The Hunger Games - Official Theatrical Trailer

It looks so good! I'm enamored with how much it resembles the book... so far.
Whenever I watch this trailer my heart fondly remembers scenes from the book.
 So far, so good.

The House of Mirth

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

Lily might be incapable of marrying for money, but she was equally incapable of living without it. -p.172

The tale of Lily Bart, a woman rich in pedigree yet as fiscally fit as Al Bundy, living in the materialistic world of New York's old monied at the end of the 1800s. When we meet Lily she is trying to culminate her life's work, landing a rich husband. Beautiful, bright and oozing charisma, Lily is fully capable of doing this yet it seems she can never seal the deal. Without a rich husband and without real money to her name, what's a girl to do?

The House of Mirth is a masterpiece; phenomenal story - phenomenal storytelling, although this novel is not for the fainthearted. Yes, Wharton makes you chuckle with her snide remarks and nod in agreement with her astute observations on human nature, but this author can teach a master class on empathy. For a faux-rich snob at the turn of the century, Wharton's use of empathy makes Lily so relatable. Throughout the novel you're living and breathing Lily Bart's existence. When Lily makes a wrong move, you'll feel frustrated and disappointed. When she makes the right move but gets sacked through no fault of her own, you're gutted. When she gets a bit of happiness, you're relieved. With every sentence, Wharton infuses your gut with feeling. And 90% of that feeling is depressing. So much so that naming this work "The House of Mirth" is like breathing with a broken rib, every breath hurts. That mocking name just adds salt to the wound. Wharton was uncompromising; when she sets out to teach you a lesson depress you, you will hurt.

A point of interest and admiration for me is Lily Bart's tenacity. Taking one of  the opportunities to marry into wealth would have solved her problems, but Lily persisted with the single life. Lily has motivation and ability; she has barely enough income to get by and possesses the wherewithal to score a rich husband, but she's almost 30 years old and still unmarried. Is it bad luck or is Lily her own victim? Or perhaps "victim" is too strong a word. Maybe remaining unmarried is Lily's way of rebelling; her way of eking out a little freedom from a world that oppresses her. A world in which she's so entrenched that she can't really decipher what it is she wants, but knows what it is she doesn't. 

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"That's Lily all over, you know: she works like a slave preparing the ground and sowing her seed; but the day she ought to be reaping the harvest she over-sleeps herself or goes off on a picnic." Mrs. Fisher paused and looked reflectively at the deep shimmer of sea between the cactus-flowers. "Sometimes," she added, "I think it's just flightiness--and sometimes I think it's because, at heart, she despises the things she's trying for. And it's the difficulty of deciding that makes her such an interesting study." - chapter 1

"I have tried hard--but life is difficult, and I am a very useless person. I can hardly be said to have an independent existence. I was just a screw or a cog in the great machine I called life, and when I dropped out of it I found I was of no use anywhere else. What can one do when one finds that one only fits into one hole? One must get back to it or be thrown out into the rubbish heap--and you don't know what it's like in the rubbish heap!" Lily Bart, chapter 12

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Read The House of Mirth online:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/284
http://www.online-literature.com/wharton/house_mirth/
Google Book - House of Mirth

THE HUNGER GAMES - March 23, 2012 - MAY THE ODDS BE EVER IN YOUR FAVOR.

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I'm so impressed with this moving poster I want to put it on my wall - if only there was a way.


******ADDENDUM
The Hunger Games mini-poster did make it onto my wall.  I'm not disappointed because the image doesn't move - it still appeals to my sense of aesthetics & nostalgia.

American Gods

Book: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

I read up to page 182 and lost the book. Looks like the library has one copy with a long wait. I hope to get my hands on another copy soon. With my memory, I'll have to start reading from page 1.

Two things I enjoyed about this book so far:
1) It made me laugh out loud or nod with enthusiasm. Often.
2) The ethnic and racial diversity.

******ADDENDUM, August 2012.

I finally read American Gods from cover to cover. An engaging read, you're never bored, but I don't get the hype. It's a good read, but why the fanaticism?  It's probably a sleeper, you randomly "get it" years later when you least expect. As usual with Gaiman's work I thought American Gods would make an even better movie/mini-series than it did a novel.

