The Hunger Games
With the upcoming release of the movie version of The Hunger Games,
I decided to pause briefly in my consumption of Kvothe's tale so I
could re-read the book and have it fresh in my mind. I read the whole
trilogy about a year and a half ago in roughly a week. This story grabs
hold of you and just doesn't let go.
Reading the book the second time was a similar experience. Some of the flaws were a bit more obvious this time around. There are oddly formed sentences. Collins is perhaps a bit too fond of flashbacks, especially in the first third of the book. And Katniss' obliviousness of Peeta's true feelings for her gets a bit annoying.
Even with all that, this book is hard to put down. Once again I found myself up until midnight*, trying to read just one more chapter. I finally had to stop in the middle of a chapter in order to avoid a cliffhanger and get some sleep. The book is action-packed and exciting. Collins' decision to narrate the entire thing in first-person present tense adds immediacy to the action scenes.
It was also fun to pick up on some small details and bits of foreshadowing that I missed the first time through, like Johanna is mentioned early on in the first book or the careers being described as a wolf pack.
I've also come to suspect that Cato is not actually as good with a knife (or sword?) as he thinks he is. Twice he says something along the lines of "They'll die soon. I know where I cut them." But neither of the people he talks about like this actually dies by Cato-inflicted wounds. Peeta goes back to kill the first person and Katniss ends up saving Peeta's life after he's been lying in a ditch for several days. The guy is scary, sure, but there's a reason he didn't win.
I'm really interested in seeing how the movie adapts the book. A lot of the emotion in the book is about being horrified by the Hunger Games. As thrilling as they are, this is still about children killing each other. And it's done for the entertainment of the grossly privileged populace of the Capitol. Movies need to be entertaining, and I imagine there will be a lot of cool action sequences. But it's going to be hard to balance the entertainment of the Hunger Games and the horror of being entertained by the Hunger Games.
This balance is something I think Collins' pulls off really well in her book. By keeping us inside Katniss' head, we get to see her own personal struggle. She knows that only one person gets out alive and that she needs to be willing to kill other people if she wants to live. That doesn't stop her from mourning her ally, Rue. Or even from mourning Thresh. She hates the career tributes and recognizes some of the others as dangerous, like Foxface. But she is also able to place the blame where it belongs - on the Capitol and the people in charge of putting her into this fight to the death.
Honestly, it's this aspect of the movies that I'm most worried about. If they botch this, then they'll lose a lot of what makes the books special. It's very possible that the movie could turn into a shadow of the Hunger Games themselves. Fictional, yes, but entertaining because we're watching children in an extreme situation killing each other in order to survive instead of examining the fucked up culture that could produce something so heinous and call it entertainment.
I won't judge the movie until I see it. It could be very good. The trailers have been exciting. The sets and costumes are spot-on. The actors all seem to have a clear sense of what the book is about. Still, I can't be more than cautiously optimistic that this balance will be maintained. That the movie will ultimately be more of a horror movie than an action flick.
I guess I'll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, I leave you with on of my favorite pieces of fanart. A comic drawn by gingerhaze and inspired by love triangle in this trilogy.
Perhaps this fits better with the sequels, since that's where this subplot really shows up. I just like the portrayal of Katniss here.
*Daylight Saving's Time did not help. I mean, it helped me stay up that late. It did not help with the Monday morning that followed.
Reading the book the second time was a similar experience. Some of the flaws were a bit more obvious this time around. There are oddly formed sentences. Collins is perhaps a bit too fond of flashbacks, especially in the first third of the book. And Katniss' obliviousness of Peeta's true feelings for her gets a bit annoying.
Even with all that, this book is hard to put down. Once again I found myself up until midnight*, trying to read just one more chapter. I finally had to stop in the middle of a chapter in order to avoid a cliffhanger and get some sleep. The book is action-packed and exciting. Collins' decision to narrate the entire thing in first-person present tense adds immediacy to the action scenes.
It was also fun to pick up on some small details and bits of foreshadowing that I missed the first time through, like Johanna is mentioned early on in the first book or the careers being described as a wolf pack.
I've also come to suspect that Cato is not actually as good with a knife (or sword?) as he thinks he is. Twice he says something along the lines of "They'll die soon. I know where I cut them." But neither of the people he talks about like this actually dies by Cato-inflicted wounds. Peeta goes back to kill the first person and Katniss ends up saving Peeta's life after he's been lying in a ditch for several days. The guy is scary, sure, but there's a reason he didn't win.
I'm really interested in seeing how the movie adapts the book. A lot of the emotion in the book is about being horrified by the Hunger Games. As thrilling as they are, this is still about children killing each other. And it's done for the entertainment of the grossly privileged populace of the Capitol. Movies need to be entertaining, and I imagine there will be a lot of cool action sequences. But it's going to be hard to balance the entertainment of the Hunger Games and the horror of being entertained by the Hunger Games.
This balance is something I think Collins' pulls off really well in her book. By keeping us inside Katniss' head, we get to see her own personal struggle. She knows that only one person gets out alive and that she needs to be willing to kill other people if she wants to live. That doesn't stop her from mourning her ally, Rue. Or even from mourning Thresh. She hates the career tributes and recognizes some of the others as dangerous, like Foxface. But she is also able to place the blame where it belongs - on the Capitol and the people in charge of putting her into this fight to the death.
Honestly, it's this aspect of the movies that I'm most worried about. If they botch this, then they'll lose a lot of what makes the books special. It's very possible that the movie could turn into a shadow of the Hunger Games themselves. Fictional, yes, but entertaining because we're watching children in an extreme situation killing each other in order to survive instead of examining the fucked up culture that could produce something so heinous and call it entertainment.
I won't judge the movie until I see it. It could be very good. The trailers have been exciting. The sets and costumes are spot-on. The actors all seem to have a clear sense of what the book is about. Still, I can't be more than cautiously optimistic that this balance will be maintained. That the movie will ultimately be more of a horror movie than an action flick.
I guess I'll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, I leave you with on of my favorite pieces of fanart. A comic drawn by gingerhaze and inspired by love triangle in this trilogy.
Perhaps this fits better with the sequels, since that's where this subplot really shows up. I just like the portrayal of Katniss here.
*Daylight Saving's Time did not help. I mean, it helped me stay up that late. It did not help with the Monday morning that followed.
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