Musings on Isaac Marion's 'Warm Bodies'

The elementary school I sub at has an annual "Literature Night."  It's really cool--about 15 groups of people get together, and based on the theme, turn classrooms into little oases of books:  there have been rooms based on Pippi Longstockings, Narnia, Harry Potter, Alice in Wonderland and The Magic Tree House, for example.  The kids can go in and do a couple of craft-y activities based on the book, maybe learn a skill, and listen to stories.  

I remember one year, one of the rooms had a "Mysteries" theme, and they had fingerprinting station.  The kids could learn how to dust for and read fingerprints.  Pretty cool, huh?

Okay, I can hear you saying, "That's great, Missy, but what does this have to do with Warm Bodies?  Well, since I didn't have to take pictures this year, my friend Jen and I decided to go to the movies.  We thought of going to see Safe Haven, but ended up seeing Warm Bodies instead.  (We enjoyed the movie--some great soundtrack/visuals moments, so I would recommend going to see it if it's still playing in your area.  Or, just wait for the DVD or for it to be on Netflix.)  Imagine my happiness when I found out that it was originally a book.  Happy, happy, joy, joy!  (Ren and Stimpy live on)

Some of you may be thinking, "But, Missy, if there's a movie, why should I read the book?"  Hello!  The book is almost always better (I'm sure there a few instances in which the movie is better, but they are rare and far between).  If you can a find the book, always read the book.  Even if it's adapted from the screenplay, read the book.  Sometimes, the script the writer is working from has scenes that were eventually edited out of the movie.  Bonus time, baby!

If the movie is adapted from the book, always read the book.  Sometimes, you find that the only thing the movie and the book has in common is the title and the names of the characters. That can be really irritating, but books can afford to appeal to a smaller audience than movies.  It can cost so much to make a movie that they need to appeal to as broad an audience as possible.  That means that characters have be made older (sometimes younger), more attractive, etc, etc, etc.

This is one time when the changes were not too great.  A very minor character was eliminated; one character was made maybe younger (you'll have to read the book to find out which) and some details were changed or shuffled around, but overall, reading the book was like seeing the movie all over again.

There is one way that makes the movie radically different from the book:  that would be R's inner dialogue.  Inner dialogue can be hard for movies.  You can have the character narrate, but you have to careful with that, otherwise you get a movie that's all talk with no action.  In this case, a lot of the inner dialogue was actually between R and Perry and was philosophical.  Trying to show/narrate this could have been really hard, so I don't blame the director for downplaying it.

And now we get to why I love to read science fiction, fantasy and urban fantasy.  A lot of these books are pure escapism, with no loftier goal than to give me an adventure that may or may not take place on good ol' Earth, but a lot of these stories have a deeper philosophical meaning:  what if we blur the line between human and god?  If we can do x, does that mean we should? How can we understand the motivations of aliens if we can barely understand our own?

Warm Bodies explores what it means to be Alive.  While it's written within the Zombie Apocalypse framework, with Zombies (Boneys and Fleshies) vs Living, it could have easily been written without this frame.  It wouldn't be as much fun, though.  I really have a lot more that I want to say about this book, but with the movie still out, I'm afraid I might spoil it for you.

Suffice it to say, I enjoyed the movie and I loved the book.  So go....go see the movie.  Enjoy the chemistry between Nicholas Hoult and Teresa Palmer.  Giggle at the musical/visual jokes (I wish the soundtrack had the rock and Sinatra songs. *sigh*)  Then, go read the book and wrestle with the Big Questions.  Decide for yourself what it means to be Alive.  Do you agree with Isaac Marion?  Would this book be as good if it wasn't set against the Zombie Apocalypse?  Most importantly, how would you keep yourself from being turned into a Zombie?  And if you became a Zombie, how long would it take you to become a Boney?

Musings on 200 Years of Pride and Prejudice

Monday (January 28) was the 200th Anniversary of the publication of Pride and Prejudice.  Interestingly, an author I follow on FaceBook mentioned that she had never read anything by Jane Austen and was wondering which one she should try.  (She wasn't sure she'd like any because she thought the language was a bit flowery.)  Others in the posting were saying that they had read Jane Austen in school and just didn't care for her.

