The inevitable Hunger Games thread

Oops, posted too soon. So basically Katniss kisses and hugs him a lot for the cameras in a play-acted way. If anything, I like mush, but this was weird and insincere.

Also there's something to be said for the sweetly delayed consummation of a romance, anticipation and build-up, etc. The jump straight to frenching in a cave for the cameras felt like putting the cart before the horse.

I need to find a copy of Catching Fire somewhere. It's impossible to get a library copy these days, and I don't want to spend $20 for a hardcover.

reddening, i thought all of that stuff actually complicated the traditional romantic arc in a book like this and was coo

I didn't like the mushy stuff in context of the book: the main dude is in love with Katniss, but she kind of has feelings for another guy, but the people watching the Hunger Games are invested in them having a romance and it increases their chances for survival

― what the fuck does a horse know about the hero's journey anyway (reddening), Monday, November 14, 2011 4:26 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Oops, posted too soon. So basically Katniss kisses and hugs him a lot for the cameras in a play-acted way. If anything, I like mush, but this was weird and insincere.

― what the fuck does a horse know about the hero's journey anyway (reddening), Monday, November 14, 2011 4:28 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark

i mean yeah... this is what happens. is this meant as a criticism?

Just making a distinction between "Ew this is a kissing story, gross!!! Get back to the blood!!!!" and "the romance here was weird and didn't move me".

Oops, I'm on my phone and missed your initial post. idk it just rubbed me the wrong way, might just be a personal preference when it comes to how romance plots play out.

For instance I remember the first time they kissed, it was surprising and effective. It was Peeta getting what he wanted which was great and resonant to me. But then when the physical stuff between them got to be this fake perfunctory thing on her part...I see why it's interesting as a plot device but it was no longer satisfying emotionally

there's an interesting division in this thread between "too mushy gross" and "not mushy enough gross"

i would have been okay if it complicated the traditional romantic arc if it hadn't been so contrived. i think this had to do with katniss as a character...i sort of dig what an emotional idiot she is but it's hard to believe/care that she has feelings for two different dudes, one of whom is never really fleshed out as a character. also sometimes her wide-eyed, i don't have feelings for Peeta, i'm just performing thing was like, COME ON, like i know you don't understand emotions but no one is this stupid. but i think i also have beef with how YA novels for girls always prioritize the romance plot so there was probably no version of it i would have been totally okay with.

also how she refused to understand he was all crushed out on her in the first book. i don't know i would have loved that when i was 13, but all her, "why is this dude always staring at me....he must be faking his love for me" moments were so annoying.

After that, I thought the quality of the writing declined; huge swaths of the last book are just summaries of what's going on told in a flat, reporterly fashion, which killed the momentum and emotional resonance for me

second book is the weakest, but i really like mockingjay. that's the book i wanted all along, the political one. what Collins did with Primm killed me, though; i had that throw the book across the room moment.

I enjoyed the first book and ended up reading the whole trilogy...but Katniss is just so stupid and whiny, by the end of mockingjay I just hated her and the whole thing.

I also hope never again to consume any cultural product where a girl is torn between two different boys, one "good" and one "bad" and both not particularly enthralling. This is kind of why I ended up losing faith in the gilmore girls too.

yeah, basically. love triangles are just not appealing to me nor is the every dude who meets this girl falls madly in love with her narrative. i like katniss okay, though.

movie looks kind of boss though, could end up being better than the book maybe

i'm about six chapter into this book, didn't read thread as i want no spoilers

watched the trailer just now, as i knew it would be here, looks awesome

I just have a few more pages left to go with Mockingjay.

Anyway, I mostly liked the series. I can see what people mean about it seeming flat sometimes, esp. with characterization, but ultimately, I found the straightforward descriptions and narrative kind of refreshing. I liked how zippy it was. Nicely imaginative, too.

Fwiw, these might be the first YA books I've read since I was in that demographic, so I have basically no frame of reference.

wd be interested to get yr take on the Golden Compass series

Skimmed the Wiki page on it: female protagonist is a plus, character named Lord something-or-other is a minus.

