Catching Fire, Chapter 4
Apr. 24th, 2011 12:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
farlaLast time on Catching Fire, Katniss found out she had to marry Peeta.
Haymitch gives my shoulder a pat and says, “You could do a lot worse, you know.”
Not really. Could do worse, yeah, but Peeta's pretty creepy.
That isn't really the point, though, is it? One of the few freedoms we have in District 12 is the right to marry who we want or not marry at all.
Depressingly, this is probably more true than it sounds, since Katniss has repeatedly talked about getting married as if it automatically leads to having kids, so I'm assuming contraceptives aren't around.
I wonder if President Snow will insist we have children.
He can insist all he wants, he can't actually make you get pregnant. Even if he gets obsessive about this to the point he's willing to spring for IVF treatments, and that's stupid so he won't, your mom knows about herbs. While the really awesome abortion plant is extinct, there are plenty of others whose side affects are things like sterility, which won't be a drawback in your case. The capital couldn't even fix Peeta's leg, they will not be able to fix fried ovaries.
Victors' children have been in the ring before. It always causes a lot of excitement and generates talk about how the odds are not in that family's favor. But it happens too frequently to just be about odds. Gale's convinced the Capitol does it on purpose, rigs the drawings to add extra drama. Given all the trouble I've caused, I've probably guaranteed any child of mine a spot in the Games.
This is actually pretty interesting, but I find it odd no one's taken advantage of this to set up a dynasty. It's said that once the winner dies, the family's kicked out of the nice house and back to whatever hovel they live in. The victors are incredibly wealthy, and of course they did win a game to get there, so they of all people are best suited to raising their kid to win.
Also: hey Katniss, remember those districts that trained kids and how much you hate them? Those districts don't have to worry about this because they have a volunteer system. No matter whose name gets drawn, that year's volunteer is the one going. It's almost like there are numerous social reasons to do this instead of just bastardy like you claim.
She thinks about Haymitch.
He could have had his choice of any woman in the district. And he chose solitude. Not solitude— that sounds too peaceful. More like solitary confinement. Was it because, having been in the arena, he knew it was better than risking the alternative?
So sex ed is definitely not on the curriculum. But come on, Katniss, your mom's the doctor, surely she'd have explained that sometimes the birds and the bees make a terrible, terrible mistake, and that's why smart people only have oral sex if they don't want babies.
And don't tell her mom wouldn't tell her how to have sex. Being the doctor means you see the horrible things that happen. Even if she believes every time an unmarried couple holds hands Baby Mohammad sheds a dozen sparkly tears, she's still going to tell Katniss that if Katniss decides to make Baby Mohammad cry she can at least not make a baby of her own in the process.
My mind searches frantically for a way out. I can't let President Snow condemn me to this. Even if it means taking my own life. Before that, though, I'd try to run away. What would they do if I simply vanished? Disappeared into the woods and never came out? Could I even manage to take everyone I love with me, start a new life deep in the wild? Highly unlikely but not impossible.
...Katniss, it's not like they'll kill your family if you're gone. I'm sure you'll miss them, but you just said you'd sooner die than marry, so why not try leaving and then suicide if you decide you miss them too much, instead of jumping straight to the dying bit?
Also, surely Mom explained to you about Mr. Coathanger, if only to explain why the nice lady was bleeding out on your kitchen table, and Mr. Bleach and Mr. Stairs. You have so many options to avoid actually spawning. Many of them suck, but all are better than straight up suicide, and I include the ones that can cause a horrible lingering death, because you can always commit suicide if that happens. You should know about them if only because of your mom telling you not to do it.
In fact, Mr. Coathanger illustrates an important issue here. It's fine if an author doesn't want to deal with botched abortions and infanticide. These are horrible depressing things. But we know what happens with abstinence-only education - if you don't explain how to use condoms, then you get abortions and deaths. That's just how it is.
A valid option for Katniss here is to think that her notboyfriends want kids, and that she doesn't want to doom them to a childless marriage. I would even grudgingly accept Katniss thinking sex is for procreation only. (Though I would really like religion to exist somewhere to help explain that a bit - "They're all Catholic" is far more tolerable than "Everyone innately knows the Catholic belief on abortion is right and follow it automatically".) What I don't like is writing a world where contraceptives and abortion just flatly doesn't exist, and yet somehow none of the inevitable results are there, because we know what things look like when that happens, and the answer is not that everyone just accepts it and keeps having kids.
And yes, this is actually kind of important, because the misconception that A doesn't inevitably lead to B is a major issue and doesn't need any further reinforcement.
Katniss decides she needs to focus on the current crisis before panicking over future ones, namely, the victory tour.
Anyway, it's time for a body wax, because it's snowing in District 12 but it's warm enough in District 11 that she's not going to be covered from head to toe. You know, they redid her whole skin back on the capital, why didn't they just kill the follicles then?
Usually it kicks off in 12 and then goes in descending district order to 1, followed by the Capitol. The victor's district is skipped and saved for very last. Since 12 puts on the least fabulous celebration — usually just a dinner for the tributes and a victory rally in the square, where nobody looks like they're having any fun — it's probably best to get us out of the way as soon as possible.
I really don't know why the book decided it's so important that Katniss be from the worst district. It's just a distraction, and really, does it matter? We know from Rue that her district sucks too, and since she was a random kid it's likely most of the districts are bad as well. So why does 12 in particular have crappy celebrations? It's just sueishness.
Anyway, time for fashionable suffering. She mentions that the boys don't get this treatment. I guess it's trying to point out double standards? It seems more like commentary fail, considering male celebrities and models do often have to get waxed. And then that for some reason the boys don't get beards so she figures they did something to them. So the capital hates beards but is fine with them being hairy everywhere else. Okay.
I'm not really sure what the point of the factoid is, but if she's going to bring up that kind of trivia, saying that also, there was that shot so girls don't have their period would be nice.
If I feel ragged, my prep team seems in worse condition, knocking back coffee and sharing brightly colored little pills. As far as I can tell, they never get up before noon unless there's some sort of national emergency, like my leg hair.
