Book/DVD Recs: Not for the Faint of Heart Edition
Sunday, September 5th, 2010 08:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
retsukoJin and Mugen pretty much sum up my reaction to the works below, although I'm not quite as appalled as they are. :)
In Books:
Night Child & A Flash of Hex, by Jes Battis: It's a pleasure to read a series of books set in a city I know well, and Battis has a light touch with his descriptions of Vancouver. For me, mentions of the Downtown East Side and Kitsilano are more than name-dropping and his descriptions of the neighborhoods are spot on; for a reader unfamiliar with the city, the same descriptions are never labored or distracting. The concept for these books (occult CSI!) sounded cheesy at the outset, but it works well, and I like the main characters very much. Science and magic mix very, very well in these books, and it's clear that Battis has done his homework on crime scene investigation techniques. It all pays off in a very neat, exciting package. New readers should beware, though: the descriptions of the gore in these pages spare no expense. (The violence is never sexualized and the main character's reaction to it is often what I suspect mine would be, given the circumstances.) Still, the gore's not the major part of the plot, and the rest of the books are well worth the read.
Catching Fire & Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins: OMG.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
orichalcum warned me about the ending of this, but I still wasn't prepared for the sheer amount of... for lack of a better word, mindfuck, and spent about five minutes after I finished Mockingjay crying on yebisu9's shoulder. (Somewhat to his consternation.) I mean... jebus. Seriously? It was one thing after another for the last half of the final installment, and each thing was worse than the last.
Let's start with the good stuff: I am highly, highly impressed with Collins' ability to maintain a sense of urgency and suspense through all three books, and in fact, still have enough leftover at the end to considerably ramp up the stakes to nail-biting, can't-put-this-down-must-finish-book-NOW levels. And I liked the way that no characters got lost in the shuffle, despite a large and diverse cast with shifting loyalties and circumstances. And I appreciate that I was almost always on the heroine's side, at least 90% of the time, although there are several things I would have handled very differently from her at the end.
The ending is, of course, is where things really go haywire, for the plot, and for our heroine, and pretty much for everyone else involved. I was unprepared for the slew of character deaths and for the amount of violence that lead to them, and I was completely gobsmacked by some of the lengths the "good" side was willing to go to in order to win. (Morals? We don't need no stinking morals!) These books contain some of the most powerful arguments in favor of pacifism I've ever read, and a scathing indictment of those who believe "the end justifies the means".
But there is the transformation of the heroine to contend with, and this is where the troubling material really starts. (Although Gale's increasingly aggressive interest in death traps and military tactics did not sit well with me throughout much of Book 3.) Katniss is transformed in the course of the three books, from shy country tomboy/country girl to reality TV star and killing machine, and then to firebrand for a rebellion to soldier who thinks nothing of shooting an unarmed woman. If anything, these stories are sobering reminders that those who allow themselves to be remade (in the name of whatever cause, whichever side) often find themselves undone and unrecognizable to themselves, friends, and loved ones afterwards. (This idea is taken to drastic extremes in the case of Peeta, brainwashed by the Capitol, and murderous towards Katniss for far too long.) Is Katniss just a pawn in these games, or do her final acts show some semblance of agency after what is arguably an experience of living hell? There is a tremendous amount of information she does not know: about the rebellion and its leaders, their backgrounds and motives. Perhaps Katniss would have been a stronger character if she'd realized the importance of this knowledge and made some attempt to gain it... and then perhaps the books would have been very different beasts, then, much more political and chesslike than the action of the final half. But she does make use of the knowledge she finally gains and makes a crucial decision, one that obviously transforms her fate.
My major problem with the ending has to do with Katniss' choice about the final Hunger Games for the Capitol children. I cannot believe that she, of all people, would vote to let these things happen again, even if it's only for a "one last time, for vengeance!" deal. I don't think that that a character who's experienced what she has would allow other children to be hurt in the same way. It doesn't sit right or well with me.
Spoiler-y discussion aside, I can say that I really did enjoy these books, and I do recommend them to all and sundry. They're shelved in Young Adult, but these are books for very mature young adults, and I see no reason why adults won't gain from reading these as well. I only hope now that rumors of a feature film vanish. There is no way to make this movie and do the book justice, not without an R rating, which will bar the much-sought-after kid audience. Honestly? I'm not sure I want to see it in movie form anyway.
