment, much work is done and nothing else. Of interesting things, I have embarked on a full re-watch of "Jeeves and Wooster" with the family and so far this has been a great fun.



I am also listening to "Hunger Games" audiobooks. As expected, I love the series: it has lovely energetic writing, fabulous lead characters (especially Katniss), and is very comforting. After few months of "A Song of Ice and Fire" obsession it is nice to read something that is scarily realistic and tame at the same time. I am still in the middle of the first book of the series, but I have no fear. I am sure everything will be fine at the end, and Katniss and Peeta are going to get married and live happily ever after. I will be VERY surprised if this is not the case..

For the record, these are my predictions:
1. Katniss' sister and mother will die.
2. Gale will turn out to be evil
3. Katniss and Peeta will marry and have babies.

Among the interesting things in this series, I like the gender reversal with Peeta and Katniss where Katniss has traditionally more "male" role and Peeta has traditionally "female" role. Even the names sound in this way: if I didn't know who is who I would have thought Katniss is a boy name and Peeta is a girl name.

But!! (there is a BUT) From what I have heard of the series I was ready for something that heavily references "1984" and "The Running Man", but to add to this, the book seems to be very closely following Japanese novel "Battle Royale" (please see the picture below) . In fact, the resemblance is so noticeable that I had to Google the issue and to my disappointment discovered that Suzanne Collins maintains that she "had never heard of that book until [her] book was turned in,". Call me a cynic, I just can't believe it. "Battle Royale" was published in 1999, it has been adapted into a high-influence film ("Battle Royale") and manga of the same name, and Suzanne Collins (and her editors, etc.) have never heard of it?



PS: I am also finding out that there is a "Hunger Games" movie in making, with a 21-year old Blond actress playing Katniss. This sounds terrible!!!!!!!!

Comments

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

Well, if you get right down to it, the mythology of the Hunger Games owes a great deal to the story of Theseus and the Minotaur and the tributes exacted from Athens by the Cretans. So it's not as if the idea was original to whatever this other book/movie that I had actually never heard of either. :P

As for Jennifer Lawrence, she was BRILLIANT in "Winter's Bone" which is from a brilliant novel that stars a young woman who is pretty much Katniss in a non-dystopian setting (like, if Katniss had been living in the Kentucky of "Justified", she would be Ree Dolly, the heroine of "Winter's Bone.") So I think she'll be fine. I posted the first trailer in my LJ a while back, and I have to say that it looks amazing.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

** laughs ** It is no that the methology of the two books is the only thing that is the same, this goes further: the more detailed aspects of the story in "Hunger Games" are very close to "Battle Royale", and whilst I can believe that any single individual can easily never hear of "Battle Royale", I can't believe that such a slip can happen with editors/copyright,I just can not. If you just Goodle the story , you will get plenty of references to Battle Royale, and in the World where population of Asia (China, Japan, Korea taken together) is actually WAY larger in proportion than the population of USA I honestly can not believe that someone didn't research and/or didn't notice and/or didn't care!

I was not convinced in X-Men by Jennifer's performance, not at all. It all might go fine, but I am not pre-disposed to like her Katniss. From the book description I can't get over her in my mind as "Hispanic, smallish and 16", not "Blond, big bosom, 21" as Jennifer.