There was something similar to this last book too, about how people always got up late. There are plenty of people who, given the choice, will get up early. I know because the fuckers are running around when I'm trying to sleep. More, a makeup team always has to be there before everything else, so they should be selected out of people who didn't mind being earlier than usual. The prep team had no reason to stay up late and evidently love their job, so why would they be unable to get up?
Flavius tilts up my chin and sighs. “It's a shame Cinna said no alterations on you.”
“Yes, we could really make you something special,” says Octavia.
“When she's older,” says Venia almost grimly. “Then he'll have to let us.”
Do what? Blow my lips up like President Snow's? Tattoo my breasts? Dye my skin magenta and implant gems in it? Cut decorative patterns in my face? Give me curved talons? Or cat's whiskers?
Two things: one, why does the book keep insisting they're just harmless idiots? They're assholes. Two, Haymitch and all the winners Katniss has seen are evidently perfectly normal looking. There's no suggestion that the constant makeup thing keeps going after this point.
But it's just one more thing for Katniss to worry about, and she's getting pretty stressed.
I can't even look at Peeta—my designated future husband—although I know none of this is his fault.
No, it kind of is. Peeta's the one who went with the lovers twist and then kept it going until they changed the rules. It's ambiguous how much of that was actually his plan, but he definitely was doing it for some reason. If Peeta hadn't done that, Katniss would probably have won normally.
Anyway, after all this, there's a delay because the train needs a part fixed, and Effie starts fretting over their schedule.
She pulls out her schedule and begins to work out how the delay will impact every event for the rest of our lives.
It will, or have you forgotten the whole thing with Snow and killing everyone you love? The book keeps saying Effie's priorities are dumb, but that's only if they didn't live under an evil trigger-happy government. Last book she knew expressing even minor dissent in conversation was something that needed apologizing to thin air over, so really, if Effie says something's important she's probably right.
So Katniss snaps at her - quite understandable! Keep having sensible character flaws, Katniss - and then goes off the train for a bit.
jump to the ground, expecting to land in snow. But the air's warm and balmy against my skin. The trees still wear green leaves. How far south have we come in a day?
Hm. Okay, so they're going to District 11, which produces all food. But it's not as simple as warmer = better. There's a lot of crops that need a freezing period, and a number that don't like high temperatures. Plus, some plants need rain and humidity and others hate it. It's one thing with a monoculture, but it seems they're the source of all the various foods the capital gets. You can't grow apples and bananas in the same area.
I should go back and apologize. My outburst was the height of bad manners, and manners matter deeply to her.
Katniss is actually being pretty mature here, though I still don't much like the book's phrasing - I never got the impression it was specifically a fixation with manners. There's a difference between not knowing the right fork and being rude, and it's possible not to like a drunk stranger hugging you for reasons other than etiquette.
She's not ready to go back yet though.
Peeta comes out to find her and talk.
I knew you had something with Gale. I was jealous of him before I even officially met you. And it wasn't fair to hold you to anything that happened in the Games. I'm sorry.”
I really like the idea of this - Katniss doesn't deserve the blame for what happened. And yet, look how it's phrased - he's sorry because she was already taken. There's no acknowledgment she could have said no without already having a boyfriend.
Peeta goes on to continue being a decent person and says he just wants to be friends and get to know her, even if they can't be together. Book1!Peeta creeped me out enough that I don't really trust this and feel it's more niceguyism where he's trying to get in her pants by being a friend, but on this book's merits alone, he's doing great.
They chat about favorite colors, and it turns out that she hasn't seen any of his paintings yet. They decide to go back and see those.
I give Effie an apology that I think is overkill but in her mind probably just manages to compensate for my breach of etiquette.
It isn't about etiquette, it was about you being a dick. Your dickery was perfectly understandable, your insistence Effie's objection is solely because she likes proper manners less so.
And no, this isn't her being an unreliable narrator:
To her credit, Effie accepts graciously. She says it's clear I'm under a lot of pressure. And her comments about the necessity of someone attending to the schedule only last about five minutes. Really, I've gotten off easily.
There is absolutely no reason to think we're supposed to be treating Katniss' view of Effie as particularly skewed. The book is written in first person, but the only times Katniss has been unreliable (such as Gale, relationship with) have had everything but neon arrows pointing to the fact.
People have said Effie ends up a popular character, so I'm assuming things eventually improve, but from the looks of things, it's not going to be a reveal that she's reasonable here but her being decent in spite of these things.
Peeta has painted the Games.
Some you wouldn't get right away, if you hadn't been with him in the arena yourself. Water dripping through the cracks in our cave. The dry pond bed. A pair of hands, his own, digging for roots. Others any viewer would recognize. The golden horn called the Cornucopia. Clove arranging the knives inside her jacket. One of the mutts, unmistakably the blond, green-eyed one meant to be Glimmer, snarling as it makes its way toward us. And me. I am everywhere. High up in a tree. Beating a shirt against the stones in the stream. Lying unconscious in a pool of blood. And one I can't place — perhaps this is how I looked when his fever was high—emerging from a silver gray mist that matches my eyes exactly.
This is pretty good.
It's times like this I'd love to see the planning for this, because I wonder if the reason for the talent thing being invented was to set this up or for some other reason. I don't think it's necessary to explain why Peeta's painting, given it's something he was always interested in, but then, Katniss' pretend clothing line seemed like filler as well, at least so far.
Katniss, naturally, does not really appreciate the reminder of the games. Peeta sympathizes - he painted them in the hopes it'd get them out of his head. You know, it'd be nice to have the author as sensitive about trauma as she is depression, because jesus Peeta, it'd have been good to warn Katniss that your entire gallery is a giant trigger before showing her them.
She's been having horrible nightmares, of course.
I relive versions of what happened in the arena. My worthless attempt to save Rue. Peeta bleeding to death. Glimmer's bloated body disintegrating in my hands. Cato's horrific end with the muttations.
It's unfair that my reaction here is to ask if that's really how she sees it. It's probably just a meta decision of what the author thought the major scenes were. But she doesn't remember Glimmer's death (that is, the first time she killed someone), just the disgusting corpse she had to loot for a bow. Her memories of Rue are just of failure, and not what she claims was her first kill.
