Wake Up, Dolly-Daydream!

To this all I can say is “What? WHAT?” Who on earth thinks Phantom of the Opera 2: Love Never Dies is a good idea? I’m horribly offended, really, as a formerly obsessed 12-year-old and as the currently-shamefacedly-disdainful-but-still-kind-of-obsessed 23-year-old I am now. The reason the original musical had its punch (for me, at least) was the tragic ending. There is no creature more made for melodramatic romance than a 12-year-old girl. And my parents are baffled by the Twilight phenomenon. When I was 12 it was Titanic. (Which my mother did not let me go see in the theatre on the account that I was 12 and the movie was rated PG-13. I am still bitter about it.)

One last book from my Christmas haul left to read and then I don’t know what I’m going to do with my time. Last night I finished Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

Review of Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

This book has been lauded left and right and it’s certainly the sort of book I would have gobbled up (and still do) in my tomboyish youth: dystopian future, survivalist porn, etc. It’s sort of “The Most Dangerous Game” meets Lord of the Flies meets the legend of the Minotaur (with regards to the tribute). I really did thoroughly enjoy it although I wish I had a slightly larger sense of…danger. It sounds odd because at any given moment the protagonist is in danger of being killed in the 74th Annual Hunger Games but being as she is the first-person protagonist, I wasn’t afraid she was going to snuff it in the middle. Very few books can pull off that trope without alienating the reader and I highly doubt you’d find that particular gimmick in most young adult books.

Well and so, but I never felt any real sense of fear for characters, despite the fact that they are in the same predicament as Katniss. Because the premise is that Hunger Games is a fight to the death, it prevented me from forming any emotional attachments to anyone because I knew that they would eventually die (for why was I reading this book if Katniss dies?). Like Kat, I couldn’t bring myself to care for the other players because I knew what their eventual fate would be. Unfortunately, this caused the book to lack a certain sort of emotional emphasis for me.

That being said, I sympathised with Katniss a great deal. She is pragmatic and a survivor and incredibly emotionally controlled, but that is not to say that she doesn’t feel deeply. I suspect Kat can and she does feel extraordinarily intensely, but her general circumstances and her own fear of vulnerability will not allow for it. I sympathise greatly with her control because it’s a reality I must deal with everyday of my life: as someone with bipolar disorder, I must not, I must not let my moods and emotions get the better of me (high or low). It leaves me incapacitated and vulnerable and unable to function. I admired Katniss a lot.

One more small quibble that is more of a stylistic and personal preference than anything else: I do wish Katniss were younger. 16 is fine as an age, but I might have found her story a little more heartbreaking had she been say, 14 years old. 14 is a strange age: not quite the tentative adolescent of 12 but not quite fully in the teenaged skin of 16 and the level of emotional immaturity (despite Katniss’s enormous control and responsibility to her family) would have made the book a tad bit more poignant, I think. But it wouldn’t affect the story either way. I highly recommend Hunger Games.

Goals for the Year 2009

1. Lose the 5lbs I’ve gained since summer. Which means I will be back on the strict phase of the South Beach Diet again once I return to New York. And gymming it everyday.
2. Begin querying agents for Elijah’s Chariot.
3. Make more art.
4. Learn one new song on the piano every month.
5. Become more crafty (knitting, scrapbooking, etc.)
6. Learn to enjoy cooking. I know how to cook a few things, but I really do hate it and find it an awful chore.

I find resolutions silly and prone to being broken immediately but I need to have structure in my life or else I become an utterly useless slob. I like having goals to work toward, because even if I don’t accomplish them, I at least have something to strive for. I’ve often found in my life, the journey and process of getting something done is often much more rewarding than the reward itself.

As far as years go 2008 was only mediocre. When compared to 2001, 2003, 2005, and 2007, it sort of blew. I seem to have the most luck on odd years now that I think about it because 2004 and 2006 also sucked donkey cock. As far as I’m concerned, the only highlights of 2008 included Obama being elected president and my finishing a draft of Elijah’s Chariot. Oh and the skydiving thing, but I figure that’s an ongoing hobby I’ve picked up rather than a one-summer-fling.

Here’s to hoping 2009 is infinitely better! It’s got some good odds in its favour: it’s an odd year, Obama will be sworn in, and I like the number 9.