4221: Moonlit Melee
This is basically a diatribe[?] about The Hunger Games, so [be warned.]be warned.
For those of you who aren't familiar with the setup for what reason [I could list some, but why], it's basically class warfare at its most extreme. Until someone proves otherwise by pointing out a more extreme version, but you know what I mean. Also, it pretends [in-universe] to NOT be class warfare but a gesture of the 1%'s "generosity" to the 99% by offering meager food in exchange for a greater chance of fighting twenty-three others to the death.
That's slightly oversimplified, but not by much.
So, the protagonist Katniss comes from District 12, which--I got the impression from the movie--is the "lowest" district, though it may just be that 10-12 were coincidentally the ghetto sections and not necessarily numbered by poverty level. What I've read so far in the book [two chapters] expands upon that by pointing out that starvation is a regular, covered-up cause of death. There are no soup kitchens, because the Capitol doesn't give anything for free, but in exchange for each ration of crude grain and oil [about a month's worth, IIRC], a 12- to 18-year-old child of a family may have his/her name entered an additional time* into the drawing for the reaping--the choosing of one boy and one girl from each district to be entered into the titular Hunger Games, where the last person standing is rewarded by having his/her district given... more rations, I guess.
*once at 12yo, twice at 13yo, three at 14, etc.
It's slightly less vulgar than it sounds, because the 24 "tributes" don't HAVE to fight--just be the last one alive--but some of the districts have a perverse sense of honour associated with the Games and specifically train the kids to kill.
Which brings me to what seems like a great[?] way to "game" the system: Volunteers take precedence over drafted tributes, so a district that can elect one boy and one girl volunteer can effectively milk the Capitol for rations with no additional consequence--after all, they have their tributes, don't they? Maybe this is addressed later, but it seems the only consequence is the whole "two kids have to choose to die" aspect, which isn't much of a difference from the perspective of the community [but the world to the specific kids].
On the whole, though, it's pretty much a dystopia, presented for its shock value and thinly-veiled metaphor [I'm assuming, but that might be my perspective], with little to no humour--the only parts of the movie that were remotely happy/pleasant were some of the scenes with Woody Harrelson/Haymitch Abernathy [they're basically the same, which makes sense that the director didn't have a second choice in mind]. And, I guess, Lenny Kravitz as a stylist was vaguely interesting but didn't MAKE the movie or anything.
C remembered [he said] to ask me whether it was worth seeing. In his case, I doubt it. Taste in mind, he didn't really like How to Train Your Dragon--and that was a cute movie--so I don't see what he would like about Hunger Gains [as opposed to Hunger Pains, which would still be only sorta worthwhile to those already familiar with the material]. The special effects weren't really even on par with Harry Potter, and I really hated the cinematography myself, so I'm not sure what would sell it to him. Even I have a hard time deciding if I like it--pretty much only reading the book because I already bought it and it fleshes out my thesis, and it's on my mind all the time primarily because it's the most recent thing that got shoved in there. Oh, and because it's a book about a sadistic level of control dangled over a helpless populace stomped down by the Elite--"we'll give you food if you offer your young for bloodsport." =p
Something I also noticed for my thesis: reading the book--unless you are a freak speedreader or otherwise killing yourself--gives you time to become attached to characters and have an image of them blossom in your mind...
...only to have that image destroyed by your racism. [If this is true, you can stop reading my LJ now and fuck off until you can stop being an asshole.]
I don't know if it's a "benefit" to have an image cemented in mind by seeing the movie first, but I can definitely read the book now and see, "I totally don't get what the issue was, except that a whitey white person was cast as a character with 'olive' skin." I think I was more disappointed in the casting of Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon, because I totally pictured James Spader when I read the book [even though neither really look like "Harrison Ford in Harris Tweed"], and even then at least his hair is kinda close.
More as I finish the book. Totally annoyed with The Pelican Brief [book is VERY wordy, think they made some good changes], but I won't get into that this late.
I also totally see why people love Manga Studio... for linework. Digital inking takes me a fraction of the time it takes in Photoshop--and looks better--but. But. If I want to do anything ELSE, it's a headache. I get that colouring won't be as nice because MS is about flat colours, but even just cut-pasting a bit of an image to another part of the image is miserably difficult and I don't know why--if it's the program or I just don't understand the GUI. So I pretty much draw, fumble with exporting the file, then fix it up all pretty-like in Photoshop. Naturally it would be nice to have a Mangashop Pro that merges all the things I like [including making animated GIFs], but OF COURSE that would be like a billion dollars if they sold it, eh?