I mean, you want nightmares? Here's one:
Katniss is a hunter. Crack shot or not, she hasn't always gotten a clean kill. She's botched shots because everyone has. There's been a time she shoots and the animal is screaming instead. There's a bit in one of the Hatchet sequels about him shooting this one rabbit and it just doesn't die, he shoots it and shoots it and somehow he's never hitting the right spot and it's thrashing around and he's hurting it further instead of ending it - it's this awful, awful memory.
During the games, for the first time in her life, Katniss shot at people. There's no rule saying her dreams have to go the way they did the first time. And she can hardly forget it's possible for someone to be hurt horribly and not die since that's what happened to Cato, who begged to be killed.
And really, if the author felt this kind of thing was too dark, she shouldn't have written about childmurder games where children die horrible agonizing deaths in the first place.
Anyway, she says they're incredible but as they're not what she wants to stare at all day, they head out and watch the scenery as the train continues.
a fence rises up before us. Towering at least thirty-five feet in the air and topped with wicked coils of barbed wire, it makes ours back in District 12 look childish. My eyes quickly inspect the base, which is lined with enormous metal plates. There would be no burrowing under those, no escaping to hunt. Then I see the watchtowers, placed evenly apart, manned with armed guards, so out of place among the fields of wildflowers around them.
...Okay. I really hope there's a real explanation for this. To my understanding, District 12 is the furthest district out. Past that, it's just forest. You don't put the massive fence up on your inner areas and make the outer ones where people can easily flee out of your reach entirely out of string and bubblegum.
Also, why then does District 12 suck so much? I mean, I guess it's possible that they just think their life sucks more than everyone else's, but Snow confirmed that the fact she's from District 12 was a big deal because they're pathetic and we're also told they have the worst victory celebration and that everyone usually ignores them during the games, etc etc.
Small communities of shacks — by comparison the houses in the Seam are upscale — spring up here and there, but they're all deserted. Every hand must be needed for the harvest.
Three things here.
First, again, then doesn't District 11 suck more than 12?
Second, why is the victory tour thingy at the same time as the harvest? Weren't there any other times to have it at? I'm assuming the rest of the districts have more steady schedules, so they'd only have to work around this one and yet apparently they didn't.
Third, as much sense as it makes that everyone in this district is employed by the state at large and all forced to help at the harvest, that doesn't seem to be how things are done in Katniss' district at all - employment is quite voluntary. So why's it different here? If they have a perfectly good 100% employment system here, why not use it in other districts?
In school they refer to it as a large district, that's all. No actual figures on the population. But those kids we see on camera waiting for the reaping each year, they can't be but a sampling of the ones who actually live here. What do they do? Have preliminary drawings? Pick the winners ahead of time and make sure they're in the crowd? How exactly did Rue end up on that stage with nothing but the wind offering to take her place?
Katniss failed to give any info on how big her district was, so it's hard to make any comparison. The place would have to be huge though, not just to feed people but to try to get as much climate variety as possible for the different crops.
As to why no one volunteered for Rue, plenty of people doesn't mean they're community minded.
Also.
You know the whole myth of the minotaur, which seems like the other half of the book's inspiration? The minotaur wasn't eating babies. It was eating youths, kids who were almost adults, who the society had put a lot of effort into raising and then lost right as they got to the age they'd become productive. So if you're going to lose a kid to the childmurder games, better a twelve year old than an eighteen year old. She doesn't have a fair chance, but it doesn't matter overall - exactly as many kids come back alive if you do it fairly or unfairly. It's only an issue if you buy into the idea that the childmurder games themselves aren't bad, just your own loss in them.
Anyway.
Katniss explains that in most districts the victors ride through crowds the whole way, but here due to size or the harvest they only bother with the public square.
the public appearance is confined to the square. It takes place before their Justice Building, a huge marble structure. Once, it must have been a thing of beauty, but time has taken its toll. Even on television you can see ivy overtaking the crumbling facade, the sag of the roof. The square itself is ringed with run-down storefronts, most of which are abandoned.
Huh.
You know, why exactly is it so dismal here anyway? And Katniss claimed District 12 did a worse celebration than 11, yet the way she's pointing things out here implies her own area is in better condition.
As usual, a special platform has been constructed at the bottom of the stage for the families of the dead tributes.
What's particularly bizarre is that Katniss doesn't think this is bizarre. She's at least on good terms with both the district in general and the tributes in particular, so it's not going to be utterly awful this time, but it will in every other district past now. And surely she's thought about this before the many times she's watched and seen it happen. A lot of the time the victors are facing the families of people who watched them murder a son or daughter. All of the time they're facing people whose kid died when they didn't.
Yet there's nothing about how this is more capital-dickery.
On Thresh's side, there's only an old woman with a hunched back and a tall, muscular girl I'm guessing is his sister. On Rue's ... I'm not prepared for Rue's family. Her parents, whose faces are still fresh with sorrow. Her five younger siblings, who resemble her so closely. The slight builds, the luminous brown eyes. They form a flock of small dark birds.
I'm morbidly curious if this is going to get repeated every time. A family of fox-faced redheads, a family of people with bad legs, and for Glimmer, presumably a bunch of porn stars. You know book, at the time I couldn't really tell how much was just coincidence that she was killed first, but your fixation with her bloated corpse and doggirl versions has made it quite clear.
Anyway, they're supposed to give personal comments about any partnerships with people from that district. Katniss has no idea what to say and so Peeta's going to do all the talking.
You know, kind of starting to bug me. Peeta's just had so much control over the relationship as it is, having him speak for her is not really helping and it just furthers how infantile she seems.
Peeta had his personal comments written on a card, but he doesn't pull it out. Instead he speaks in his simple, winning style about Thresh and Rue making it to the final eight, about how they both kept me alive—thereby keeping him alive—and about how this is a debt we can never repay. And then he hesitates before adding something that wasn't written on the card. Maybe because he thought Effie might make him remove it. “It can in no way replace your losses, but as a token of our thanks we'd like for each of the tributes' families from District Eleven to receive one month of our winnings every year for the duration of our lives.”
The crowd can't help but respond with gasps and murmurs. There is no precedent for what Peeta has done. I don't even know if it's legal. He probably doesn't know, either, so he didn't ask in case it isn't. As for the families, they just stare at us in shock. Their lives were changed forever when Thresh and Rue were lost, but this gift will change them again. A month of tribute winnings can easily provide for a family for a year. As long as we live, they will not hunger.
