Why would a robot need to drink?
Reminder: I'm making a few different offers over at help_pakistan: a 500-word ficlet, a 1500-word fic, and three cookie-ficlet combo packs.
DC, I am fond of you: Last week was Restaurant Week, and
redbrickrose and I went to Acadiana, which was amaaaaaazing, and while it's a bit pricey for regular visits, you can totally make a meal out of the much-cheaper appetizers (seriously, I got soup, and figured it'd be a little cup with four spoonfuls in it, but instead got a full-size bowl, and was so full I wasn't able to eat more than half my entree) or split an entree, and then you have room for dessert, too, which is good, because the desserts are freaking magical. Plus they have great Happy Hour deals, and seeing as it's about three blocks from
redbrickrose's apartment I suspect we will be taking advantage of those deals not infrequently.
But even more excitingly, this week is Beer Week! The two of us went to a place near Nats Stadium, Justin's, which was doing a deal where for $10 you got a pint of beer and a slice of pie. The beer was delicious and the pie was delicious, but the combination I got -- a very hoppy beer and banana cream pie -- was terrible, which was tragic. Ah well, it was in the name of science. The science of finding out what beers go with what kind of pies. And now I can all share my wisdom with you: don't mix banana cream pie and hoppy beer. You're welcome. They also have good Happy Hour deals, too, so that's another one I suspect I'll be spending more time at in the future; it was a really nice little place with excellent food and really good beer.
If I don't laugh I will be filled with rage: In more local news, the Tea Party is in town this weekend. The warnings they have issued their members about what Metro lines to stay off of are amazing (why are they taking the Metro at all, anyway? Isn't using public transportation basically funding further socialist nonsense like infrastructure?). Yes, you all need to stay off the Green Line and out of Southeast; I totally felt like I was in horrible danger wandering around last night and surrounded by scary office buildings and apartment buildings, in a bar full of middle-class professionals having a drink after work, young couples out for dinner and Beer Week specials, and bros killing time before heading over to the stadium for the Nats-Cubs game. It was like being in a war zone. The three beers I had were to get over the trauma.
Books: I read Mockingjay! Okay, let me start with this: when I finished The Hunger Games, I was actually really reluctant to pick up the second one, because the narrative of the Games was so central to the first one, and now that the Games were over I couldn't see how that theme of narrative and how it's created could be tied in as well in the next book. It was going to be all rebellion and love triangles, blah, boring. But then there was the tour! And the Celebrity Hunger Games Quell! And the rebellion was addressed, but tied very tightly to the themes of narrative-creation and polics as acted out by, on, and for the public. It was fantastic, and very successful as a continuation of the first book.
Alas, however, there were no Games in this one, and I doubt it's a coincidence that this one, without the central device of the Hunger Games, is also the weakest in terms of dealing with those themes. They're there, with the camera crews and stagings of battles and costuming (also I'm totally not bitter that Cinna is dead instead of just beaten and then rescued with the rest of the victors/Katniss's prep team, NO THAT'S A LIE I TOTALLY AM, CINNA I LOVE YOU SO MUCH), but they're nowhere near as important, and therefore nowhere near as interesting. And the elements are there, because it's propaganda, there's so much opportunity to tie in, again, the themes of narrative-creation and politics as acted out by, on, and for the public, but I just feel like it isn't done as successfully, maybe -- probably -- because the rebellion, rather than those themes, is the central focus and driving force of the story.
I was not particularly invested in the "who will Katniss end up with" question to begin with, so I had no strong feelings about its being Peeta. The Katniss-Gale split, though...like, I think the groundwork was laid briefly in the first book, with the mentions of how, in the woods, Gale would rail and wax revolutionary against the Capital, but it wasn't adressed much there and it wasn't (that I remember) addressed at all in the second, so while it worked, kind of, it still seemed to come out of nowhere, and basically I felt like the groundwork for that hadn't been laid very well.
