lightreads | Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’ve been trying to figure out why I think it’s so important that these are young adult books. It started when I realized that the upcoming movies have a problem: a violence problem, and consequently a rating problem. It would be the really unfunny kind of irony to sanitize these stories, all things considered, and how could you, really? But I’m curious to see how the moviemakers deal with the problem of potentially excluding a large chunk of the teen audience with the rating.

(Sidetrack: the rating thing might actually be okay, considering the U.S. movie rating system is far more interested in keeping young people away from sex than violence. Ironey again, and something these books are sideways critical of. Then again, it bugs me a bit that these books are, with only one or two small exceptions, completely void of sexual content. Anyway.)

I realize that a lot of teens and pre-teens are reading these books for the romance, which is hilarious since Katniss herself snaps at one point that she has a rebellion to spark, she doesn’t have time for kissing. And I realize a lot of people are reading to get a hit of the old, easy, satisfying story – young person overcomes miraculous odds to single-handedly destroy oppressive evil. The Star Wars thing, I mean. Which is also funny, because it’s so incredibly not the point.

I realize I’m coming up to the brink of saying, ‘ur reading it wrong.’ I generally don’t care how people read books, what they get out of them. And in this case, I really don’t care. I love that this series is so popular, and I think it is incredibly important that it’s all over the teen market. Because I believe in the power of these stories. As a body, this trilogy is all about stories and how we live in them. It’s about political propaganda, and fearmongering, and packaged love stories, and what it’s like to live inside all these things, sliding in and out of believing them.

And I think that it doesn’t really matter what the thirteen year old girls of the world are reading these books for. They’re still opening the door to these stories, and living in them. There’s so much going on beneath the waterline here – so much wisdom, so much that is sad and awful without ever becoming cold or cynical. These are not books about some impossible kid whose plastic pluckiness saves the world, three cheers for all. They’re books about surviving, and being a tiny piece of a big grinding machine, and playing your turn on the game board as best you can, even when you’re bankrupt. Being used, and making the best of it at least part of the time. Important shit. And I think it’s seeping into the consciousness of a generation of readers in the quiet, plain ways these books work on people.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I thought this about the first one. By the second and third one (I'm about halfway through)... Katniss started to annoy me a bit with her sustained naive outlook. Like, every time she figures out someone is using her she reacts with the same mix of surprise and outrage (no, seriously, Katniss, you haven't figured out by now that there are bigger things going on than you?); and I feel she doesn't think ahead or about consequences of her actions at all, even after this repeatedly burns her. And don't get me started on Peeta and Gale.

...But yeah. If you asked me why I'd read things in high school I'd've given you far different answers from why I read the same books now.

Why does it bug you that the books are devoid of sexual content? Because they are carefully structured that way? (Katniss being the way she is precludes sexual content -- I know, because I was exactly that way when I was a teenager; it took me a lot longer to get over my "boys-as-romantic-objects are icky" stage than the norm -- but obviously she is carefully constructed that way.) I guess I tend to approve of a mix -- I suppose I like most of my fantasy/SF YA without too much violence or sex, but I don't mind a smattering of YA with sex and no violence (more likely, at least for the non SFF YA I read), or violence and no sex.

The way Katniss doesn't really process sex does make sense. God knows she has other things on her mind. And it's made clear at one point in mockingjay that this universe does admit of rape and prostitution. I mean, it would have to, so it's not a bookwide white wash. But there were a few notes that just struck my ear oddly. I think Peeta commenting on her "purity" was one of them. It's one of those socially conservative buzzwords that has been ruined for actual use for me. But even beyond that, I don't know. There were several places where she should have thought about sex -- she thought about having children with Peeta, at one point and just . . . nothing. I think part of why it's odd to me is that she processes sex as part of performance -- she can tell when other tributes are going for the sexy image. It's just . . . *shakes head*. The romance she and Peeta tried to sell was so incredibly packaged and heteronormative and wholesome. And underneath that we have a girl who ultimately can make only the vaguest allusion to her one and only actual sexual encounter in Mockingjay. Something about the two together didn't work for me, considering the ways these books are all about constructing different narratives for different audiences. Dunno, I'm not actually much for thinking right now.

