Two Reviews: The Hunger Games

I'm so far down the rabbit hole on this one I'm not sure I can really get into anything else until I'm "allowed" to get into the second part of this trilogy. Going from deciding this is a lame story for kids, to thinking about the characters and their motives while I'm raking leaves... seriously. So far down. But, despite this, I'm moving right along this month. I picked up the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins more out of curiosity than anything else. It seems like a lot of what I've been reading lately has not been planned! But, that's part of the fun.

The Hunger Games was written several years back but has become a huge hit and was made into a movie. I probably don't need to hype it up much more than that since Jennifer Lawrence has become a household name. This series was written for youth, but, it's surprisingly gruesome and violent (granted, that's up to your imagination) and gained a wide following. I finished reading the book in a work week. As usual, this fictional story took time to pull me in; it didn't take long though. Collins uses a first person present perspective through the eyes of the book's protagonist, Katniss Everdeen. Because of this style, she writes simply and to the point; we are in the mind of Katniss experiencing each moment as she is. This is not a story telling but rather, a live account of a character's life. We're brought into the story through the eyes and thoughts of Katniss.

The story is set in a dystopian future where the people live in Panem--the remnants of North America. The rich and advanced live in the Capitol, enslaving the surrounding districts by exploiting them for specific purposes. This keeps each of the districts in some sort of oppressed state where they live to provide and work for the citizens of the Capitol. We are provided little background about what happened for the world to arrive at this state of opposing wealth and extreme poverty.

I'm not sure if Collins had the intention to talk about specific themes in the book but my take of the primary theme is that it's a satire of reality television. The games themselves are staged and controlled in a way which the gamemakers analyze and create situations to improve ratings in the Capitol. Though all the districts are required to watch, not for entertainment but because they are forced to, in part of the punishment of their Treaty of Treason, the people of the Capitol watch purely for entertainment. They have no connection to the tributes whereas those in the districts are hoping that their tribute won't die. It's a matter of survival for those of the district and for fun, in the Capitol. The lives of those in the districts is hard and real whereas those living in the Capitol are seemingly frivolous and fake. Even in one part of the book, Katniss reflects about the absurd values that those in the Capitol have about appearance.

I couldn't read the book and not watch the movie--especially since it was released on Netflix. The movie was pretty true to the story of the book but as expected, could not capture the first person present perspective and as someone who read the book before watching the movie (never ever read the book AFTER watching the movie!), I found it shallow and lacking depth of character. In addition to this, the camera angles and styles the director chose was making me sick! I suspect it was done to capture the first person perspective of the action but I was eating dinner watching it and had to sit further away during chase scenes so I could keep my meal down.

Nevertheless, I am excited about the second installment of the trilogy and am anticipating my literary palette cleanser before falling back down the rabbit hole ;)

Yes! Harder!!!!

I went curling last weekend; for the first time. When I told my mom about it, she said she didn't get the game but that smart people must play since one of her very intelligent colleagues plays regularly. I didn't know what to expect but I kept thinking about a bunch of old people getting together to lunge a big round rock down a sheet of ice and then grabbing brooms to sweep... for fun. Didn't sound like that much fun, if you ask me.

The location was in Ajax at a Golf and Curling facility. It was my buddy Sam's birthday and he's curled while he was in school. Really, if you met Sam, I'm sure that curling would be on the bottom of your guessing list. He just doesn't strike one as such a person. Anyways, we get started and I learn about the "sheet"--which is the lane which we play in. Basically, the sheet has 2 ends that keep a graphic on the ground:

You start at the "hack" and lunge off with the rock in hand. You can aim your rock down the "centre line" with the aim to enter into the house--which is the big round target looking thing on the other end too. Imagine the image above, replicated and placed as a mirror image on the short side; that's a sheet. The objective is to get your team's rock(s) as close to the center of the target down the ice, as possible. The center is called the "house".

We play a few games and I'm really starting to enjoy it... my launches are too weak, too strong... I lose my balance during the launch. I sweep frantically on team member's turns and take a wipeout and keep warm by keeping busy. There's a good deal of strategy whereby your team will strategize the team member order, the rock placement objectives, calling the sweeping, angles, curl of the rock... phew! Lots to think about. I can see why my mom said that she thinks highly intelligent people enjoy the game... it requires lots of thinking and it isn't terribly (physically) demanding.

When our session ends, I am disappointed that we had to stop playing! I didn't expect to have much fun with it since I had the standard stereotype/bias in my head. Just goes to show, might as try anything once because I might just enjoy it!

Medieval Stronghold

While Settlers of Catan has been picking up in main stream popularity, I still have an old favourite which I got several years ago: Carcassonne. This set is produced by Rio Grande Games and they have some of the best (both quality of board and the actual game) I have come across. Sometimes a little pricey but this one is different everytime...

I've also taken up the French language and the last 2 lessons have been about the youth hostel in Carcassonne. It's a real place and the youth hostel there is a castle! One of the reasons I really love this game is that the board is different everytime and you can really screw over (or get screwed) other players. But like most games, the more the merrier.

I only have 2 expansions right now... but the series has more than a dozen.

Parrrrtay!

Everyone wants to go out and party it up at the latest social scene and schmooze with their friends and friends of friends and perhaps hook-up with some one else. *le sigh* I never cared much for this. I like to play games... my favourite party game is Cranium. I got the updated Canadian version during the boxing day sales. Yippie me!

Finally cracked this baby open to see what it's all about. Too bad I don't have 3 more people to play with... :(

4-letter spelling bee

I have amassed a small collection of games over the last several months. While I picked up a bunch of more nerdy type games, I also picked up some revamped favourites: Monopoly Deal and Scrabble SLAM.

Scrabble SLAM isn't by any means, a game that took a genius to create, nor one to play. It's fast to set up and even faster to get through 1 round. But, player beware! It's certainly a game that can get you really rilled up when you're playing with several others who might be as competitive as you are. It's definitely a game that'll pass the time for any type of player.

I decided to snap a still life of the game board with a low aperture and 1/10 (I think) shutter speed. This was possibly the clearest and sharpest photo I took. I used the prime 50 lens and was standing atop a chair. I really need to consider a tripod...