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  AMERICAN GODS TELLING ON ITSELF

Would you believe that all the gods that people have ever imagined are still with us today? ... And that there are new gods out there, gods of computers and telephones and whatever, and that they all seem to think there isn't room for them both in the world. And that some kind of war is kind of likely. Chapter 13

People believe, thought Shadow. It's what people do. They believe. And then they will not take responsibility for their beliefs; they conjure things, and do not trust the conjurations. People populate the darkness; with ghosts, with gods, with electrons, with tales. People imagine, and people believe: and it is that belief, that rock-solid belief, that makes things happen. Chapter 18, pg 36

Wench

Book: Wench: A Novel by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Read the synopsis of Wench on the author's website: Wench: A Novel

Wench is a novel centered around four enslaved American women as told from the point of view of one of the women, Eliza (called Lizzie).
It has the usual theme for a historical fiction novel set in the American antebellum era that is centered on enslaved people: the quest for freedom.

I imagine the desire for freedom was always on a slave's minds even if it wasn't on their tongues.

"Long as he a slave, he ain't gone never be a man," he said.
"You an abolitionist now?"
He set his hat on the stump beside her. "Ain't no such thing as a colored abolitionist. That's a word for the white folks. We ain't got to distinguish ourselves." P. 281, Wench, Perkins-Valdez.

However, while Wench gives you the prerequisite freedom struggle, it also gives you a glimpse of what life may have been like for an enslaved American - specially, showing us how the enslaved mistresses of southern slaveholders spent their time at a vacation resort... in a free state no less.

One thing for sure, it was not a vacation!

Through Lizzie's eyes we experience the complexities of a slave's life and relationships; the distinct protocols needed for interacting with others which are dictated by sex, skin color and/or socioeconomic class, and of course, emotions.

There was a comment that gave me pause:

"And this is for you too," Mawu said, handing her a piece of folded paper. Lizzie spreads the paper out. There was a drawing....
"You drew this for me?" Lizzie asked.
Mawu cursed. "Girl, is you always thinking about love?..." P.275, Wench, Perkins-Valdez.

The fact that Lizzie appreciates that small gesture (as you read on you will find its actually part of a grand gesture) of her friend taking time out to draw her a picture made me wonder: is this woman starved for love or is her capacity for love so large that she is sensitive to the little things? The same for Mawu too, that seems like a "takes one to know one" response.

Wench would make a good Lifetime network movie, or perhaps Oprah can produce it for OWN.  Peruse the spoilery, yet enticing, customer reviews for Wench on Amazon.com to see why: Wench: A Novel Perkins-Valdez

Dorothy Surrenders: Why so blue, pander bear?

Dorothy Surrenders: Why so blue, pander bear?: "Let us, for a moment, talk about pandering. What does it mean to pander, exactly? Well, our friends at Merriam Webster say it is “to provide..."

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I really enjoyed reading this post. While it's obviously about straight privilege, it is about more than that.... Minority representation in popular media is very near to my heart. I'm a viewer, not a mover & a shaker. As a minority viewer I know how marginalized and lonely it feels not to see aspects of myself reflected in the shows I watch or am interested in watching. As life moves on I've come to realize I'm not alone in the way I think and feel, nor am I inferior because of the way I look. However, it's still gives me a sense of "normalcy" to see positive images of others like me in some way on TV, imagine how I felt to see it as an unseasoned kid.

TV/Movies can be more diverse if The Powers That Be just gave the effort and/or if the mainstream audience stopped accepting whitewashed casts.

The Gate to Women's Country

Book: The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper


The Gate to Women's Country (TGWC)  is a complex & cunning story that takes a look at the motivations of women and men.

In a time about three hundred years after man and their weapons destroyed life as we know it, TGWC shows us how the survivor's descendants live by relating periods of Stavia's life. Stavia lives in a town where women and men live apart.  On their 5th birthday, boys are taken through the gate to live with their warrior fathers. On their 15th birthday, the boys choose whether to stay with their warrior fathers and become warriors or go back through the gate to women's country to become servitors (just as it sounds).  A majority of the boys stay with their warrior fathers (ex. 99 to 95 out of 100).

Much knowledge was lost after the great devastation so each women must devote her life to continuous learning. We find that the boys who return to be servitors are provided with an academic education, while the warriors aren't... the most they are provided with are romance novels to occupy and inspire them.
 
The Gate to Women's Country is told from three points of view:
1) a play, meant to be a satire of their society's past and present
2) Stavia in her Thirties
3) Stavia growing up, mainly ages ten, thirteen and early twenties

As we read about Stavia's life and read through the play we are made to understand the culture, norms and minds of men and women. We also get glimpses of the machinations employed to keep their civilization going.

Tepper lays sugar-less examples of how one woman can be coldly calculating yet caring, and vexingly stupid yet intelligent. While Tepper does portray well rounded men (smart, caring, protective and deadly when he needs to be) she makes us believe those men are rare. The other men are shown as the quintessential male chauvinists with belligerent and/or selfish natures. TGWC is not a man bashing book, but it's not man-friendly. It's not friendly to women either, although I am sure both sexes can see the truth in what is written.

