Bread and Circuses
02/04/2012 11:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaMany of the cafes that Izzie visits have little stands of free postcards. Most promote the work of up and coming artists who find it a useful way to get their work out there. Other are produced by various commercial or non profit group with an agenda with a means of getting their message across to a certain demographic. Even the political parties and federal government are not averse to using this cheapskate form of promotion
But recently the stands contained something unusual. Little black booklets with a pretty golden eagle on the cover and the invitation to read the first chapter of The Hunger Games before seeing the movie
Oh it will be interesting to see what all the fuss is about thinks the Izzie tossing one of these intriguing birdy booklets into the depths of the evil green bag along with assorted tarot decks
Like the title but had just assumed this was some Twilight teen saga about teenage girls on some sort of extreme makeover and dieting binge with a bit of Survivor tossed in for good measure
A bit frivolous and silly and not exactly this serpent’s cup of tea.
That was until a big blurb in the local weekend paper two weeks ago. There was a huge feature story on the sudden explosion of ‘Dystopian Fiction’ with “The Hunger Games” touted as the most extreme example
Now Izzie is a total Dystopia junkie and was all over this article looking for the latest greatest fix of gloom and doom
The rules of the game were explained and suddenly the serpent was sniffing out that little booklet gathering dust in the green bag
(Had to resort to copying and pasting from Wikipedia and Rotten Tomatoes since it was beyond Izzie’s capabilities to copy directly from pdf versions of the first chapter)
Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the Capitol of the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. A twisted punishment for a past uprising and an ongoing government intimidation tactic, The Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which "Tributes" must fight with one another until one survivor remains
The name of this imaginary new America arisen from the Ashes - Panem was in itself enough to raise suspicion. It was like seeing all the merchandise for the Potter movies in September 2001 before having read the books and noticing a certain three headed dog amongst the characters. There's more to this little tale than meets the eye
The Old Bakery Cafe seemed a suitable place to start with this little booklet. But when it closed it was time to move on up the hill to the very spooky Martyr’s Church with its old gum trees and tiny little grave yard and street of creepy houses. That was a most appropriate place to learn the rules and the history of The Hunger Games with the ominous words like Tributes and tesserae. Had encountered that word somewhere before. It had something to do with tiles and filing a plane with patterns or was that tesselation? Turns out they were related and turned out to be sort of tokens
When a citizen turns 12 years old, his or her name is automatically entered in the "reaping," a lottery from which the tributes are drawn. For every year until they turn 18, they are entered in one additional time. Since many families live in poverty, one may be able to receive additional tesserae (one person's meagre supply of grain and oil for a year) for each family member, in exchange for extra entries in the reaping. Therefore, for each tessera, one extra entry is placed in the reaping ball (these entries are cumulative, and are added every year.) For example, if a family has three members, a 12-year-old child could opt to take three extra tesserae: two for the two family members and one for themselves; thus their name would be entered four times (one is the required entry, and the extra three are for each member of the family). Since these accumulate, if the citizen keeps taking the extra tesserae yearly, they would have their names entered 20 times by the age of 16, 24 by the age of 17, and 28 times by the time they are 18.From Wikipedia
Got to thinking what a sick and twisted game and a stroke of evil genius. What an interesting expression of control freakery and rubbing people’s noses in their own misery.
This is ‘The Prisoner’s Dilemma’ on steroids
Also got to wondering how they could possibly make a mainstream movie of a ‘reality TV show’ where all these kids are killing each other without coming across as crass or totally tasteless.
At least this time would not have to hunt across the small print in search of a cinema where this particular movie was showing. It was everywhere and there was no need to wait till Tuesday for cheap tickets
Was amused to see how young some of the audience were and just how many of them were munching popcorn. Kind of thought that was just a bit out of keeping with the theme
Expected the two main characters to be much thinner but other than that had really no expectations. Was surprised that Effie Trinkett - Dolores Umbridge’s twin sister was wearing rather more purple than pink.
The whole reaping thing in the town square seemed suspiciously reminiscent of scenes from Schindler’s List. The only bit missing were the trains. Oh they did have plenty of cops but they looked more like storm troopers straight out of Star Wars than the SS sorts.
Two things stood out. The real creepiness was not the kids cutting each other to pieces but those awful talk show hosts and the colourful kitschy creeps in the Capitol. Did not think of looking but here’s betting that lots of them had big buckets of popcorn while watching the whole chariot parades and gladiatorial battles
The other impressive and interesting thing was how Katniss could win a game involving being the last survivor of 20 something contestants while remaining decent and maintaining her dignity but without being a complete Goodie Goodie Two Shoes Mary Sue
Watching from the wings and doing the hermit thing as the macho morons slashed each other to smithereens was an interesting tactic.
Especially amusing were the scenes when the contestants had to strut their stuff in front of the assorted glitterati in an attempt to get ratings and sponsorship. This is literally a matter of life and death for them. So they go showing off their assorted talents while the frivolous freaks are too busy pigging out on the feasts to even bother watching the contestants’ efforts. The protagonist got pretty peeved at their complete indifference and took aim at the centre piece of their feast - a large roast pig with an apple in its mouth. Now that certainly got their attention
The slime balls suddenly sit up and take notice. Katniss smiles at them and says
“Thank you for your consideration”
Said it all really.
The creepy crawlies running the show were not content with having the kids kill each other, they had to play mind games with them as well.
They went and changed the rules half way through the game and then back again at the end when only two contestants were left
Was reminded so often of Cedric and Harry in The Goblet of Fire. Instead of both contestants sharing the prize together against expectations, they both chose to decline and would have trashed 70 something years of terrible tradition.
Seeing through this nasty little scheme and denying them their victory by refusing to play by the rules and going down together was a wonderful two fingers up to that creepy crawling bearded game show freak.
