• New Hunger Games Profile Posters Provide New Glimpses With a Capitol Touch

    ByElizabeth
    9 Comments

    Lionsgate, the company in charge of the new Hunger Games film to be released in March, has just put out a series of striking new posters that each feature one of the story’s major characters, photographed in profile. The images are fascinating, and not just for their surface meaning (Come see this movie! Buy loads of popcorn!). In fact, their underlying meaning is just as riveting as the actors’ distant stares. Follow me after the jump for some overall thoughts on this whole poster campaign and some insights on each one. Read More “New Hunger Games Profile Posters Provide New Glimpses With a Capitol Touch”

  • Capturing Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle

    ByElizabeth
    13 Comments

    This past July, while I was in Orlando for Leaky-Con and visiting family, my mother-in-law and I partook of one of our favorite activities: thrift store shopping. She knows all the best spots, and we always find great bargains and have a blast. While I was browsing the books, I spotted one I have only ever seen on the virtual shelf on J.K. Rowling’s pre-Pottermore website: Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle. It’s a fairly well-handled edition, but it was practically free, and I decided I wanted to see why Rowling has always declared the novel’s narrator to be one of the “most charismatic” of any in any novel. I recently finally got around to reading it, so I thought I’d share a few of my insights, and see if those of you who have also read the book will post your thoughts as well!
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  • Citizens of Panem being “Processed” Now

    ByElizabeth
    13 Comments

    So, a few weeks ago, we posted here about the new Capitol website being launched in conjunction with the forthcoming film of Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games (the fact that it is specifically a film tie-in website is indicated by the fact that the countdown to the next Games is not for next summer, but for the film’s March release date). Those of us who registered on the site using our social media (i.e. Twitter or facebook) were assigned a District and then told we then had to wait for our “District Identification Passes” or DIPs (snort) to be processed. Starting this past weekend, “citizens” began getting emails directing them to proceed with registering (interspersed with visits to the website which, for some odd reason, was briefly switched to a Latin text, but more on that later). For more on the experience, and on the fascinating ironies of this little marketing ploy, follow me after the jump. Read More “Citizens of Panem being “Processed” Now”

  • CNN Tries to Catch On with Hunger Games–and Fails Miserably

    ByElizabeth
    6 Comments

    Today, CNN posted an article that predicts, wow! That this Hunger Games thing just might be a big deal. The tone of the article is ridiculously glib, apparently in an effort to deflect from the fact that such an article makes the folks at CNN look further behind the times than the crowd that keeps popping up with “Hey, this Harry Potter stuff is actually Christian! Who knew?” The reporter, who is listed as being “special” is evidently either not familiar enough with the book to get the basics correct (like the relationship between Katniss and Peeta prior to the Reaping) or is trying too hard to be cute. Once again, the mainstream media is missing the real power of this story, thinking that it will be a big hit because of the sex and violence factors, and completely failing to notice (again) the power of this story or its razor-sharp critique of that very gore and smut industry. After all, The Hunger Games uses a story of real, sacrificial love to reveal the tragedies produced by a culture obsessed with violence as entertainment. As the movie’s release date draws near (posters are already up at the local cineplex) we can expect more of this nonsense. But then again, how likely is CNN to get what this story really does? After all, the mainstream media and its news-as-entertainment focus is part of the beautifully woven (and very sticky) web Suzanne Collins has woven. It really isn’t that shocking that they can’t see the message our crafty spider has posted with her riveting tale.

  • Welcome to the Capitol! New Hunger Games Website with Pottermore echoes

    ByElizabeth
    9 Comments

    You may have noticed, in the recently released micro-clip trailer for next year’s film of The Hunger Games, a little blip about registering as a citizen of the Capitol. Well now, you can do just that. This new site, which looks to be mostly teaser at this point, gives you the opportunity to register via either twitter or facebook (I went with the latter, myself). Then you will be registered according to your district (which is chosen for you;). Evidently, more bells and whistles will be forthcoming. For some more thoughts on the new site, particularly what it gives us that we didn’t already know, follow me after the jump. Read More “Welcome to the Capitol! New Hunger Games Website with Pottermore echoes”