I have a confession to make:  I never read Jane Austen for a class.  Not in high school; not in college; not in graduate school. Nope, I had to find Jane on my own.  Alright, not totally on my own;  my mother is a retired AP English teacher and she told me to read Jane Austen.  I think I was out of college, but hadn't decided if I wanted to go to grad school or not--or even what I would study in grad school!

So, before I rhapsodize all things Pride and Prejudice, I want to back up a little and share my secret belief on why more people don't read the classics (but why they'll read books that are supposedly modern retellings).

It's an assigned book.  There.  That's the problem.  When I was in high school, I ignored the assigned pages.  I read the book as if I was reading a book for fun.  It usually took me a day or two to read the whole book, and then I'd go back and review the assigned pages so I could remember specifically what happened in a particular chapter so I could get a good grade on the inevitable quiz.   And there had to be a quiz, because if there wasn't a quiz, very few people would read the book.  (I had to take an American Lit class in graduate school because, even though I had taken several English classes, and was very well read, I had nothing on my undergrad transcripts that said "American Lit," and, to become a teacher in Maryland, I had to have an American Lit class.  One of the books we read was Moby Dick.  The professor actually stated that we would be having daily quizzes to make sure students were reading the book.)  There are only two books I have ever read for classes that I only read the assigned pages:  the aforementioned Moby Dick, and The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy.  I didn't enjoy either one.  I still won't read anything by Thomas Hardy, despite my mother's assurances that Hardy really is an enjoyable author.  Just Can't Do It.

Plus, there's that whole "I have to do this."  I don't know about you, but I hate having do things just because someone tells me I have to do it.  Or being told I have to do a really big job in a short amount of time.  I drag my feet having to do it.  I'll invent a million things I'd also need to do.  Anything, but do the thing "I have to do."

I'll bet, if teachers could trust students to read an assigned book, there would be fewer quizzes (oh, there'd have to be a few quizzes, because teachers need to have grades because Society insists on it), but the quizzes could be on other things than "In Chapter 6, Elizabeth tells Jane what?".  But, students being students, teachers can't count on them all to read an assigned book within a few days so the Discussions can begin.  

And, the Discussions can be where a lot of the fun of an assigned book is.  Why did Jane Austen title her book Pride and Prejudice? (Most people will tell you that Mr. Darcy is "too proud" and Elizabeth Bennet is "prejudiced against Mr. Darcy because of his pride," but I believe that both of them are proud and full of prejudice.)  Discuss the Aspects of Love (Mr. Darcy) and Lust (Mr. Wickham).  You have to understand a little bit of history (Why was it so scandalous for Lydia and Wickham to elope to Gretna Green?  Why did people run off to Gretna Green anyway?  Heck, where is Gretna Green?)  What would be an equivalent scandal if this book were written today?  (Oh, I don't know....maybe the fact that Lydia was 16 and Wickham was in his mid-to-upper 20s?)  How do you know that Mr. Darcy is falling in love with Elizabeth?  When does Elizabeth start to fall in love with Mr. Darcy.  Do you think Charlotte Lucas ever regretted marrying Mr. Collins?  Was she wrong to marry Mr. Collins for the reasons she did?

Heck, let's face it, Book Clubs are just English classes without the Daily Quizzes.  After all, this is why people form book clubs:  so they can discuss the books that they've read--even if they didn't like the book.

