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 ;)

Light Your Way Out of Disaster!

Disaster preparedness is something that has been on my mind for some time now. Toronto is one of the most stable areas of the world to live in, but hey… you never know! For those of you who remember, there was the Great Blackout of 2003 when most of the North Eastern North American continent was without power for a few days. And just recently, Toronto had a freak rainstorm that resulted in some severe flooding and no power for several days in some parts of the city.

I’ll admit that I also have a bit of a fascination with post-apocalyptic settings and there is some influence there… Nevertheless, it’s never a bad idea to be prepared! There may come a day when you’re clamouring to join me for a meal of freeze dried mac and cheese. Then we’ll see who’s laughing!…

Anyways, so I have decided to prepare for an emergency disaster and will document the progress of what I will be calling “Operation: Armageddon Outta Here”.  Hopefully there will be regular updates, because that means the next time disaster strikes, I’ll be ready.

First order of business is light. For that, I am prepared with an arsenal of flashlights and batteries.

As you can see, not only do I have several flashlights available, I also have several types of flashlights. From left to right:

- LED headlamp with red light. This is very handy for when you need both hands. Also, the red light feature is nice because it lights up the area in front of you enough for you to see, but it won’t blind you and reduce your night vision too much

- This neat flashlight was gifted to me by Deb. Why is it neat you ask? Because it doesn’t need batteries! You just shake it and it’s good to go. Very handy for longer blackout periods as the batteries run out

- The mag lights. Big one to light up the way and smash things if necessary. Small ones are just convenient and easy to carry.

I have these stored away in two separate locations that I can reach easily so that if the power does go out, I don’t have to go look for them.

It’s not like I’m afraid of the dark, but I’m sure everyone has been in a blackout before and it really sucks to stub your toe and bang your knee on things you can’t see – basically it’s hard to do anything without light. So go get a flashlight or three if you don’t have them already and make sure you have spare batteries for them or, better yet, get a flashlight that doesn’t need batteries!