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By jamie, March 12, 2012 8:19 am

The government in this story clearly wants to be overthrown. Either that or the leaders are so arrogant that they think they are so strong that the people can’t possibly win as long as they are kept weak and starving. Clearly, the decisions made in Section 2 (I read the entire section) will be their undoing.

Keeping the districts separate was smart. Because no one knew what the others were doing, it was difficult for them to join forces. Then the hunger games forced the people to think all of the other Districts as the enemy – not only were their children in constant danger of being slaughtered, surviving the games entitled every resident of the winning district to plenty of food for a year. Even though (at least some of) the winners returned with physical, mental, and emotional scars, at least they knew that they may have temporarily saved some local lives in the process.

What we didn’t know was that the winners are allowed to communicate with one another, and some of them have become friends. Finnick tells Katniss that she would have been loved in the capitol – does this mean that victors can travel there whenever they wish? Do some of them move there? Because even though these people are survivors, they are also victims – they were used as pawns for the entertainment of the capitol, and they have a lot to be bitter and upset/vindictive about. And now they have to go to in again? The capitol is arranging for their own destruction with this one – what better rebel army than a group of winners of the hunger games?

During the training, many of the second-timers don’t approach the training as though they are heading into certain death. Some of them even skip the training sessions altogether (Do they have mentors or escorts that allow them to do this? How any people are in on this plan for revolution?) – I think they are using their time to strategize a government take-down. They survived the arena, which is really the best soldier training any of them can expect to get (which reminds me – there are a lot of peacekeepers in this story – how does one qualify for that job?). As for Haymitch, his tape of the games shows that he is really smart, a great strategist, and that Peeta and Katniss are very lucky to have him on their side – I’m pretty sure he would have been fine, regardless of his age or physical condition, if Peeta hadn’t volunteered to take his place in the arena. And obviously the force field is going to figure into the story somehow.

By the way, I find it entertaining that the first group to revolt is the factory workers. Nice touch.

As for the love triangle: Peeta is either going to die (he’s constantly trying to sacrifice himself for her) or she has to stay with him. Twice in the arena – obviously the odds are not in their favor, but they both made it out alive the first time. That said, was anyone else as irked as I was that Peeta pretends they are expecting a baby in this round? I don’t think Peeta would do that; he didn’t lie when he told the world he was in love with Katniss, and I don’t think he would lie about a baby.

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By jamie, March 6, 2012 10:26 pm

“No decent person ever wins” the Hunger Games. So says Katniss in the first section of Catching Fire. I stand by my assertion that entering the games in the first place is a death sentence even if you win. Now we have three decent people – Haymitch, Katniss and Peeta being paraded all over the country on a “Victory Tour” where the powers that be basically force the Districts whose children were killed in the games to celebrate the “winners.” Their lives, the ones they could have had, are effectively over, and now they are doomed to be pawns of the Capitol until the end of their days.

Katniss had inadvertently trained for the games through years of doing whatever she needed to do to put food on her family’s table, even if it was illegal and subversive. She’s clever and capable, and she got through the ordeal without killing anyone in cold blood. Despite her survival instincts, she makes some ridiculous assumptions in this section. The president tells her he knows about the kiss she shared with Gale – the kiss they shared in a house in the woods beyond the electric fence. So where does she take him to tell him of her plan to run away into these same woods? Really? Is this sloppy writing or has this girl lost some vital mental capacity since the first book? And didn’t they put a tracking device into her arm before the games began? Did they remove it when the games were over? That seems a bit odd, don’t you think?

Oh well. As for the love story – I think she needs to let Gale go because her life no longer belongs to her. This might be sad and unfair, but it’s true. Even if the Capitol hadn’t basically mandated a marriage between these two, I can’t see how a relationship with anyone else makes sense. Neither of them can justifiably become parents unless that revolution actually occurs, and their lives sort of belong to the other one, since only one should have been able to leave that arena alive. Their love story saved them. Period. What do you think? Anyone on Team Gale?

Back to the revolution. I am curious about the mayor’s family, since that mockingjay pin came from his daughter. What does her father think – pretty singing bird or symbol of revolution? Why THAT symbol for the token from home and not something else? And the girl asked her to take it, when really it would seem more appropriate for her to take something from her family as a token from home, so there must have been some underlying motive.

The Capitol, by the way, they are clearly doomed. They keep making decisions that seem destined to bring about a textbook Marxist revolution. They punish District 12 with rotten food, food that the winners of the Hunger Games earned for their District – how exactly is that supposed to keep people from revolting? And the public whippings, the stockades, the sadistic police force – I get that these are meant to instill terror-based compliance, but wouldn’t it be smarter for them to just keep the people busy, bellies filled just enough that they stay complacent and compliant? If you beat or starve all of the laborers to death, who will be left to do all the work?

Oh, and the talents. No dictatorship worth its salt would let that boy parade all over the country showing the paintings he did of the Games. As described, those paintings could only instill hatred for the government in the minds of the other districts’ residents. In fact, that’s Dictatorship 101 – you lock up the artists and the journalists, you don’t send them on tour.

