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

[geeklee.livejournal.com]

yes, i definitely think it was a race thing but after seeing many, many heated discussions over the casting of this movie, i'm starting to have a bit (really very slight) of understanding of it.

when katniss was first cast, there were a few who complained katniss was not blond. but the majority of readers replied that despite words like olive and dark hair, they could only picture her as white. ditto for rue (many, many don't like rue being black despite the description in the book).

finally there was a very interesting post that most readers only use their own definitions of the world to interpret what they read and that is why white readers read white people. and since america's dominant culture is white, i suppose hollywood is responding to that.

on the other hand, cinna was written as white, imo, and when they cast lenny kravitz, i think they were trying to even things out a bit. and of course, there was a great deal of backlash about that since he's a favorite character.

all in all, with the exception of haymitch and rue, i am not in love with the casting at all and as i said before, i am not expecting much. but i am eager to see what the movie will be like.

i read ender's games earlier this year. i've been trying to get better versed in young adult lit. anyway, i loved it as well. i googled and heard there have been rumblings about a movie for a long time. you seem to have heard something more concrete. is that correct?

twilight makes me cringe. especially when i see so many girls reading and swooning over it. sigh. i've read tons of heated debates about grrm being misogynist but imo, meyers does more to make women powerless and foolish than any other writer i can think of right now.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Oh, I perfectly understand how this works, but I think this is what "unconscious racism" is all about. And it is not as if Katniss' appearance is mentioned once or twice, the mentionings of her "olive skin", "dark straight hair" and small statue are all over the place.

And someone is complaining about Rue? I really despair!Racism is still there!

And I don't think they can make it better with Cinna, his descriptions are not as detailed (AND he is not the main character)..

As you, I like Haymitch and Rue though. My biggest problem from "how I think I like this actor and how he fits the role" is the actor playing Peeta. I just don't like how he looks (his smile is creepy!), plus it will take some convincing for me to accept non-blond Peeta. :P

I just saw "Ender's Game" mentioned when I Googled Hailee Steinfeld. It is not concrete, though, indeed. Oh, what a pity.