Also I love that Abbott pointed out, at the beginning of this thread, that The Hunger Games is written in the present tense. I have an affinity for this device. It's part of what I liked about Updike's Rabbit tetralogy, too.

so i have about 75 pages left in Catching Fire, the second book. had to watch the trailer for this movie again and so looking forward to seeing it. less than a month away!

http://www.onlinemovieshut.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/the-hunger-games-movie-poster-550x816.jpg

or i should have said two months away, will probably be done with all the book by than

my son read the first book in one 6 hour jag last weekend, and finished the second today. greatest books ever according to him, and we got to talk about what dystopian means.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2012/02/the-hunger-games-breaks-online-ticket-sales-record.html

Lions Gate's upcoming adaptation of the best-selling book series has broken Fandango.com's record for sales on the first day a film's tickets become available. The previous record was for the 2010 release of "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse."

i have met far too many 20-somethings who enjoy these lately

rough life.

p pumped for this

I imagine there will be a sizable presence of old men into foxy boxing/plus at this film

should i read the first book? i love margaret atwood + battle royale, cf first post in thread.

wow, Lenny Kravitz AND Wes Bentley are in the cast

I read the first book and it was fine, served its purpose as a fun and quick couple day read between headier subjects.

I am totally okay with Lenny Kravitz becoming an actor full time, since he is very attractive but his singing and music makes me want to die.

things happen. telegraphic sentences. katniss does things, like hurdling over a bush. exclamation points! sacrifice, family, resonant themes for teens are abundant. there is closure, but endings open for the two sequels. and transcendence, but not without pain. blood spurts, i believe. i recommend the summary on wikipedia.

SAw it this morning. It was...improbably decent.

i have met far too many 20-somethings who enjoy these lately

haha someone mentioned these to me at party twice last week

xp That counts as a ringing endorsement for me. I took the day off work next Friday. (Well, not just to see the movie, but I am going to see the movie.)

I do worry that the things I like most about it will be negated somewhat by the sequels, though. (Haven't read the books. Or the wiki summaries.)

countdown is a week away now, have read all the books so i'm ready.

probably won't go see it right away though.

haha someone mentioned these to me at party twice last week

i like the idea it's the same guy

it's three a.m. you have your coat on. you are about to leave. bleary-eyed, gin-breathed, he plucks your sleeve. mockingbird, man, he says. mockingbird. do you get it? mocking ... bird.

i really loved this film

haven't read the books, hadn't really known much except the basic premise.

it does feel like a v relevant phenomenon; despite the "fantasia dystopia" setting the issues it tackles/parallels were...rather close to the bone. i didn't realise it would be so obviously red state vs blue state (or...a more general working class vs elites?). all the villains poncing around like lady gaga while the heroes are all-hunting all-toiling mining folk.

So basically Katniss kisses and hugs him a lot for the cameras in a play-acted way. If anything, I like mush, but this was weird and insincere.

this was one of the things i liked most, it's a direct parallel of how "romances", even fake ones, increase the popularity of contestants on reality tv shows. thought it was an interesting reflection of how, even though the narrative is ostensibly about katniss not playing their game and "showing them up" or whatever, she still had to play a different sort of game in order to get to that position. the penultimate scene of the cheesy victors' interview felt like a slightly hollow victory.

i found the scene where the little girl dies incredibly affecting - not, actually, because of katniss laying flowers on her, but the sudden unexpected moment where she looks up and salutes the cameras, which cut to that being screened in the girl's district.

wondering whether i should read the books atm.

the books are a fun read. now thinking about it i liked the first book best.

SPOILERS
SPOILERS
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what's interesting about the books is that in the end it is less red vs blue, and more like, everyone sucks, just sometimes sometime ppl appear to suck a little less. i found the end of the final book pretty bleak tbh.

should i read the first book? i love margaret atwood + battle royale, cf first post in thread.

i read the books a couple of weeks ago and they are no margaret atwood + battle royale, but they are entertaining and suitably dystopian and easy to breeze through, movie-like. but the writing itself isn't literature or anything, and i think whoever edited the books was drunk half the time. i dl-ed them and actually checked the first book against the sample pages on amazon because i thought i was reading something that had been translated back to english from another language. the characters are pretty one-note, but their interactions are usually interesting. the plot is great though: stuff happens! a lot of stuff!

^^ otm

reading these has reminded me how much i really enjoy YA lit, though, need to join the local library and get back into it.

it is less red vs blue, and more like, everyone sucks, just sometimes some ppl appear to suck a little less.

fuck, Hunger Games otm