‘The Hunger Games’ Strategy Board Game

Does anyone else out there find the idea of playing a Hunger Games ‘game’ more than a little bit ironic? I do understand that this role playing doesn’t seem to involve murdering everyone around you in order to survive or the sadistic, poisonous settings of the Games depicted in the novels, but, really, practicing for the Games with a little role playing, even in the name of “strategy,” seems a little twisted.

The premise of the books, in large part, is that the Capitol’s Games are horrific and demeaning to everyone involved — so now we’re invited to join in the fun? Look for the video games alongside the movies, I guess. Bizarre that the entertainment culture of violence and vicarious participation in the suffering of others Collins is skewing in fiction may take shape and form around her story! If the movies are a hit (and they will be, I fear for all the wrong reasons), I predict a Panem-World theme park experience within the decade.

Please share your thoughts. (H/T to Arabella!)

Harry Potter Films Losing Millions of Dollars?

The report today is that the film version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) has lost $165 million despite being one of the top 10 grossing films in history on earnings close to a billion dollars.

Is this an illustration of life-imitating-art? Does this story come from the pen of Rita Skeeter, a journalist writing what the public wants to hear or, more often, what the power-holders want us to believe? Or is it Quibbler tabloid fare, the nonsense and sensational man-bites-dog hooey we expect from Fleet Street? I asked Janet Batchler, resident Film Industry expert, author of What Will Harry Do?, and Screen Writing professor at USC, what she thought. [Read more…]

Harry Potter’s Best Birthday Ever?

Harry Potter turns 30 tomorrow (and Ms. Rowling 45) and I wanted to ask you what you thought Harry’s best birthday was? I assume the great majority of readers and movie-goers will vote for his eleventh birthday because of the revelations in the House on the Rock and his day with Hagrid. That certainly makes sense because that b-day in many ways marks his re-birth and discovery of self.

But there are other birthdays in the book that are eventful and meaningful, even revealing of the story-ending because Ms. Rowling liked to point to the finale at the story-start and as often as not started with Harry’s birthday. Dobby, for example, appears on Harry’s LaborDay version of a birthday in Chamber and that book ends with Dobby’s re-birth and liberation.

What is your favorite Harry birthday, then, and please do share what plans you have to commemorate the natal anniversary of The Boy Who Lived!

Free Hunger Games AudioBook!

I kid you not.

As a special promotion, you can download Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games as an audio-book this week — and it won’t cost you anything. You do have to sign up for an account and download some software from AudioCommunity.com before you get the free Hunger Games mp3 files you can listen to anywhere. My source for this great deal assures me the process was painless and the reading performance quite good. Let me know what you think! (H/T to RevGeorge)

Running of the Harrys in the Future?

Last week in Key West, folks celebrated what would have been Ernest Hemingway’s 110th birthday with their annual Hemingway Days, a week-long celebration of all things Hemingway, including a look-alike contest, writing competition, and, my personal favorite, the running of the Hemingways, sort of like the  running of the bulls in Pamplona, only with all the Hemingway wannbes instead of bovines. Considering the heat in Florida in July and the fact that most folks go in for the later-in-life Hemingway look, it might actually be more dangerous than the bull running. I hope EMTs were on hand.

What does this spectacle have to do with our discussions here? Well, after enjoying watching all the great character impersonators at Infinitus (I don’t go in for that myself, but I really enjoy observing. I should just wear a sign that says, “Nope, these are just my regular clothes”), I noticed a few interesting trends. While some characters have many folks who want to adopt their look, others seemed absent; completely missing, unless I missed her, was anyone dressed up as Rowling herself. Which leads me to wonder how we will honor her in future years. Will people want to have Rowling make-overs? Is there a big future in Rowling impersonators, or will we be content to mug as the characters she has created? [Read more…]