Just betting that little act of rebellion has pissed off a whole bunch of bright and shiny slime balls so the serpent is just going to have to queue at the local library to see what happens next
But recently the stands contained something unusual. Little black booklets with a pretty golden eagle on the cover and the invitation to read the first chapter of The Hunger Games before seeing the movie
Oh it will be interesting to see what all the fuss is about thinks the Izzie tossing one of these intriguing birdy booklets into the depths of the evil green bag along with assorted tarot decks
Like the title but had just assumed this was some Twilight teen saga about teenage girls on some sort of extreme makeover and dieting binge with a bit of Survivor tossed in for good measure
A bit frivolous and silly and not exactly this serpent’s cup of tea.
That was until a big blurb in the local weekend paper two weeks ago. There was a huge feature story on the sudden explosion of ‘Dystopian Fiction’ with “The Hunger Games” touted as the most extreme example
Now Izzie is a total Dystopia junkie and was all over this article looking for the latest greatest fix of gloom and doom
The rules of the game were explained and suddenly the serpent was sniffing out that little booklet gathering dust in the green bag
(Had to resort to copying and pasting from Wikipedia and Rotten Tomatoes since it was beyond Izzie’s capabilities to copy directly from pdf versions of the first chapter)
Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the Capitol of the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. A twisted punishment for a past uprising and an ongoing government intimidation tactic, The Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which "Tributes" must fight with one another until one survivor remains
The name of this imaginary new America arisen from the Ashes - Panem was in itself enough to raise suspicion. It was like seeing all the merchandise for the Potter movies in September 2001 before having read the books and noticing a certain three headed dog amongst the characters. There's more to this little tale than meets the eye
The Old Bakery Cafe seemed a suitable place to start with this little booklet. But when it closed it was time to move on up the hill to the very spooky Martyr’s Church with its old gum trees and tiny little grave yard and street of creepy houses. That was a most appropriate place to learn the rules and the history of The Hunger Games with the ominous words like Tributes and tesserae. Had encountered that word somewhere before. It had something to do with tiles and filing a plane with patterns or was that tesselation? Turns out they were related and turned out to be sort of tokens
When a citizen turns 12 years old, his or her name is automatically entered in the "reaping," a lottery from which the tributes are drawn. For every year until they turn 18, they are entered in one additional time. Since many families live in poverty, one may be able to receive additional tesserae (one person's meagre supply of grain and oil for a year) for each family member, in exchange for extra entries in the reaping. Therefore, for each tessera, one extra entry is placed in the reaping ball (these entries are cumulative, and are added every year.) For example, if a family has three members, a 12-year-old child could opt to take three extra tesserae: two for the two family members and one for themselves; thus their name would be entered four times (one is the required entry, and the extra three are for each member of the family). Since these accumulate, if the citizen keeps taking the extra tesserae yearly, they would have their names entered 20 times by the age of 16, 24 by the age of 17, and 28 times by the time they are 18.From Wikipedia
Got to thinking what a sick and twisted game and a stroke of evil genius. What an interesting expression of control freakery and rubbing people’s noses in their own misery.
This is ‘The Prisoner’s Dilemma’ on steroids
Also got to wondering how they could possibly make a mainstream movie of a ‘reality TV show’ where all these kids are killing each other without coming across as crass or totally tasteless.
At least this time would not have to hunt across the small print in search of a cinema where this particular movie was showing. It was everywhere and there was no need to wait till Tuesday for cheap tickets
Was amused to see how young some of the audience were and just how many of them were munching popcorn. Kind of thought that was just a bit out of keeping with the theme
Expected the two main characters to be much thinner but other than that had really no expectations. Was surprised that Effie Trinkett - Dolores Umbridge’s twin sister was wearing rather more purple than pink.
The whole reaping thing in the town square seemed suspiciously reminiscent of scenes from Schindler’s List. The only bit missing were the trains. Oh they did have plenty of cops but they looked more like storm troopers straight out of Star Wars than the SS sorts.
Two things stood out. The real creepiness was not the kids cutting each other to pieces but those awful talk show hosts and the colourful kitschy creeps in the Capitol. Did not think of looking but here’s betting that lots of them had big buckets of popcorn while watching the whole chariot parades and gladiatorial battles
The other impressive and interesting thing was how Katniss could win a game involving being the last survivor of 20 something contestants while remaining decent and maintaining her dignity but without being a complete Goodie Goodie Two Shoes Mary Sue
Watching from the wings and doing the hermit thing as the macho morons slashed each other to smithereens was an interesting tactic.
Especially amusing were the scenes when the contestants had to strut their stuff in front of the assorted glitterati in an attempt to get ratings and sponsorship. This is literally a matter of life and death for them. So they go showing off their assorted talents while the frivolous freaks are too busy pigging out on the feasts to even bother watching the contestants’ efforts. The protagonist got pretty peeved at their complete indifference and took aim at the centre piece of their feast - a large roast pig with an apple in its mouth. Now that certainly got their attention
The slime balls suddenly sit up and take notice. Katniss smiles at them and says
“Thank you for your consideration”
Said it all really.
The creepy crawlies running the show were not content with having the kids kill each other, they had to play mind games with them as well.
They went and changed the rules half way through the game and then back again at the end when only two contestants were left
Was reminded so often of Cedric and Harry in The Goblet of Fire. Instead of both contestants sharing the prize together against expectations, they both chose to decline and would have trashed 70 something years of terrible tradition.
Seeing through this nasty little scheme and denying them their victory by refusing to play by the rules and going down together was a wonderful two fingers up to that creepy crawling bearded game show freak.
Just betting that little act of rebellion has pissed off a whole bunch of bright and shiny slime balls so the serpent is just going to have to queue at the local library to see what happens next
