January books
Aug. 19th, 2012 06:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lokifanOkay, so I’ve sort of writing these posts about the books I’ve been reading and then feeling too stage-frighty to post them. I need to work out some kind of format for books-posts, probably by stealing from la_mariane and sabethea, but I haven’t yet so this is this undigested lump of thoughts. BUT WHATEVER, I am getting over the nerves because I wanna talk about some books - and I know a lot of you will have thoughts :)
First book I read this year was Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Broadly speaking: Katniss Everdeen tries to stop rebellion so the ruling despot won’t kill her family, only it doesn’t work. The ruling despots decide to stop rebellion by proving there can be no real victory against them, sticking previous Hunger Games victors back in the arena.
Okay, so, I’m not in the right mood for meta so I am just going to blurt out reactions.
I have massive love for political intrigue and machinations in my fantasy & sci-fi, but I found myself much less engaged by that than by the action sequences once Katniss was back in the ring. Suzanne Collins rocks so hard at suspense and less so at intrigue, I think. While I found this less breathtaking than The Hunger Games I liked it a lot - I loved Wire and Johanna and Beetee and Finnick. There were a lot of great scenes - I found the picking of the tributes incredibly moving, and the scene of Katniss and Peeta watching Haymitch’s Games. The Haymitch/Katniss relationship is one of my favourite things about the books, so I loved that - and their implicit understanding of each other, the deal they make to save Peeta, and the intense betrayal of how they lied to her.
We will not speak of how I wibbled for Cinna.
Also, I instantly found Johanna very funny - I love her getting naked and oiling herself up to fight with such a wry sense of humour. I love the relationship between her and Finnick and how Katniss finds it so difficult to parse. And Katniss and Johanna working as allies despite their instinctive animus is just. My favourite.
I will never stop loving the way Katniss is both this revolutionary symbol in a way she can’t control, and actually so fantastically able to recognise who the real enemy is: to turn from the immediate threat and fuck with the system.
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Broadly speaking: Katniss has been rescued from the arena by the rebels but she can’t truly trust them or their leader; she becomes the media face of the rebellion as the Mockingjay and fights to enter the Capital as a real fighter and assassinate President Snow herself.
I LOVE JOHANNA. SERIOUSLY. Liking turned to love here, with the development of the relationship between her and Katniss. On that note, I really liked that Katniss is tough and strong and clever, a survivor - but that doesn’t make her a soldier. That struck me as Collins specifically fighting back against certain fantasy/YA tropes and it was very cool. Particularly because Katniss is just so incredibly tough and determined all the way through that training sequence. I LOVE YOU KATNISS.
And I really enjoyed the exploration of war as entertainment, and the awareness the rebels have that they have to win the war of PR to win physically. It complicates all the questions about entertainment and exploitation and inequality that have come up before in the trilogy, I think. Especially since I read The Hunger Games as so much about systemic inequality and the way the politics of ‘the third world’ can become the ‘first world’s’ entertainment - like, I know a lot of people see a reality television metaphor in the first book and I think that totally works, but it’s not what comes out most strongly for me: I see child soldiers. So yes. Much love. Especially with Peeta’s “real or not real?” refrain. Sorry this is what my instant reactions are like, it’s meta in utero and therefore incoherent.
Also President Coin is utter utter terrifying genius.
I love the way it deals with the Capital types, too - Katniss’ resentment and concern and care make me love her even more. I like that they’re all so used to privileges the rest can’t imagine, that they maybe didn’t have to be here, but the idea that that makes them better than the people who are here because they’d be crushed otherwise is so irritating. Idk, I love Mr Former Gamesmaster’s new role, that’s utter perfection, and it’s all so complex and awesome.
Gale’s moral decline, it makes me a sad panda, but it totally works. I love all the arguing over this stuff. And Peeta! A further complication of the what’s-real-what’s-not between him and Katniss, but also the only way it could become real. I instinctively preferred Gale way back when but I really like the changes that have made me a Peeta fan. SILVERTONGUES FTW, MY FRIENDS. He and Loki and Alan and Natasha need to form some sort of club. Seriously, I fell for Peeta when he made out Katniss was pregnant - such a fucking genius badass moment - and for the manipulator to be brainwashed and the idea of Katniss as a mutt I can’t even.
Idk how I feel about Prim’s death (beyond massive sad). Like, that was one where I felt manipulated, because Katniss having grown apart from Prim and then finding she was growing up, that all felt so perfect and exactly what would happen, and then I felt a bit like I’d been made to care about her only so I’d be sad when she died? But it also worked - poor, poor Katniss, but that moment when she realises, recognises the technique, running through the crowd, and the kids and the MEDICS for fuck’s sake and Prim who’s always represented the hope and the future going boom -
Oh so sad but perfect. Also, SHE SHOT COIN. THIS GIRL. FLAWLESS.