In the end, when Stavia and the reader finally discover the reason for the subterfuge and machination in her society, I found I was highly impressed with the Women's Council (effectively the ruling body of Women's Country). Even with their "flaws" (read the book to find out exactly what they are) these women are dedicated to pursuing their goal.  A goal that will take generations of dedication, grit, and steel nerves to accomplish. It's not that the women have cold blood, they hurt from the ruthless decisions they have to make for the greater good, but through it all they keep their eyes on the prize. These women take one along with the team to eventually win the game.  The reason for the goal is laid throughout the whole book.

While I'm impressed with the women staying the course, I'm reminded of old man Warner from Shirley Jackson's The Lottery, "Seventy-seventh year I been in the lottery... Seventy-seventh time." As I said, their goal will take generations to accomplish, about a thousand years optimistically. The women making the hard decisions have to hand pick their fellow shot-callers and eventual successors. Three hundred years of pursuit so far and these women are still staying the course because they all believe it's for the greater good, just as old man Warner did. However, in reading The Lottery we find that the greater good is relative... is the greater good relative in The Gate to women's Country?

Fledgling

Book: Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler

I liked this book. In short, not one superfluous sentence or sentiment, got the point & feelings across, entertained you & made you care, just a great story. (I needed this after reading Mockingjay).

This may be the third book I've ever read about vampires. Aside from the usual lore; they drink blood, they can't survive in sunlight, & they live long, I think Butler mostly developed her own lore for Fledgling. At least I don't remember seeing it on TV.

One of the characters briefly mentioned a popular creation myths amongst the young vampires where vampires settled on Earth after immigrating from another planet. This statement reminded me of a short story in Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman, where frightened inhabitants made spaceships and expelled their vampire-like brethren from their home planet. I just thought that was pretty cool... almost as if Gaiman's story was reference material. Who is to say those expelled vampires didn't settle on Earth and founded Butler's breed of blood suckers?
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Now the main character, Shori, is 53 yrs old, but looks like a 10 yr old human girl. She has two more growth spurts to go through to look like a human adult. And she does some very adult things in this story. Blood sucking, ripping people apart, but it's the sex with the people she enthralls that squicks you out. Butler never gets graphic with that (this woman dispensed words like they cost money), but still.... At least Butler does the job of reminding you that you're reading about a 53 yr old fledgling vampire and not a young human girl.

Fledgling is a self contained story, but I can't help thinking that if Butler were still alive we would have gotten another book or two with Shori at other stages in her growth.

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While I'm on Octavia E. Butler, I'd like to recommend Parable of the Sower, Wildseed, and Mind of My Mind. Phenomenal stories. I can't write a review because I read them so long ago. Just trust me. Google them out of curiosity, at least. Butler's stories are golden.

Mockingjay

Book: Mockingjay by [Book Three of The Hunger Games Trilogy] by Susanne Collins.

Reading this book was a labor of love. Johanna said it best to Katniss, "... you're a little hard to swallow. With your tacky romance drama..." (Mockingjay, p220). The Peeta-Katniss-Gale triangle made my eyes roll. It must be how guys feel about the romance fodder in their action movies. I didn't mind it in the first two books but in Mockingjay Collins over did it on the amount of pages she dedicated to describing Katniss' feelings for Peeta, Gale, their relationships. And she didn't even convince me Katniss truly loved either. Sure there was fondness for the familiar Gale and lust for Peeta, but who did this girl really romantically love? I wasn't sold on either and having to read through all those pages was tedious.

Another turn off, and this one had me wanting to fling Mockingjay against a wall, were the copious pages (even more than was dedicated to the triangle) dedicated to Katniss' emotional breakdowns. OMG, epic length whining. From Katniss! The girl who wrote off her mother for falling into a depression when her father died. I liked the fact that in The Hunger Games and Catching Fire she was just a girl surviving on her wit and determination. She got knocked down, she used the two to keep it moving. In Mockingjay, Collins made her impotent; she barely did anything beyond snivel and mope. Now, I'm perfectly aware that each of her emotional breakdowns were warranted and I don't begrudge that. I just resent that fact that Collins had me read page after page of Katniss wallow in her self pity and barely get past it. I didn't sign on to read about the real life effects of post traumatic stress on soldiers. I signed on to watch Katniss be her original gansta self and kick some Capital ass.

Collins wrote a war story in Mockingjay filled with intrigue, and what upsets me is she highlighted and protracted the love triangle and the PTS and barely fleshed out the intrigue!  Especially the intrigue at the end! Where are my pages and pages relating Katniss' thoughts on her choice to use that final arrow on the person she did. What was written was just enough to keep the reader uproar to a minimum, but after reading all those useless pages on her love drama and emotional breakdowns, I'd like a little more.