Just like there was no precedent for them giving you the bread.
I'm not sure how much of this is a pet peeve, but why do books with settings and history we've never seen before love to tell us how something has never happened before? What he's going is extremely generous. Surely that's good enough without saying no one has ever imagined doing it before.
Especially when Peeta never even met them. There have likely been many, many partnerships that ended with one person dying to another player. And of those that ended with them turning on each other...I wouldn't be surprised if the survivor felt more responsibility, not less. Yet it seems no victor before now has ever done anything but say some nice words to the family.
Still, Peeta really is shaping up to be a caring person.
I look at Peeta and he gives me a sad smile. I hear Haymitch's voice. “You could do a lot worse.” At this moment, it's impossible to imagine how I could do any better. The gift ... it is perfect. So when I rise up on tiptoe to kiss him, it doesn't seem forced at all.
Ooor he could just be still trying to fuck her. Jesus christ book I don't know why you think him being a manipulative creep is somehow improving this, but it isn't. It really really really really really really really really isn't.
Anyway she realizes/feels like Rue's sister is displeased with her and decides it's because she didn't say anything. Well, yeah. I mean, Peeta never eve met Rue and he's the one giving the speech, and his speech is that he's glad they helped Katniss so she could help him.
So Katniss overcomes her uncertainty and speaks.
“I want to give my thanks to the tributes of District Eleven,” I say. I look at the pair of women on Thresh's side. “I only ever spoke to Thresh one time. Just long enough for him to spare my life. I didn't know him, but I always respected him. For his power. For his refusal to play the Games on anyone's terms but his own. The Careers wanted him to team up with them from the beginning, but he wouldn't do it. I respected him for that.”
So she "respected" his ability to smash heads in, his decision, like her, to play the childmurder games exactly as they're supposed to be played, and the fact that he, like Katniss, knew that the trained kids deserve nothing but scorn, prejudice and horrible deaths.
Touching!
Interestingly, she doesn't mention the one decent thing he did do, that his motivation for attacking Clove was her claim she'd killed Rue, a harmless little kid.
I turn to Rue's family. “But I feel as if I did know Rue, and she'll always be with me. Everything beautiful brings her to mind. I see her in the yellow flowers that grow in the Meadow by my house. I see her in the mockingjays that sing in the trees. But most of all, I see her in my sister, Prim.” My voice is undependable, but I am almost finished. “Thank you for your children.” I raise my chin to address the crowd. “And thank you all for the bread.”
This is better, although we're back into lovely victimhood. Nothing of Rue's actual self is here, not that she was kind or clever, just her symbolic meaning as someone good killed young. (Wtf "feel as if I"? She did know Rue. They spent a day or so together.)
And really, thanking them for their kids? The childmurder games are wrong, Katniss. Please pick phrasing that at least avoids the implication it was a good thing, like, "I'm glad they were there with me," or something.
Then, from somewhere in the crowd, someone whistles Rue's four-note mocking-jay tune. The one that signaled the end of the workday in the orchards. The one that meant safety in the arena. By the end of the tune, I have found the whistler, a wizened old man in a faded red shirt and overalls. His eyes meet mine.
What happens next is not an accident. It is too well executed to be spontaneous, because it happens in complete unison. Every person in the crowd presses the three middle fingers of their left hand against their lips and extends them to me. It's our sign from District 12, the last good-bye I gave Rue in the arena.
Uh. So for one thing, that's the sign they give at funerals, not really that great a thing to be doing here, and for another, if it's not spontaneous then they were already intending to do it, so that kind of renders the speech moot? It's not that they did it because of what she said, they'd rehearsed this already. Perhaps they wouldn't have if she hadn't said anything, but that's very different than her words actually moving them.
If I hadn't spoken to President Snow, this gesture might move me to tears. But with his recent orders to calm the districts fresh in my ears, it fills me with dread. What will he think of this very public salute to the girl who defied the Capitol?
It was a funeral salute, though. As rebellions go, lying down and dying is not that big of a worry compared to picking up guns.
The full impact of what I've done hits me. It was not intentional—I only meant to express my thanks — but I have elicited something dangerous. An act of dissent from the people of District 11. This is exactly the kind of thing I am supposed to be defusing!
But you just said it obviously wasn't spontaneous! God, book, do you not know what words mean.
Also - what did she say that was so touching and shocking? The only bit of her speech that could be taken that way is the bit about not playing the game on anyone else's terms, and in context, she's just talking about the alliances he made, not the capital's terms. And what's the dissent? It's a funeral salute.
Still, Katniss reacts reasonably, with the hope she can say something to stop it, since she may hate the government but she's not an activist. She's just hoping to be a survivor. But time's up, mike's cut, and they're done.
As they head out, Katniss realizes she forgot her flowers, so she turns around.
from the deep shade of the verandah, we see the whole thing.
A pair of Peacekeepers dragging the old man who whistled to the top of the steps. Forcing him to his knees before the crowd. And putting a bullet through his head.
So. Pretty good dramatic ending line here.
...doesn't really make all that much sense though. I think that the dramatic lines really don't work as actual ending lines but as things to make you keep going and not think.
I mean, the whistle was not a rebellious thing, it was the established song for ending the workday. Unless Rue was lying about that and it actually has some sort of rebellious context and she used that song during the childmurder games as a FUCK YOU to the capital watchers. And since that's not in line with Rue's status as a perfect helpless victim, and also would be kind of awesome, I'm guessing no.
Presumably the idea is that they're blaming him as the ringleader for the salute, but everyone saluted. There's no reason to think he's the one who organized it. Shooting the guy in the head is probably just making things worse. Shooting him before anyone else did stuff might have worked in a nail that stands up gets beaten down sort of way, but after the fact it's just showing that they can't kill everyone, which is what you never want the large angry crowd reminded of. Next time they'll just make a shorter signal so the peacekeepers can't tell who did it.
Haymitch gives my shoulder a pat and says, “You could do a lot worse, you know.”
Not really. Could do worse, yeah, but Peeta's pretty creepy.
That isn't really the point, though, is it? One of the few freedoms we have in District 12 is the right to marry who we want or not marry at all.
