Catching Fire, Chapter 10
May. 2nd, 2011 01:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
farlaLast time on Catching Fire, Katniss chose to grudgingly delay murdering an unarmed woman.
So, the woman has a piece of wafer-like bread with a mockingjay on it and oh god this is a Jesus thing Katniss is not Jesus book don't do this.
Katniss is still not convinced, even when she's told that they're on her side. The other person hobbles out and it's a girl Katniss' age, and her peacekeeper uniform doesn't fit at all.
I examine the girl's face, which is bright red from the cold. Her teeth are crooked and there's a strawberry birthmark over one of her chocolate brown eyes. This is no Peacekeeper. No citizen of the Capitol, either.
Um...why couldn't a peacekeeper have crooked teeth or a birthmark?
My name's Twill,” says the woman. She's older. Maybe thirty-five or so. “And this is Bonnie.
"Our names were chosen to once and for all settle the question of does the author give a fuck about names. The answer is no. Not in the slightest."
They're from District 8. They explain they got the uniforms from the factory, because District 8 does clothes. This actually disappoints me - why couldn't a peacekeeper defect?
Katniss demands to know what's up with the mockingjay cracker.
“She doesn't know,” says Bonnie softly. “Maybe not about any of it.”
Well, obviously. I mean, I know Katniss was the spark, but I sort of hoped people had moved on by now. Even if they believed Katniss was a fellow rebel, she's not connected to their own rebellion.
They say they're running to District 13, and Katniss says there is no 13, which is dumb, because there's at least a crater left there and it's about the only land we know of not controlled by the capital.
Katniss remembers the hovercraft, so she asks if anyone's chasing them and they say they're believed dead, or so they hope.
Anyway, they're making pine needle tea. Fun fact: pine needle tea is an abortifacient! I just remind you of this because it can never be mentioned too often.
“We're not sure, really. I remember seeing someone do this with pine needles on the Hunger Games a few years back. At least, I think it was pine needles,” says Twill with a frown.
This is a pretty good line. They're so out of their depth that the closest thing to survival knowledge they have is what they saw on the childmurder games.
I remember District 8, an ugly urban place stinking of industrial fumes, the people housed in run-down tenements. Barely a blade of grass in sight.
Um, why? Dandelions are pretty hardy, and if they know how to gather weeds they could try to find them under the snow. I guess maybe the pollution is too heavy for plants to grow, but in that case they should be pretty messed up too.
I mean, they're still fucked when it comes to surviving in the wild but this feels way too forced.
(Incidentally, you know what would have been nice? Hearing about this back on the tour, instead of only bringing it up now.)
But long story short, they're starving. Luckily Katniss brought food.
People are starving all over the district and we still have more than enough. So I've been spreading things around a little. I have my own priorities: Gale's family, Greasy Sae, some of the other Hob traders who were shut down. My mother has other people, patients mostly, who she wants to help. This morning I purposely overstuffed my game bag with food, knowing my mother would see the depleted pantry and assume I was making my rounds to the hungry.
Finally, Katniss. I'd have liked to actually see you do this yourself, but whatever, at least you're not being sociopathic for a bit. (...also, why are people only now starving, when the book kept saying people were always starving?)
Twill taught at school, Bonnie was one of her pupils, and when the final bell had rung, both of them spent a four-hour shift at the factory that specialized in the Peacekeeper uniforms. It took months for Bonnie, who worked in the chilly inspection dock, to secure the two uniforms, a boot here, a pair of pants there. They were intended for Twill and her husband because it was understood that, once the uprising began, it would be crucial to get word of it out beyond District 8 if it were to spread and be successful.
The day Peeta and I came through and made our Victory Tour appearance was actually a rehearsal of sorts. People in the crowd positioned themselves according to their teams, next to the buildings they would target when the rebellion broke out. That was the plan: to take over the centers of power in the city like the Justice Building, the Peacekeepers' Headquarters, and the Communication Center in the square. And at other locations in the district: the railroad, the granary, the power station, and the armory.
The night of my engagement, the night Peeta fell to his knees and proclaimed his undying love for me in front of the cameras in the Capitol, was the night the uprising began. It was an ideal cover. Our Victory Tour interview with Caesar Flickerman was mandatory viewing. It gave the people of District 8 a reason to be out on the streets after dark, gathering either in the square or in various community centers around the city to watch. Ordinarily such activity would have been too suspicious. Instead everyone was in place by the appointed hour, eight o'clock, when the masks went on and all hell broke loose.
