In that I can't seem to stop hearing about it now with the various movie casting announcements and the whole tone of said announcements seems to be "Pretty please, we would like to be the next big franchise after Harry Potter and Twilight." Also, the books sound kinda fucked up in a Battle Royale meets Handmaid's Tale way so I'm perversely impressed it IS being turned into a megafranchise.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 11 May 2011 01:04 (2 years ago) Permalink
― gimme the lootpack (Lamp), Wednesday, 11 May 2011 01:06 (2 years ago) Permalink
I was considering reading these bcz a friend (who is getting a grad degree in YA lit) told me they were awesome + written in the present tense (this was the part that interested me). I am sure they are fine and all but I can't help but be wary of book series that have had Hot Topic merchandising! God bless YAs and all but I'm not so Y an A anymore (which, why am I in Hot Topic?).
― I just hope Jeff's music got people into William F. Buckley (Abbbottt), Wednesday, 11 May 2011 01:13 (2 years ago) Permalink
I would definitely be interested in this though if the main characters in the movie were owls.
Apparently her other big series had huge star-nosed moles!
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 11 May 2011 01:17 (2 years ago) Permalink
My gf read and liked these. Tho she's a children's librarian so has some incentive to keep up on YA stuff. But she says they're well done for what they do.
― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 11 May 2011 01:33 (2 years ago) Permalink
ugh, these books are so good. I am re-reading them during my subway commute and I sometimes have to pretend that my eyes are tearing up due to allergies because I forgot how dark and bleak some parts of the book are.
― Yerac, Wednesday, 11 May 2011 02:45 (2 years ago) Permalink
My wife loved the books. And she's no fan of YA.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 11 May 2011 03:18 (2 years ago) Permalink
Same with my fiancee. A coworker let her borrow the first two for when she went on a business trip, and she got so sucked in that she bought the third one in the airport.
I kinda want to read them, too.
The big casting controversy is that they picked Jennifer "Winter's Bone" Lawrence to star ahead of Hailee "True Grit" Steinfeld, who's closer to the main character in age and physical appearance. Suzanne Collins has had to assure fans that it's OK.
― jaymc, Wednesday, 11 May 2011 03:24 (2 years ago) Permalink
I thought this must be what "City of Ember" (the movie) was based on, since the film is also a YA thing in an underground city with a giant star-nosed mole and came out the year after the last book, but apparently it's completely unrelated! And apparently "The City of Ember" (the book) didn't have a star-nosed mole in, either.
Have not read the Hunger Games books but apparently a coworker's kid has been voraciously reading them, demanding multiple library trips per week to get the next one out, etc.
― russ conway's game of life (a passing spacecadet), Wednesday, 11 May 2011 10:30 (2 years ago) Permalink
xpost Yeah, pretty sure the lead character is supposed to be a olive skinned, dark haired, etc. teen, so of course heads were scratched (or not) when they cast a blonde, blue-eyed twentysomething. The dudes they cast, btw, looked distractingly hunky to me, in the soap opera sense. But whatevs. I've got no dog in this fight, though I do like Gary Ross.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 11 May 2011 11:45 (2 years ago) Permalink
100 pages into this and so far it's reminding me of michael swanwick's 'iron dragon's daughter.' very pleasantly surprised at how blatantly class conscious this is
― reggie (qualmsley), Monday, 11 July 2011 01:13 (1 year ago) Permalink
i hate these books almost as bad as the rick riordan ones
― remy bean, Monday, 11 July 2011 01:41 (1 year ago) Permalink
Is there any point in reading this if you've already read Battle Royale?
