May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favour

On Sunday morning, I went to the cinema to watch The Hunger Games. Sunday mornings are great for going to the cinema on your own; I have a shocking concentration span for films and am ridiculously easily distracted. The emptier the cinema is the more likely I will watch the film and follow the plot.

 Image: moviespad.com

I won't say too much about the film in this post: Juliette at Pop Classics writes brilliantly (as always) about it. It differs significantly from the books in some points (as Juliette points out, the complicity of the people of Panem in the continuation of the Hunger Games, and also in the lack of mutant spy animals created by the Capitol to control the population among other aspects) but I think the adaptation was very, very good. 

The book is told in the first person by Katniss Everdeen, a sixteen year old girl living in District 12 (the former Appalachia) in Panem (what remains of the United States of America after an apocalypse). After an unsuccessful uprising 74 years before the events of the book, each district is forced to send a boy and a girl between the ages of 12 and 18 to fight to the death in a televised battle, the Hunger Games. Katniss volunteers to be District 12's Tribute after her little sister Prim's name is drawn, the first time that she is eligible to be entered into the Reaping, where the tributes' names are drawn from the lottery.

This is a rich, complex book. Suzanne Collins has said that the inspiration came from channel surfing, where she saw coverage of the Iraq war and flicked over to a reality TV show. There are also many parallels with classical myth- Theseus and the Minotaur, where the Athenians are forced to send 14 young men and women to the labyrinth to appease the Minotaur. However I was most struck by the Roman elements: the Roman names of the Capitol- dwellers (Cinna, Seneca, Caesar, Flavius, Coriolanus, Venia, Octavia), the name Capitol, and the Bread (Panem) and Circuses (Hunger Games) approach to controlling the people. 

The inequalities are stark in the book: even in a poor District like District 12, the poorest (like Katniss and her best friend Gale) have a greater chance of being selected than Madge, the mayor's daughter or baker's son Peeta, the male tribute of District 12, as the poorer young people enter their name multiple times into the lottery in exchange for a portion of grain or oil. Katniss explains several times that starvation is not uncommon in the Seam, the poorest quarter of District 12 where she lives.

On the other hand, in the richer Districts, where food is more plentiful, young people have been trained from a young age to fight in the Hunger Games, and they usually win. However, they are not used to hunger, like Katniss and little Rue, the 12 year old tribute from District 11. Katniss's prowess with bows and arrows and snares, from years of illegal hunting to supplement the meagre food her widowed mother can provide, and Rue's experience of climbing to harvest fruit, stands them in good stead.

Peeta is far more aware than Katniss of the need to play up to the Games audience's desire for narrative, but Katniss is also constantly aware of the cameras in the Arena where the Games take place. This makes for an incredibly tense read, I found. This link with our society's obsession with reality TV, fame and celebrity makes this a powerful read.

The film is fantastic, but I recommend the book as well, for readers 10+. Both are gory, but not explicitly so. It might be good to read along with your pre-teen child, to discuss any issues that crop up for them.

The title of this post comes from the slogan said by several officials of the Hunger Games. It reminded me of what gladiators reportedly said before combat: "Hail Caesar, we who are about to die salute you".

The District 12 scenes in the film brought this song to mind: Michelle Shocked's the L&N Don't Stop Here Any More. I think it was because the setting reminded me of the 1930s depression, and because it is the coal mining district.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

I was recently sent the much-awaited sequel to Lauren Oliver's Delirium, Pandemonium. These are highly recommended, far superior to many Young Adult dystopian fantasies. In an alternate USA, where love has been classed as a disease, a repressive government insists on all young people being "cured" through a medical procedure similar to a lobotomy. A young woman named Lena has escaped the city and joined a rebel group, when she meets the son of a government official. He tells her of the banned books his father locks away. The one he describes is L Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Image: Wikipedia.org

This American classic was first published in 1900. It was a huge success, and although Baum tried to leave Oz behind in later years, his child fans insisted on more. After his death in 1919 other writers continued the series. Baum's intention was to write American fairy tales, but without what he considered the frightening aspects of those books, although Princess Langwidere from Ozma of Oz with her collection of interchangeable heads scared me as a child!

Probably most British people are more familiar with the musical film version, The Wizard of Oz (1939). As with Baum's own film version of it and those made later, Dorothy is not a little girl, but a teenager; Judy Garland was 16 when The Wizard of Oz was made. Denslow's illustrations from the Baum's books clearly show her as much younger.

Image: bygosh.com

By one of those serendipitous coincidences, two other cultural experiences have made me think about Oz this month. The first was watching the original film of True Grit (1969) with John Wayne. I am not normally a great Western fan, but I love this film, and it has a great many Oz resonances for me. 

The story of a young girl, Mattie Ross, who is on a quest: this time not to get home, but to find the murderers of her father, she must exhibit a great deal of courage and persistence, and to team up with a less than prepossessing group of companions to do so. 

Image: movieposterdb.com

While Dorothy is by far the superior of her companions in courage and intellect, Mattie has the moral superiority over her companions; her avowed aim is justice for the murder of her father, while La Boeuf and Rooster Cogburn want the reward Chaney's capture will bring. The process of the journey and achievement of "natural justice" in both The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and True Grit is redemptive to the companions: their characters are reformed. Mattie and Dorothy both get to return home. Interestingly, in Baum's book Dorothy does not stay in grey and dreary Kansas for long; soon she and Aunt Em and Uncle Frank are permanently living in beautiful, colourful Oz (which is much like Hollywood where Baum moved after the success of his Oz books); clearly novel-Dorothy doesn't subscribe to the MGM view that "there's no place like home"!

Image: fanpop.com

The second event was a trip to the theatre to see Wicked, a lovely surprise from my lovely boyfriend. Billed as the "untold story of the witches of Oz", it is based on the series of novels by Geoffrey Maguire. Events are told from before Dorothy arrives in Oz and while she is there. I haven't read the book, so please forgive me if the treatment of the story in the novel is different! Wicked is the story of Elphaba, a girl born to the governor of Munchkinland with green skin. She has a sister, Netta Rose, who is born disabled due to their father's insistence that their mother eats a herb to ensure that she is born with white skin. They are both sent to Shiz University where they meet the spoilt, shallow Galinda. Through a misunderstanding, Galinda (Glinda) and Elphaba become room-mates, and eventually, friends. Elphaba's strong sense of justice and fairness leads her to travel to the Emerald City to obtain justice for the oppressed talking animals of Oz, where she, like Dorothy before her, expects to meet the Great and Powerful Oz, and finds that he is something very different. Elphaba and Galinda's reactions to this knowledge are different, causing a rift between the friends. Will they become reunited?

It should be noted that the novel of Wicked is not aimed at children, Pandemonium is definitely Young Adult (13+) and the 2010 film of True Grit is a 15. However on the two occasions I have been to the theatre to see Wicked, children of I would guess 8+ have been in the audience. I would recommend the book of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to 7+, and of course the film can be enjoyed by all ages.

The best known song from Wicked, much murdered by the cast of Glee and American Idol contestants(!) is Defying Gravity.