On DVD:
Dexter, Season 4: Not since I read Graceling (by Kristin Cashore, last blogged about here) have I wanted a villain to die quite as much as I did when we watched this season. And it's a testament to all of the actors involved in the show that I cared as much about all of the characters as I did. Having said that, I knew a MAJOR SPOILER going into this season, and watching the show with that knowledge in mind certainly changed the experience. Anticipating character death is never fun, and it ended up that I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop the whole damn season. Which, in turn, made certain scenes unintentionally more poignant for me, while others sounded ironic and funny, even though they were obviously not intended to be that way. It's a strange thing to do, and I kept reminding myself that said SPOILER was not the be-all and end-all of the series... which worked only some of the time.
More on the actors: John Lithgow is absolutely, horrifically mesmerizing. His performance was like watching someone pull a large band-aid off slowly, hair by hair, revealing more and more of a festering, diseased wound underneath. As I before, by the end of the season, I felt like going into the show myself and shooting him, just to make the character stop. Lithgow fully deserves the Emmy, and I wish him well. As for the character... well, he's not around anymore. And that is good.
The second-tier characters also have their moments in the sun, including Deborah's recovery from yet another setback (if any of the characters besides Dexter deserves a damn break, it's her), Masuka's genuine confusion over a moral dilemma, and Angel and La Guerta's slippery, changing, and ultimately touching relationship. In thinking about whether I'm willing to watch another season of this show, they're the ones make the decision for me, which is a pretty firm yes.
On reading/watching disturbing material, in general: A while back, when I was in a very depressed state, I obsessively read Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville, which is a book that I really, really love, despite its very disturbing imagery and plot. (My bargain with myself at the time was that I would read the book anywhere but in my bedroom, lest the images take root in my dreams.) When I mentioned the book to my therapist at the time, she got that "concerned therapist face" on, and suggested that perhaps I shouldn't read disturbing material when I was trying to sort out my mental turmoil. "But it's so good!" I protested. And that's what I find with the books and TV shows above: they're disturbing as all get out, but they're too damned captivating to put down. There's a thin line between escapism and fetishizing a dark mental state, and I like to think I know myself well enough to realize when I have to put a book down/turn the TV off. But there's a strange thing that I notice lately, which is my genuine interest in said dark/disturbing material. I suppose part of this is my brain wanting examples of how best to deal with bad situations so that I can cherry pick solutions and coping strategies. But another part of it involves perspective. You'd think that just looking around or watching the news would provide that: there's bad crap going on all over the world, but seen through the two-minute news bite, it's way too big to comprehend. Books and TV episodes provide me with enough depth to develop these ideas, but in a finite package, and perspective, when presented that way, is more easily digestible. My life may have scary challenges, but at least I don't have a Dark Passenger goading me into murder, or life and death choices presented to me every thirty seconds in an arena of death for the sake of a government-sponsored reality show. I couldn't articulate this my therapist at the time, but I firmly believe I'm not doing anything unhealthy by seeking these things out, then or now.
That said, my next book choice will definitely involve happy puppies and no one getting hurt. ^-^;;
In Books:
Night Child & A Flash of Hex, by Jes Battis: It's a pleasure to read a series of books set in a city I know well, and Battis has a light touch with his descriptions of Vancouver. For me, mentions of the Downtown East Side and Kitsilano are more than name-dropping and his descriptions of the neighborhoods are spot on; for a reader unfamiliar with the city, the same descriptions are never labored or distracting. The concept for these books (occult CSI!) sounded cheesy at the outset, but it works well, and I like the main characters very much. Science and magic mix very, very well in these books, and it's clear that Battis has done his homework on crime scene investigation techniques. It all pays off in a very neat, exciting package. New readers should beware, though: the descriptions of the gore in these pages spare no expense. (The violence is never sexualized and the main character's reaction to it is often what I suspect mine would be, given the circumstances.) Still, the gore's not the major part of the plot, and the rest of the books are well worth the read.
Catching Fire & Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins: OMG.
orichalcum warned me about the ending of this, but I still wasn't prepared for the sheer amount of... for lack of a better word, mindfuck, and spent about five minutes after I finished Mockingjay crying on yebisu9's shoulder. (Somewhat to his consternation.) I mean... jebus. Seriously? It was one thing after another for the last half of the final installment, and each thing was worse than the last.Let's start with the good stuff: I am highly, highly impressed with Collins' ability to maintain a sense of urgency and suspense through all three books, and in fact, still have enough leftover at the end to considerably ramp up the stakes to nail-biting, can't-put-this-down-must-finish-book-NOW levels. And I liked the way that no characters got lost in the shuffle, despite a large and diverse cast with shifting loyalties and circumstances. And I appreciate that I was almost always on the heroine's side, at least 90% of the time, although there are several things I would have handled very differently from her at the end.
