my loyalties are with science

google docs HATES them! writer has a style that actually sounds like someone talking, not like a perfectly grammatically correct robot!

I think the Hunger Games series sits in a similar literary position to The Lord of the Rings, as a piece of literature (by a Catholic author) that sparked a whole new subgenre and then gets blamed for flaws that exist in the copycat books and aren’t actually part of the original.

Like, despite what parodies might say, Katniss is nowhere near the stereotypical “unqualified teenager chosen to lead a rebellion for no good reason”.  The entire point is that she’s not leading the rebellion. She’s a traumatized teenager who has emotional reactions to the horrors in her society, and is constantly being reined in by more experienced adults who have to tell her, “No, this is not how you fight the government, you are going to get people killed.” She’s not the upstart teenager showing the brainless adults what to do–she’s a teenager being manipulated by smarter and more experienced adults. She has no power in the rebellion except as a useful piece of propaganda, and the entire trilogy is her straining against that role. It’s much more realistic and far more nuanced than anyone who dismisses it as “stereotypical YA dystopian” gives it credit for.

And the misconceptions don’t end there. The Hunger Games has no “stereotypical YA love triangle”–yes, there are two potential love interests, but the romance is so not the point. There’s a war going on! Katniss has more important things to worry about than boys! The romance was never about her choosing between two hot boys–it’s about choosing between two diametrically opposed worldviews. Will she choose anger and war, or compassion and peace? Of course a trilogy filled with the horrors of war ends with her marriage to the peace-loving Peeta. Unlike some of the YA dystopian copycats, the romance here is part of the message, not just something to pacify readers who expect “hot love triangles” in their YA. 

The worldbuilding in the Hunger Games trilogy is simplistic and not realistic, but unlike some of her imitators, Collins does this because she has something to say, not because she’s cobbling together a grim and gritty dystopia that’s “similar to the Hunger Games”. The worldbuilding has an allegorical function, kept simple so we can see beyond it to what Collins is really saying–and it’s nothing so comforting as “we need to fight the evil people who are ruining society”. The Capitol’s not just the powerful, greedy bad guys–the Capitol is us, First World America, living in luxury while we ignore the problems of the rest of the world, and thinking of other nations largely in terms of what resources we can get from them. This simplistic world is a sparsely set stage that lets us explore the larger themes about exploitation and war and the horrors people will commit for the sake of their bread and circuses, meant to make us think deeper about what separates a hero from a villain.

There’s a reason these books became a literary phenomenon. There’s a reason that dozens upon dozens of authors attempted to imitate them. But these imitators can’t capture that same genius, largely because they’re trying to imitate the trappings of another book, and failing to capture the larger and more meaningful message underneath. Make a copy of a copy of a copy, and you’ll wind up with something far removed from the original masterpiece. But we shouldn’t make the mistake of blaming those flaws on the original work.

As a nonfan, one thing I’ve always appreciated about the “love triangle” of THG is that it’s the one YA love triangle I’ve ever read where the heroine DOESN’T choose the brooding, violent bad boy. Every YA novel that has love triangles is copying Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre where the broody guy is “not like the others” making the heroine “original” and oh so special for falling for him when he’s literally an abusive jerk.

My FAVORITE part of this though, is that in violent, oppressive, dystopian Panem Peeta IS the different one. Every person Katniss meets has dark, broody feelings for completely valid reasons (another thing shallow Bad Boy archetypes usually lack). Peeta (sry it autocorrected to “pasta” and I cracked up) is one of the only people in Katniss life who’s telling her “Hey, you can do this, we’ll get through this, people shouldn’t have to die for it though.” And that’s, like, the most revolutionary mindset in a world where brutal violence is so normalized it’s broadcast on television as mandatory entertainment. Katniss didn’t pick the “nice guy” she picked the healthy worldview she and her society need to heal.

Moreover, Peeta picked well too. He’s a child abuse victim from a houseful of people who wouldn’t stand up for him in a town that derides him for having a minimally better station in life than them, and here’s this girl who willfully stands up to every injustice she can. Seriously, how often does the love interest in copycat YA lit have a convincingly compelling reason to love the heroine other than she’s pretty or “different” or “we’ve always known each other so I guess let’s get married”?

I like how this post’s reblog/like ratio is over 100%

I’m Daphne

the thing that makes hotd so fun is that there’s no jon snow types to bring the mood down with their fucking morals or whatever. it’s just all crazy bitches all the time.

i'll literally never have enough of that dylan b hollis dude cause like. hes a college student who just.,.blew up on tiktok. he has the soul of a man who has lived for 60 years in the body of a twink. he cooks and is surprised every single time. he goes CINAMIN everytime he uses cinnamon. he has the kitchen of a 60s house wife and cooks like hes going to kill someone

god the loneliness of young adulthood is so real

it’s just trying not to cry on public transport and doing dishes

it’s sitting at home on a weekend and feeling this sudden wave of bittersweet nostalgia for something that never even existed overwhelm everything.

A new version of Phineas and Ferb is being released. It is on a streaming service, and will be rated MA. Everyone wonders what this mature version of their beloved kids show will be. The first season is released, and you start watching it. It is just the same as the first season of the old show. Is this some elaborate joke? Finally at the end of the first episode, it happens. Dr. Doofenshmirtz is defeated, as he usually is. This time, however, as Perry is making his exit, you here Doofenshmirtz yell, "Fuck you Perry the Platypus." This is the only thing that has changed in the show.

I assumed that Ferb would finally be allowed to kill

you're an older sibling ?? and what for ??? your younger sibling becoming taller than you ????

nothing brings me more joy than repeatedly doing a bit that my mother dislikes

Adélia Prado - Denouement, tr. by Ellen Doré Watson

Anti-revenge narrative this, anti-revenge narrative that, I personally think that Inigo Montoya had the right idea when he stabbed Count Rugen in the gut and said "I want my father back, you son of a bitch"

A lot of revenge arcs end with the hero saying "there's nothing you can do to bring my loved one back, so me seeking revenge is pointless." The Princess Bride's revenge arc ends with Inigo Montoya saying "there's nothing you can do to bring my loved one back, so there's nothing that can save you."

Being the person that needs to nap after every big meal is so embarrassing. I apologize for being a 1 week old

Actually you are so right.......

polyam legends

Remember kids