Cart
|
|
my account
|
wish list
|
help
|
800-878-7323
Hello, |
Login
MENU
Browse
See All Subjects
New Arrivals
Bestsellers
Featured Preorders
Award Winners
Audio Books
Used
Staff Picks
Staff Picks
Picks of the Month
25 Best 21st Century Sci-Fi & Fantasy
25 Books to Read Before You Die
25 PNW Books to Read Before You Die
25 Women to Read Before You Die
50 Books for 50 Years
Gifts
Gift Cards & eGift Cards
Powell's Souvenirs
Journals and Notebooks
Games
Sell Books
Events
Find A Store
PowellsBooks.Blog
Authors, readers, critics, media − and booksellers.
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
##LOC[Cancel]##
Most Read
Best Books of 2022: Fiction
by Powell's Staff
The Big List of Backlist: Books That Got Us Through 2022
by Powell's Staff
25 Books to Read Before You Die: 21st Century
by Powell's Staff
Powell's 2023 Book Preview: The First Quarter
by Powell's Staff
7 Essential Authors Recommend Their 7 Essential Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books
by Powell's Staff
Blog Categories
Interviews
Original Essays
Lists
Q&As
Playlists
Portrait of a Bookseller
City of Readers
Required Reading
Powell's Picks Spotlight
4 Responses to "Book News for Wednesday, September 2, 2009"
Bolton
September 3, 2009 at 09:47 AM
Right on, Dot! I love the way the violence works in
Hunger Games
, where Collins implicates the reader for being equally as voyeuristic as the spectators in the book... because, after all, aren't we also excited for the main event to begin? Leading up to the start of the Games, I wondered if Collins was going to get squeamish (like in the '80s
G.I. Joe
cartoons, where somehow no character ever got killed despite the volleys of laser blasts hurtled back and forth). She lets you know right away that the kid gloves (so to speak) are off.
Brockman
September 3, 2009 at 09:46 AM
I jest, Kelly, only jest!
Kelly
September 3, 2009 at 09:36 AM
Umm . . . I caught that little threat. LOL You're not allowed to leave the blog. No matter how sensational your fictional memoir turns out to be.
thedotdotdot
September 2, 2009 at 01:32 PM
A pox on everyone who tries to make the popularity of the Hunger Games somehow dependant on a wave of newly violent children. I think the whole point of the NPR article is to remind us that mythology has been just as bloody as these modern stories, but the commenters are either hyperfocusing on the fact that no one mentioned Battle Royale, or they're still fixated on these kids today and their "Coursening of American culture". ARRRG! Yes, there have been stories with people fighting to the death before. Young soldiers and their stories pepper the Newbery winners, and yes, Lord of the Flies and Battle Royale and the Running Man all had vaguely similar concepts. What separates them is how they deal with the subject matter and what constitutes their story, and, of course, the characters. Having just finished Catching Fire, reading comments like that make me want to pull out a wee bit of violence myself. Whoever mentioned Social Science is right on the money. It's not a gratuitously violent book, it's a book where real people are plunged into extreme circumstances, just like every other "thriller", except there is a very real societal message involved about terrible dystopian government and the forced complacency of the tyrannized. If we were going to throw stones at any of the violent YA books out there (and that stone throwing is a whole 'nother conversation), there's so many other titles that I've read that keep the killing but lack the amazing heart that the Hunger Games has. Michael Grant's Gone, Ness' The Knife of Never Letting Go spring to mind immediately. Their books were well written and interesting enough, but can't come close to the Hunger Games in terms of moral spirit.
Result(s) 4
Post a comment:
*Required Fields
Name*
Email*
(won't be published)
Please note:
All comments require moderation by Powells.com staff.
Comments submitted on weekends might take until Monday to appear.