― grey tambourine (wk), Monday, 11 July 2011 01:45 (1 year ago) Permalink
there's no point in reading it if you haven't
― remy bean, Monday, 11 July 2011 01:46 (1 year ago) Permalink
haha wait, you mean "just don't read it", right? not "you have to read BR first"
― grey tambourine (wk), Monday, 11 July 2011 01:52 (1 year ago) Permalink
only riordan book i read replaces hogwarts with lucian's olympus. tone's a little different so far in 'the hunger games,' more pg-13 gene wolfe or michael swanwick
― reggie (qualmsley), Monday, 11 July 2011 13:20 (1 year ago) Permalink
just started Mockingjay, haven't read anything so gripping and fun in a while. lots of gore for a YA book (or maybe they're all sex&violence these days, i dunno), be interesting to see how they handle it in the movies. the dumb names are starting to get to me though (Peeta, Cinna, Beetee blargh)
― herbal bert (herb albert), Monday, 11 July 2011 13:33 (1 year ago) Permalink
^ for a YA series, I read the first two over the past week
― herbal bert (herb albert), Monday, 11 July 2011 13:35 (1 year ago) Permalink
my objection is that these books are just ... easy fiction, kind of pandering 'boy stuff' w/ lots of graphic violence that milks video games and episodic TV for ideas and is otherwise woefully ignorant of the larger literary tradition or canon. it is written in present tense and basically free of any device or craft beyond basic storytelling aptitude. it perpetuates the same limerence-drenched soap-opera shit that's saturated YA for the past half-decade, and does a lot of the ham-fisted world-building that passes for 'imaginative' and refuses to allow the reader to experience wonder, confusion, or ambiguity. i like gore and gruesomeness in YA - it's such an overly mannered genre - but I think a lot of other authors have recently done better jobs conveying it, like Rick Yancey in his Will Henry series – 'The Monstrumologist' & 'Curse of the Wendigo'
― remy bean, Monday, 11 July 2011 13:42 (1 year ago) Permalink
never heard hunger games dismissed as 'boy stuff' before
― Ayatollah Colm Meaney (Princess TamTam), Monday, 11 July 2011 14:19 (1 year ago) Permalink
i'm not dismissing them out of hand – i read all three of them. in my classroom, however, it's 99.9% of the time the boys who grab for the books before the girls.
― remy bean, Monday, 11 July 2011 14:20 (1 year ago) Permalink
well i avoided twilight so i might give these a go i guess
― thomp, Monday, 11 July 2011 14:29 (1 year ago) Permalink
doesnt it have a huge female following because of, y'know, the strong and independent young female protag? theres a considerable number of feminist readings out there that seem to find value in it & i feel like its worth embracing just for that (NB. i havent read these but i hear in the later books she becomes more marginalized while the men assume a larger role, which is a shame if so)
― Ayatollah Colm Meaney (Princess TamTam), Monday, 11 July 2011 14:38 (1 year ago) Permalink
in the year 2011, YA literature shelves are filled with strong and independent female protagonists – and this, i don't think is one of the better examples. the predominance of feminist readings are, to my mind, occasioned by the popularity of the books and not their quality.
― remy bean, Monday, 11 July 2011 15:02 (1 year ago) Permalink
so this appears to be an interesting set of books, being adapted into films by a decent filmmaker with a strong cast. as far as megafranchises go, we could do worse.
― THIS IS SATIRE BTW (Simon H.), Monday, 11 July 2011 15:11 (1 year ago) Permalink
i'm the first guy i know who's reading it. lots of ladies i know have though. so far the girl from 'true grit' would make a way better katniss than the girl who played mystique in the last x-men. that's who they cast, right?
remy, are you serious that you expect literary erudition to shine throughout young adult novels? i just want them to invoke the spirits of the greats, like mervyn peake and joy chant. so far, so good
― reggie (qualmsley), Monday, 11 July 2011 15:22 (1 year ago) Permalink
absolutely, and i often find it. YA isn't the 'junk' genre it (largely) was 20 year ago. laurel wil back me up on this, i think, but there are a number of incredibly talented, capable, and innovative writers working in the field b/c its lack of pretension, willingness to bend genre and story conventions, and relative ease of getting published make it a good place to try out new ideas.
― remy bean, Monday, 11 July 2011 15:26 (1 year ago) Permalink
the girl who played mystique in the last x-men. that's who they cast, right?
Yeah, but I prefer to think of her as the girl from Winter's Bone, which makes her seem more promising, tbh.
― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Monday, 11 July 2011 15:27 (1 year ago) Permalink
― thomp
Those two things need to be decoupled: Everyone should avoid Twilight no matter what you plan to do later in the day/month/year/life.
xp remy is right! Don't lower your standards for young peoples' sakes, they don't need it!
― manager expects you to work past 6PM but won't allow you to change into (Laurel), Monday, 11 July 2011 15:28 (1 year ago) Permalink
i don't consider young adult fiction junk or i wouldn't be reading it. but have you ever read harold bloom's young adult fantasy novel, 'a flight to lucifer'? yuck
― reggie (qualmsley), Monday, 11 July 2011 15:29 (1 year ago) Permalink
remy, are you serious that you expect literary erudition to shine throughout young adult novels?