Oh! And also, I was totally fooled by Haymitch agreeing to stage a final Hunger Games and was clutching at my chest like OMG HAYMITCH NO HOW COULD YOU BETRAY ME SO and then THAT HAPPENED. I’m sorry, Haymitch, I totally underestimated the power of your awesome wordless understanding with Katniss and your instinctive alliances and I apologise. I love their relationship forever.
I really had no idea how much I liked this book until I wrote this!
Oh - and the epilogue worked for me. Katniss having children made me happy; not instantly, but it worked for me as a sign that however damaged she is, however imperfect the revolution, she really believes the Hunger Games won’t come for her children. She believes in the world enough that she can want children after all. And that was always why she said she wouldn’t, ever, so - ♥
Plus there’s something great about how Katniss says she needs Peeta for his hope because she already has Gale’s fire. Someone has already written meta about the boys as expressions of different parts of her personality and how they play out in different action scenes/books as necessary to her survival, yes? Oh good. Someone link me please.
OKAY THAT WAS A LOT OF HALF-BAKED THOUGHTS.
How to Get Suspended and Influence People by Adam Selzer
Broadly speaking: Thirteen-year-old boy gets to make a film for the next year down as part of his Gifted and Talented programme; he decides to make a surrealist masterpiece so he can include lots of nudity and help explain sex to youth in need. He gets suspended and Drama Ensues. Luckily right wins out and he gets the girl.
I asked for this for Christmas because of a super-positive review from a reviewer I generally trust... but I didn’t find it amazing. It was kind of fun, but it skated over the issues of censorship that it raised and I didn’t LOL all that much. Plus, for various reasons related to production values and details, I got the strong impression it was a self-publish/small-local-press-owned-by-friends-publish. Fun moments but I won’t be rereading.
And then I read Maledicte by Lane Robins but that’s getting its own post.
la_mariane and sabethea, but I haven’t yet so this is this undigested lump of thoughts. BUT WHATEVER, I am getting over the nerves because I wanna talk about some books - and I know a lot of you will have thoughts :)First book I read this year was Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Broadly speaking: Katniss Everdeen tries to stop rebellion so the ruling despot won’t kill her family, only it doesn’t work. The ruling despots decide to stop rebellion by proving there can be no real victory against them, sticking previous Hunger Games victors back in the arena.
Okay, so, I’m not in the right mood for meta so I am just going to blurt out reactions.
I have massive love for political intrigue and machinations in my fantasy & sci-fi, but I found myself much less engaged by that than by the action sequences once Katniss was back in the ring. Suzanne Collins rocks so hard at suspense and less so at intrigue, I think. While I found this less breathtaking than The Hunger Games I liked it a lot - I loved Wire and Johanna and Beetee and Finnick. There were a lot of great scenes - I found the picking of the tributes incredibly moving, and the scene of Katniss and Peeta watching Haymitch’s Games. The Haymitch/Katniss relationship is one of my favourite things about the books, so I loved that - and their implicit understanding of each other, the deal they make to save Peeta, and the intense betrayal of how they lied to her.
We will not speak of how I wibbled for Cinna.
Also, I instantly found Johanna very funny - I love her getting naked and oiling herself up to fight with such a wry sense of humour. I love the relationship between her and Finnick and how Katniss finds it so difficult to parse. And Katniss and Johanna working as allies despite their instinctive animus is just. My favourite.
I will never stop loving the way Katniss is both this revolutionary symbol in a way she can’t control, and actually so fantastically able to recognise who the real enemy is: to turn from the immediate threat and fuck with the system.
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Broadly speaking: Katniss has been rescued from the arena by the rebels but she can’t truly trust them or their leader; she becomes the media face of the rebellion as the Mockingjay and fights to enter the Capital as a real fighter and assassinate President Snow herself.
I LOVE JOHANNA. SERIOUSLY. Liking turned to love here, with the development of the relationship between her and Katniss. On that note, I really liked that Katniss is tough and strong and clever, a survivor - but that doesn’t make her a soldier. That struck me as Collins specifically fighting back against certain fantasy/YA tropes and it was very cool. Particularly because Katniss is just so incredibly tough and determined all the way through that training sequence. I LOVE YOU KATNISS.
