The Hunger Games Trilogy

[ClairBear226]

TOTALLY loving the trailer! MUST SEE!

 

[anthony]

Yer, not sure if some of the actors they chose are going to do it justice or not... I imagined Katniss to be much skinnier, being from a starving community who struggles to eat food, and the book says how their ribs are normally showing, etc... already the well fed actor playing the role doesn't do it the justice it deserves. Even if they use some CGI... I am really starting to understand how movies miss so much of a books storyline. Never really understood it before now.

I near jumped out of my seat last night when they did they third quarter quell... OMFG, I can't believe their going back into the games arena. No big parades, no nothing this time... they really want her dead for what she has started right from the deadly berries and accidentally continued through her tour of the districts, let alone her words in district 11 and the actions that followed.

I was really astonished with the district 8 women out at her lake shed she came across, and the interaction that took place. She really had no idea, obviously, on the impact her actions have cited in districts. How naive they are in the capitol though... sounds typical of society today when we can't get something. Oh me, poor me, how I miss having this or that.

And with district 13 coming back into it, with some type of hope a normal, free civilisation exists outside the other 12 districts. So looking forward to finishing the second book and getting into the third. I hope to be finished the third by the weekend.

 

[Deaf Global Nomad]

I was waiting for your input about the Combat PTSD descriptions. I don't have Combat PTSD, but I have been wondering. I didn't want to ask in case it hurt the story for some.

I actually liked it, coming from a PTSD standpoint.

The PTSD descriptions definitely increase in the third book. Talk about complex trauma for many!

 

[Deaf Global Nomad]

I just finished the third book and went over it again to have a general overview of all the details in Book 3. Wow! This is a pretty amazing series.

Has anyone noticed the connection between the Greek Myth of Minotaur? It starts with having to send a certain number of representatives into fights, goes on to a king's son (?) replacing one of the representatives, and finally with ending in a fight with a creature. Maybe it is the countries where I lived and studied ancient languages. In addition, today after therapy I was once again going through my bookshelves looking for a certain book for therapy next week. Instead, I found a German book on "Mythology of Ancient Rome" and another on "Mythology of Ancient Greece". Moving on to another shelf, I stumbled across Greek texts.

Similarly, does anyone see the connection between the books to "reality" television and groups of people competing against others in "just for TV" entertainment battles? At first it triggered something deep down that I couldn't connect it to, but images kept coming up unrelated to the books. Only by keeping on reading did the repetitions strike me similar to what I have seen during previews on TV and friends' conversations.

 

[Deaf Global Nomad]

I searched for additional film information on the series. Lionsgate appears to be planning on making 4 films out of the three books.

This seems to be similar to the ratio of Harry Potter books to Harry Potter films, as well as apparently the "Twilight" series. I haven't read the latter series nor seen the films. For Harry Potter, I just thought it was due to the number of pages of the last book. I can understand how the details in book 3 of The Hunger Games need to be spread out across two books.

 

[ClairBear226]

the Greek Myth of Minotaur?

I didn't get a lot of mythology in nursing school, but I had some in a Medieval English Lit class ages ago. Remind me - which one is he?

Similarly, does anyone see the connection between the books to "reality" television and groups of people competing against others in "just for TV" entertainment battles?

I actually had a similar thought. I wonder if that might be the intent of the author?

I think having PTSD yourself truly changes your understanding of the book.

Yep - just reading the reviews on Amazon prior to reading, I thought is would be interesting reading from the viewpoint that we have. I just had no idea how much of a theme it would turn out to be.

Where is everybody in the book? And Anthony, I second the question - what's your input on it from a Combat PTSD viewpoint?

 

[kimba]

I am at the beginning of the third book. Alternating feelings of admiration, horror, sadness and disbelief. Can't put it down. I would not see the movie version because that would make it too real for me. The imagery in the books is enough.

I have to admire the Capitol in a way although I can't wait to see what Snow's fate is. The setup of the arenas and the different challenges feel to me like a combination of Fear Factor and Survivor (two reality shows here in the States). I never knew of so many possible ways to torture and kill people before reading these books!

The relationships between the players, their mentors and the prep team are so believeable I feel like a fly on the wall for the whole thing. Picturing Cinnas creations is fun.

I love the whole Mockingjay connection and how they came to exist. The whole series is a possible premonition of what could be any countrys future but I have to admit that I am glad I will be hopefully long gone before things reach this point.

 

[kimba]

I finished the series. They could and should have done another book as the way they handled things was too abbreviated after all the incredible detail and imagery that came before. I did cry and think maybe by the time they were done writing and editing these books, whomever didn't have PTSD could empathize by the time all was done. Maybe the general public should be required to read this series at some point.