The ending is, of course, is where things really go haywire, for the plot, and for our heroine, and pretty much for everyone else involved. I was unprepared for the slew of character deaths and for the amount of violence that lead to them, and I was completely gobsmacked by some of the lengths the "good" side was willing to go to in order to win. (Morals? We don't need no stinking morals!) These books contain some of the most powerful arguments in favor of pacifism I've ever read, and a scathing indictment of those who believe "the end justifies the means".
But there is the transformation of the heroine to contend with, and this is where the troubling material really starts. (Although Gale's increasingly aggressive interest in death traps and military tactics did not sit well with me throughout much of Book 3.) Katniss is transformed in the course of the three books, from shy country tomboy/country girl to reality TV star and killing machine, and then to firebrand for a rebellion to soldier who thinks nothing of shooting an unarmed woman. If anything, these stories are sobering reminders that those who allow themselves to be remade (in the name of whatever cause, whichever side) often find themselves undone and unrecognizable to themselves, friends, and loved ones afterwards. (This idea is taken to drastic extremes in the case of Peeta, brainwashed by the Capitol, and murderous towards Katniss for far too long.) Is Katniss just a pawn in these games, or do her final acts show some semblance of agency after what is arguably an experience of living hell? There is a tremendous amount of information she does not know: about the rebellion and its leaders, their backgrounds and motives. Perhaps Katniss would have been a stronger character if she'd realized the importance of this knowledge and made some attempt to gain it... and then perhaps the books would have been very different beasts, then, much more political and chesslike than the action of the final half. But she does make use of the knowledge she finally gains and makes a crucial decision, one that obviously transforms her fate.
My major problem with the ending has to do with Katniss' choice about the final Hunger Games for the Capitol children. I cannot believe that she, of all people, would vote to let these things happen again, even if it's only for a "one last time, for vengeance!" deal. I don't think that that a character who's experienced what she has would allow other children to be hurt in the same way. It doesn't sit right or well with me.
Spoiler-y discussion aside, I can say that I really did enjoy these books, and I do recommend them to all and sundry. They're shelved in Young Adult, but these are books for very mature young adults, and I see no reason why adults won't gain from reading these as well. I only hope now that rumors of a feature film vanish. There is no way to make this movie and do the book justice, not without an R rating, which will bar the much-sought-after kid audience. Honestly? I'm not sure I want to see it in movie form anyway.
On DVD:
Dexter, Season 4: Not since I read Graceling (by Kristin Cashore, last blogged about here) have I wanted a villain to die quite as much as I did when we watched this season. And it's a testament to all of the actors involved in the show that I cared as much about all of the characters as I did. Having said that, I knew a MAJOR SPOILER going into this season, and watching the show with that knowledge in mind certainly changed the experience. Anticipating character death is never fun, and it ended up that I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop the whole damn season. Which, in turn, made certain scenes unintentionally more poignant for me, while others sounded ironic and funny, even though they were obviously not intended to be that way. It's a strange thing to do, and I kept reminding myself that said SPOILER was not the be-all and end-all of the series... which worked only some of the time.
More on the actors: John Lithgow is absolutely, horrifically mesmerizing. His performance was like watching someone pull a large band-aid off slowly, hair by hair, revealing more and more of a festering, diseased wound underneath. As I before, by the end of the season, I felt like going into the show myself and shooting him, just to make the character stop. Lithgow fully deserves the Emmy, and I wish him well. As for the character... well, he's not around anymore. And that is good.
The second-tier characters also have their moments in the sun, including Deborah's recovery from yet another setback (if any of the characters besides Dexter deserves a damn break, it's her), Masuka's genuine confusion over a moral dilemma, and Angel and La Guerta's slippery, changing, and ultimately touching relationship. In thinking about whether I'm willing to watch another season of this show, they're the ones make the decision for me, which is a pretty firm yes.