Also this is a patronizing and makes you sound like a jerk. Don't do that.
― manager expects you to work past 6PM but won't allow you to change into (Laurel), Monday, 11 July 2011 15:30 (1 year ago) Permalink
I don't see how a lifelong reader/critic not turning out to be a great YA author in the genre of fantasy is proof of anything, btw. False dichotomy, or at least an extremely lazy one.
― manager expects you to work past 6PM but won't allow you to change into (Laurel), Monday, 11 July 2011 15:33 (1 year ago) Permalink
Yeah she really has nothing to prove in the confident-lead department.
― THIS IS SATIRE BTW (Simon H.), Monday, 11 July 2011 15:33 (1 year ago) Permalink
like harry potter, i think these stories may succeed better as movies than books: there's very little in the story besides a kind of reportorial narrative.
― remy bean, Monday, 11 July 2011 15:37 (1 year ago) Permalink
laurel do you like hunger games
― Ayatollah Colm Meaney (Princess TamTam), Monday, 11 July 2011 15:38 (1 year ago) Permalink
laurel & r.bean recommend two or three good YA novels i should read for contrast to 'hunger games', if i read 'hunger games'
― thomp, Monday, 11 July 2011 15:39 (1 year ago) Permalink
Haven't read 'em. Storyline seemed a little too pat, and then they got the commercial success to match so I just didn't make the effort. remy is saving me from having to try again.
― manager expects you to work past 6PM but won't allow you to change into (Laurel), Monday, 11 July 2011 15:40 (1 year ago) Permalink
Remy already did!
Rick Yancey in his Will Henry series – 'The Monstrumologist' & 'Curse of the Wendigo'
― manager expects you to work past 6PM but won't allow you to change into (Laurel), Monday, 11 July 2011 15:42 (1 year ago) Permalink
@thomp, for the sci-fi/horror/gore/monster angle i'd recommend rick yancey's 'the monstrumologist.' it isn't really my cup of tea, but i think it is a well-written book and a good read for a certain type of kid. it introduces a lot of great elements, and ties well w/ frankenstein, lovecraft, etc.,
for total contrast w/in the genre i recommend peter cameron's 'someday this pain will be useful to you' for great, deceptively simple, characterization.
i've recently enjoyed green & levithan's 'will grayson, will grayson' and paolo bacigalupi's 'ship-breaker'
― remy bean, Monday, 11 July 2011 15:44 (1 year ago) Permalink
halfway through ellen klages 'the green glass sea' if historical fiction is your thing
― remy bean, Monday, 11 July 2011 15:45 (1 year ago) Permalink
Yay, Ship Breaker!!
― manager expects you to work past 6PM but won't allow you to change into (Laurel), Monday, 11 July 2011 15:45 (1 year ago) Permalink
so good, right?
― remy bean, Monday, 11 July 2011 15:47 (1 year ago) Permalink
thanking u
just out of curiosity, how would you rate the possibly-not-as-ubiquitous-as-i-think-they-are franchises:
i. artemis fowlii. diary of a wimpy kidiii. skulduggery pleasant
― thomp, Monday, 11 July 2011 15:47 (1 year ago) Permalink
Sorry, actually quite busy so reduced to being cheering section. Also in terms of new stuff, I get most of my reading from work these days and our YA is extremely "commercial" so apart from SB'er and some others, most of it isn't what you're asking for.
― manager expects you to work past 6PM but won't allow you to change into (Laurel), Monday, 11 July 2011 15:48 (1 year ago) Permalink
you attacked me for reading 'the hunger games.' then you call me a jerk? sorry if i offended you somehow
― reggie (qualmsley), Monday, 11 July 2011 15:48 (1 year ago) Permalink
(my vested interest here is that my nephew is being put off reading by being deluged with brightly coloured FOR THE KIDS type books that people get him which largely appear to be .. kind of awful, and it is a lot harder to go into the bookstore and buy YA books than it was to buy picture books)
― thomp, Monday, 11 July 2011 15:48 (1 year ago) Permalink
there's a general-purpose YA thread somewhere, isn't there? maybe i should revive that one
― thomp, Monday, 11 July 2011 15:49 (1 year ago) Permalink
you attacked me for reading 'the hunger games.'
