I haven't read the books, but I saw the movie. I thought it was good, and very well done, but I found it pretty deeply disturbing and was shaken for hours afterwards. Even though I'm glad I saw it and think it has good messages, I can't recommend it, because you never know what someone can handle, and it is a pretty disturbing story, even though they handled the violence visually well.

I'm going to go see it tomorrow, and I'll try to get my thoughts up soon after. (As in, sooner than 6 months later)

Have you read the book? And yes, sooner than 6 months would be nice

Yeah, I've read them.

I love them, her characters are so deep, and they seem so real. That's where I get my inspiration character-wise from-I don't steal her characters or aspects of her characters, I just endeavor to paint as clear a mental picture as she of both their looks and their personality. It just irks me that almost every time someone says something, even if it's a question, it says "....." Haymitch says. "...?" Peeta says. She needs a thesaurus. It's funny because everything else in the story seems to have been written with an open thesaurus... It's just the-what are those words called? Predicates? I have no idea the words like "says", "exclaimed", "asked", etc.

I actually see that as a good thing, though a little variety is fine. It annoys me when people get too creative with dialogue tags.

I posted this on the SF side, but I thought some of you may be interested it as well: http://bushmaid.blogspot.com.au/2012/04 ... games.html

Yeah, I'd seen it, and I raise my glass to you. *salutes with glass of some drink or another*

That means a lot coming from you, thanks Varon.

You're welcome.

That was quite interesting and thought-provoking, Bush

It was a good movie, a lot less violent than I expected. The part with Rue was, unfortunately, underplayed and lacked a lot of the power it had in the book. The violence was well-handled and rarely shown. The Capitol was done well, the Gamemaker's control room was awesome, and Seneca Crane had a sweet beard. Overall, it was a good movie.

Yeah I know. My friends and I were actually laughing at all the people crying in the theater at that part. I was very disappointed.

I was slightly disappointed, but there wasn't much they could do to emphasize it since the movie wasn't in first-person.

I think it should have been. Like with a voice-over of Katniss speaking her thoughts. Would have been so much better...

Maybe. That would have been odd though.

Well, practically the whole book was an inner monologue... It wouldn't have been odd. There are several movies like that, though the only one I can think of at the moment is (BLECH) Twilight.

I'm reading the third book right now. I love them. Period. Not much more to it.

Yes.

My only negative note on the series is that Suzanne Collins didn't expand her vocabulary... it was easy to read... too easy.

Yes.

I know, it bugged me too. Like I said earlier, even when people ask questions or yell, most of the time all she wrote is "says." That annoyed me to no end.

Me too. But we still have to give her props on the plot. I don't know how she came up with it! o.0 It was very original and very interesting.

Actually, if you read further back on this thread, someone said that she used elements from ancient Rome or something like that. People were saying how very UNoriginal it is. But so what if she took an example from something? She still did an amazing job writing. Her characters are very deep and the plot twists yank you in and tie you up so you HAVE to finish reading.

If I remember right, she was watching a show on the Iraq War, and then switched channels, I think that it was then on gladiators, and she said the two combined in her head.

Cool! And so what? We all get our inspiration from different places! I wouldn't call it a rip-off...

Exactly! It's ridiculous.
Some people I know aren't allowed to read the books or see the movie because "it's just a movie about kids killing kids". I say no, it's about the cruel government who forces this to happen, and the main point of the series is the characters rebelling against this government.

That's good writing. I think they're very well written. Simple can be better, and often is, and there are many professional writers who will say to use 'said' whenever you can because a lot of more unusual dialogue tags are distracting from the actual dialogue itself and are a mark of weak characterization.

You probably only noticed it because it's in the still-unusual present tense and therefore uses 'says' instead of 'said'. If you pay attention to a well-written past-tense book, you might notice that they almost always just use 'said'. You just don't notice it because your mind is so used to reading it that it doesn't even register.

Anyone who says the books are all "about kids killing kids" has obviously not read the book and shouldn't be making judgments on it.

Also...*waves flag in defense of the word 'says'* I like says. I like "said" too. It's invisible, and you can pay more attention to the actual words.

People who use extremely creative speech words like...she sarcasticized. Distract from what's actually being SAID. I liked that Mrs. Collins didn't bother with all those frills.

Exactly. There are maybe six common speech tags that are typically considered all you need, but said is the main one. More creative ones sometimes have their place, but it's rare.

Note that this doesn't mean you should use said along with a descriptive adverb. That's even worse, and the same principle. If you have to say a comment was sarcastic, you didn't write the dialogue or surrounding situation/events correctly.

Well of course I don't use words like sarcasticized, but what about simpler ones that give a little more information? Called? Muttered? Groaned?

*agrees* And just for the fun of nitpicking: I didn't really like the fact that Suzanne Collins... how do you say... stretched topics too much. Like She constantly makes Katniss ask herself "How am I supposed to kill Peeta" and "Will the old Peeta ever come back to me?" in Mockingjay and it just constantly made me think "Alright! We get it! Just let the story continue!" and suffice to say I don't like it when books make me think like that.