On reading/watching disturbing material, in general: A while back, when I was in a very depressed state, I obsessively read Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville, which is a book that I really, really love, despite its very disturbing imagery and plot. (My bargain with myself at the time was that I would read the book anywhere but in my bedroom, lest the images take root in my dreams.) When I mentioned the book to my therapist at the time, she got that "concerned therapist face" on, and suggested that perhaps I shouldn't read disturbing material when I was trying to sort out my mental turmoil. "But it's so good!" I protested. And that's what I find with the books and TV shows above: they're disturbing as all get out, but they're too damned captivating to put down. There's a thin line between escapism and fetishizing a dark mental state, and I like to think I know myself well enough to realize when I have to put a book down/turn the TV off. But there's a strange thing that I notice lately, which is my genuine interest in said dark/disturbing material. I suppose part of this is my brain wanting examples of how best to deal with bad situations so that I can cherry pick solutions and coping strategies. But another part of it involves perspective. You'd think that just looking around or watching the news would provide that: there's bad crap going on all over the world, but seen through the two-minute news bite, it's way too big to comprehend. Books and TV episodes provide me with enough depth to develop these ideas, but in a finite package, and perspective, when presented that way, is more easily digestible. My life may have scary challenges, but at least I don't have a Dark Passenger goading me into murder, or life and death choices presented to me every thirty seconds in an arena of death for the sake of a government-sponsored reality show. I couldn't articulate this my therapist at the time, but I firmly believe I'm not doing anything unhealthy by seeking these things out, then or now.
That said, my next book choice will definitely involve happy puppies and no one getting hurt. ^-^;;
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-09-06 04:29 am (UTC)I agree about the intensity, definitely- just wish it was put to better use somehow? And I guess I wish I liked Katniss more as a person...but my favorite chars were Peeta and Prim all along.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-06 05:09 am (UTC)As for Katniss, I liked her all the way through, but I was sad that she didn't have the chance to realize how much she'd changed. The momentum of the plot was so fast and the stakes so high that there was no time for introspection for her or anyone else. (And what little introspection there was did not seem to be good, mostly centering on her belief that she was selfish and manipulative, which I do not think were necessarily true.)
no subject
Date: 2010-09-06 08:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-06 06:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-06 12:12 pm (UTC)< href="http://www.hogwartsprofessor.com/mockingjay-discussion-21-what-the-votes-tell-us/">
I also yelled out loud when I read that Katniss had chosen to vote for the games, but when I went back after finishing the book and had had some time to digest, I really do think that she voted for the games for the sole purpose of keeping Coin in the dark about her real plans. I think she realized that Coin was going to be no better than Snow, and because she had been groomed so for the public displays of rebellion that she knew that she had to kill her in the public's eye. Also, Haymitch didn't vote "for" the games; he said that he was "with the Mockingjay," which I took to mean that he had an inkling of what Katniss was planning. In fact, doesn't Katniss think something to the effect of "we'll see how well Haymitch really knows me" or something like that.
Also, Gale's character development was fascinating to me. Now that I think about it, there were signs of his utter hatred for the Capitol and his growing tendency towards 'let's defeat them no matter the cost' attitude. That thing with the mountain sealed his fate as to whether Katniss would choose him or not. Just as Katniss could not truly endorse another Hunger Games, I think that she had a real problem with Gale's ideas about war.
Although she wasn't innocent of that thinking all the time. I was a put off by her killing of that woman.
Peeta's character arc is what did me in. And the deaths of Finnick and Prim. Prim's was the worst, though.
Tough read, but absolutely worth ever heart-wrenching page.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-06 06:09 pm (UTC)I had not thought about it in the terms of Coin trying to break Katniss the same way that Snow did. Read in this way, it makes a lot more sense, and heartbreaking sense to boot. After all, Katniss did represent a serious threat to Coin's power, especially as the Mockingjay. What was Coin to do? Katniss wasn't killed in the battle (which would have been exceedingly convenient), and she couldn't be publicly brought down without a tremendous amount of manipulation and plotting, which would have taken forever. Coin and Snow, then, went for the easiest way: her friends and family, her weakness all along. AGH. It makes total sense now! D:
As for her killing the woman, I firmly believe that was an illustration of how thoroughly Katniss' soldier training had taken over. To do something like that is to be thinking of the military group first and foremost, even though it seems alien to us who've never been in a combat situation. She did feel remorse about it later, and that's a very important plot point for me.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-18 04:45 am (UTC)Firstly, I know how you feel! Last week, I was reading All Quiet on the Western Front, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and a memoir of alcoholism, and oof, the combination of the three got me down. Hope you found something suitably comforting for your next read!
I'm intrigued by the fact that I'm interested in finding some Hunger Games fanfic, but at the moment have no intention of rereading the books, because I just don't want to put myself through that again. The constant suspense and agonising twists left me exhausted.
I've read the article linked in the comments above, and it doesn't convince me. Or if the author intended us to read that way, where was the confirmation that the "last" games didn't go ahead?
I also wondered about Katniss's agency. By the end she's clearly beyond her limits - beyond anyone's limits. All the way through, she was extremely reactive because that was what was needed. But has that left her with anything at all to be happy with, once everything is over? Yes, the epilogue shows that she had a measure of happiness, but not much more than that.