Depressingly, this is probably more true than it sounds, since Katniss has repeatedly talked about getting married as if it automatically leads to having kids, so I'm assuming contraceptives aren't around.
I wonder if President Snow will insist we have children.
He can insist all he wants, he can't actually make you get pregnant. Even if he gets obsessive about this to the point he's willing to spring for IVF treatments, and that's stupid so he won't, your mom knows about herbs. While the really awesome abortion plant is extinct, there are plenty of others whose side affects are things like sterility, which won't be a drawback in your case. The capital couldn't even fix Peeta's leg, they will not be able to fix fried ovaries.
Victors' children have been in the ring before. It always causes a lot of excitement and generates talk about how the odds are not in that family's favor. But it happens too frequently to just be about odds. Gale's convinced the Capitol does it on purpose, rigs the drawings to add extra drama. Given all the trouble I've caused, I've probably guaranteed any child of mine a spot in the Games.
This is actually pretty interesting, but I find it odd no one's taken advantage of this to set up a dynasty. It's said that once the winner dies, the family's kicked out of the nice house and back to whatever hovel they live in. The victors are incredibly wealthy, and of course they did win a game to get there, so they of all people are best suited to raising their kid to win.
Also: hey Katniss, remember those districts that trained kids and how much you hate them? Those districts don't have to worry about this because they have a volunteer system. No matter whose name gets drawn, that year's volunteer is the one going. It's almost like there are numerous social reasons to do this instead of just bastardy like you claim.
She thinks about Haymitch.
He could have had his choice of any woman in the district. And he chose solitude. Not solitude— that sounds too peaceful. More like solitary confinement. Was it because, having been in the arena, he knew it was better than risking the alternative?
So sex ed is definitely not on the curriculum. But come on, Katniss, your mom's the doctor, surely she'd have explained that sometimes the birds and the bees make a terrible, terrible mistake, and that's why smart people only have oral sex if they don't want babies.
And don't tell her mom wouldn't tell her how to have sex. Being the doctor means you see the horrible things that happen. Even if she believes every time an unmarried couple holds hands Baby Mohammad sheds a dozen sparkly tears, she's still going to tell Katniss that if Katniss decides to make Baby Mohammad cry she can at least not make a baby of her own in the process.
My mind searches frantically for a way out. I can't let President Snow condemn me to this. Even if it means taking my own life. Before that, though, I'd try to run away. What would they do if I simply vanished? Disappeared into the woods and never came out? Could I even manage to take everyone I love with me, start a new life deep in the wild? Highly unlikely but not impossible.
...Katniss, it's not like they'll kill your family if you're gone. I'm sure you'll miss them, but you just said you'd sooner die than marry, so why not try leaving and then suicide if you decide you miss them too much, instead of jumping straight to the dying bit?
Also, surely Mom explained to you about Mr. Coathanger, if only to explain why the nice lady was bleeding out on your kitchen table, and Mr. Bleach and Mr. Stairs. You have so many options to avoid actually spawning. Many of them suck, but all are better than straight up suicide, and I include the ones that can cause a horrible lingering death, because you can always commit suicide if that happens. You should know about them if only because of your mom telling you not to do it.
In fact, Mr. Coathanger illustrates an important issue here. It's fine if an author doesn't want to deal with botched abortions and infanticide. These are horrible depressing things. But we know what happens with abstinence-only education - if you don't explain how to use condoms, then you get abortions and deaths. That's just how it is.
A valid option for Katniss here is to think that her notboyfriends want kids, and that she doesn't want to doom them to a childless marriage. I would even grudgingly accept Katniss thinking sex is for procreation only. (Though I would really like religion to exist somewhere to help explain that a bit - "They're all Catholic" is far more tolerable than "Everyone innately knows the Catholic belief on abortion is right and follow it automatically".) What I don't like is writing a world where contraceptives and abortion just flatly doesn't exist, and yet somehow none of the inevitable results are there, because we know what things look like when that happens, and the answer is not that everyone just accepts it and keeps having kids.
And yes, this is actually kind of important, because the misconception that A doesn't inevitably lead to B is a major issue and doesn't need any further reinforcement.
Katniss decides she needs to focus on the current crisis before panicking over future ones, namely, the victory tour.
Anyway, it's time for a body wax, because it's snowing in District 12 but it's warm enough in District 11 that she's not going to be covered from head to toe. You know, they redid her whole skin back on the capital, why didn't they just kill the follicles then?
Usually it kicks off in 12 and then goes in descending district order to 1, followed by the Capitol. The victor's district is skipped and saved for very last. Since 12 puts on the least fabulous celebration — usually just a dinner for the tributes and a victory rally in the square, where nobody looks like they're having any fun — it's probably best to get us out of the way as soon as possible.
I really don't know why the book decided it's so important that Katniss be from the worst district. It's just a distraction, and really, does it matter? We know from Rue that her district sucks too, and since she was a random kid it's likely most of the districts are bad as well. So why does 12 in particular have crappy celebrations? It's just sueishness.
Anyway, time for fashionable suffering. She mentions that the boys don't get this treatment. I guess it's trying to point out double standards? It seems more like commentary fail, considering male celebrities and models do often have to get waxed. And then that for some reason the boys don't get beards so she figures they did something to them. So the capital hates beards but is fine with them being hairy everywhere else. Okay.
I'm not really sure what the point of the factoid is, but if she's going to bring up that kind of trivia, saying that also, there was that shot so girls don't have their period would be nice.
If I feel ragged, my prep team seems in worse condition, knocking back coffee and sharing brightly colored little pills. As far as I can tell, they never get up before noon unless there's some sort of national emergency, like my leg hair.
There was something similar to this last book too, about how people always got up late. There are plenty of people who, given the choice, will get up early. I know because the fuckers are running around when I'm trying to sleep. More, a makeup team always has to be there before everything else, so they should be selected out of people who didn't mind being earlier than usual. The prep team had no reason to stay up late and evidently love their job, so why would they be unable to get up?
Flavius tilts up my chin and sighs. “It's a shame Cinna said no alterations on you.”
“Yes, we could really make you something special,” says Octavia.
“When she's older,” says Venia almost grimly. “Then he'll have to let us.”