I hope Mockingjay puts some of your frustration out. I know other people felt that way. I really didn't. I actually think the trilogy as a whole is a small hop from brilliance. But I'm still processing.

Heh. Yeah, I see that -- and it's another thing where coming from my background it makes sense (I understood sexiness in the context of image and performance, and had thoughts about things like having children with someone, well before I viscerally understood sex as, y'know, an actual thing, and, um, a prereq to that whole kids thing), but I could see how coming from another background it would be a little weird. Also the word "purity" hasn't been ruined for me as yet (uh, it probably tells you something about me that my first association is with refining silver or gold... never mind). Also, I haven't gotten to the sexual encounter in Mockingjay; I can see how Katniss not being able to articulate that would be a little silly, given everything else she is quite articulate (if to my mind misguided) about.

The part of Mockingjay I've read since I wrote the previous comment was better than the previous parts - I think the first part of it was especially annoying with the passive (and not very thoughtful) outrage.

For my 2 cents, I was certain that Peeta was about to say "it's because you're so prudish" before he wised up and detoured to "so...pure."

Katniss's freeze-up about sex doesn't read believably for me. We hear about the texture of every fabric, and girlfriend describes every piece of food she puts in her mouth. Here's a girl who lives by her senses and no touching below the neck? I thought it was all a hilarious commentary on how ultraviolence is totally cool but unabstinent teenagers--burn that book now!

What did you make of the complete whitewash of religion? Collins is so careful to remove it that it's completely gone from the language itself. Not a single "Oh God! That hurts!" or "Lord knows I'm thirsty." I don't think there was even a mention of lowercase hell as in, "Peeta's been through hell and back."

I'm tempted to read it as the lack of applause when Katniss volunteers, where silence is the strongest form of dissent that people dare. Every YA author knows half this country's school boards are crazy (my public school had corporal punishment AND taught creationism).

I'm tempted to read it as the lack of applause when Katniss volunteers, where silence is the strongest form of dissent that people dare. Every YA author

Yeah, I am willing to give Collins a whole lot of credit for what she is doing, given the density and complexity of the books. I honestly hadn't even processed that about religion, though of course once you said it, it hit me that you're absolutely right. Notably unusual in the flood of dystopic fiction in particular, I think, where everyone has a post-disaster revelation or cult or whatever.

I could also credit the violence and sex thought -- I was talking about the movies in one of these reviews, and the rating problem they'll have with the extremity of some of the violence. But I mean, at least Katniss doesn't lose her virginity, right!

Everyone knows that a good girl would shoot a boy through the neck before she'd let one touch her lady parts. PG-13.

Also, in my head, the uncensored version has Katniss and Peeta having sex right before the Quell on the night of their perfect rooftop day. Katniss didn't get a chance to tell Gale how she feels, and she's going to want to tell Peeta before it's too late, plus the burden of Gale-guilt is finally off her shoulders since she plans on dying. The Quell is the only time Katniss lets herself love Peeta. She sucks at words so it's straight to actions as usual. Indeed, action.

Later, in Mockingjay, after Peeta shows up probably-broken-beyond-repair, Katniss flees to District 2 and instead of the "drunk kisses" scene, we have some bad-idea, take-this-pain-away sex with Gale. He knows it's a bad idea, and if he had a cell phone he'd set Katniss's caller ID as "Bad Idea," but the dude has a lot of stress to get away from.

While I'm on the subject, am I the only one who thinks Katniss makes a weirdly hot heroine? Just like with the fabrics and the food, Katniss feels every single nerve when Gale touches her bruises with fingers light as moth wings. She's just like the Madonna song.

Okay, someone needs to write that. If someone hasn't already. Because yes.

And yes, Katniss was weirdly romance heroine touch-sensitive.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

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