Why aren't these our main characters?
There's a minor flaw here, namely that it'd make more sense for them to get to other districts to coordinate a rebellion rather than after the rebellion, but you know what, they're awesome. Maybe they weren't sure until the day they finally rebelled that it was actually happening, that the peacekeepers weren't about to swoop down on them right before and cart them off to whatever torture pits the capital runs, because the capital had done such a good job of propaganda.
Also wow wouldn't it have been nice to actually see District 8 when they were there if apparently they were using that gathering as a test run? Katniss could have seen it happen.
Anyway, they initially take over, but it doesn't work. Swarms of new peacekeepers arrive and the capital bombs the place. Within two days they've crushed the rebellion. Then they keep everyone in their homes for another week to starve. Then they tell them to get back to work.
A street made impassable by the bombs caused them to be late for their factory shift, so they were still a hundred yards away when it exploded, killing everyone inside — including Twill's husband and Bonnie's entire family.
“Someone must have told the Capitol that the idea for the uprising had started there,” Twill tells me faintly.
...that's really, really dumb.
See, the capital is in charge. That means that if they kill you, it's legal. They don't need to blow up a factory, they can round up every person who worked there and shoot them on television. As a bonus, this means you don't accidentally miss some people as happened here.
Anyway, the pair of them figure it's time to run, so they grab the uniforms, raid the homes of the other factory workers for food, and take off.
“I understand why you're running, but what do you expect to find in District Thirteen?” I ask.
Bonnie and Twill exchange a nervous glance. “We're not sure exactly,” Twill says.
“It's nothing but rubble,” I say. “We've all seen the footage.”
“That's just it. They've been using the same footage for as long as anyone in District Eight can remember,” says Twill.
Uh, wouldn't that be pretty noticeable? I mean, it's rubble, rubble usually doesn't look exactly the same for seventy-five years straight. Why has only District 8 noticed? Or have most of the districts noticed, and it's just that Katniss' hick district is behind the curve? Regardless, the capital really should have seen this coming.
Instead of the fact the rubble is apparently indestructible, their proof is that there's a mockingjay that takes off in the corner every time.
God am I ever sick of mockingjays. How could it even be a mockingjay? If this was seventy-five years ago, the mockingbirds would only have just started crossbreeding.
Katniss objects to this on the basis that the capital would blow it up if there were people there.
“We think the people moved underground when everything on the surface was destroyed. We think they've managed to survive. And we think the Capitol leaves them alone because, before the Dark Days, District Thirteen's principal industry was nuclear development.”
“They were graphite miners,” I say. But then I hesitate, because that's information I got from the Capitol.
“They had a few small mines, yes. But not enough to justify a population of that size. That, I guess, is the only thing we know for sure,” says Twill.
...so, wait. Does "we think" refer to the capital's motivation or that they were making nukes at all? Bad writing is bad.
I have the sinking feeling this might actually be the explanation. The capital has magic science. They can dump weaponized ebola or whatever on the place to clean it out.
Also, how did they spent almost a century underground? What were they living off of?
Oh yeah, our count. So, more female characters I guess? I mean, there's nothing really wrong with them, they're just pretty blah. I'd have liked to see the rebellion, but they're just here now to infodump to Katniss. They're just another iteration of Rue, with femininity tied to vulnerability.
The book is doing far better than last time, but - well, this level is pretty much what I was expecting originally, which is not actually all that good. It's only good in comparison to how terrible last book was.
But then ... if there are people in District 13, with powerful weapons ...
“Why haven't they helped us?” I say angrily. “If it's true, why do they leave us to live like this? With the hunger and the killings and the Games?” And suddenly I hate this imaginary underground city of District 13 and those who sit by, watching us die. They're no better than the Capitol.
Uh, no, no that makes no sense. There's a big difference between killing people for the lulz and letting it happen. One is deliberately harming other people. I do think people are obligated to try to help others if they can, but I hate the idea that someone who doesn't help is exactly as bad as the person doing it.