So, why do I like Pride and Prejudice so much?  I think it's the characters.  We still see them in books everyday.  Mr. Darcy is the smart, rich guy.  He's not always nice--but he'll give a lot of money to charity and thinks this makes him nice. To his friends, he'll do anything he can to help them--even if it is a bit interfering.  To the people he considers his inferiors (and I think this means his intellectual inferiors, not so much his socio-economic inferiors), he has little patience.  He will make snap judgements, and sometimes won't re-examine his judgements.  Elizabeth Bennet is our feisty girl, in someways very democratic (she sees no social difference between herself, the daughter of a gentleman who probably has an income of about £1,000 per annum, and a gentleman who has an income of £10,000 per annum--and, to be honest, the difference isn't so much economically as it is about class.  Mr. Bennett is not a peer, and, if he has relative who are peers, they are probably only Barons--the lowest peer rank, and still considered "gentry";  whereas Mr. Darcy is the grandson of a peer (his mother was Lady Anne, which implies that his maternal grandfather was probably at least a Viscount).   She's also very loyal to her friends, but Stupid People irritate her, although she's maybe a little more tolerant of them than Mr. Darcy is.  Jane Bennet and Mr. Bingley are the cute, sweet couple that everybody loves (but I think are a little too apt to give up when the going gets a little tough).  Lydia Bennet is the classic Self-Absorbed Mean Girl.  Mr. Bingley's sisters are the Rich Mean Girls.  Mr. Wickham is the Ne'er-Do-Well (I'd call him a Rake, but in Romance Novels, the Rake is almost always redeemable, and I'm not sure Mr. Wickham is).

I read a blog (but I can't remember where I found it!) about the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice (the one starring Kiera Knightley and Matthew Macfayden), specifically about Matthew Macfayden's portrayal of Mr. Darcy.  She said that it wasn't so much that Mr. Darcy was proud, as he was socially awkward.  She said that the reason why Mr. Darcy didn't want to dance with Elizabeth was more that he wasn't a good dancer, and then tried to cover it up by stating that there was no one there who could "tempt" him to dance.  His first proposal to Elizabeth was awkward because he doesn't know how to talk to women.  As I re-read Pride and Prejudice on Monday, I kept that in mind.  Yes, Mr. Darcy does acknowledge that he doesn't make friends easily, especially when compared to Mr. Wickham, but I don't think it's because he's socially awkward, but because he really doesn't care if he makes friends or not.  He's rich, he's socially connected and people are going to listen to him because he's rich and socially connected, so he doesn't have to care about what you think of him.  But then, he realizes that the woman he thought was quite pretty enough, who's family is an embarrassment, is everything he really wants in a woman.  Oohh...but he's already insulted her--how to overcome this?  And his first proposal to her shows that hasn't quite figured out that Elizabeth isn't overawed by his social position and money like everybody else is.  Then Elizabeth, after insulting Mr. Darcy's proposal, finds out how her prejudice is going to stand in the way of her happiness.  By the end of the book, both Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth have unbent their pride, let go of some of their prejudices and find their Happily Ever After.

So, if you haven't read it before, or even if you have, go and celebrate 200 years of Pride and Prejudice.    Read.  Watch the movie(I prefer the A&E/BBC 1995 miniseries--there are some alterations from the book, but, on the whole, a very faithful adaptation).  Enjoy the Romance.

Musings on Vacation and the Auto Train

Did ya miss me?


Sorry I've been away for so long.... work has been a little hectic, and then I went on vacation.  And where does a Muse vacation?  Well, I suppose most would go to Greece, but this one goes to LegoLand and Disney World in Florida.

We took the Auto Train this time, instead of me driving down to Florida.  I still didn’t get much sleep (we were right in front of the Lounge Car, so anytime anyone went into it, the noise tended to wake me up.  On our way back, I think I’ll make sure I take a sleep aid and see if that makes a difference--yes it did!), but I also didn’t have to worry about crazy drivers.

It’s about a 16 ½ hour trip from Lorton, VA (where we could load our minivan onto the AutoTrain) to Sanford, Fl (about 15-20 minutes outside of Orlando).  They make a short stop in Florence, SC to refuel and change crew.  (When we drive, Florence is our traditional stopping point to have dinner and spend the night.)

The Lorton, Va station

On the train to Sanford, Fl., there were about 490 persons on our train, with 250 vehicles.  We had 42 cars total (16 passenger and 26 car carriers).  On our way back to Lorton, there were 212 passengers, with 107 vehicles.  We had 44 cars total (15 passengers and 28 car carriers).

The Sanford, Fl. station

We passed through Richmond and Petersburg, VA, but not Colonial Heights. 