Do what? Blow my lips up like President Snow's? Tattoo my breasts? Dye my skin magenta and implant gems in it? Cut decorative patterns in my face? Give me curved talons? Or cat's whiskers?
Two things: one, why does the book keep insisting they're just harmless idiots? They're assholes. Two, Haymitch and all the winners Katniss has seen are evidently perfectly normal looking. There's no suggestion that the constant makeup thing keeps going after this point.
But it's just one more thing for Katniss to worry about, and she's getting pretty stressed.
I can't even look at Peeta—my designated future husband—although I know none of this is his fault.
No, it kind of is. Peeta's the one who went with the lovers twist and then kept it going until they changed the rules. It's ambiguous how much of that was actually his plan, but he definitely was doing it for some reason. If Peeta hadn't done that, Katniss would probably have won normally.
Anyway, after all this, there's a delay because the train needs a part fixed, and Effie starts fretting over their schedule.
She pulls out her schedule and begins to work out how the delay will impact every event for the rest of our lives.
It will, or have you forgotten the whole thing with Snow and killing everyone you love? The book keeps saying Effie's priorities are dumb, but that's only if they didn't live under an evil trigger-happy government. Last book she knew expressing even minor dissent in conversation was something that needed apologizing to thin air over, so really, if Effie says something's important she's probably right.
So Katniss snaps at her - quite understandable! Keep having sensible character flaws, Katniss - and then goes off the train for a bit.
jump to the ground, expecting to land in snow. But the air's warm and balmy against my skin. The trees still wear green leaves. How far south have we come in a day?
Hm. Okay, so they're going to District 11, which produces all food. But it's not as simple as warmer = better. There's a lot of crops that need a freezing period, and a number that don't like high temperatures. Plus, some plants need rain and humidity and others hate it. It's one thing with a monoculture, but it seems they're the source of all the various foods the capital gets. You can't grow apples and bananas in the same area.
I should go back and apologize. My outburst was the height of bad manners, and manners matter deeply to her.
Katniss is actually being pretty mature here, though I still don't much like the book's phrasing - I never got the impression it was specifically a fixation with manners. There's a difference between not knowing the right fork and being rude, and it's possible not to like a drunk stranger hugging you for reasons other than etiquette.
She's not ready to go back yet though.
Peeta comes out to find her and talk.
I knew you had something with Gale. I was jealous of him before I even officially met you. And it wasn't fair to hold you to anything that happened in the Games. I'm sorry.”
I really like the idea of this - Katniss doesn't deserve the blame for what happened. And yet, look how it's phrased - he's sorry because she was already taken. There's no acknowledgment she could have said no without already having a boyfriend.
Peeta goes on to continue being a decent person and says he just wants to be friends and get to know her, even if they can't be together. Book1!Peeta creeped me out enough that I don't really trust this and feel it's more niceguyism where he's trying to get in her pants by being a friend, but on this book's merits alone, he's doing great.
They chat about favorite colors, and it turns out that she hasn't seen any of his paintings yet. They decide to go back and see those.
I give Effie an apology that I think is overkill but in her mind probably just manages to compensate for my breach of etiquette.
It isn't about etiquette, it was about you being a dick. Your dickery was perfectly understandable, your insistence Effie's objection is solely because she likes proper manners less so.
And no, this isn't her being an unreliable narrator:
To her credit, Effie accepts graciously. She says it's clear I'm under a lot of pressure. And her comments about the necessity of someone attending to the schedule only last about five minutes. Really, I've gotten off easily.
There is absolutely no reason to think we're supposed to be treating Katniss' view of Effie as particularly skewed. The book is written in first person, but the only times Katniss has been unreliable (such as Gale, relationship with) have had everything but neon arrows pointing to the fact.
People have said Effie ends up a popular character, so I'm assuming things eventually improve, but from the looks of things, it's not going to be a reveal that she's reasonable here but her being decent in spite of these things.
Peeta has painted the Games.
Some you wouldn't get right away, if you hadn't been with him in the arena yourself. Water dripping through the cracks in our cave. The dry pond bed. A pair of hands, his own, digging for roots. Others any viewer would recognize. The golden horn called the Cornucopia. Clove arranging the knives inside her jacket. One of the mutts, unmistakably the blond, green-eyed one meant to be Glimmer, snarling as it makes its way toward us. And me. I am everywhere. High up in a tree. Beating a shirt against the stones in the stream. Lying unconscious in a pool of blood. And one I can't place — perhaps this is how I looked when his fever was high—emerging from a silver gray mist that matches my eyes exactly.
This is pretty good.
It's times like this I'd love to see the planning for this, because I wonder if the reason for the talent thing being invented was to set this up or for some other reason. I don't think it's necessary to explain why Peeta's painting, given it's something he was always interested in, but then, Katniss' pretend clothing line seemed like filler as well, at least so far.
Katniss, naturally, does not really appreciate the reminder of the games. Peeta sympathizes - he painted them in the hopes it'd get them out of his head. You know, it'd be nice to have the author as sensitive about trauma as she is depression, because jesus Peeta, it'd have been good to warn Katniss that your entire gallery is a giant trigger before showing her them.
She's been having horrible nightmares, of course.
I relive versions of what happened in the arena. My worthless attempt to save Rue. Peeta bleeding to death. Glimmer's bloated body disintegrating in my hands. Cato's horrific end with the muttations.
It's unfair that my reaction here is to ask if that's really how she sees it. It's probably just a meta decision of what the author thought the major scenes were. But she doesn't remember Glimmer's death (that is, the first time she killed someone), just the disgusting corpse she had to loot for a bow. Her memories of Rue are just of failure, and not what she claims was her first kill.
I mean, you want nightmares? Here's one:
Katniss is a hunter. Crack shot or not, she hasn't always gotten a clean kill. She's botched shots because everyone has. There's been a time she shoots and the animal is screaming instead. There's a bit in one of the Hatchet sequels about him shooting this one rabbit and it just doesn't die, he shoots it and shoots it and somehow he's never hitting the right spot and it's thrashing around and he's hurting it further instead of ending it - it's this awful, awful memory.
