Post by Dante on Sept 6, 2011 3:18:12 GMT -5
I've been pretty busy too. My bookshelves literally had so much on them that I couldn't fit any more books, and I've had to have a huge clear-out. I haven't even finished that yet, actually. I left The Hunger Games down, though - partly as I haven't finished the series yet, but hey...
Okay, the end of the novel. As in the very end? I guess we have all finished it. I think that, in any novel about a game, the protagonists will always find a way to game the system, to bend the rules to their favour. If I was the sort of person who made pronouncements on the phantasm we call human nature, I would say it was probably human nature that we don't like to see people being beaten by the rules - we don't like the idea that our frameworks are bigger than ourselves, that the system trumps us. But it's also because in a novel then that makes it interesting. And since the "inevitability" angle has been brought up here - although you might also call it a "good story" angle - then I think to a certain extent it's fated that both Katniss and Peeta would survive. Technically the trick could be pulled off by any two players, if the alternative is for the Games to be denied a winner, and the Gamemakers wouldn't stand for that kind of nihilism. After all, they're storytellers too, and "everyone dies" is not the kind of message they want to give people; they want people to believe that there is hope, that there is a reward for enduring harsh circumstances. It makes me wonder if Katniss would really have gone through with it, though, or whether she knew the Gamemakers would fold - I haven't had time to reread the scene, sorry - and, correspondingly, whether Peeta took the suicide attempt at face value. I guess the conclusion we have to come to is that she knew it was a trick and he didn't - the same for their entire romance.
As to the other aspect of any ending, which is the possibility of a sequel - don't take this as a spoiler, because this is what I originally thought upon reading the end of the book, without having read any of the others yet. I thought that the Capitol would find a way to get Katniss into the Games again - they're prepared to let her beat the Games, but they won't let her beat them, and that's exactly what she did. I thought maybe they'd use some loophole, that because she shared victory she doesn't count as a full winner and thus would still be eligible for future Games. Is that what happened? Well, I don't know how many of you have read the second book, although probably most, it looks like. Of course, since it's a trilogy, the question then becomes: Could it happen a third time? I haven't read the third book, and while I can pass judgement on the probability of that, I probably shouldn't right now. It'd be a bit forced, but there are other ways of arranging it. I am reminded of a game called The World Ends With You, though, the plot of which works on similar principles, involving a game which determines whether you live or die - and the protagonist does have to play three times in a row.
Oh yeah, one last thing. The last Career who had to fight off the mutants, an unpleasant experience. Why didn't Katniss and Peeta just shoot him? I'm pretty sure they thought that even he didn't deserve such an unpleasant end. But maybe circumstances prevented it - like I said, I haven't had chance to reread the scene yet.
Okay, the end of the novel. As in the very end? I guess we have all finished it. I think that, in any novel about a game, the protagonists will always find a way to game the system, to bend the rules to their favour. If I was the sort of person who made pronouncements on the phantasm we call human nature, I would say it was probably human nature that we don't like to see people being beaten by the rules - we don't like the idea that our frameworks are bigger than ourselves, that the system trumps us. But it's also because in a novel then that makes it interesting. And since the "inevitability" angle has been brought up here - although you might also call it a "good story" angle - then I think to a certain extent it's fated that both Katniss and Peeta would survive. Technically the trick could be pulled off by any two players, if the alternative is for the Games to be denied a winner, and the Gamemakers wouldn't stand for that kind of nihilism. After all, they're storytellers too, and "everyone dies" is not the kind of message they want to give people; they want people to believe that there is hope, that there is a reward for enduring harsh circumstances. It makes me wonder if Katniss would really have gone through with it, though, or whether she knew the Gamemakers would fold - I haven't had time to reread the scene, sorry - and, correspondingly, whether Peeta took the suicide attempt at face value. I guess the conclusion we have to come to is that she knew it was a trick and he didn't - the same for their entire romance.
As to the other aspect of any ending, which is the possibility of a sequel - don't take this as a spoiler, because this is what I originally thought upon reading the end of the book, without having read any of the others yet. I thought that the Capitol would find a way to get Katniss into the Games again - they're prepared to let her beat the Games, but they won't let her beat them, and that's exactly what she did. I thought maybe they'd use some loophole, that because she shared victory she doesn't count as a full winner and thus would still be eligible for future Games. Is that what happened? Well, I don't know how many of you have read the second book, although probably most, it looks like. Of course, since it's a trilogy, the question then becomes: Could it happen a third time? I haven't read the third book, and while I can pass judgement on the probability of that, I probably shouldn't right now. It'd be a bit forced, but there are other ways of arranging it. I am reminded of a game called The World Ends With You, though, the plot of which works on similar principles, involving a game which determines whether you live or die - and the protagonist does have to play three times in a row.
Oh yeah, one last thing. The last Career who had to fight off the mutants, an unpleasant experience. Why didn't Katniss and Peeta just shoot him? I'm pretty sure they thought that even he didn't deserve such an unpleasant end. But maybe circumstances prevented it - like I said, I haven't had chance to reread the scene yet.