The James River

Sadly, the AutoTrain serves Pepsi, not Coke.  Note to self:  buy a six pack of Coke to have on the way back!

Missy’s Top 10 Reasons Why the Auto Train is Better Than the Airlines….

Auto Carrier

1. I only have to be there an hour ahead of departure time (unless your car is oversized, in which case, it’s still the two hours ahead).
2. Free wifi in the stations.  And it was easy to get to sign on.  I’ve been to a few airports that promised “free wifi,” but getting to the “acceptance” page was hard.  No wifi  on the trains, but that’s okay.
3.   NO TSA.  No patdowns, no metal detectors, no taking off your shoes.
4.  Legroom!  With my derriere all the way back against the seat, I could barely put my feet on the foot rest--and I’m 5’7”.  Even if the person in front of me reclines their seat as far back as it will go, there’s still plenty of room for me.

Look at all the legroom my husband has!

     5.  You don’t have to unplug your electronic devices during departure.  No sensitive electronics to potentially mess up.

     6.   You can move around the whole time and there are no seat belts.

    7.  Free coffee, tea and water.

    8.  Dining cars.  You have a choice of meals (Salisbury Steak, Savory Chicken or Vegetable Lasagna), free table wine (with refills), and a choice of dessert.  The food was pretty good, with a decent portion size.

    9.  Power outlets.  We had two by our seats.  I didn’t have to worry about my electronic device running out of juice.

    10.  Sleeper cars.  We didn’t take advantage of this (I think it costs $50/person extra), but I love that they’re available.  Husband of one my fellow passengers had one (he has a bad back) and said it was pretty comfortable.

Our trip back wasn't as smooth as our trip down.  There was an electrical problem (I think it was just a faulty sensor), but it took a while to figure out what exactly the problem was.  Then, on the overnight portion, there were a couple of trains ahead of us that had mechanical problems.  Instead of getting into Lorton around 9 am, it was about 12:15 pm.  Then it was almost an hour to get our car off the carrier.  Even with these problems, I still would rather take the train than fly.

Well, I have to finish my musings on all the aMusements I had last week....tomorrow:  LegoLand Florida!

Musings on Not Feeling Well

I haven't been feeling very well lately.... more than a simple cold, less than the flu.

I don't like not feeling well.  Last week it was all elevated temperatures, chills, aches and pains, the dry tickle and cough, and, of course, the never-goes-away headache.  This week,  it's the frog-in-the-throat cough (please, don't make me laugh, because that'll bring on the cough) and feeling run down, with the headaches tossed in because the coughs make my brain rattle around.

I'm not a good patient.  That is to say, I don't rest and take it easy like I should.  Mostly, that's my personality--De Nile ain't just a river in Egypt, hon, but it's also because I'm a sub.  Yes, if I were truly sick (meaning that I really couldn't get out of bed without falling down), I would cancel my job and ask for a sub--but that sounds a little silly, to me.

I also tend to be melodramatic.  Not to the point of "O Woe Is Me.  I Have A Hangnail and Now I Will Die!" drama, but not too far off.  I think it's because I don't want to slow down, but I want you to understand that I'm only able to function through Sheer Will Power and Stubbornness.  I am a convoluted person.

When I was in grad school, I somehow contracted mono.  When the doctor told me what I had and that I needed to slow down, I remember looking at him and saying, "But I can't miss school and I'm doing an internship.  There is no slow down."  He looked back at me and said, "You better find a slow down, or you won't be able to do anything."  We agreed that I could go to class and do my internship (luckily, it was just one day a week), as long as I rested the rest of the time.  Of course, we never defined "rest," so I was able to make it up as I went along.

Luckily, I don't get sick very often.  Even when I do get sick, it doesn't seem to affect me as much as others.  When we were kids, my brother complained of the sore throat and ear ache.  Mom took us down to the Dispensary (military walk-in clinic).  They tested my brother for strep and it came back positive, so they needed to test me.  Turns out I had a worse case of it, but I felt fine.  Go figure.  Boy, was I mad at my brother for making me sick!