You can keep thinking that's what I was "attacking" you for, or you can re-consider about how dismissive you were about the literary "merit" of books for kids/young people.
thomp, honestly I haven't read any of any of those three. They give me the lip-curl when I see them around...hadn't realized Skullduggery Pleasant had become a thing?
― manager expects you to work past 6PM but won't allow you to change into (Laurel), Monday, 11 July 2011 15:52 (1 year ago) Permalink
There is an excellent YA sf/f thread somewhere but it's probably like 700 posts.
― manager expects you to work past 6PM but won't allow you to change into (Laurel), Monday, 11 July 2011 15:53 (1 year ago) Permalink
yeah it's obv a cash grab but p much all the HP movies after the third one had enough stuff going on to warrant split movies, and the three that weren't split had so much incomprehensible crap crammed into a couple hours and they sucked for it. the first three books fit pretty perfectly so it's going to be a problem when the next four books are more than twice as long but WB keeps the same time limit on the movies. deathly hallows movies weren't great movies but they at least had enough room to be good movies (in the hands of a less boring director and screenwriter)
problem with this is the hunger games books are all the same length and the first book adapted very easily
― NASCAR, surfing, raising chickens, owning land (zachlyon), Wednesday, 11 July 2012 02:30 (10 months ago) Permalink
probably even pretty short novels usually have enough happening that you can get 4-5 hours of film out of it as easily as 2
yeah one of the best novel-to-film adaptations i've seen was brokeback mtn, which was tellingly a slim 100-page novella - the film had so much space to breathe and linger on stuff rather than having to cram plot points and exposition in at every turn
― bitch I'm on the 242 (lex pretend), Wednesday, 11 July 2012 08:05 (10 months ago) Permalink
OK, Melissa Leo is in talks to play Mags? I know haggard-looking characters are kind of her thing, but she's like 30 years younger than the character.
― Never translate Dutch (jaymc), Wednesday, 18 July 2012 15:42 (10 months ago) Permalink
its cool how the 'capital' is this place with all this fascist architecture and everyone who lives there is a humongous fruit, really makes you yearn for the simple honest country folk of the districts― Hungry4Ass, Tuesday, May 22, 2012 6:11 AM (2 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Hungry4Ass, Tuesday, May 22, 2012 6:11 AM (2 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
yeah i mean really
plus what several people said upthread about how katniss never has to confront the conflict that the entire premise of the movie points to with big flashing arrows: what happens when allies have disposed of their enemies? at the very least let's see how the band of baddies deals with this situation? but it's completely elided in favor of what, a kind of disheartening ending where the heroes become what they aren't, the very thing peeta said he was determined not to do, and it sort of dribbles out.
NB i have not read the book
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 15 August 2012 23:53 (9 months ago) Permalink
and i mean the districts' down-by-the-old-mill aesthetic is picturesque but in a society where inequality is stretched to such extremes having clothes in an entirely different vocabulary doesn't make sense; they'd be living on cast-offs, kansas city mega-chiefs championship jerseys from 8 years ago, a birthday frock worn once by a capitol citizen and then donated selflessly to the hoi polloi, subsequently mended 20 times but still retaining a spangle here and there
also wtf with "anti-chekhov's brooch" - constantly referred to, zero payoff
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 16 August 2012 00:03 (9 months ago) Permalink
You mean the mockingjay pin? That'll become more significant in later films.
― doglatting (jaymc), Thursday, 16 August 2012 00:50 (9 months ago) Permalink
the last book is called it
― NASCAR, surfing, raising chickens, owning land (zachlyon), Thursday, 16 August 2012 02:06 (9 months ago) Permalink
kansas city mega-chiefs championship jerseys from 8 years ago
i was gonna answer this with "this world would have practically no memory of any current sport" but then i started wondering just WHEN this all takes place? the way katniss talks about how little she knows of 'when panem was america' and the entire structure of the country being different made me think it was 500-1000+ years in the future. but their most advanced technology (CHOOSE-YOUR-OWN-SHOWERS) seems to be pretty much attainable to us now, or in the near future if we really wanted to make genetically modified killer animals.
― NASCAR, surfing, raising chickens, owning land (zachlyon), Thursday, 16 August 2012 02:21 (9 months ago) Permalink
I'm not sure if it's even clear if there's much in the way of books? Though this is related to the questions above re: what's on the TV the rest of the time?
