On the subject of Race in The Hunger Games

Back in December I read The Hunger Games. Now as casting for the movie is well under way it seems Jennifer Lawrence is the top choice to play Katniss. Jennifer Lawrence was the lead in Winter's Bone which I thought had a LOT of similarities to Hunger Games. Both book and movie deal with the poverty predominantly white people suffer in the Appalachia.

This has stricken a cord with people who didn't place a specific race on Katniss (the main character in the books). She's described as having dark hair and grey eyes, but there's no mention of her skin color...no "creamy, rich, or luminescent" adjectives anywhere. So in theory you can place yourself in Katniss no matter the race which is a good way to play it. Kudos, Suzanne Collins!

But the book does hint at problematic race relations in the Districts. They are separated by race, because Rue is clearly described as African-American(/Panem?).

"And most hauntingly, a twelve-year-old girl from District 11. She has dark brown skin and eyes, but other than that, she's very like Prim in size and demeanor."

[On a side note, the Hunger Games Wiki has a picture of Rue and she's shown as white. Whitewashing Wikis-- Good Lord!] Anyway...

So Rue has dark brown skin and District 11 (where she's from) deals with agriculture. She's kind of living in a "slave" like environment where they pick crops, get very little food, and have their lives dictated upon by higher ups. Oh yeah and Rue sings to signal the end of the day-- which I hope is a play on stories where slaves are so happy to be slaves that they sing-- or I also hope it's a small tribute to how slaves communicated escape planes through song so the higher ups wouldn't get it.

In this case, Katniss' life sounds more like the poverty stricken white people working in coal mines. Her District is more lenient, and Katniss enjoys a great deal of liberty compared to Rue. Katniss hunts and is respected for her ability and skill. But Rue is just another cog in the agriculture machine. Race plays a subtle but important part in The Hunger games and it would be a shame to lose it in the movie where in can play a more prominent role.

Brain Camp

Susan Kim

Laurence Klavan

Faith Erin Hicks

We bought this book for Faith Erin Hick's art and nothing more. That the story is actually good is a bonus.

This is one of the creepiest body snatcher type stories that I have read in a while. Parents are shipping off their lackluster kids to Camp Fielding where they become prodigies in music and sciences. Our main characters, Jenna (a fantasy geek) and Lucas (hoodlum with an abusive mom) are forced to stay at Camp Fielding and eventually find themselves in the middle of a conspiracy. It reads like a modern Twilight Zone episode including the ambiguous ending.

This could have been a cliche story but there's enough original twists that keep it interesting coupled with Faith Erin Hick's art and you get something that makes you nauseous, then makes you appreciate the simple lines and expressive gestures, and then makes you nauseous again.

It would make a killer animated series.

Embroideries

Marjane Satrapi

Marjane describes an afternoon chatting with her relatives and their friends, while drinking Samovar. The men are doing their thing, so the ladies are free to talk and gossip.

Much of this gossip is dedicated sexual and gender matters and how the Iranian society sees them and deals with them. The title of the story, Embroideries, refers to a surgery to renew your virginity. They speak of it like a commonplace thing although some of the women think it's a horrid procedure. The other conversations are mostly about how hard it is too keep your husband from cheating or about conned weddings.

The standout of the ladies is Parvine, she's an artist and very liberated. She's the most outspoken one, and it made me curious to see her life beyond the sanctuary of this circle. One of Marjane's themes is how the outspoken women change outside the house and underneath the vale.

The saddest (but kind of funny) one, who is not mentioned by name though, says she's never seen her husband's penis, testicles or semen. He turns off the light and jackhammers away. Since she had four baby girls she has no clue what the other's are talking about.

The book could have been a thousand pages longer, you really don't want to stop reading about them. You feel or wish that you had family that was half as interesting or as open in their conversations about sex and gender.

Marvel's Strange Tales

Various artists and writers

Since this is an anthology of different artists and writers doing their favorite Marvel characters, I'll focus on the standouts. The art in all of the stories ranges from fantastic to pretty good, but some of the stories fall flat and are downright "dark for the sake of dark" and I'm really not into that right now.

Junko Mizuno's Spiderman deals with moving to a city where everyone is a spider, and he's not so special. But instead of moving somewhere else, he stays put because Mary jane is enjoying living there. Cute as usual.