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By jamie,

I had heard, and seen on the movie previews, that this series is about a futuristic world where children are forced to participate in a fight to the death. My immediate assumption was that the book was going to be predictable – my first prediction was that the two lead characters, Katniss and Gale, would be chosen for this horrific tournament, and I wondered how they would both manage to make it out alive.

So much for that. In retrospect, I should have seen it coming, the love triangle. These books are all the rage right now, and it would be hard for a young adult series about class struggle and revolution to obtain this level of popularity without a love triangle.

Haymitch is the mentor for the District 12 Tribute tributes. I like him. Some might say his time in the arena ruined him, but I think he must have been a good and decent person when he went in, which is why he continues to struggle long after surviving the Hunger Games. How many children did he kill? Does he still dream about being hunted? I think that, for most people, being required to participate in such a horrific contest would be death sentence whether or not one survived – unlike war, where fighting is for a cause, the Games are for entertainment, as well as punishment for a revolution that happened long before these children were alive. Participants are turned into living chess pieces – someone dresses them, decorates them, and then they are told how to behave before they are paraded before potential sponsors who can help improve or destroy their odds of survival in this fight to the death.

Given the circumstances, the televised romance between Katniss and Peeta was hard to tolerate at first – obviously this was a dig at real life “reality television,” where we thrill to see “love” blossoming in the fishbowl. But these contestants could be murdered at any minute, which made the whole thing ring hollow, from the spectator’s viewpoint (but then, this reveals something we already knew about the residents of the Capital, doesn’t it?). Katniss is ever conscious of how her behavior is playing on TV, and “young love” turns out to be a brilliant strategy, leaving the young lovers conflicted, but alive.

The book sparks more questions than it answers, and hopefully this will change as the series progresses. Because it is told entirely from Katniss’ perspective, we aren’t privy to what is going on around in the rest of the country. I haven’t decided yet if I love this story. Despite any misgivings (or possibly because of them), the day after I finished this first installment, I crossed my fingers, took a deep breath, and began the second book.

The movie will be released soon, and it feels very morbid, watching all of the hoopla surrounding it – magazine covers, movie trailers, advertisements for various merchandise. Normally this would not seem inappropriate, but given the premise of the books, does this mean we are supposed to be the residents of the Capitol? Perhaps the worst advertisement:

Maybe I shouldn’t think about it too much, or I will talk myself out of going to see the film, and I am actually looking forward to it. I just won’t be wearing the nail polish.

It’s too bad, because “Dress me Up” and “Smoke and Ashes” really are quite lovely.

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By jamie, March 3, 2012 1:11 am

I usually read nonfiction, and I want for it to be true and accurate. When I do read fiction, I want it to be good. I can suspend disbelief, but in order for me to do this, it has to ring true – the author can’t just throw a bunch of stuff at me and expect me to swallow it down without question. I had heard a lot about The Hunger Games, and I really wanted it to be good. And now I have finished the first book, and I haven’t decided yet – I have a lot of questions. Where I probably should have had a visceral reaction, I found myself rolling my eyes a few times. (I should probably warn you that this post will not be relevant to anyone who has not read the book.)

The first two-thirds of the book is excellent. I cried, got goosebumps, even laughed a time or two. Then the fake/real romance began between our star-crossed lovers, and I started asking questions. What are the others doing while these two are kissing and feasting in their cave (you know, the other children who are hunting them)? Are they at least whispering rather than speaking out loud? What are the viewers at home watching? – just a nightly recap show, I guess. Do antibiotics become extremely rare and expensive in the future, even though they manage to develop complete scar removal techniques and amazingly stealthy hovercrafts? Oh, and where are the cameras (not to mention the microphones)?

The biggest questions I have will hopefully be answered later: What else are we going to learn about the districts? We already know that District 11 (agriculture) is much more strict than District 12, but that it is difficult to get enough food to eat in both places (unless you have money, which obviously some people do, even though the Capital keeps a tight reign on resources). What exactly happens in the Districts who have enough resources to feed and train “Careers,” kids who are raised to volunteer and compete in the Hunger Games? How are people chosen to live in each District – was it just the luck of the draw, when the Capital designed the structure of the map, or were some people sent to one over the other and the people in the books are just the descendents of the first ones in each location? Who gets to live at the Capital – descendents of the first ones there, or do some people get to move there as a reward?

If I sound as though I am nitpicking, it’s because I am angry about how the book turned out. The Cornucopia scene was ridiculous. I know that war is supposed to be brutal and ugly, and maybe it was just to convince us how evil and sadistic the Capital really is, but when the mutt zombies of the dead tributes appeared, I almost had to stop reading because I could no longer suspend disbelief. And the way Cato (the “bad guy”) was killed – that was just too much. Was the author’s intention simply to keep our heroic lovebirds from having to commit any more murders in the arena? Honestly, if the Capital invented the Games to prevent revolution, clearly this one decision should be the beginning of the end for them – I can believe the people being forced into submitting to this annual ritual – governments can and have been able to maintain extraordinary and horrific levels of control over people. But to force the people to watch monsterized versions of their dead children do what the book says they did, for as long as they did (thankfully this was written in limited detail), either everyone is going to immediately rise up against this foolish, sadistic government, or no one is ever going to (willingly) give birth to another child ever again – I mean, what’s the point?