Well, I don't think that's accidental, like - the story, and the characters inside the story interested in "a good story" are very deliberate about providing the obvious tensions, and when they run out, Katniss and Peeta have to face that question, attempt mutual suicide. And when they decide against that (because their other motivation, to bring food back home for their Sector, kicks in), then it's C for Complicity.
― Andrew Farrell, Thursday, 16 August 2012 06:59 (9 months ago) Permalink
i was gonna answer this with "this world would have practically no memory of any current sport"
then depression-era clothes make even less sense! i just meant that as an example, though. my point is that the exploited of our world live off the scraps and leftovers of the rich yet in this movie they appear to have their own separate haberdashery or something.
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 16 August 2012 09:18 (9 months ago) Permalink
right andrew i understand what's happening at the end of the movie, it just feels hollow and tremendously unsatisfying. you can argue that it's a brave subversive thing for a movie to attempt, this kind of non-resolution, and maybe you'd be right, i dunno? something to do with what "we" need from a narrative, and katniss and peeta provide it, but it's bullshit? and that reveals something about how we're similar to the capitol viewership of this future society? or something?
i could buy that. worse to me is the dodging of the question of what happens once alliances in the game crumble. when you have to kill a friend. or a frenemy. surely this alone is the drama that has sustained this television show/ritual for seven decades despite all the other reasons why it makes no sense. but we never see this conflict addressed. i felt surely the gang of baddies would provide a "safe" way for us to see how this might play out, as a kind of warm-up for how our heroine's going to face the same issue - with rue, with the red-haired girl, with peeta, whomever.
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 16 August 2012 09:33 (9 months ago) Permalink
also to echo the wtfs upthread about sponsorships. such a big deal is made of them in the movie, it's the justification upon which rests the need to appeal to the public, to get a high score in the assessment, etc - we are constantly told by woody that sponsorships are absolutely critical to success because you can get a leg up with equipment and supplies. but then we are.... never shown anyone receiving anything from a sponsor? in the game? unless i missed something?
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 16 August 2012 09:44 (9 months ago) Permalink
guys, i don't think Suzanne Collins put much thought into her future world
― Number None, Thursday, 16 August 2012 09:45 (9 months ago) Permalink
but then we are.... never shown anyone receiving anything from a sponsor? in the game? unless i missed something?
yeah we are, at least twice - medicine both times i think
― lex pretend, Thursday, 16 August 2012 09:46 (9 months ago) Permalink
that's not from a sponsor she "won" through being appealing it's a special treat from her mentor isn't it?
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 16 August 2012 10:10 (9 months ago) Permalink
the beginning of the game was thrilling and nightmarish, when they're all on those pedestals and the corcnucopia is waiting for them, and the first dash which cuts the number of contestants in half
i was sort of wondering why everyone is so stupid as to run straight for the goodies when they've presumably seen the results of such a strategy (and every strategy) every year on their TVs
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 16 August 2012 10:24 (9 months ago) Permalink
no it's def from a sponsor
and because they think they're big and strong enough to survive, esp if they're from the trained districts
― lex pretend, Thursday, 16 August 2012 10:26 (9 months ago) Permalink
i also think a lot of the things we're not shown, that could be entire stories in themselves, are kinda key to why this has become such a phenomenon - creating a fantasy world and leaving tons of room for your imagination to fill in the blanks is what's always made this kind of literature compelling (as opposed to, like, the prose). and that's especially the case when kids nowadays are relating to the material through online discussions, fan fiction etc etc - the story does not end at the actual story as written by the author and suzanne collins understands this
― lex pretend, Thursday, 16 August 2012 10:29 (9 months ago) Permalink
yeah, that sounds very right
i dunno i just figured we were gonna get some treasure-of-the-sierra-madre type paranoid shiz out of this, it's the whole reason i watched. it had nothing, i repeat nothing to do with watching the impossibly gorgeous jennifer lawrence shoot magically replenishing arrows around the place in tight clothing
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 16 August 2012 10:45 (9 months ago) Permalink