I have to admit, this is not something I would have read on my own. I am now glad I read it but will pass on the movie version.

 

[anthony]

Yer, just finished the third this morning.

What a blistering turn of events throughout the series. I became so enthralled when they pulled the victors and put them back in the quell game... never seen that one coming.

*** DO NOT READ IF NOT READ - ENDING EXPOSED ***

The ending actually happened as I anticipated it would through reading. From when they broke out of the arena in the second, as a planned act to help the rebel obtain alliance and push their cause, to when Coin fell at the hands of Katniss... who chose her as the worse oppression for the future over that of Snow.

From a military perspective, tactical background, I could see reason in her choices as she continued along. Even the choices how they impacted her, is just like war itself... you cannot go backwards when you have committed to forward momentum and an objective. Australian training is obviously much different to American forces, but once you commit into an objective, injured stay behind, with zero treatment, until the forward immediate threat is eliminated. Yet in many of Katniss's circumstances, there was nothing left for those injured behind, as mutts where eating and ripping apart bodies, or they where completely destroyed by some pod of evil.

I really loved the ending words, how Peter and her both still had nightmares, yet they and Hamish wrote a book telling the past to their children and the new district being built again, hoping to avoid all the same mistakes made. Funnily, I agree with some statements in the ending words though... humans forget too easily about the past, making the same mistakes again and again.

 

[ClairBear226]

She couldn't communicate and was hostile, as that is exactly what it feels like coming out of a war zone. It takes a lot of time to adjust from being in a hostile environment, to suddenly being removed into what feels like a completely different world. People are just going about their business, eating, drinking, enjoying life... the stressors change to 'what will I wear today' instead of 'if I do this, I will die. So I will try this and hope for the best' thinking. I can completely sympathise with their methodology of knocking her out whilst she is rejuvenated, as each time she wakes she struggles and fights, nothing is familiar... she feels lost, combined with alone.

I just finished Book 1. What struck me was the description of how Katniss reacted once leaving the arena. She could not adjust to the idea of safety. She felt like a wild maddened animal, while the world around her was proceeding with "normal". All I could think was, "YES. Yes, that's it exactly." I've never seen anywhere else where it's been written so accurately what it felt like to return to "real life" after a trauma. The inability to communicate, the unwillingness to say any of it out loud because it's preferable to think it was all a bad dream. The inability of the brain to accept that the danger is over. I suppose this is how hypervigilance begins.

 

[anthony]

I think the hyper-vigilance begun before getting into the arena IMO, but more she became used to living in that threatening state. When she was faced by a non-threatening event, civilians and doctors touching her, trying to help her, etc, upon evacuation, she had already been reinforced to be hyper-vigilant, now she simply could not turn it off. She had no decompression to transition between the arena environment (kill or be killed) and civilian society (killing is an offence and not civilian natured).

From a veterans perspective, this is exactly the problem with returning soldiers. You can't just turn it off. You go out, start drinking, someone touches you, next minute you're in jail for either killing someone or disabling them by breaking bones, all because of reinforced instincts to survive in such a hostile environment.

What really impressed me, was that she had the normal requisite paranoia, yet she was able to make sense of it, decipher it all and apply evidence to support it or not support it, thus she still rationalised well constructed decisions for the most part to keep her alive.

That ability her and Hamish had during the games, she could read between the lines and new he wasn't sending her water because she must have been near it... she just had to keep going a little further.

Very instinctive...

 

[ClairBear226]

From a veterans perspective, this is exactly the problem with returning soldiers. You can't just turn it off. You go out, start drinking, someone touches you, next minute you're in jail for either killing someone or disabling them by breaking bones, all because of reinforced instincts to survive in such a hostile environment.

It's not just soldiers, Anthony. That's exactly how I felt after being raped. While the rape was occuring, I would have killed in a heartbeat if I'd been able, and no one would have blamed me for it. But my brain couldn't switch gears quickly, and I couldn't turn off the "kill or be killed" mentality. Once I was back in a "safe" environment, my brain didn't seem to know, and I still felt like I could murder anyone that looked at me or touched me the wrong way. And bam - my butt would have been in jail. I couldn't supress the fight of flight. I can't tell you how long it took to decompress, but there was no in-between buffer whatsoever. One minute I was with the rapist, and literally, the very next, I was watching my children asleep in their beds. I paced like a rabid animal for the rest of the night. There's times I still feel like that.

I agree, very intuitive. And I'm pretty sure my brain completely turned off afterwards, so the ability to still form a cohesive thought impressed me as well.

I'm just beginning the 2nd book. They just left District 11. And I'm sucked in, as surely as I was with the fist book.