Anyway, I hope I get over this whatever-it-is.  I've got new aMusements to enjoy.

Musings on History and Current Events

I'm 46 years old, by the calendar, but inside, I feel more like a 20-something.  Sometimes, it's hard to remember that I'm older than a lot of my friends (thanks to the fact that I had children a little later than most people), since a lot of the people I hang out with are the parents of my children's schoolmates.  It's pretty funny sometimes, because I'll mention something that happened when I was in high school or college and they'll look at me funny and say something like, "Oh, I was 10 when that happened."

Being a Social Scientist by degree, with a strong interest in History, I'm aware of the Speed of Time.  As Einstein noted, Time is Relative.  What is Current History for me (i.e., the Cuban Missile Crisis--happened a few years before I was born, but close enough to my lifetime that it's still a Current Event), will appear like Ancient History to my boys.

So, here are a few more Current Events (for me) that will be Old News to them:

The Cold War (roughly 1946- 1991)
  Okay, a lot of things happened here long before I was born, but, let's face it,  the Cold War shaped a lot of the influences in my life:  The Apollo Program, the Vietnam War, my living in Germany (heck, my parents even meeting was influenced by the Cold War--my Mom was a teacher from Nebraska teaching at the DODSEUR (I think it stand for Dept of Defense Schools-Europe) in Baumholder and my Dad was an Army Officer from Florida and was stationed there.)  The Cold War was why I got to live in West Germany for three years.  I even wrote a paper for a job application predicting the Fall of the Berlin Wall.

The Apollo Space Program (1961-1975)
  Started before my time, but the manned flights started when I was about 2 or 3 (depends on if you count the launch rehearsal fire that killed Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee as being a manned "flight" or not.)  We used to watch all the television coverage.  I can remember chanting along with the television during the Countdown to Ignition and Liftoff.

The Vietnam War (November 1, 1955 to April 30, 1975)
  The War was half over by the time I was born, but combat units weren't truly deployed until 1965.  Obviously, as an Army Brat, I was very aware of the War, but as a kid, I wasn't really sure what was happening, just that my Daddy wasn't home.  I'm not sure I really knew where my dad was the first time he was deployed to Vietnam, but I remember waving to every plane I saw flying overhead.

Watergate and Nixon Resigns (June 17, 1972 and August 9, 1974)
  I remember Nixon's Resignation a little better than the actual scandal, because my mom called me and my friends in from playing so we could watch Nixon leaving the White House for the last time.

The Assassination of Aldo Moro (May 9, 1978)
  Okay, not an assassination that means a lot to most Americans, but I remember it because I went to Italy a few weeks after this happened.  My friend Amy and I practiced our "commando" moves just in case the Red Brigade decided to take over our tour bus.  Not likely to happen, but with American military personnel and their families on the tour, not entirely out of the realm of likeliness.  Aldo Moro was the Italian Premiere who was kidnapped by the Red Brigade (an Italian terrorist group) and killed.

The Space Shuttle Program (1981-2011)
  I'm using the dates that NASA sent the Space Shuttles into orbit.  The Enterprise was a test shuttle (a fact that I suspect most Trekkies are a little bitter about--I mean, really.  Name the Shuttle after a TV space ship but never use it in a mission?  C'mon!)  The Columbia first went into orbit on April 12, 1981.
   The Challenger Disaster, on January 28, 1986, I remember very well.  I was at FSU, walking between classes, when I heard a loud explosion.  I looked up and could see the aftereffects of the explosion.  I dashed into Suwannee Arcade (where the Administrative Offices were) and asked one of the secretaries if they knew what that explosion was.  She turned to me and said, "The Shuttle just blew up."  I was shocked.  It was also my friend Sheridan's birthday.  He was in French class at the time, but about to get out, so I ran over to tell him what had happened.  Not a happy birthday for him.

