YA Lit & Judgment

The Hunger Games came out yesterday (the movie). I saw it and liked it a lot. Love it. I'll buy it when it comes out on DVD. I've read the three Hunger Games books and enjoyed them very much.

You know what I also love and have read and enjoy and bought? Twilight. You know what? I'm allowed to like both, and so is everyone else.

Sure, Twilight  is cheesy with its teenage drama, love triangles, and sparkling vampires. And The Hunger Games doesn't have crap like teenage drama, love triangles, or genetically modified dog-creatures wearing the faces of dead contestants. Oh, wait. It does.


In the movie, Katniss is strong and smart, and I can understand someone calling her their hero. In the book? Not so much. All the way through, she is just as stupid, self-involved, and annoying as Bella is. One of the best part of the movie is NOT having to deal with her internal monologue.

Also, the HG books aren't a paragon of great literature while the Twilight books are the scribblings of a deranged 12 year-old. I place The Hunger Games in the same category as The DaVinci Code, though they are a bit above that: a good, page-turner of a story with crappy writing. Or at least lazy writing.
What Collins does have over Meyers is her world-building and a more long-form plot she's following. That is more interesting for a lot of people. (I don't comment on the writing style of Meyers here because, truly, it has been a couple years since I read them, and I don't remember being revolted by the writing, but I was in a weird place & was quite wrapped up in the stories.)

What I think many people are ripping on when they compare the two is the fact that the Twilight books are unashamedly girly. They're romances, written for teenage girls, but many adults and also plenty of guys have read them and enjoyed them. The Hunger Games books are full of violence and politics, so they appeal to even more guys and adults, and that's fine.

Am I saying that Bella is someone to be admired and that the Twilight books are to be held up as full of quality and role models? Not at all. Just double-check your vitriol and be sure that it isn't based mostly on the fact that something is girly. Everything fills a different niche and desire in people, and something you loved 4 months ago doesn't have to be trashed now because you love something else that happens to be loosely in the same genre. The world is big. Read lots and see lots of movies. Like them all, if you want.

I won't read about politics. I won't read about politics. I won't read...

Oh, friends, but is it ever hard.  This mosque near Ground Zero thing has everyone's panties in a knot and I have been thisclose to posting things on facebook and getting snotty and generally breaking my new rule. 

I have given in and read a few articles that people have posted on the non-panty-twisted side, one of which was basically a map of the area, what is already there, and a big "shut up" to the freak-out crowd. 

I find it difficult because it is one of the cases where I see people betraying much of what they claim to hold dear and just being racist, xenophobic.....people.  (Almost swore there.) 

So I'm going to keep away from the articles, even the ones I'm sure I'll agree with, because I just. cannot. handle. reading one word that comes out of Sarah Palin's mouth.  Among others. 

And I'm already angry and snotty and going against what I really think is important.  But it's my blog and I just wanted to vent a little bit. 

Now I'll go do something productive, like reading The Problem of Pain and work on explaining this whole theodicy thing once and for all.  You're welcome. 

Finally!

Friends, that wasn't a long book (the one I talked about yesterday), but I just couldn't finish it quickly.  But, done it is.  Now I can listen to my lectures & write my essays for the week.

Tonight, I'm seeing Eclipse (3rd Twilight movie, in case you've been living under a rock), and I'll be going early to try to ensure that I get a seat somewhat near my friends.  Since I'll be there about an hour and a half early, I'll be taking Sea Glass with me, and I may finish it.  Well, maybe not.  I'm really enjoying it and don't want it to be over, since the next one doesn't come out for a few months.  I do have C.S. Lewis to read, though, so I can always do that, but it's nice to have some fantasy to escape into.

I also have Chi Running on the way from the library, and that should be interesting.  My problem with that, though, is that I'll feel like I really need to pay attention and read a little at a time to incorporate what it tells me. 

I've been a reading fiend lately, but that's totally okay with me.  I think I'm also going to put Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows into the rotation, because I've only read it once and the preview for the movie made me all goose-bumpy and excited. 

Cheers!

So much for "Every Day"

I'm going to try, though.  Really.  I've just had a busy couple of days. 

Today I finished a silly, romance novel that was a freebie from the Romantic Times convention this year,The Selkie Bride.   To tell you the truth, it wasn't all that bad.  Sort of a mystery set on a Scottish island in 1923 or so.  A tad disappointing in the end, but not a waste of time. 

I'm pretty much done with my class, and my sister wanted my laptop while I was gone, so I let myself relax and read while at my volunteering job.  It's so nice to feel that freedom to read without guilt.  Tomorrow, I just need to read a few chapters for school, write a couple short responses, print everything up and mail it off.  Then I have two weeks before my next class starts.


My next class is also an online class, but with more structure than this one.  I'll need to log on every week & take part in discussions with the professors.  It will be better for me.  I'm also taking a 2 week class on C.S. Lewis in July, so I may read a bit of him during my 2 week break.  The rest of my free time will be spent on ancestry.com, digging around as much as I can so that I don't have to pay for another month.