What's the Big Deal About the Hunger Games?

Okay, the post title should say it all. But I think I need to say it again:
What IS the big deal about the Hunger Games?


I mean, seriously. I get that it's the new thing. It's like what Harry Potter was in 1999 and Twilight in 2006. But honestly, we need to look at ourselves as a Christian and a modern society here: Why are the biggest things in our world wizards, witches, and sorcery? Then vampires are werewolves? And now KIDS KILLING OTHER KIDS?! I am confused. Extremely confused. 


I read the first Harry Potter book a few months ago, and a little ways into Twilight about a year ago. (I still regret it to this day.) And I don't want to turn this into a bash-fest, but honestly, the writing wasn't that great. It wasn't quite hack writing, but pretty close. And now with this Hunger Games junk? I mean, we were into Wicca and witchcraft. Big deal. Then we were into vampires and the un-dead. Slightly more of a big deal. And now we enjoy dystopian novels about government-enforced slaughtering festivals where 24 kids fight to the death for entertainment. 


American's teenagers have gone down the drain... the big Cornucopia-shaped one.


And now the movie? Released March 2012, The Hunger Games was lauded as "thrilling and superbly acted", according to Rotten Tomatoes, but PluggedIn.com doesn't describe it as a gore-fest. So the books may possibly be just a little more violent than the movie.


Speaking of the books, if you really are interested in this disturbing trend of child fighting, read the first book. Then stop. 


(SPOILER ALERT: Okay, here's where I get to treat myself and rant about the books. If you've read them, please don't be offended. If you haven't, this will make no sense to you, but then again, it shouldn't. So just ignore this next paragraph unless you want to laugh at me and my inexplicable lameness.)
I'm going to assume you know who I'm talking about, because Katniss, Peeta, and Gale may possibly be the single thing your friends have talked about for the last three weeks-- and you probably have been asked "Peeta or Gale?" more times than the number of books I've read this year (which is 68 exactly). So anyways, in teh second book, about halfway through Katniss gets a little psycho. Oh, did I say psycho? I meant paranoid. (She's always been psycho. Okay, I lied, this is definitely a bash--fest.) She's always like "This person's gonna kill me, can't trust this person, can't be here or here or AHH IT'S A GIANT MONKEY!" and so on so forth. I believed that in the third book, Katniss should've died and it should have been her looking down at the Games below (or looking up, depending on what you think of Katniss). Too many people died thanks to her than I would've liked-- but she comes out unscathed at the end, to grow up, marry her true love (which should have been Finnick, if you ask me) and live happily ever after while the people and families she scarred are left behind. The end. (Both of the books and my self-indulgment. Thanks, guys, for listening.)


This may not be the raving review you've always heard, and it probably makes more sense to those who have read the books. If you feel as though you need to read them now, knock yourself out. Not literally, of course.


But we need to analyze these books as Christians, too. Twilight deeply scarred me as a naive 13-year-old, scaring me with the darkness Stephanie Meyer fans adore. While the Hunger Games might not be as dark and creepy, or dabble in witchcraft,  it definitely gives a rebellious nod to what may (but most likely will not) be our future. From the romantic angle Suzanne Collins played in the first book to the gruesome details in the third, the unmarried sleeping-together, the blatant disregard for those in power above (no matter that they were evil), the Hunger Games is probably a book those who value values (and their sanity) can live without.


Today I felt like I needed to give some funny to offset this (hopefully non-offensive) sad review, so here's a couple writing prompts made up by yours truly.


It's time for the Hungry Hungry Games! If you're familiar with the Hunger Games, you won't want to miss this! Put 24 Hungry Hungry Hippos into the arena and see what hilarity ensues!
*Disclaimer: any unintentional or intentional maiming by the generally docile hippos is under no warranty to Milton Bradley or the Capitol. Take all risks as such.*


When I googled "when did Harry Potter became popular", this result popped up from stateofnature.org (of which I have no clue what it is). You know how Google, bless it's soul, only shows a few bits of the article with your key words? This is the result I got.

"The enormous scale of the sale of Harry Potter is undoubtedly due to the changed ... 

In the nearby Khan Market, buyers were provided breakfast to refresh ... 

Notwithstanding all the precautionary steps, pirated copies did appear on the market..."

Take one of these sentences and finish it. I guarantee everything you come up with will have at least a small degree of funniness! Mine are:

"The enormous scale of the sale of Harry Potter is undoubtedly due to the changed military tactics of the attacking life-sized Lego men."
"In the nearby Khan Market, buyers were provided breakfast to refresh after one unfortunate incident including a fainting woman, a beard, and a stick of butter laced with dynamite."
"Notwithstanding all the precautionary steps, pirated copies did appear on the market, if only by accident because the pirates usually don't enjoy just anyone seeing their special red and white skull-and-pineapples cover design."


Enjoy! I'm sure I will... :) Sorry this was so long, but I felt I owed ya'll one. 


(Okay, just wanted to say: If you have any questions regarding my views on the Hunger Games, as well as where to find good, Christian resources about them, feel free to contact me, if only to rag me for being so against it!! Also, if you have any good arguments against it, please let me know. I am losing this battle completely to my Hunger Games-fanatic, Josh Hutcherson-crazed friends. Please, help!) Although I am known to just be a tad Josh Hutcherson-crazed myself... but it's to be expected, right?

Vacationed...

Vaycay shunned. Vay cayshuned. Vayke aschun'd.

We're going on a  vay-cayshun, and snorkling for the first time! Has anyone ever been snorkling before? Frankly, I'm just freaked about the sharks.
Sharks?
Well, when you put it that way...
I'm missing 2 weeks of school.
And 2 weeks of internet.