The Fall of the Berlin Wall (November 9, 1989)
  The late 1980's saw the beginning of the End of the Cold War.  The people of many Eastern Bloc countries, such as Hungary, and Poland, were demanding more freedoms and economic opportunities.  In October, 1989, I was applying for a job with a government agency and had to write a paper analyzing a current event and make a prediction, based on reports, of what would be happening in the near future.  East Germany had just opened the border between it and West Germany.  As I read reports of how many East Germans were crossing over into West Germany, I wrote in my paper that I thought East and West Germany would have to reunite.  A few weeks later, the Berlin Wall fell.

The Columbine Massacre (April 20, 1999)
  I was teaching 7th grade at this point.  Mostly, I remember teachers and administrators wondering how we A) talk about this with our students, and B) how we make sure this couldn't happen at our school.  I remember my students being worried about it happening at our school.

9/11 (Ummm...yeah, 9/11/01)
  I was at home with my Older (at the time Only) Son.  I was just getting us ready to go to the store  when the channel was accidentally changed from PBS to ABC.  At the time, the first plane had just hit the first of the Twin Towers.  I thought (as many probably did at first) that this was a tragic accident, that somehow the plane had malfunctioned and the pilot flew into the Tower.  Then, it happened again.  When the plane hit the Pentagon, I was in such shock.  I called my mom, hoping that we didn't know anyone stationed at the Pentagon. (We didn't.)

The Iraq/Afghanistan War (March 19, 2003 to Present Day)
So many things.  So many conflicting emotions.  I think I'm going to have to let this one sit for awhile and let History sort it out.

The Election of Barack Obama (November, 2008)
  No matter how History treats the Presidency of Mr. Obama, I just remember how proud I was that an African-American could be elected president based on his Ideals.  I really thought I'd be so much older (or even dead) before this would happen.

Well, all this heavy thinking has given me a headache (okay, I already had a headache, but still....).  Time to go aMuse myself.

Musings on The Maryland Renaissance Festival

And so the Wheel of Time has slowly moved forward, with Summer sliding into Fall.

Baseball is giving way to Football (and Hockey and Basketball).  School has started in earnest, and the days are getting shorter and cooler.  The Hummingbirds have left me (gotta remember to take down the feeder!) for their Winter Home in Mexico or Panama (maybe I should practice my Spanish on them, huh?)

The best thing about Fall is the Maryland Renaissance Festival.

I've been coming to the RenFest since 1988 (more or less).  At least once a year, and more recently, at least twice a year.  I've been going in costume for the last 5 or 6 years.  I'm the tavern wench in the dark blue outfit.  It also doubles as my Halloween costume (the under blouse goes down to there for the RenFest, but up to here for Halloween--gotta keep it G-rated around the kiddies, ya know!)

The RenFest has been happening since 1977 and now has a permanent site in Crownsville, Md (just up the road from Annapolis, off of I-97).  It cycles through the 6 wives of Henry VIII, with each wife getting a year.  It keeps it different and a little fresh for everyone.  You can follow the Royal Court around and watch the story unfold, or you can catch one of the many great shows.  There are musical guests (the Pirates Royale are pretty good) as well as stage shows (like "O" A Fool or Shakespeare's Skum).  In the past, the Rogues (one of my favorites) have played (alas, not this year.  *sigh*) and Hack and Slash (swashbuckling heroes) have performed at the Festival.

I go with my usual (or maybe that should be unusual) crowd:  Kim, Charlie, Emma, Stephanie, Matt, Zach, and Ken.  My Wild Boys are not into the RenFest (I have no idea how that could happen), so they stay at home with my in-laws.  Lately, though, it's been hard getting us all together, and this year  Cait's away, but she'll be coming down for a visit and wants to go.

The Unusual Suspects

Lately, I've been taking a lot of pictures at the RenFest, mostly of the little details that are easy to overlook. Sometimes, it's a little garden that's been planted near one of the shops, other times it's something... different.. on top of one of the buildings.  Someday, if I get myself organized enough, I think it'd be fun to do a kinda scavenger hunt, where you have to find where the pictures come from.

Do you know where this garden is?

Or this face?

King Henry VIII and Katherine Parr

If you're in the neighborhood, you should drop by.  You don't have to wear a costume (Charlie and Ken never do) to have a Good Time and aMuse yourself.  The Maryland Renaissance Festival runs through October 23, 2011.

