miscellany (real/not real)

[aria]

i. Today I finished Mockingjay. Then I went searching for reaction posts, as you do, and was mildly pleased to discover that pretty much everyone had the same reactions I did, even unto the numbness at the end. I've seen a lot of people say that Collins ended up writing a different story than they'd originally thought she was, but no one really elaborated on the story that they did think she was telling, and ... from my end, a story that starts with child deathmatches is necessarily going to be awful, and have a corrupt rebellion, and -- yep, of course Prim was going to die, I think I realized that as soon as she developed an awesome personality. I think I wanted a different story too, but I didn't necessarily want one that had fewer tragically pointless deaths; Collins pulled it off a lot better than Rowling, anyway. I wanted a story with a lot more worldbuilding -- I want maps! details of each district! elaboration of what went on in the Capitol! a huge expansion of the bread & circuses concept! -- and I also wanted the actual details of a story about Peeta becoming just as damaged as Katiss and their slow groping towards actually, for once, saving each other on equal footing. And both of those stories were in there, but instead we essentially got a story that was, "War is terrible, death inevitable, resistance possible; but don't worry, things get better because there are KIDS! in the epilogue, hope you enjoyed your stay." And ... no. That said, I liked it! But it gives me the same reaction as BSG, essentially, which is that the more I think about it, the more dissatisfied I am with the ending, and the more I want to go back further and further and perform major narrative overhaul.


ii. Which means I am in need of uplifting things! Thankfully my brain is still full of Star Trek (and THEY ARE NOT THE HELL YOUR WHALES, which I think is my new cheering-self-up mantra); today's offer is Ensign Sue Must Die, a 32-page webcomic about Ensign Sue, mirror!Ensign Sue (who is omg SO EVIL), and the completely bewildered crew of the Enterprise. I came away from it with the strong desire for a plushie Spock in that comic's design.

iii. My father informed me the other day over the phone that he has a new TV show obsession! Considering that most of the TV my parents like has been introduced to them by me (namely Slings & Arrows, Life on Mars, Firefly, and in my mum's case White Collar; what they all have in common is that my parents enjoy the characters) I was seized by slight trepidation. The show? Heroes. Oh my god, I can't even. My dad reportedly loves Claire and Hiro, neither of which are surprising; he is always in the market for kickass blonde chicks, and he's obsessed with time travel. In the throes of Star Trek love, I asked excitedly if he'd met Sylar yet! What the hell, I don't even care about Sylar. I did tell him to stop watching after first season, but ... apparently when I visit my parents next week, I will be watching Heroes! How is my life so strange.

iv. In other things I am looking forward to: tomorrow were_duck and themeletor and I are going to see Adam Lambert in concert! I am mildly fond of Adam but mostly I feel like this is an ~important fannish experience~ and I am RIDICULOUSLY excited about it.

Hmm. This entry still feels kind of weird and disjointed, probably from the combination of Mockingjay and the suddenly cold cloudy weather. Still: webcomics! My father watching stupid telly! ADAM LAMBERT WITH FANGIRLS! I believe now is the time to listen to string quartet versions of Lady Gaga and un-numb myself.

Comments

[starlady]

Ensign Sue! *chortles*

I haven't written my Mockingjay reaction post yet, but I substantially agree with you, though I have less of an impulse to change the narrative, with the possible exception of Peeta's truncated arc.

[aria]

I completely lost it when mirror!Sue turned up. She has Hot Topic clothes! Oh my god ~so evil~!

Man, I wish more than anything that there had been more Peeta in that book. I was much more ready to ship them for reals when Katniss wasn't actually required to act like she was in love with Peeta, and that was great, but then they had ... almost no screentime, as it were. *sigh*

[yasaman]

Ugh, Mockingjay was so disappointing. I didn't have a problem with the story Collins was trying to tell, but I had a huge problem with how half-baked the execution was. I think Katniss's POV just really limited the story, and let Collins do way more telling than showing, both with the rebellion plotline and the Peeta/Katniss/Gale plotline.

And with Mockingjay, I got the impression that Collins just didn't do the worldbuilding. I think JKR hits the worldbuilding sweet spot of just enough interesting detail to convince us she's thought about things, but not so much as to overtake the story. (There's plenty of stuff to tear your hair out about, but then fandom has been dissecting every single word for like ten years.) Whereas Collins painted an interesting dystopia in the broad strokes, but just about nothing made any freaking sense on closer inspection. So unsatisfying.