i think we were shown very brief shots of haymitch chatting up some rich people, presumably convincing them to be sponsors. then haymitch is the one in charge of sending items along using that sponsorship money. it makes more sense in the movie than the book actually, because in the book it gets MORE expensive to send things the farther along in the game it is...for some reason? and the districts themselves send along, like, a chunk of bread to their player and it represents incredible cost and sacrifice for them to do so. idk
― deist mountain dew (reddening), Thursday, 16 August 2012 10:48 (9 months ago) Permalink
Oh i see, Woody's the go-between! Ahhh. I was confused because in the movie he's watching her on TV, we see her wincing in pain from her wound and then we cut to him looking determined and striding purposefully away, like he's about to "get on the case" somehow and then next thing you know there's a parachute floating toward her with a note from him inside. I guess he went to his contact list of sponsors and was like "OK now's the time to make good on your promises, this girl's goin down"
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 16 August 2012 10:57 (9 months ago) Permalink
i think we covered upthread how the "hunger games as tv show" was a bit of a missed opportunity from the perspective of seeing it through the viewers' eyes
― lex pretend, Thursday, 16 August 2012 10:59 (9 months ago) Permalink
the "hunger games as moral dilemma" was a missed opportunity as well, which leaves you with nothing much left over, other than close-ups of jennifer lawrence looking gorgeous which, you know what i'm OK with that actually
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 16 August 2012 11:08 (9 months ago) Permalink
My memory is that Woody gladhanding is inbetween the "Katniss needs help" and "Katniss gets help" scenes, I think. What's not as clear in the movie is that being the only person from District 12 to win the games doesn't actually confer much status on him - he's basically the town drunk 51 weeks of the year.
― Andrew Farrell, Thursday, 16 August 2012 11:27 (9 months ago) Permalink
I thought he lived in the Capitol cause of his celeb status
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 16 August 2012 11:31 (9 months ago) Permalink
Maybe I should have watched this movie at some point before 1am
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 16 August 2012 11:34 (9 months ago) Permalink
They established this very neatly in the book, but I can see why the scene where he first meets Katniss and Peeta and then throws up all over the floor might've been the first to go.
― Andrew Farrell, Thursday, 16 August 2012 12:56 (9 months ago) Permalink
I felt with the clothing that the more working class districts had kept to sort of functional, plain wear because they have to work in them. Harder to work in a castoff bright blue wig and fake McQueen heels or whatever! Also: they probably sew their own clothes, so a simpler pattern would be easier/use less fabric? It's been a while since I read the books so not certain if that's touched upon. The Capitol people by and large are very wasteful [TINY SPOILER: they have a pill or drink that makes them throw up so they can gorge themselves on food at parties!], unlikely that they'd even think to donate!
The sponsorship thing could definitely have been clearer in the movie - I almost missed the scene of Woody talking to them, iirc you can't even hear what he's saying? Poor planning for those who hadn't read the books! It was pretty shit to cut out the scene where Rue's district sends Katniss a piece of their distinctive bread after Rue's death. That was a pretty touching moment in the books. Because the district is so poor, she assumes almost everyone in the district chipped in to get that piece to her.
― she started dancing to that (Finefinemusic), Thursday, 16 August 2012 13:13 (9 months ago) Permalink
functional's one thing but heritage vintage patterns from ca. 300 years ago?
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 16 August 2012 22:45 (9 months ago) Permalink
well, if they are even using patterns? just simple, functional clothes imo. what would you have them wear?
― she started dancing to that (Finefinemusic), Friday, 17 August 2012 14:30 (9 months ago) Permalink
I haven't seen the movie but please, those are not somehow fashion-neutral "simple, functional" clothes. Simple and functional would be T-tunics and shapeless, pull-on pants with drawstring waists. There would be no pleats, no gathers, no belts, and one size would fit most. Every single person in that picture is wearing something that has extra, unnecessary fabric and work in it.
― check the name, no caps, boom, i'm (Laurel), Friday, 17 August 2012 14:36 (9 months ago) Permalink
Buttons? BUTTONS? Do you know how much work buttonholes are??? The poors of the future will be wearing shapeless pull-over tunics made of recycled fibers flattened into a colorless mulch.