I understand that Suzanne Collins works in television. Maybe she got so caught up in the “reality TV angle” that she went for what she thought would be shocking when it eventually plays on the big screen. Maybe that’s why she made such absurd choices. As for what is obviously going to be a love triangle in the next book (books?), part of me thinks she read The Twilight series and thought – love triangles are like pure gold for teen fiction – better throw one in there for good measure, even if my series is about a (Marxist) revolution.

The most believable character in the book – Haymitch. He is unmarried, drunk most of the time, probably still suffering from PTSD, which is exactly what you’d expect from someone who was sent, as a child, to compete with other children in a fight to the death and then given fame and fortune while almost everyone else in his town is destitute and possibly starving (although he seems to be capable of pulling himself together at will, so what do I know?).

I hope I’m wrong. I hope Suzanne Collins impresses me and I regret being so negatively critical here. Maybe this series is as great as I have been told. Maybe.

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By jamie, February 29, 2012 8:43 pm

I watch reality television. I even flirted with the idea of auditioning for Survivor, but then “reality” hit me – I don’t even like the idea of camping, unless I can be assured that there will be clean bathrooms and filtered water available. I read Suzanne Collins was partially inspired to write these books because of reality TV, and I can see the connection in the part I just finished (I read through Part II, through chapter 19).

Katniss keeps reminding us that she is on a TV show – she arranges her face so viewers won’t see her cry. Not only does she know her sister, is watching, but she is constantly aware that potential sponsors will only remain interested in her if they can be convinced that she is not about to die. This got me thinking about whether I would watch this show – I guess so because we are told that the people are required to – but how would I feel watching it? These are children but some of the children have trained for their entire lives for this “show” – some of them, we are told, enjoy killing when they are in the arena. Would I cheer for my district, or just be horrified by the entire thing and cheer for no one? I would like to think that’s what I would do – or just leave the television on and refuse to actually engage.

On Survivor, no one actually dies, but the voting ceremony is vaguely symbolic of a death – the flame represents life, and your torch is extinguished after “the tribe has spoken” and “it’s time for you to go.” Then the remaining cast members speak of their “fallen comrades” in past tense (the past tense references happen on all of these shows), and the cast members seem disgusted if past participants are ever allowed to rejoin the game. It’s really kind of ghoulish, if you think about it.

We have another kind of reality television that more closely resembles The Hunger Games, and it’s even more ghoulish and despicable – in this “program,” the cast members are all famous, for various reasons (singers, actors, etc.). We are obsessed with celebrities, demanding to know every detail we possibly can about them. When something goes wrong with them, or when they make a mistake, we can’t peel ourselves away – we are (morbidly) entertained by their failures. And because they have so much wealth and so much pressure (they are constantly on a reality show, with cameras hiding in the bushes or waiting for them everywhere they go, and “friends” constantly spilling their secrets to the tabloids or gossip shows) – their falls can be extraordinary. As I read the scenes in The Hunger Games where the “tributes” (contestants) were paraded about in costumes, giving interviews, performing before the “Gamemakers,” etc., I couldn’t help but think about the way we obsess over celebrities and the particular way we monitor the ones who self-destruct – some recent events have made it feel as though we put them into a giant arena and watch to see who will be next to go up in flames.

I thought about Amy Winehouse and Whitney Houston – two women gifted with incredible talent. When they fell, we couldn’t look away. Their actions were their own, but the public help create the caricatures they became – neither of those women self-destructed in a vacuum. The public was there, ghoulishly obsessed, criticizing their every misstep, judging – constantly judging them. I realize that celebrities, in a way, sign up for public scrutiny when they become public figures, but I think we could minimize some of these tragedies if we gave them room to breathe and judged them less than we do.

Back to the story – my favorite part so far (even though it brought me to tears) is when our hero, Katniss, exercises some subtle subversion after the death of Rue. She can’t give the child a “proper burial” but she adorns her body with flowers instead. She wonders how (or if) this will play on television, and decides that it might force some viewers to remember the horror that they are witnessing. They might also remember that the children in the area are not willing participants.

Small social theory note – there is one scene where the two girls, Rue and Katniss, share information about the separate districts in which they live, and it is clear that the districts are arranged in some type of a caste system – the two tributes from the agricultural district are both dark skinned (this irritated me), are beaten if they eat any of the food they harvest, and it is explained that everyone, regardless of age, is required to work in the fields during harvest season. On the flip side, the people in District 1 and 2 appear well-fed, even though they do not grow food (one makes “luxury items” and the other are masons, which is odd to me – wouldn’t there be masons in every district?) One person I spoke with about this book said that, at times, it felt as though she was being hit over the head with a social theory textbook. This gave me a smile – I hope the kids who read this book don’t get so caught up in the romantic possibilities (and really – if you read even as far as I have, it should be clear that this book is NOT about a teen romance/love triangle a la Twilight) that they lose sight of what the story is about (I haven’t finished, obviously, but certainly this series is about class struggle leading to revolution).