During the games, for the first time in her life, Katniss shot at people. There's no rule saying her dreams have to go the way they did the first time. And she can hardly forget it's possible for someone to be hurt horribly and not die since that's what happened to Cato, who begged to be killed.
And really, if the author felt this kind of thing was too dark, she shouldn't have written about childmurder games where children die horrible agonizing deaths in the first place.
Anyway, she says they're incredible but as they're not what she wants to stare at all day, they head out and watch the scenery as the train continues.
a fence rises up before us. Towering at least thirty-five feet in the air and topped with wicked coils of barbed wire, it makes ours back in District 12 look childish. My eyes quickly inspect the base, which is lined with enormous metal plates. There would be no burrowing under those, no escaping to hunt. Then I see the watchtowers, placed evenly apart, manned with armed guards, so out of place among the fields of wildflowers around them.
...Okay. I really hope there's a real explanation for this. To my understanding, District 12 is the furthest district out. Past that, it's just forest. You don't put the massive fence up on your inner areas and make the outer ones where people can easily flee out of your reach entirely out of string and bubblegum.
Also, why then does District 12 suck so much? I mean, I guess it's possible that they just think their life sucks more than everyone else's, but Snow confirmed that the fact she's from District 12 was a big deal because they're pathetic and we're also told they have the worst victory celebration and that everyone usually ignores them during the games, etc etc.
Small communities of shacks — by comparison the houses in the Seam are upscale — spring up here and there, but they're all deserted. Every hand must be needed for the harvest.
Three things here.
First, again, then doesn't District 11 suck more than 12?
Second, why is the victory tour thingy at the same time as the harvest? Weren't there any other times to have it at? I'm assuming the rest of the districts have more steady schedules, so they'd only have to work around this one and yet apparently they didn't.
Third, as much sense as it makes that everyone in this district is employed by the state at large and all forced to help at the harvest, that doesn't seem to be how things are done in Katniss' district at all - employment is quite voluntary. So why's it different here? If they have a perfectly good 100% employment system here, why not use it in other districts?
In school they refer to it as a large district, that's all. No actual figures on the population. But those kids we see on camera waiting for the reaping each year, they can't be but a sampling of the ones who actually live here. What do they do? Have preliminary drawings? Pick the winners ahead of time and make sure they're in the crowd? How exactly did Rue end up on that stage with nothing but the wind offering to take her place?
Katniss failed to give any info on how big her district was, so it's hard to make any comparison. The place would have to be huge though, not just to feed people but to try to get as much climate variety as possible for the different crops.
As to why no one volunteered for Rue, plenty of people doesn't mean they're community minded.
Also.
You know the whole myth of the minotaur, which seems like the other half of the book's inspiration? The minotaur wasn't eating babies. It was eating youths, kids who were almost adults, who the society had put a lot of effort into raising and then lost right as they got to the age they'd become productive. So if you're going to lose a kid to the childmurder games, better a twelve year old than an eighteen year old. She doesn't have a fair chance, but it doesn't matter overall - exactly as many kids come back alive if you do it fairly or unfairly. It's only an issue if you buy into the idea that the childmurder games themselves aren't bad, just your own loss in them.
Anyway.
Katniss explains that in most districts the victors ride through crowds the whole way, but here due to size or the harvest they only bother with the public square.
the public appearance is confined to the square. It takes place before their Justice Building, a huge marble structure. Once, it must have been a thing of beauty, but time has taken its toll. Even on television you can see ivy overtaking the crumbling facade, the sag of the roof. The square itself is ringed with run-down storefronts, most of which are abandoned.
Huh.
You know, why exactly is it so dismal here anyway? And Katniss claimed District 12 did a worse celebration than 11, yet the way she's pointing things out here implies her own area is in better condition.
As usual, a special platform has been constructed at the bottom of the stage for the families of the dead tributes.
What's particularly bizarre is that Katniss doesn't think this is bizarre. She's at least on good terms with both the district in general and the tributes in particular, so it's not going to be utterly awful this time, but it will in every other district past now. And surely she's thought about this before the many times she's watched and seen it happen. A lot of the time the victors are facing the families of people who watched them murder a son or daughter. All of the time they're facing people whose kid died when they didn't.
Yet there's nothing about how this is more capital-dickery.
On Thresh's side, there's only an old woman with a hunched back and a tall, muscular girl I'm guessing is his sister. On Rue's ... I'm not prepared for Rue's family. Her parents, whose faces are still fresh with sorrow. Her five younger siblings, who resemble her so closely. The slight builds, the luminous brown eyes. They form a flock of small dark birds.
I'm morbidly curious if this is going to get repeated every time. A family of fox-faced redheads, a family of people with bad legs, and for Glimmer, presumably a bunch of porn stars. You know book, at the time I couldn't really tell how much was just coincidence that she was killed first, but your fixation with her bloated corpse and doggirl versions has made it quite clear.
Anyway, they're supposed to give personal comments about any partnerships with people from that district. Katniss has no idea what to say and so Peeta's going to do all the talking.
You know, kind of starting to bug me. Peeta's just had so much control over the relationship as it is, having him speak for her is not really helping and it just furthers how infantile she seems.
Peeta had his personal comments written on a card, but he doesn't pull it out. Instead he speaks in his simple, winning style about Thresh and Rue making it to the final eight, about how they both kept me alive—thereby keeping him alive—and about how this is a debt we can never repay. And then he hesitates before adding something that wasn't written on the card. Maybe because he thought Effie might make him remove it. “It can in no way replace your losses, but as a token of our thanks we'd like for each of the tributes' families from District Eleven to receive one month of our winnings every year for the duration of our lives.”
The crowd can't help but respond with gasps and murmurs. There is no precedent for what Peeta has done. I don't even know if it's legal. He probably doesn't know, either, so he didn't ask in case it isn't. As for the families, they just stare at us in shock. Their lives were changed forever when Thresh and Rue were lost, but this gift will change them again. A month of tribute winnings can easily provide for a family for a year. As long as we live, they will not hunger.
Just like there was no precedent for them giving you the bread.
I'm not sure how much of this is a pet peeve, but why do books with settings and history we've never seen before love to tell us how something has never happened before? What he's going is extremely generous. Surely that's good enough without saying no one has ever imagined doing it before.