― check the name, no caps, boom, i'm (Laurel), Friday, 17 August 2012 14:37 (9 months ago) Permalink
iirc (from teh books) that dress was her mother's 'fancy' dress and her mother came from a higher-class than her father and had kept a bunch of fancier stuff
― obliquity of the ecliptic (rrrobyn), Friday, 17 August 2012 14:39 (9 months ago) Permalink
well, I was talking about in comparison to the Capitol's dress, which is the 'current fashion' in Panem:
― she started dancing to that (Finefinemusic), Friday, 17 August 2012 14:39 (9 months ago) Permalink
just cuz they're poor doesn't mean they don't deserve buttons ;_; I had forgotten about that detail, rrobyn!
― she started dancing to that (Finefinemusic), Friday, 17 August 2012 14:40 (9 months ago) Permalink
and everybody kind of dressed up for that dayxp
― obliquity of the ecliptic (rrrobyn), Friday, 17 August 2012 14:40 (9 months ago) Permalink
Well then that was a poor choice of photos to show people wearing "simple, functional" clothes, wasn't it.
― check the name, no caps, boom, i'm (Laurel), Friday, 17 August 2012 14:41 (9 months ago) Permalink
such is my memory, haha - i can remember little details about people's lives but i can't remember the name of the day people get picked to go to the hunger gamesxp
― obliquity of the ecliptic (rrrobyn), Friday, 17 August 2012 14:42 (9 months ago) Permalink
meow meow! lol ;)xp
Laurel, I feel like you're being a bit condescending? Maybe you don't mean to be. I was simply responding to TH's post where he says "in a society where inequality is stretched to such extremes having clothes in an entirely different vocabulary doesn't make sense; they'd be living on cast-offs, ... subsequently mended 20 times but still retaining a spangle here and there"
Do you disagree with my ideas that the Capitol people probably *don't* donate a lot of castoffs to the districts, or that the clothes they wear are useless for working in anyway? Next time I will say simpleR to appease the seamstresses around, but those outfits (and as rrobyn pointed out - those are their fineries, they dress up because that is a big 'event') are still much more functional than the crazy shit going on in the capitol. And it's set in the future, would be weird to have them decided to throw all construction knowledge aside and go back to draw-string pants.
― she started dancing to that (Finefinemusic), Friday, 17 August 2012 14:46 (9 months ago) Permalink
So the riches of the future will dress like insane, colorblind Victorians, good to know.
― check the name, no caps, boom, i'm (Laurel), Friday, 17 August 2012 14:46 (9 months ago) Permalink
i think there's def a "movie ugly" thing going on with costumes though, yknow, the designer sack
― obliquity of the ecliptic (rrrobyn), Friday, 17 August 2012 14:48 (9 months ago) Permalink
i just thought the aping of Depression-era tech and fashion was obviously v effective as a shorthand for "these people have it tough" but unimaginative and pretty unlikely, not two qualities i really want from speculative fiction
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Friday, 17 August 2012 14:50 (9 months ago) Permalink
and there are still seamstresses and dressmakers and tailors in district 12 i would thinkand katniss has her dad's leather jacket and who knows where that came from - the past! i assumethe hunger games is obv so full of holes, as previously pointed out, but whatevs!
― obliquity of the ecliptic (rrrobyn), Friday, 17 August 2012 14:51 (9 months ago) Permalink
TH otm. I hate this movie and I haven't even seen it.
― check the name, no caps, boom, i'm (Laurel), Friday, 17 August 2012 14:52 (9 months ago) Permalink
this conversation reminds me of how my parents rave over a movie or tv programme's attention to costume detail and barely care about the plot or characters while i'm the other way around
you are all probably right that the costumery is inaccurate but it's not something that matters to me, really
― lex pretend, Friday, 17 August 2012 16:50 (9 months ago) Permalink
there's no "accuracy" here, it's sci-fi, it just seems dumb, much like the plot and the characters
it's a shame because the PREMISE and the general outline of the setting is just killer (no pun intended), sort of a mashup of lord of the flies, the lottery, the most dangerous game, battle royale and brave new world - right in my wheelhouse
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Friday, 17 August 2012 16:54 (9 months ago) Permalink
Catching Fire trailer. Phillip Seymour Hoffman's in this?!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jyPnQw_Lqds
― DavidM, Monday, 15 April 2013 14:21 (1 month ago) Permalink
I didn't know where else to put this but LOLOLOL
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 20:09 (1 week ago) Permalink
(JLaw photobombing Sarah Jessica Parker at Met Ball - Marillon Cotillard and Lena Dunham loling in background)
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 20:10 (1 week ago) Permalink