Those were the themes, though. What she was obsessing over. And since it was told from a first-person perspective, with her thoughts basically running the whole time, what's foremost on her mind is going to be what is repeated the most.

The point of the repetition was to play up Katniss's ever more fragile sanity. She's obviously dealing with some SERIOUS PTSD in Mockingjay, and I found it heartbreaking...

Exactly! Poor Katniss... I can't wait for the movies of Catching Fire and Mockingjay! And I'm probably going to be in Walmart at midnight on the day the DVD comes out, so I can buy it. I'm not a crazy fan... No way... I didn't just buy a $9.99 HG themed US Weekly magazine with 3 posters inside... Nope...
I'm reading THG again for the 5th time, just because 1) I love it so much, and 2) It's an easy read, having read it 4 times already.

Those would be fine if used sparingly where they actually add something, instead of taking all the attention from the dialogue. And when they're used correctly. Some tags people often use don't even make sense. She breathed. How do you 'breathe' words?

Point is, in the vast majority of cases the information of how somebody is speaking should be shown through their word choice, their body language, and other descriptive ways, instead of just telling what it sounded like.

You don't know what that means? It's when you say something with a lot of breath... Like when you softly say "Whoa..." or "Cool." And you exhale more than necessary because you're in awe...

I don't like fancy dialogue tags, but I don't mind a little variation every now and then. But anyways... *goes to start a thread on dialogue tags*

Also, I love the Hunger Games. I also saw and liked the movie. Perhaps I will post more detailed thoughts on my opinions later, or maybe I'll just throw out a link to my blog post because I'm lazy...

Good idea to start a new thread. We were getting pretty distracted.

I know what it means, but it doesn't make sense (that's actually an example a few professional authors/editors have used). You don't 'breathe' the words, you say them while breathing. You're always breathing while speaking. So describe it some other way. You don't breathe words...you breathe air.

*prods with her stick* Come come, now! All ye derailers, get thineselves out of this thread, or else get back on topic.

*runs away*

On the subject of The Hunger Games...um...I have yet to read the next two books. I really liked the first one, though the strong potential for meaning is a bit unfulfilled by the author's worldview...

Warning: I wrote this post late at night when I was really tired, so I can't promise that it's well written or even understandable, so read at your own risk!

I read the trilogy in a week. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The books were violent, yes, and slightly depressing, but they weren't supposed to be happy little books about a utopia. They were dark and violent. Children were forced to battle to the death. It was a struggle for survival. People rebelling against an evil government. It shows the drastic lengths we go for entertainment. It was meant to be thought provoking and I think it accomplished that task.

I would highly recommend these books, but for those who are younger than fourteen should get parental permission because of the extent of violence and romance in it.

They are really good books and I like them. The movie is also fairly good, although it isn't entirely accurate

God bless,
Bethany

*nods*

People are completely shocked and I can't tell you how many times I've had Christian friends, or their parents say to me, "How can you read a book where children kill children?"

The sad thing is that here in the real world, children are dragged into the military and forced to fight, or are used as bombs, ALL. THE. TIME.

And I hear very little outrage about it, and see very little trying to stop it.

Perhaps the Hunger Games will draw more attention to the subject...

*Nods* It's very sad when you think of how many child-soldiers there are...

*Runs out in attempt to stop derailing thread*

Simple summary of my thoughts on The Hunger Games and thus some views on art in general:

1. The first book is okay, not super well written. The next two are horrible.
2. In trying to make a serious point with its brutality the book becomes ridiculous and just plain dumb. Compared to books with brutal violence, The Iliad for example, it's ridiculously violent but in that it is far more serious than not.
3. Mediocre books which detract teens from some excellent teen writers.

Ouch.
The second book-I agree, it could have been better. It seemed like she was in a rush to publish-and who wouldn't be, if they had a fan base as large as Collins did for the first book?
The third really needs work. Yes, Collins accurately portrayed the PTSD, but I mean, most of the book seems to be made up of Katniss finding a new place to hide and cry. And the ending just seems so inconclusive.

*Nods* I was very disappointed with the ending of the third and most parts of it as well... Other than that I would have to disagree with you, Will, but people don't always have to agree

God bless,
Bethany

I was somewhat disappointed with the ending.
If it had ended "happily" I wouldn't have liked it because there was basically no way of having a happy ending.
But on the other hand it it could have had a sad ending which is in my opinion would have been more effective and actually less depressing then the actual ending that was sort of in between happy and sad.

The ending was realistic. And I was just happy she and Peeta were together, she'd actually HAD some kids, and she still had all her limbs and faculties.

Yeah, I was too.
I'm actually writing a book in the first-person present-tense style right now. I'm not ripping off the Hunger Games, I just think it's a great way to draw your readers in, make them feel like what's going on is actually happening right this second; the man is being run through with a javelin as we speak, the woman is falling off her tower as you read the words. It's confusing sometimes, but I like it a lot.
Not to say it's better; it definitely has its place. Like in the Hunger Games. We would not have felt everything so keenly had we not been inside Katniss' head the whole time. If it had said "Katniss ran to get away from the fireballs, but she was too slow and one burned her leg," it just wouldn't have drawn me in in the same way.