Ditto the whole Coin-Katniss thing. It was really interesting and had the potential to be awesome, but the bit where Peeta showed up and all of a sudden Katniss is assuming that Coin wants her dead felt, again, really out of nowhere. And the stunt resulting in Prim's death, again, felt like it came out of nowhere (ALSO SERIOUSLY, WTF, KILLING OFF PRIM WAS SO FUCKING CHEAP, okay I am unreasonably upset about this, probably, because I have SUCH a thing about older siblings and I do think Prim's death worked, but its circumstances seemed to spring up from nowhere, see below).
Basically, there were a lot of things going on where the seeds had been sown for them, absolutely, but we'd seen nothing of those seeds sprouting and growing, being fertilized and weeded and pruned -- just all of a sudden Collins hands you a basket full of apples, and you're like, "wait, where the fuck did these apples come from? last I knew we were just planting the seeds." Only the apples are Katniss assassinating the rebel leader and new President of Panem, and Katniss and Gale becoming estranged, and Prim being killed in what was actually a rebel stunt. Basically there were pacing problems (the last few chapters felt extremely rushed) and it was very clumsily written compared to the previous two.
Also, TBH, I came out of the book wanting Katniss to get together with Johanna or Annie more than anything else. Someone should totally write those fics. Or a threesome! Or Katniss and/or Annie as companion(s) to the Doctor. I'm just putting that out there.
The last couple of paragraphs totally got me teary, though. Trauma and surviving it, having a fulfilling and happy life even if you'll never really be free of the nightmares and the scars, are such a button of mine, and something about the phrasing of the end of the one paragraph and the beginning of the next, "I'll tell them how I survive" or whatever line it was, just got me right in the heart. So that was a good note to end on.
TL;DR: it was a decent conclusion, and I don't think I was really disappointed -- I enjoyed it, certainly -- but it was nowhere near as gut-punchingly stunning as the previous two. Maybe if it'd been a four-book series instead of a trilogy?
Less serious conversion news: I filled out my Leave Request form for Rosh Hashanah today! I am kind of considering photocopying the form to keep in my folder of other conversion stuff, the first time I took a holiday off for religious reason.
Originally posted at Dreamwidth.
comments; reply here or there with your DW username or OpenID.
DC, I am fond of you: Last week was Restaurant Week, and
redbrickrose and I went to Acadiana, which was amaaaaaazing, and while it's a bit pricey for regular visits, you can totally make a meal out of the much-cheaper appetizers (seriously, I got soup, and figured it'd be a little cup with four spoonfuls in it, but instead got a full-size bowl, and was so full I wasn't able to eat more than half my entree) or split an entree, and then you have room for dessert, too, which is good, because the desserts are freaking magical. Plus they have great Happy Hour deals, and seeing as it's about three blocks from
redbrickrose's apartment I suspect we will be taking advantage of those deals not infrequently.
But even more excitingly, this week is Beer Week! The two of us went to a place near Nats Stadium, Justin's, which was doing a deal where for $10 you got a pint of beer and a slice of pie. The beer was delicious and the pie was delicious, but the combination I got -- a very hoppy beer and banana cream pie -- was terrible, which was tragic. Ah well, it was in the name of science. The science of finding out what beers go with what kind of pies. And now I can all share my wisdom with you: don't mix banana cream pie and hoppy beer. You're welcome. They also have good Happy Hour deals, too, so that's another one I suspect I'll be spending more time at in the future; it was a really nice little place with excellent food and really good beer.
If I don't laugh I will be filled with rage: In more local news, the Tea Party is in town this weekend. The warnings they have issued their members about what Metro lines to stay off of are amazing (why are they taking the Metro at all, anyway? Isn't using public transportation basically funding further socialist nonsense like infrastructure?). Yes, you all need to stay off the Green Line and out of Southeast; I totally felt like I was in horrible danger wandering around last night and surrounded by scary office buildings and apartment buildings, in a bar full of middle-class professionals having a drink after work, young couples out for dinner and Beer Week specials, and bros killing time before heading over to the stadium for the Nats-Cubs game. It was like being in a war zone. The three beers I had were to get over the trauma.
