Last night I sat on my balcony in my thick slippers, my winter Boston hat, and my sweatshirt pulled tight around me. For the first time, I had to close my door before going to bed.
This morning: coat.
Plus, and I HATE to say this, but I know I'm getting a cold. I'm going to try REALLY hard to stifle it, but we'll see. I have the throat tickle, but no pain (yet?).
What just happened? Maybe the change snuck up on me because I was in unfamiliar houses for so long. It's hard to tell it's getting colder when you don't know how warm the place was before. Or else the season actually changed last night. And I know what this means-- rain! Soon! It's made me recognize my error in choosing a suede shoe for my brown outfits. I do have the spray to protect them, but surely in the actual rainy season no amount of spray will protect them.
In other news, while I'm still caught up in The Hunger Games, this second book is forcing me to see many more flaws. Actually, just one big flaw that's driving me nuts. I feel like Suzanne Collins is rushing through the books. It's lacking description. I don't really want to give things away, but why do I not know what the separate districts look like, what they're responsible for, as we're touring them? Why don't I get to hear DETAILED accounts of how Katniss' family and friends felt watching her during moments of the games? I love that the television aspect gives you an extra level: her being aware of being watched, her watching herself. But instead of hearing her own perspective twice, let's hear what others thought! And for god's sake, isn't this geared towards ladies? Why have I read the description "he told me how much he loves me" or "he proposed" so many times? WORDS! I need the WORDS!! What did he say??!! What did his face look like?! What the FUCK!
Also, even though Katniss isn't NEARLY as annoying as Bella in Twilight (sorry, but I'm rating this on a scale of Twilight to Harry Potter...), she sure doesn't pick up on verbal cues very well. If I'm reading from her perspective, why do I seem to know more than she does? At least about the people around her.
But I am enjoying it a lot! I like the levels that television adds. I like that I sincerely can't choose between her two boyfriends. I like that no one ever alluded to the fact that she couldn't win because she's a girl. That no one has been given lower odds because they're a girl. Plus, even though I think each book needs to swell with description to at least double it's current size, I can see the movie VERY clearly. If they do it right, and I think they will because I remember how HUGE it was when they started casting this, I think it could be really great.
In other other news, my mom sent me the BEST package:
1 inhaler
1 ipod
1 tub of eye cream
All of my favorite things! Although she did wrap the ipod around the eye cream box with medical tape to prevent it from breaking (this is a used ipod that she had around the house, btw). The medical tape made me feel nostalgic (at my house, medical tape is the tape you use. It's the tape available), but it also left the sticky residue on the ipod. I don't really care though, because I'm too excited about having an ipod again. I hope I learn to work it quickly. It looks a LOT like an iphone and it has a touch screen. I won't waste typing lamenting over touch screens or the fact that it might technically be able to get internet, which scares me.
Mostly, I'm just glad that it works! Although it has less memory than my old one and I had to go through my itunes unchecking 3GB of individual songs that I don't need. It was pretty boring. Plus, I had to decide whether I was going to take this opportunity to listen to some things I never hear, or if I'm going to stick with tunes I know and love. I chose the latter. I'd love to listen to new things, but I bet I won't. And I can always change things around if I'm feeling inspired.
The last thing I want to say is that while I was reading on Sunday, I kept getting the feeling that perhaps my days of being able to spontaneously abandon a whole day of activity in favor of reading a book may be limited.
4 comments:
1. Totally agree about the books lacking description. I think they lack a lot in the good writing department in general... no offense to the author. I mean, it is a much more action-oriented book than anything else, so I think it is sort of the point to rush you through it and get swept up in the action... but I reeeally doubt that I'll ever feel like reading it again. I enjoyed it a ton at the time, but looking back I think it has some very clear flaws.
2. Like I said before, I got annoyed with Katniss a LOT. I just HATE books where the main girl doesn't realize when a guy is OBVIOUSLY in love with her. I think that plot device is used waaay to often and it's really unconvincing.
3. I'm super excited for the movie because I loooove Jennifer Lawrence. Did you see Winter's Bone? I saw that movie and read The Hunger Games within like a week of each other (Winter's Bone first) and throughout all three books I picture her as Katniss. And now she WILL be Katniss! I can't wait, for that reason alone.
okay the book format is told THROUGH KATNISS' mind, in her voice. Thus, she has never seen or heard about any of the other districts, therefore we don't know about them, and she can't see her family watching her at home and therefore we can't either. I think this is where the brillance of COllin's narrative is shown, because unlike other authors, throughout the whole series she maintains the first-person-present "I say... I jump... I walk" rather that said, jumped, walked, and the reality you see is one seen through Katniss' eyes exactly... So that's why you don't know anything about the other districts because Katniss herself doesn't know she that info was forbidden, and your only view of the world and reality is through her eyes and it makes you see, feel, and believe everything as she does. Personally it isn't a flaw, its a brilliance that Collins was able to maintain Katniss' own voice throughout the entire thing without faltering
IMO at least. it would have way detracted if we knew info that Katniss' wasn't party to thus making the book cheaper, within the story itself. of course we can look up online about the other districts, but while you're reading the story and in Katniss' narrative mind, it would be ruined to suddenly have a third party voice/description telling you about the place. Which is why I'm afraid the movie will suck because there's no way to maintain that first-person-present feel, the audience WILL want to see what is going on behind katniss' back, and in doing so it will destroy the essence of the book and what makes it so powerful.
Claire: extra agree with point 2. I think they try to do it because they want you to think "this girl is dealing with so much and is so awesome that she can't even THINK about boys enough to hear when they're saying they love her. She barely cares." But I think it makes them look like idiots.
ahhh Katherine. I don't mean to be a ball-buster, but when I said that she didn't describe the other districts, I mean while she was touring them. You get a BIT of district 11 and that's it. And I want to know what her family and friends TOLD her they felt when they watched the games. I don't want to take away from the first person, but there is a lot of description-- a lot of things that Katniss actually saw and heard-- that I got very little information about.
Although I'm still enjoying the books! I don't think about ANYTHING else.
you have to look at why katniss doesn't believe Peeta loves her. She loves only one person surely in the world, and that's Prim. Her mother betrayed her by shutting down and basically letting them die after the father's death, and katniss was thrown into a cruel world to provide for them on her own, where nobody is trustworthy nor cares about one another, even within a family (as it was said in the first book, volunteering to take the place of a family member was rare). So katniss can't even imagine anyone, even a stranger as Peeta is, possibly caring about her. Also, at first she truly believes Peeta is playing the crowd to pretend they are in love to win the capitol's favor so he can win/live instead of her (shes already plotting to kill him and thnks peeta is plotting to kill her, its the inescapable nature of the game). And when she does realize at the end of Book 1 that Peeta is really in love with her, she does everythign she can to deny it, because, in book 2, if she accepts that Peeta really does love her, then she'll be unable to kill him.
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