Friday, May 11, 2012

Reflections

Here I am sandwhiched between funerals and weddings again, thinking about life and the nature of existence. It is time consumming. I just finished an edit of a memorial from March 30 which I had  to put on hold for a run of weddings. This was after having to put a wedding edit on hold for a run of funerals (well memorial services).  Progress is  being made.

I do have to say that the most satisfying thing I have done lately was  to break down and buy a Kindle 4 (4th generation, Ink display). I am reading The  Hunger Games at last and it is better than I expected. The world of the  book is  a bit deeper than I was led to believe and the characters a bit more involved. Katniss is better developed than i expected
Having said this,  I look forward to the other books to flesh out the world a  bit more, obviously district 13 is the most interesting feature of this future world. What it  reminds me most of is a show called Jeremiah with a little  mad max beyond thunderdome to mix it up with.
At least, it makes no pretense at being better than it is.
At least there is  humor in it, even  if it is  a bit forced.
At least there is an direct attempt at plot complications even  if is a bit obvious and predictable.
I would give it 3 out  of 5 for  juvenile fiction at this point (chapter 5) and 3 of 5 in the  sense of regular fiction. In science fiction (and I mean books not the other stuff) it  more like a 2 of 5. My reasons for this is the book (so far)  is  largely conjectural relying  on providences already in place based on the assumption that you have
A. read books before
B. Seen  some Post apocalyptic movies/TV (this one  is pretty hard to escape)
C. have some rudimentary idea of the US without any  real  practical  knowledge of the US (take a look at  other post apocalyptic movies)
D. will accept  shallow descriptions  of places. (which is okay,, but relying on people  to understand that the  Seam is this place and then just refering to it over and over again does not give you anyreal picture of it except as a shanty town outside some coal mine) The Seam is a good word but cries for description. One  impression I get from the  book is that there are 12  districts that have one town apeice in them which is largely in ruins. What I don't get is any impression of the  land  itself. What is  it  like? Is it a bombed out wasteland like Fallout or  the Postman. Is it a wilderness growing over past civilizations. Books like this just let the readers make all kinds of assumptions about landscapes that are familiar.
Is it important? To me  it is,  because every time i read a book like  this I amm  thinking how does my worlds compare with this one?

And as Stephen says. That's the W0rd.
(even  though  I just said a bunch of them)

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