Books: I read Mockingjay! Okay, let me start with this: when I finished The Hunger Games, I was actually really reluctant to pick up the second one, because the narrative of the Games was so central to the first one, and now that the Games were over I couldn't see how that theme of narrative and how it's created could be tied in as well in the next book. It was going to be all rebellion and love triangles, blah, boring. But then there was the tour! And the Celebrity Hunger Games Quell! And the rebellion was addressed, but tied very tightly to the themes of narrative-creation and polics as acted out by, on, and for the public. It was fantastic, and very successful as a continuation of the first book.
Alas, however, there were no Games in this one, and I doubt it's a coincidence that this one, without the central device of the Hunger Games, is also the weakest in terms of dealing with those themes. They're there, with the camera crews and stagings of battles and costuming (also I'm totally not bitter that Cinna is dead instead of just beaten and then rescued with the rest of the victors/Katniss's prep team, NO THAT'S A LIE I TOTALLY AM, CINNA I LOVE YOU SO MUCH), but they're nowhere near as important, and therefore nowhere near as interesting. And the elements are there, because it's propaganda, there's so much opportunity to tie in, again, the themes of narrative-creation and politics as acted out by, on, and for the public, but I just feel like it isn't done as successfully, maybe -- probably -- because the rebellion, rather than those themes, is the central focus and driving force of the story.
I was not particularly invested in the "who will Katniss end up with" question to begin with, so I had no strong feelings about its being Peeta. The Katniss-Gale split, though...like, I think the groundwork was laid briefly in the first book, with the mentions of how, in the woods, Gale would rail and wax revolutionary against the Capital, but it wasn't adressed much there and it wasn't (that I remember) addressed at all in the second, so while it worked, kind of, it still seemed to come out of nowhere, and basically I felt like the groundwork for that hadn't been laid very well.
Ditto the whole Coin-Katniss thing. It was really interesting and had the potential to be awesome, but the bit where Peeta showed up and all of a sudden Katniss is assuming that Coin wants her dead felt, again, really out of nowhere. And the stunt resulting in Prim's death, again, felt like it came out of nowhere (ALSO SERIOUSLY, WTF, KILLING OFF PRIM WAS SO FUCKING CHEAP, okay I am unreasonably upset about this, probably, because I have SUCH a thing about older siblings and I do think Prim's death worked, but its circumstances seemed to spring up from nowhere, see below).
Basically, there were a lot of things going on where the seeds had been sown for them, absolutely, but we'd seen nothing of those seeds sprouting and growing, being fertilized and weeded and pruned -- just all of a sudden Collins hands you a basket full of apples, and you're like, "wait, where the fuck did these apples come from? last I knew we were just planting the seeds." Only the apples are Katniss assassinating the rebel leader and new President of Panem, and Katniss and Gale becoming estranged, and Prim being killed in what was actually a rebel stunt. Basically there were pacing problems (the last few chapters felt extremely rushed) and it was very clumsily written compared to the previous two.
Also, TBH, I came out of the book wanting Katniss to get together with Johanna or Annie more than anything else. Someone should totally write those fics. Or a threesome! Or Katniss and/or Annie as companion(s) to the Doctor. I'm just putting that out there.
The last couple of paragraphs totally got me teary, though. Trauma and surviving it, having a fulfilling and happy life even if you'll never really be free of the nightmares and the scars, are such a button of mine, and something about the phrasing of the end of the one paragraph and the beginning of the next, "I'll tell them how I survive" or whatever line it was, just got me right in the heart. So that was a good note to end on.
TL;DR: it was a decent conclusion, and I don't think I was really disappointed -- I enjoyed it, certainly -- but it was nowhere near as gut-punchingly stunning as the previous two. Maybe if it'd been a four-book series instead of a trilogy?
Less serious conversion news: I filled out my Leave Request form for Rosh Hashanah today! I am kind of considering photocopying the form to keep in my folder of other conversion stuff, the first time I took a holiday off for religious reason.
Originally posted at Dreamwidth.
comments; reply here or there with your DW username or OpenID.