theitinerantbookworm

[theitinerantbookworm]

Welcome to my blog, truly a shout in the void, meant to chronicle the books I read in hopes of creating a more introspective reading experience for myself and to hopefully connect with like-minded bookworms. For a brief about-me, I'm a late-20s woman staving off a quarter-life crisis, born and raised in the Southern United States.

My favorite genres are fantasy & science fiction, historical fiction, and literary fiction. All-time best series so far: The Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett, Realm of the Elderlings by Robin Hobb, and the Wolf Hall Trilogy by Hilary Mantel. All bookish musings are meant less as reviews and more as meditations, and I welcome any messages from other readers with recommendations or similar/different opinions on books we share in common!

[theitinerantbookworm]

Sunrise on the Reaping

Suzanne Collins could write a book for the remaining 71 Hunger Games and I'd probably eat up every one. It's such a powerful franchise, and I think Collins really excels with hitting political messages. You can see how the Capitol thrives off propaganda and can easily manipulate footage to create the narrative that ensures their control, the dictatorship of the very few over the many, as Collins points out. Near the end of the book, Haymitch sees a replay of his Games as the Capitol refashioned it, a stark contrast to how he actually lived it -- events are put out of order or excised entirely in order to remove any rebellious actions by the tributes, and to paint Haymitch himself as a selfish loner who was only out for himself. They have to stamp out the memory of any collective action that would inspire future tributes (or anyone else in the districts) to think that banding together, and pitting themselves against the Capitol instead of each other, is a winning strategy. The Capitol desperately needs the winner to be self-serving, as we see 24 years later when Katniss is forced to pretend she would have committed suicide in the Games because she was mad with love, instead of trying to thwart the Gamemakers, a decision rife with political undertones. This manipulation of the narrative using technology is so topical in our current American political climate (and globally as well, I'm sure), as we see a lot of political horrors twisted and repackaged as "law and order" initiatives that protect the "true" or "deserving" citizens.

*MORE IN-DEPTH SPOILERS BELOW*

I especially enjoyed how Haymitch's Games hammer home the idea that the odds are very purposely never in the Districts' favor. The Capitol wants to spin the Games as a true lottery, with death in the arena a matter of chance or occasionally skill. Instead, we see how Haymitch's name isn't picked in the lottery, but he's specifically chosen by the Capitol representative to replace another boy because Haymitch defied a Peacekeeper. It reminds me of how Lucy Gray's reaping was likely rigged by the mayor because of his daughter's involvement with her boyfriend. We also see in Haymitch's Games that children, even Victors' children, can be reaped as punishment -- it was so, so gutting to watch Beetee's 12-year-old son be reaped and face a gruesome death, to be televised directly to his father, because Beetee resisted the Capitol. Ampert, Maysilee, and other tributes are deliberately targeted by Gamemakers within the arena to punish them, with muttations keyed to them specifically. It makes you wonder how many of the Games were manipulated on the microlevel beyond just putting dangerous elements into the arenas -- how many times the Gamemakers chose in advance how and when specific tributes would die, and indeed perhaps how and which tributes would win. Since Sunrise on the Reaping highlights how much betting goes on, you can imagine sometimes these Games must have been rigged.

I am really excited to see this one adapted as a movie. I loved The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes movie, more than the book honestly, and I think the franchise lends itself very well to visual depictions. Haymitch's arena will be especially cool to see, as it highlights how a beautiful landscape is deceptive and poisonous, just like the Capitol itself with all its glitz and glamor. It'll also be fun to see younger versions of Mags, Beetee, Wiress, and Effie -- I loved all of those cameos.

All in all, a very fun reading experience, a book I couldn't wait to pick up from the library and devoured over the weekend. It was also a good reminder to me in this current (horrific) political moment that there is so much power in collective action, even if it takes years or generations to build. It was meaningful for Haymitch, Ampert, and others to resist, even if it didn't bring the arena or the Capitol down at the time, and obviously had terrible consequences for them personally. But it wasn't pointless. Katniss's rebellion sparked because of all the kindling her forebears provided, even in small things like District 12 keeping alive their rebellious songs throughout 65+ years. In our own lives, we can also resist the narratives forced on us, even if it's just in the tiniest way of questioning the propaganda and thinking about why our society functions the way it does, and realizing it doesn't have to be that way. Kudos to Collins for 16 years of a franchise that tackles these important political issues, especially for young adult readers, even though I fear many readers and viewers often miss the point. People love District 12 and the rebels in the fictional world, but live happily in the Capitol in the real world, unfortunately.