Three Good Reasons to Read Suzanne Collins’ Five Underland Chronicles: Gregor the Overlander Meets Harry and Katniss

May 11, 2011 by 83 Comments

Since a reader here suggested long ago that I read Suzanne Collins’ first series of books, the five Gregor the Overlander novels, The Underland Chronicles, for a better idea of what she is up to as a writer in Hunger Games, this has been on my to-do list. I finished the fifth book, Gregor and the Code of the Claw, last night and offer these three good reasons for you to purchase the five books today and begin reading them.

(1) The series is never, ever going to be made into movies. It’s books or nothing, folks.

(2)  The Chronicles open up the core meaning of Hunger Games and the evolution of Collins’ artistry.

(3) They are page-turning, heart-engaging, “O, brave New World!” adventure yarns you will love.

In other words, “If you love Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, then….” For what are pretty much spoiler-free explanations of the three reasons, jump the jump.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Hunger Games

Hunger Games Movie News: A young Seneca Crane, Most Tributes in place, extras and doubles being cast in Western NC

May 9, 2011 by 5 Comments

As filming time draws near for the cinematic adaptation of The Hunger Games, our Hollywood Gamemakers keep dropping  new pieces into their game. Just cast— Wes Bentley as Seneca Crane, head Gamemaker. Strangely enough, Crane doesn’t actually appear in the novel at all, except in the group of Gamemakers Katniss breaks up with her arrow-through-the-apple-in-the-pig’s-mouth trick. Collins doesn’t even reveal his name until Catching Fire when President Snow tells Katniss that Crane’s sentimental choice to crown both Katniss and Peeta as Victors in the 74th Games has led to his execution and replacement with Plutarch Heavensbee. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Elizabeth Baird Hardy, Hunger Games, Movie Thoughts Tagged With: ,

Can you be a ‘Fundamentalist’ and ‘Sorcerer’ Simultaneously?

May 7, 2011 by 3 Comments

You can if you are the President of Iran. According to an article in The Guardian (UK), Ahmadinejad Allies Charged with Sorcery, the confrontational leader is under fire in his own country both because of his “fundamentalist” Shia beliefs in the imminent return of the Mahdi and because his personnel are “charged with being ‘magicians’ and invoking djinns (spirits).” Imagine being accused of being the ideological hermaphrodite of Harry Hating and the very things that Harry Haters condemn (falsely) in Harry.

To be caught between a Rock and a Sorcerer’s Stone! Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes, Uncategorized

Thoughts on Life Imitating Fiction

May 5, 2011 by 7 Comments

Shared Text and Osama bin Laden
by John Granger and John Patrick Pazdziora

Amid the endless stream of op-eds surrounding the death of Osama bin Laden, The New York Times provides us with a surprising example of shared text. In “9/11 Inspires Student Patriotism and Celebration” (NYT, 3 May 2011), Kate Zernike reports on analyses of the jubilation many young Americans have expressed in recent days:

In the world of the so-called millennial generation, said Neil Howe, a writer and historian who is often credited with defining that term for the generation, “Evil is evil, good is good. There are no antiheroes, there is no gray area. This is a Harry Potter vignette, and Voldemort is dead.”

“In a Harry Potter world,” he said, “their mission is to save the world for the rest of society. This is their taking pride in what their generation is able to do.”

All political questions aside, Mr. Howe’s assessment is striking for a few reasons. First, it seems to affirm what we’ve said around HogPro often enough—the fictional character and the real world elide in a transcendent, near-religious experience that creates a sense of communal identity. The man who may have defined the “millennial generation” now asserts that they find their identity through Rowling’s fantasies; they live in “a Harry Potter world.”

Second, this is a casebook study of the classic misreading of Rowling’s work.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes, Shared Text Tagged With: , , , , ,

New C. S. Lewis Work in Print: Aeneid Selections

May 4, 2011 by 2 Comments

This is exciting news. A. T. Reeves has edited C. S. Lewis’ translations of Virgil’s Aeneid, which consist of long passages from Books 1, 2, and 6. I assume these are the best known sections, most notably, the fall of Troy, the flight to Carthage, death of Dido, and the trip to the Underworld.

As eager as I am to read this work, about which I had never heard or read mention that I can recall, the book has already delivered edifying fruit. Prof. David Downing, C. S. Lewis scholar and accomplished novelist himself, has written a review of the Yale University Press title, a survey explaining CSL’s fascination with this poem and many of the correspondences existing between Lewis’ understanding of the Aeneid and my favorite adventure in the Narniad, The Silver Chair. Read that review here: ‘Journeys to the Underworld and the Silver Chair.’ H/T to Rev. David!

Filed Under: C. S. Lewis, Hero's Journey