JustAdventure+ Book Group discussion

For discussion of the book, I'll make a topic for the film too if anyone is interested.

I'm going to use this place for notes again, as I go along: He lists the disasters, the
droughts, the storms, the fires, the encroaching seas that swallowed
up so much of the land, the brutal war for what little sustenance
remained.

So I assume the pretense here is that global warming went nuts. Still, she doesn't elaborate enough. Perhaps later...

The Treaty of Treason ? <_< Oi..

I agree it's a stupid name, but I'm hardly surprised. Americans just love to have silly names for their real-life instruments of law, so it's hardly surprising. :P

The first person present tense feels really weird to me...
I mean, how is it that she just suddenly starts this monologue, and to whom is she she telling it?
She's telling someone everything that happens as they happen.. even the action moments - how is she talking and doing at the same time- it just feel incongruous to me.

Then there's this:

“I don’t even know if there’ll be wood,” I say. Another year, they tossed everybody into a landscape of nothing but boulders and sand
and scruffy bushes. I particularly hated that year. Many contestants were bitten by venomous snakes or went insane from thirst.
“There’s almost always some wood,” Gale says. “Since that year half of them died of cold. Not much entertainment in that.”
It’s true. We spent one Hunger Games watching the players freeze to death at night. You could hardly see them because they were just huddled in balls and had no wood for fires or torches or anything. It was considered very anti-climactic in the Capitol, all those quiet, bloodless deaths. Since then, there’s usually been wood to make fires.

Ok, so the country is terribly poor, or at least the fringes where Katniss lives. The story takes place in North America. NA is a very, very big place. How do they get to watch the Hunger Games? Surely the whole of America does not fit into the stadium that watches the Games.

The other possibility is television, but since they are so poor and their infrastructure has somehow collapsed to such an extent that they literally have to hunt off the land, how come they can afford television?

I would assume on some central big screen perhaps? Perhaps this will become clear later on.

Watching the Games is mandatory, so it's plausible that televisions would be subsidized. I'm told that just about everyone in Cuba has a television, even those who live in shacks and have little else. Entertaining is important to keeping a downtrod population under control---as is propaganda, which would be broadcast via television.

Moreover, I don't get the impression that Panem covers all of North America, or even a particularly large part. The scales required may not be as large as it seems at first.

Also, it is mentioned during the Reaping that there are public screens, either in public houses or in communal areas. I imagine it's quite easy to watch.

J. wrote: "Watching the Games is mandatory, so it's plausible that televisions would be subsidized. I'm told that just about everyone in Cuba has a television, even those who live in shacks and have little e..."

Oh wait. You're right! I remember now, that every single household on Mauritius has television,(a fun fact I happen to know from my visit to the island- a very beautiful island, btw) even the people literally living in tin shacks. Okay. Yes, I imagined some kind of public screen provided by the government.

I've been thinking about how the first person present tense POV could possibly work. I would guess that Katniss is having some kind of flashback - like in a dream, for instance? Why doesn't Collins set an adequate background for this?

It hasn't bugged me very much, but first-person present tense does tend to be an odd choice, yeah. I still find it works fairly well---gives the story an added sort of immediacy, at least.

There isn't any kind of in-story reason why such a choice would be more rather than less natural compared to, say first person past tense, but perhaps there will be later. There are three novels, after all. ;)

J. wrote: "There isn't any kind of in-story reason why such a choice would be more rather than less natural compared to, say first person past tense,"

In first person past tense, a person is telling about what happened to them in the past. In the present tense, they are telling it while it is happening, - I mean there's a logistical problem for me in that (where are you, the reader(/listener), while Katniss is telling you all of this?); unless, like I said, the person is commenting on a flashback he/she is having.

I'm on the fence about reading these books. I've almost picked them up a few times, but have been put off by the YA nature of them. In the past, there have not been many YA novels that I liked (Dark Materials and Abhorsen triolgy are the exceptions). I think I have trouble getting into the mind of a teenage protagonist so that actions and thoughts make sense. I've also read the reviews Traveller brought to my attention, most which seem unflattering. Both of you have a rough idea of my tastes. Do you think I should give the series a go?

Personally I find that the use of a young-adult label for the book is overstating the truth. Yes, the characters are teens, and thus it might appeal to teens more than other books might, but so far (I'm at the point where the Games themselves are about to begin) the story is about an intelligent, independent young woman fighting tooth and nail to maximize her chances of surviving to adulthood.

As science fiction I find it plausible, as drama I find it sufficiently restrained to escape becoming melodrama, and as character play it's also not too bad. So far I've seen no sappy, swoony romance in evidence, nor any of the typical pitfalls of juvenile literature save for the premise itself which, if you can take in stride, I find at least has a fairly strong internal logic.

Traveller and I seem to disagree about the merits of the prose, but I think we'd both agree it's not dumbed down for kids (having recently read The Lake House by James Patterson I feel pretty confident I could peg that sort of writing), though it's probably fair to say it's a bit on the simple side. I'm not finding that takes anything away, though.

In short, I don't think you'd be repulsed by it, Jo. If nothing else, at least you wouldn't take a lot of time out from other things to read it, as it's pretty short: I'll probably finish sometime tomorrow, having started mid-morning today.

Elvet wrote: "I'm on the fence about reading these books. I've almost picked them up a few times, but have been put off by the YA nature of them. In the past, there have not been many YA novels that I liked (Dar..."

I can see what people are talking about in that the world isn't very well thought out and explained, but on the gut level the character drama is quite enjoyable, and although there are irritating bits regarding the logic of things, I must admit that the prose is at least not boring, and more gripping than I had expected it to be.

As for the YA aspect - well I can't help noticing that you gave the first HP 5 stars. Now, the first HP has much more of a "kiddy" tone than this has, to give you any idea.

I haven't read much yet, since I have had distractions and have committed group reads and other things going on, but as far as I've read, I think that you will probably like it, Elvet.

Enjoy.

J. wrote: "Personally I find that the use of a young-adult label for the book is overstating the truth. Yes, the characters are teens, and thus it might appeal to teens more than other books might, but so fa..."

It's definitely very light YA fare, my assessment thus far, is that this is not a book that can be taken seriously as serious, adult literature or even close to true SF; but for a quick light read, it's quite entertaining enough (I have found so far), on about the level that Stephen King pulp is.

After all, I've read hundreds pieces of fantasy pulp, all rated 3 stars on my shelves, and if I finished them that means that I enjoyed them, and so what.

You both convinced me. This will be a good series to get on my Kobo. I'm going to need something 'lite' to read inbetween the Malazan books (whenever I get to them). All of a sudden I seem to have lots of choice for upcoming reads.

Hmm, here's an example of why the first person present tense is so clumsy: I yank the knife out of the table, get a grip on the blade, and then throw it into the wall across the room. I was actually just hoping to get a good solid stick, but it lodges in the seam between two panels, making me look a lot better than I am.