For those of you who aren't familiar with the setup for what reason [I could list some, but why], it's basically class warfare at its most extreme. Until someone proves otherwise by pointing out a more extreme version, but you know what I mean. Also, it pretends [in-universe] to NOT be class warfare but a gesture of the 1%'s "generosity" to the 99% by offering meager food in exchange for a greater chance of fighting twenty-three others to the death.
That's slightly oversimplified, but not by much.
So, the protagonist Katniss comes from District 12, which--I got the impression from the movie--is the "lowest" district, though it may just be that 10-12 were coincidentally the ghetto sections and not necessarily numbered by poverty level. What I've read so far in the book [two chapters] expands upon that by pointing out that starvation is a regular, covered-up cause of death. There are no soup kitchens, because the Capitol doesn't give anything for free, but in exchange for each ration of crude grain and oil [about a month's worth, IIRC], a 12- to 18-year-old child of a family may have his/her name entered an additional time* into the drawing for the reaping--the choosing of one boy and one girl from each district to be entered into the titular Hunger Games, where the last person standing is rewarded by having his/her district given... more rations, I guess.
*once at 12yo, twice at 13yo, three at 14, etc.
It's slightly less vulgar than it sounds, because the 24 "tributes" don't HAVE to fight--just be the last one alive--but some of the districts have a perverse sense of honour associated with the Games and specifically train the kids to kill.
Which brings me to what seems like a great[?] way to "game" the system: Volunteers take precedence over drafted tributes, so a district that can elect one boy and one girl volunteer can effectively milk the Capitol for rations with no additional consequence--after all, they have their tributes, don't they? Maybe this is addressed later, but it seems the only consequence is the whole "two kids have to choose to die" aspect, which isn't much of a difference from the perspective of the community [but the world to the specific kids].
On the whole, though, it's pretty much a dystopia, presented for its shock value and thinly-veiled metaphor [I'm assuming, but that might be my perspective], with little to no humour--the only parts of the movie that were remotely happy/pleasant were some of the scenes with Woody Harrelson/Haymitch Abernathy [they're basically the same, which makes sense that the director didn't have a second choice in mind]. And, I guess, Lenny Kravitz as a stylist was vaguely interesting but didn't MAKE the movie or anything.
C remembered [he said] to ask me whether it was worth seeing. In his case, I doubt it. Taste in mind, he didn't really like How to Train Your Dragon--and that was a cute movie--so I don't see what he would like about Hunger Gains [as opposed to Hunger Pains, which would still be only sorta worthwhile to those already familiar with the material]. The special effects weren't really even on par with Harry Potter, and I really hated the cinematography myself, so I'm not sure what would sell it to him. Even I have a hard time deciding if I like it--pretty much only reading the book because I already bought it and it fleshes out my thesis, and it's on my mind all the time primarily because it's the most recent thing that got shoved in there. Oh, and because it's a book about a sadistic level of control dangled over a helpless populace stomped down by the Elite--"we'll give you food if you offer your young for bloodsport." =p
Something I also noticed for my thesis: reading the book--unless you are a freak speedreader or otherwise killing yourself--gives you time to become attached to characters and have an image of them blossom in your mind...
...only to have that image destroyed by your racism. [If this is true, you can stop reading my LJ now and fuck off until you can stop being an asshole.]
I don't know if it's a "benefit" to have an image cemented in mind by seeing the movie first, but I can definitely read the book now and see, "I totally don't get what the issue was, except that a whitey white person was cast as a character with 'olive' skin." I think I was more disappointed in the casting of Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon, because I totally pictured James Spader when I read the book [even though neither really look like "Harrison Ford in Harris Tweed"], and even then at least his hair is kinda close.
More as I finish the book. Totally annoyed with The Pelican Brief [book is VERY wordy, think they made some good changes], but I won't get into that this late.
I also totally see why people love Manga Studio... for linework. Digital inking takes me a fraction of the time it takes in Photoshop--and looks better--but. But. If I want to do anything ELSE, it's a headache. I get that colouring won't be as nice because MS is about flat colours, but even just cut-pasting a bit of an image to another part of the image is miserably difficult and I don't know why--if it's the program or I just don't understand the GUI. So I pretty much draw, fumble with exporting the file, then fix it up all pretty-like in Photoshop. Naturally it would be nice to have a Mangashop Pro that merges all the things I like [including making animated GIFs], but OF COURSE that would be like a billion dollars if they sold it, eh?