And then Katniss' love triangle becomes a pair bond by default. A "he's there, so why not?" effort. I'm not really upset with this as it's the kind of calculated thing Katniss would do, at least it's in character. But it is annoying. If you read book 1 & 2, you come to realize Katniss is an infuriatingly hard girl. Pretty near coldblooded, but not quite. Couple that with the fact that I really don't believe she romantically loved either one of those boys, made me believe Katniss was going to pull a Haymitch and choose to spend her life alone. So Mockingjay's ending just doesn't ring true for me.  It felt like Collins just threw it in there as an after thought because she realized people needed some kind of resolution.

The final one third of Mockingjay felt rushed. Collins should've told her publisher (if they were rushing her) to wait, just wait. It's a sure thing we'll buy read the book. It's not a sure thing we'll like it. At least she would have done her best [Yes, I'm saying she couldve done better].

I almost wish I hadn't read Mockingjay, but after Catching Fire's cliffhanger I just Had To. 

Rue & Thresh's skin color

Book: The Hunger Games [Book One of The Hunger Games Trilogy] by Susanne Collins.


I read The Hunger Games trilogy not even a complete month ago after I heard they were planning a movie about a fierce heroine. I loved it! [Ahem, I loved The Hunger Games, Book I. I have issues with Mockingjay.] So I started to take an interest in the movie casting and came to find out some people didn't think Rue & Thresh were black. My eyebrows twitched. Here's an excerpt of an email I sent off to a friend about the subject. [Yes, I'm a lazy blogger.]

In the book some would say the author makes race vague. Well, I don't think so. Everybody's basically race-less until she specifically points out telling physical characteristics (i.e. blond hair, olive skin) and context clues. There are two characters, Rue & Thresh, who people are having issues w/ & which makes me really wonder about some people. Rue & Thresh are from the same district (let's say state or village). The girl, Rue, is described as having satiny dark brown skin and the boy, Thresh, is described to have the same dark brown skin as the girl. (Some say - they're white but tanned. If you want to be ignorant, go w/ that. If you want to invoke privilege, go with it). So the author goes on to describe the district they're from as being agricultural. This is basically the ruins of America. The district is close to Appalachia but in the south (so like Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi) not more than a day's train ride away, & hot. & basically describe slave-like conditions. Antebellum south correlation. C'mon!  Anyway, it turns out the slave-like conditions are basically at the whim of the peacekeeper in charge of the districts. Therefore, if that district had a sympathetic peacekeeper it wouldn't have been that horrible. But still, the author wrote it for a reason.  Anyway c'mon, google dark brown. It's not light skinned with a tan, you gotta be black or South Asian to be dark brown... or Egyptian or Samoan or Aborigine. But a whole district of South Asians et al in post-apocalypse America growing crops in the southeast, for real?!

 And don't even mention the "they could be Mexican" cop out to me. Again I say google dark brown & use your context clues.

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Below are some of those context clues. Quotes from The Hunger Games that highlight why I believe Rue & Thresh are black...or of African American decent if you will.
  
''One by one, we see the other reapings.... ...most hauntingly, a twelve-year-old girl from District 11. She has dark brown skin and eyes, but other than that, she's very like Prim in size and demeanor." The Hunger Games, pg 45, Susanne Collins.

"For the opening ceremonies, you're supposed to wear something that suggests your districts principal industry. District 11, agriculture." The Hunger Games, pg 66, Susanne Collins.

"...See the little girl from District 11 standing back a bit, watching us. She's the twelve-year-old, the one who reminds me so much of Prim in stature. Up close she looks about ten.  She has bright, dark eyes and satiny brown skin and stands tilted up on her toes with her arms slightly extended to her sides, as if ready to take wing at the slightest sound. It's impossible not to think of a bird. .... 'I think her name's Rue,' he says softly." The Hunger Games, pg 98 - 99, Susanne Collins.

"The boy tribute of District 11, Thresh, has the same dark skin as Rue, but the resemblance stops there. He's one of the giants, probably six and a half feet tall and built like an ox, but I noticed he rejected the invitation from the Career Tributes to join their crowd." The Hunger Games, pg 126, Susanne Collins.

Rue describes life in District 11; growing food but being punished for taking any.  pg 282 of The Hunger Games, Susanne Collins.

This is all moot now that Collins came out & said Rue & Thresh are from a district representative of the deep south and are indeed African American. I thought I'd post this anyway since I still see comments like "but the book didn't specifically say..." and at the time I was really annoyed.

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