And I really enjoyed the exploration of war as entertainment, and the awareness the rebels have that they have to win the war of PR to win physically. It complicates all the questions about entertainment and exploitation and inequality that have come up before in the trilogy, I think. Especially since I read The Hunger Games as so much about systemic inequality and the way the politics of ‘the third world’ can become the ‘first world’s’ entertainment - like, I know a lot of people see a reality television metaphor in the first book and I think that totally works, but it’s not what comes out most strongly for me: I see child soldiers. So yes. Much love. Especially with Peeta’s “real or not real?” refrain. Sorry this is what my instant reactions are like, it’s meta in utero and therefore incoherent.
Also President Coin is utter utter terrifying genius.
I love the way it deals with the Capital types, too - Katniss’ resentment and concern and care make me love her even more. I like that they’re all so used to privileges the rest can’t imagine, that they maybe didn’t have to be here, but the idea that that makes them better than the people who are here because they’d be crushed otherwise is so irritating. Idk, I love Mr Former Gamesmaster’s new role, that’s utter perfection, and it’s all so complex and awesome.
Gale’s moral decline, it makes me a sad panda, but it totally works. I love all the arguing over this stuff. And Peeta! A further complication of the what’s-real-what’s-not between him and Katniss, but also the only way it could become real. I instinctively preferred Gale way back when but I really like the changes that have made me a Peeta fan. SILVERTONGUES FTW, MY FRIENDS. He and Loki and Alan and Natasha need to form some sort of club. Seriously, I fell for Peeta when he made out Katniss was pregnant - such a fucking genius badass moment - and for the manipulator to be brainwashed and the idea of Katniss as a mutt I can’t even.
Idk how I feel about Prim’s death (beyond massive sad). Like, that was one where I felt manipulated, because Katniss having grown apart from Prim and then finding she was growing up, that all felt so perfect and exactly what would happen, and then I felt a bit like I’d been made to care about her only so I’d be sad when she died? But it also worked - poor, poor Katniss, but that moment when she realises, recognises the technique, running through the crowd, and the kids and the MEDICS for fuck’s sake and Prim who’s always represented the hope and the future going boom -
Oh so sad but perfect. Also, SHE SHOT COIN. THIS GIRL. FLAWLESS.
Oh! And also, I was totally fooled by Haymitch agreeing to stage a final Hunger Games and was clutching at my chest like OMG HAYMITCH NO HOW COULD YOU BETRAY ME SO and then THAT HAPPENED. I’m sorry, Haymitch, I totally underestimated the power of your awesome wordless understanding with Katniss and your instinctive alliances and I apologise. I love their relationship forever.
I really had no idea how much I liked this book until I wrote this!
Oh - and the epilogue worked for me. Katniss having children made me happy; not instantly, but it worked for me as a sign that however damaged she is, however imperfect the revolution, she really believes the Hunger Games won’t come for her children. She believes in the world enough that she can want children after all. And that was always why she said she wouldn’t, ever, so - ♥
Plus there’s something great about how Katniss says she needs Peeta for his hope because she already has Gale’s fire. Someone has already written meta about the boys as expressions of different parts of her personality and how they play out in different action scenes/books as necessary to her survival, yes? Oh good. Someone link me please.
OKAY THAT WAS A LOT OF HALF-BAKED THOUGHTS.
How to Get Suspended and Influence People by Adam Selzer
Broadly speaking: Thirteen-year-old boy gets to make a film for the next year down as part of his Gifted and Talented programme; he decides to make a surrealist masterpiece so he can include lots of nudity and help explain sex to youth in need. He gets suspended and Drama Ensues. Luckily right wins out and he gets the girl.
I asked for this for Christmas because of a super-positive review from a reviewer I generally trust... but I didn’t find it amazing. It was kind of fun, but it skated over the issues of censorship that it raised and I didn’t LOL all that much. Plus, for various reasons related to production values and details, I got the strong impression it was a self-publish/small-local-press-owned-by-friends-publish. Fun moments but I won’t be rereading.
And then I read Maledicte by Lane Robins but that’s getting its own post.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-20 01:05 am (UTC)Although the point you make about it being a symbol of her hope, in her faith that the Hunger Games won't come for her kids--that's a good point, one that I hadn't considered. I might just spend some time rereading sometime soon, see if I don't change my mind.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-20 02:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-20 03:00 am (UTC)But, again, it's been a long time since I read the books and I've only read them once; it's entirely possible that this is something that was addressed that I just don't remember or didn't get the first time through. But I will definitely be reading them again soon, and thinking about this conversation, and come back with some more coherent thoughts!
(Trust me to bring every conversation back around to John Green. I feel bad for the people I talk to IRL because I feel like they never hear anything from me except "oh gosh John Green he's so cool he's so smart imagining people complexly come on guys John Green why aren't you as enthusiastic as me" and eventually that's got to get annoying.)