For fans of books...
For those who were impressionable youths in the nineties...
For appreciators of beauty...
We present:
LENNY KRAVITZ IN A BOOKSTORE
Via his twitter feed @LennyKravitz
Showing posts with label Hunger Games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hunger Games. Show all posts
16 April 2012
24 August 2010
Tense times
The wait is almost over. Not the wait for an election result, of course, that wait might be lengthy.
We don't mind admitting that many of us in the House of Onion are eagerly awaiting the publication of Mockingjay*, the third book in Suzanne Collins's compelling dystopian trilogy The Hunger Games. What will become of Katniss and her world - what role will she play, and who will survive to stand beside her?
While the actual idea of the Hunger Games is horrific (every year two children from each of 12 Districts are selected to be thrown into a hostile, televised arena, controlled by the game-makers, to fight to the death), Suzanne Collins has created a vivid and compelling series that readers are gobbling up, turning pages as quickly as they can to see what happens. A life-or-death reality show with children fighting each other as entertainment - used simultaneously as a weapon of oppression wielded by the governing forces - is almost inconceivable,** and yet it is extraordinarily convincing.
Collins's world-building is wonderful and the sense of drama, danger and threat is ever-immediate and relentless. This immediacy is generated in part by the fact that the novel is written in first person, present tense. We have noted before how the second person point of view can impact on a reader. And tense certainly has an impact too.
But it can't do it in a vacuum. A novel written in present tense has to have a great deal more than present participles for it to work its immediacy magic. It is only effective if the reader actually cares about the character. If we don't have real feelings for the protagonist, we couldn't give two hoots about what happens to them next... or now, as it were.
And we DO care about Katniss Everdeen. From the moment she volunteers to take her sister's place in The Reaping, we want her to survive the Hunger Games. So we are desperate to know what happens next. And it's not just because of her noble act of self-sacrifice - it's a combination of her authoritative and appealing narrative voice, the compelling nature of the plot (the extreme and terrible situation Katniss finds herself in) and the element of uncertainty that surrounds the Games themselves (she knows she's going to have to fight to the death, but she's not at all sure how the game might play out, what the game-makers have in store for the selected tributes, or even what the consequences of winning might be).
So voice, plot and suspense*** combine to make us want to turn the pages. In combination with these three key elements, the present tense does indeed work its magic - it enhances the urgency, compounds the terror and makes us feel we are truly in the moment with Katniss.
So bring on Mockingjay. Bring. It. On.
* Today! Today! It's published today!
We don't mind admitting that many of us in the House of Onion are eagerly awaiting the publication of Mockingjay*, the third book in Suzanne Collins's compelling dystopian trilogy The Hunger Games. What will become of Katniss and her world - what role will she play, and who will survive to stand beside her?
While the actual idea of the Hunger Games is horrific (every year two children from each of 12 Districts are selected to be thrown into a hostile, televised arena, controlled by the game-makers, to fight to the death), Suzanne Collins has created a vivid and compelling series that readers are gobbling up, turning pages as quickly as they can to see what happens. A life-or-death reality show with children fighting each other as entertainment - used simultaneously as a weapon of oppression wielded by the governing forces - is almost inconceivable,** and yet it is extraordinarily convincing.
Collins's world-building is wonderful and the sense of drama, danger and threat is ever-immediate and relentless. This immediacy is generated in part by the fact that the novel is written in first person, present tense. We have noted before how the second person point of view can impact on a reader. And tense certainly has an impact too.
But it can't do it in a vacuum. A novel written in present tense has to have a great deal more than present participles for it to work its immediacy magic. It is only effective if the reader actually cares about the character. If we don't have real feelings for the protagonist, we couldn't give two hoots about what happens to them next... or now, as it were.
And we DO care about Katniss Everdeen. From the moment she volunteers to take her sister's place in The Reaping, we want her to survive the Hunger Games. So we are desperate to know what happens next. And it's not just because of her noble act of self-sacrifice - it's a combination of her authoritative and appealing narrative voice, the compelling nature of the plot (the extreme and terrible situation Katniss finds herself in) and the element of uncertainty that surrounds the Games themselves (she knows she's going to have to fight to the death, but she's not at all sure how the game might play out, what the game-makers have in store for the selected tributes, or even what the consequences of winning might be).
So voice, plot and suspense*** combine to make us want to turn the pages. In combination with these three key elements, the present tense does indeed work its magic - it enhances the urgency, compounds the terror and makes us feel we are truly in the moment with Katniss.
So bring on Mockingjay. Bring. It. On.
* Today! Today! It's published today!
** Unlike Vizzini, we know what inconceivable means - which is why we added the almost.
*** Oh and the URST, don't get us started on URST. We are Team Gale and Team Peeta.
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