Musings on The Hunger Games

My friend Kris just finished reading The Hunger Games  trilogy by Suzanne Collins and asked me what I thought about it.

I've read all three books about three times each.  It was another of those Lay's Potato Chips things.  Once I read the first book, I had to read the next two... and then I had to go back and re-read them.

For those of you who haven't read the books, it's set in a near future, post-apocaplytic US.  What disaster befell the US is never explained (Collapse of Wall Street?  Class Warfare?  Lack of Clean Laundry?), but the country has been divided into 13 Districts and the Capitol Territory, which seems to be centered in Colorado.  The country is renamed "Panem" (because we are No Longer United States).  The division of the Districts isn't really made clear, but District 12 seems to be one dirt poor mining town in the Appalachians.  The rest of the Districts are kept poorer than the Capitol, but depending on what is produced in the District, some seem to be relatively well off.

At some point, the Districts rose up against the Capitol in rebellion, but were defeated by the Capitol.   As a punishment,  each District must put up two "Tributes" (one boy and one girl) to participate in the Hunger Games--think Survivor meets The Lord of the Flies.  These Tributes are chosen by lottery, from the available children ages 12 - 18.  The older you are, the more times your name is entered into the lottery.  Additionally, you can put your name in more times in order to get a larger tesserae (an allotment of cooking oil and grain).  Call it High Risk Welfare.   Only 24 tributes are selected because District 13 was bombed and no one lives there any more... but among the oppressed is the rumor that a rebellion is forming in District 13, which might not have been as devastated as previously reported.  The chosen Tributes are then whisked away to the Capitol, and get about a week's worth of training.  The Tributes are Mentored by their Districts previous winners.  For District 12, this is a drunk named Haymitch.  Then the Tributes are taken before a panel of Gamemakers (more or less the Producers of the televised event) to demonstrate their "talent"--camouflage, traps, shooting a bow, throwing knives, etc.  The Gamemakers then put up the odds on each Tribute's chances of "winning" the Hunger Games by ranking them between 1 and 12.  The night before the Hunger Games begin, there's an "Up Close and Personal" show with each of the Tributes together on stage.  The next morning, the televised Hunger Games are broadcast.  There can only be One Winner.

The Trilogy follows the Tributes from District 12, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, and, to a lesser extent, their Mentor, Haymitch, and their assigned teams of Stylists.

And that's as much synopsis as I'm going to give--in the words of one of my favorite Dr. Who characters, "Spoilers, darling!"

But, could the World of The Hunger Games happen?  In my most optimistic times, I think that there's no way Society could devolve into such savagery.  But then, I hear that at political debates people cheer about the number of Death Row Inmates candidates have allowed to be killed, and that other people say that those without health care should be allowed to die if they have a disease like cancer and can't afford treatments.  I see the number of violent video games that are produced.  I remember movies like Death Race 2000 ("Twenty points if you hit the pedestrian!")  The number of competition shows on tv are growing (most of them are benign, but what happens when the Producers need to add controversy to their show to increase the ratings?  Sure, this year it's Chaz Bono, but....) and I have to wonder.

So, if it's this grim, why do I love these books?  For one, I enjoy post-apocaplyptic stories.  Alas, Babylon read it about 14 times until my mother made me stop (I kept wanting to dig a bomb shelter in the backyard.),  The Stand-- the only Stephen King novel that doesn't cause me to have nightmares.  Maybe it's the Army Brat in me, I dunno.  The other reason why I love these books is because they are, at heart, Books of Rebellion.  One Girl Against the Evil Empire (even though she does it most unwittingly).  It's Star Wars (IV-VI).  It's Firefly.  It's the American Revolution.  It's the feeling that One Person Can Make a Difference.

But read the books.  They're pretty well written and you get caught up in the Drama of It All.  And there is Hope....as well as tragedy.  Plus, they're making a movie of it.  We'll meet later and discuss Why The Book Was Better (because the book almost always is....)

Almost time to aMuse myself with more College Football....Go 'Noles!