So that's really what this blog post is about: Don't have Great Expectations (Charles Dickens) for very much these next few weeks! And don't be expecting your charrie sketch on my other blog, sketchwriteress.blogspot.com, for a little while. Sorry!
So on to the next thing!
I'm going to run of a quick writing prompt here...
Thanks to the wonderful insight of a comment-er on the Staring does not = stalking! post (http://thewriteress.blogspot.com/2012/02/staring-does-not-stalking.html), I've been inspired to help you all on your path to authoral greatness.
You can thank me later.

So here's something really really quick cause I have no time at all...
Find a few of your favorite books, and flip open to the middle of one of them. No peeking! Stab your finger in the pages somewhere, then open the book up and take the first sentence your finger lands on. Beginning with that sentence, write a paragraph or two or twenty of your own work.

Example: Let me take my copy of Palace of Mirrors by Margaret Peterson Haddix...

"I take a tentative breath and draw in the sweet odor of roses, lilies, lavender." (This is from the beginning of chapter 21.)

Could you write something out of that? I could. A whole story, actually. Keep in mind that this is definitely NOT plagiarism, no! It's taking creative licenses and doing your own totally different thing. I highly doubt what you write from this will exactly follow the lines of Ms. Haddix' novel.

Take a sentence you like from your own book, or here's another one to keep you busy:

"When you find something that's whole, you do what you can to keep it that way."
Gary D. Schmidt, Okay for Now.


To borrow the words of Gail Carson Levine (gailcarsonlevine.blogspot.com), have fun, and save what you wrote!

Ack... editing blues!

I love editing-- in fact, that seems to be the only thing I'm good at! Even when I'm supposed to "critique" and not scour out any imperfections in a manuscript, I still end up doing that. Oh, the editing blues!
I just finished editing Jacob Buller's The War Horn manuscript... and it was really good! Really, really good. So look for it in Amazon's ebook collection in the next few weeks (right, Jake?). Read all about it at teenagewritingrocks.blogspot.com.
Oh, how I ache for spring! The days have been chilly here, but the sun has been coming out a tad bit more and now it's up to almost 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Warm! And almost shorts weather.
So is editing your dream? (Mine is becoming a children's book editor, so I guess I'm getting good practice.) What's your dream?

Staring does not = stalking!!!

If you're into Christmas carols, you'll recognize these few lyrics. He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake...


Creepy!!

But please, tell me you haven't done this before. You look up and see a peculiar sight-- a grown man trying to inconspicuously sniff his armpit, a woman sneaking her dog into Wal-Mart, another teenager with earbuds in their ears but then you realize that the earbuds aren't plugged into anything. And you're drawn to this person, trying to figure who they really are.

My drama teacher said something really profound the other day: Staring is not stalking.

So get out there and stare! Just not too conspicuously. Observe, maybe. See how that 20-something year old woman at O' Charley's folds her napkin just right, or wipes her mouth after every bite. Or the frail, elderly man leaving the pet store with a giant dog. A Great Dane, maybe.

Observe, then write! Create a description of the person, a little bio, name and all. If you don't know, then guess. Fabricate a whole life and career for this person if you wish. Say you see a man rushing to work. His tie is sticking out, his shirt isn't tucked in, and frankly, his hair looks like a rabbit had just nested in it. You can guess that either this man lives a very messy life and isn't married, or he just got back from saving the world and is late for work.

Your call.

See, that's the coolest thing about stalking! Er, I mean, staring. A brief explanation on that: stalking is going so far as knowing this person age, name, address, phone number, car model, love life, and shoe size. (You are not stalking your close friends if you know this about them. You are, however, if this person is someone you have never seen in your life. Although I think that should go without saying.) Staring is looking curiously at people-- however, NEVER let them know you're looking!

So write up 1, 4, or 20 pages of a fake life for someone you caught a glimpse of at Kroger. Word to the wise:
Sunglasses like these make it fun!

So go and get gawking!!

(Note: Try not to stare at people who are disabled in any way, not matter how fascinating their tic. They would obviously feel uncomfortable, even if your staring is for good, not evil.)

"What day is it?!" Christmas

Are you wondering what day it is? Well, if you said Wednesday, you're half right! It's.... (drumroll, please) WRITING-PROMPT WEDNESDAY!!!!!!!!

Okay, today's soundtrack is Christmas music. The real jazzy kind. Pick up some Vince Guaraldi or Erin O'Donnell. Now reach back WAYYYYYYYY into your memory files in your mind and glean out your earliest Christmas memory. Mine is strange, but I'll share it with you.

I was 6? 7? 8? Don't know. But that was one of the only Christmases my grandparents from Florida had come to visit us, and I got sick. I don't remember any of my gifts or the giving process, Christmas dinner or anything, but I do remember playing Monopoly with my grandma by our back door.. There was snow outside, but I couldn't play because I was sick. But I did have fun playing Monopoly on our old ripped-up card table. I had a drink of that nasty stuff, Airborne, in a bright pink plastic cup, sitting on the floor next to my chair. That's all I remember.
Could you make a story out of that? I think I could. Add a little anticipation, a shattering realization, then a grudging acception. Add a little Christmas music and some snow, and you have a cute little Holiday short story with the whole plot roller coaster: set up the scene; the inciting incident; the rising action; the climax; the falling action, and the resolution, just in as many words.

Can you do that with your story? In fact, what was the worst thing that happened to you that Christmas? Make it worse. Best thing? Make it INFINITELY better!

Merry Christmas!