Especially when Peeta never even met them. There have likely been many, many partnerships that ended with one person dying to another player. And of those that ended with them turning on each other...I wouldn't be surprised if the survivor felt more responsibility, not less. Yet it seems no victor before now has ever done anything but say some nice words to the family.
Still, Peeta really is shaping up to be a caring person.
I look at Peeta and he gives me a sad smile. I hear Haymitch's voice. “You could do a lot worse.” At this moment, it's impossible to imagine how I could do any better. The gift ... it is perfect. So when I rise up on tiptoe to kiss him, it doesn't seem forced at all.
Ooor he could just be still trying to fuck her. Jesus christ book I don't know why you think him being a manipulative creep is somehow improving this, but it isn't. It really really really really really really really really isn't.
Anyway she realizes/feels like Rue's sister is displeased with her and decides it's because she didn't say anything. Well, yeah. I mean, Peeta never eve met Rue and he's the one giving the speech, and his speech is that he's glad they helped Katniss so she could help him.
So Katniss overcomes her uncertainty and speaks.
“I want to give my thanks to the tributes of District Eleven,” I say. I look at the pair of women on Thresh's side. “I only ever spoke to Thresh one time. Just long enough for him to spare my life. I didn't know him, but I always respected him. For his power. For his refusal to play the Games on anyone's terms but his own. The Careers wanted him to team up with them from the beginning, but he wouldn't do it. I respected him for that.”
So she "respected" his ability to smash heads in, his decision, like her, to play the childmurder games exactly as they're supposed to be played, and the fact that he, like Katniss, knew that the trained kids deserve nothing but scorn, prejudice and horrible deaths.
Touching!
Interestingly, she doesn't mention the one decent thing he did do, that his motivation for attacking Clove was her claim she'd killed Rue, a harmless little kid.
I turn to Rue's family. “But I feel as if I did know Rue, and she'll always be with me. Everything beautiful brings her to mind. I see her in the yellow flowers that grow in the Meadow by my house. I see her in the mockingjays that sing in the trees. But most of all, I see her in my sister, Prim.” My voice is undependable, but I am almost finished. “Thank you for your children.” I raise my chin to address the crowd. “And thank you all for the bread.”
This is better, although we're back into lovely victimhood. Nothing of Rue's actual self is here, not that she was kind or clever, just her symbolic meaning as someone good killed young. (Wtf "feel as if I"? She did know Rue. They spent a day or so together.)
And really, thanking them for their kids? The childmurder games are wrong, Katniss. Please pick phrasing that at least avoids the implication it was a good thing, like, "I'm glad they were there with me," or something.
Then, from somewhere in the crowd, someone whistles Rue's four-note mocking-jay tune. The one that signaled the end of the workday in the orchards. The one that meant safety in the arena. By the end of the tune, I have found the whistler, a wizened old man in a faded red shirt and overalls. His eyes meet mine.
What happens next is not an accident. It is too well executed to be spontaneous, because it happens in complete unison. Every person in the crowd presses the three middle fingers of their left hand against their lips and extends them to me. It's our sign from District 12, the last good-bye I gave Rue in the arena.
Uh. So for one thing, that's the sign they give at funerals, not really that great a thing to be doing here, and for another, if it's not spontaneous then they were already intending to do it, so that kind of renders the speech moot? It's not that they did it because of what she said, they'd rehearsed this already. Perhaps they wouldn't have if she hadn't said anything, but that's very different than her words actually moving them.
If I hadn't spoken to President Snow, this gesture might move me to tears. But with his recent orders to calm the districts fresh in my ears, it fills me with dread. What will he think of this very public salute to the girl who defied the Capitol?
It was a funeral salute, though. As rebellions go, lying down and dying is not that big of a worry compared to picking up guns.
The full impact of what I've done hits me. It was not intentional—I only meant to express my thanks — but I have elicited something dangerous. An act of dissent from the people of District 11. This is exactly the kind of thing I am supposed to be defusing!
But you just said it obviously wasn't spontaneous! God, book, do you not know what words mean.
Also - what did she say that was so touching and shocking? The only bit of her speech that could be taken that way is the bit about not playing the game on anyone else's terms, and in context, she's just talking about the alliances he made, not the capital's terms. And what's the dissent? It's a funeral salute.
Still, Katniss reacts reasonably, with the hope she can say something to stop it, since she may hate the government but she's not an activist. She's just hoping to be a survivor. But time's up, mike's cut, and they're done.
As they head out, Katniss realizes she forgot her flowers, so she turns around.
from the deep shade of the verandah, we see the whole thing.
A pair of Peacekeepers dragging the old man who whistled to the top of the steps. Forcing him to his knees before the crowd. And putting a bullet through his head.
So. Pretty good dramatic ending line here.
...doesn't really make all that much sense though. I think that the dramatic lines really don't work as actual ending lines but as things to make you keep going and not think.
I mean, the whistle was not a rebellious thing, it was the established song for ending the workday. Unless Rue was lying about that and it actually has some sort of rebellious context and she used that song during the childmurder games as a FUCK YOU to the capital watchers. And since that's not in line with Rue's status as a perfect helpless victim, and also would be kind of awesome, I'm guessing no.
Presumably the idea is that they're blaming him as the ringleader for the salute, but everyone saluted. There's no reason to think he's the one who organized it. Shooting the guy in the head is probably just making things worse. Shooting him before anyone else did stuff might have worked in a nail that stands up gets beaten down sort of way, but after the fact it's just showing that they can't kill everyone, which is what you never want the large angry crowd reminded of. Next time they'll just make a shorter signal so the peacekeepers can't tell who did it.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-04-24 10:05 pm (UTC)I will really have to keep reading your commentaries.
no subject
Date: 2012-04-12 11:22 pm (UTC)“Yes, we could really make you something special,” says Octavia.
“When she's older,” says Venia almost grimly. “Then he'll have to let us.”
Do what? Blow my lips up like President Snow's? Tattoo my breasts? Dye my skin magenta and implant gems in it? Cut decorative patterns in my face? Give me curved talons? Or cat's whiskers?
...I take it all back absolutely. Oh god, I am sorry. That was beyond terrifying.
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Date: 2014-08-08 12:38 pm (UTC)