James Kolchalka's Hulk is very very cute and a bit like Charlie Brown which is great.

Jhonen Vazquez's M.O.D.O.K. was more of the same very morbid and funny, but it missed the poignant train. If you want a truly depressing M.O.D.O.K. tale read Nick Bertozzi's story. It will wipe the smile of your face.

All in all though the stories are not ground breaking and some are downright bland. It's a great art book though.

The Hobbit

J. R. R. Tolkien

I had read The Hobbit in high school a couple of times. I think my mom bought it for me when she used to bring me used books from her shopping trips to Rio Piedras. I wasn't aware of the Lord Of The Rings, but I liked The Hobbit fine as it was.

Reading it now (after watching the Lord Of The Rings trilogy and almost finishing the books) it feels like a very rushed book. There are big battle scenes that flash by, and there's world building chapters that screech to a halt. Contrast the description of the Halls in the Lonely Mountain which go on and on in detail, with the really quick resolution to the Smaug problem. It's a similar situation with the characters, some you really get to know and others you forget are there. I forgot about half the Dwarves in the company of Thorin.

The Hobbit is more filmable than the Lord of The Rings trilogy so I'm not worried about the movie. What I'm very curious about is how the Ring will work. They really built it up as a sinister force in LOTR and in the Hobbit the Ring is just another magical object. When Frodo puts the Ring on it's a direct line to Sauron (because he was looking for it), but when Bilbo puts on the Ring it means harmless invisibility (and he exploits a lot). Since Bilbo loves to hide in times of trouble, and since in Fellowship of The Ring we never see Bilbo's point of view while wearing the Ring, I'm almost afraid that Bilbo won't be seen for a whole movie!

The Slippery Slope

Lemony Snicket

Sunny is separated from her siblings and Violet and Klaus must climb Mount Fraught to rescue her. In the way, Sunny learns some new recipes and Violet and Klaus meet new and old characters. Carmelita Spats is back, she was the bully in The Austere Academy (Volume #5) as well as Bruce from The Reptile Room (Volume #2) but the most important ones are: Quigley Quagmire! The third Quagmire triplet! (Quagmires were in The Austere Academy, then in Count Olaf's clutches until The Vile Village- Volume #7) The other new characters are the "Man with a beard but no hair" and the "Woman with hair but no beard".

The Man and Woman (for short) make Count Olaf very nervous, but intriguingly they are in disguise. They are doing exactly what Klaus and Violet did to hide themselves in the Carnivorous Carnival. The Man has a high voice and the Woman has a low voice. Even though it is explained that both sides of the Volunteer Schism are employing the same techniques for disguises, I can't shake the feeling they are not as evil as they seem. They are dead set on getting the Sugar Bowl with a secret message inside, and it could be because they are evil or because they are good Volunteers in disguise.

The theme of becoming villainous by fighting villains is explored here when the kids dig a pit to catch Esmé and trade her for Sunny. The kids regret it and invent another plan, but the line in the sand moved slightly.

The most alluring thing from the Lemony Snicket storyline is the letter hidden to his sister, where he writes that he is to meet her at the Hotel Denouement (the last safe place for Volunteers) and it is heavily implied by way of a recipe that the Baudelaire's mom is Lemony Snicket's sister and that she is alive! Here's hoping that it is true!

Wonder Girl #1

J.T. Krull

Adriana Melo

Cassie visits her mom at a archeology conference in London, but I don't know why. Her mom is so mean to her! She has the most hilarious sourpuss face during the whole visit! She even comes off as slightly stupid, asking Cassie why she couldn't fly on a plane like regular folk. But let's be real here, this is not an issue about Cassie and her mom patching things up, it's about meeting Solstice and how she's so well adjusted.

Solstice is Desi-american (or is she English?) and she's really, really cute! Her costume is bright and sunny, very simple but pretty. Like her! She's strong, and has light base powers. Solstice and Cassie fight Lady Zand! RULER OF ZANDIA! (sigh) and they win, duh!

The ending was kinda rushed, and I don't really believe Cassie's mom is that bitter. Solstice parents are super happy (like her!) but Cassie has a long way to go with her mom. It's only an issue (and a short one at that!) and I wish we'd have some space to explore her mom and her prejudices, because any parent would be proud of Cassie. Except that time when she hung out with the Kryptonian cultists.