Also I think we just got it clarified that yes, we're talking about the bomb kind of nuclear. That's dumb. It's just too much of a risk to let it lie around. They should have bombed the place and set off the nukes to prevent them from being fired.
If we must have this, the better explanation is they had a lot of nuclear reactors and absolutely no missiles. Bombing would result in a meltdown and fallout, so the capital was willing to take the risk of leaving the place semi-intact and cutting their loses. Anyone who leaves the area is killed, of course, and they don't have any real way of counterattacking. And having nuclear power would go a long way to making the place self-sufficient.
Anyway, Katniss figures it's a delusion but that it makes them feel better and since they have to go that way to survive anyway, there's no reason to argue. She gives them a quick course in wilderness survival and how to hunt.
She's got a weapon that if necessary can convert solar energy into deadly rays of power, so that could last indefinitely
Uh, if they have beam weapons, why did she hear gunshots? Are they also using bullets? Why would you use both?
“I have to go now,” I say.
They pour out thanks and embrace me.
Tears spill from Bonnie's eyes. “I can't believe we actually got to meet you. You're practically all anyone's talked about since—”
“I know. I know. Since I pulled out those berries,” I say tiredly.
Ugh.
Katniss is really not that great. And I'd be more willing to believe she was great if I wasn't constantly getting told she was great.
What these two people did was incredibly brave. What their entire district did was. The fact they were willing to be the first ones to try an uprising despite knowing that they couldn't possibly win without the other districts, and therefore that even if everything went as planned they'd take the heaviest losses? Miles better than anyone we've met so far.
Katniss - Katniss did what she had to. She was brave sacrificing herself for her sister, and brave to eat the berries, but it was always the bravery of someone backed into a corner. It's nothing like what the people of District 8 did.
Katniss should be honored to speak with them, not the other way around.
a mockingjay lights on a branch and trills at me. At the sight of it I realize I never got a full explanation of the bird on the cracker and what it signifies.
“It means we're on your side.” That's what Bonnie said. I have people on my side?
Apparently. But she shouldn't. It isn't her side. Even if we go along with the idea she's the one that started things, she's not what this is about. They're not rising up to help her, they're rising up to beat the capital. Katniss' own problems are not the point here.
Anyway, Katniss heads back and we get our dramatic ending line - the electricity is back on at the fence. I'm sure that's going to turn out to be quite bad or whatever, but Katniss said back last book that the fence is generally off but is electrified several hours a day, usually in the evening. And now the fence which was off before is on now, in the evening. So...yeah.
Well. This chapter was actually pretty good. Especially the part where Katniss helped people, and the part where we learned about what they'd gone through. The problem was it mostly reminded me of all the stuff I'd rather be reading. From the sounds of it, District 8 is way worse off than 12 even now, and the people there actually do things about this! I mean, I keep whining Katniss won't work together with people, and look at 8, they did get the entire population to work together without anyone spilling the plan to the peacekeepers. And just based on the fact the story never goes where I want, I have no real hope Katniss' present caring-about-others thing will last past the end of this chapter.
Also, for some reason this starts a new section is titled THE QUELL, despite the fact this chapter and the last are a single connected scene and despite the fact there's no quell in sight. I am cautiously hopeful for the quell, though - Katniss having to be a mentor has promise.
So, the woman has a piece of wafer-like bread with a mockingjay on it and oh god this is a Jesus thing Katniss is not Jesus book don't do this.
Katniss is still not convinced, even when she's told that they're on her side. The other person hobbles out and it's a girl Katniss' age, and her peacekeeper uniform doesn't fit at all.
I examine the girl's face, which is bright red from the cold. Her teeth are crooked and there's a strawberry birthmark over one of her chocolate brown eyes. This is no Peacekeeper. No citizen of the Capitol, either.
Um...why couldn't a peacekeeper have crooked teeth or a birthmark?
My name's Twill,” says the woman. She's older. Maybe thirty-five or so. “And this is Bonnie.
"Our names were chosen to once and for all settle the question of does the author give a fuck about names. The answer is no. Not in the slightest."
They're from District 8. They explain they got the uniforms from the factory, because District 8 does clothes. This actually disappoints me - why couldn't a peacekeeper defect?
Katniss demands to know what's up with the mockingjay cracker.
“She doesn't know,” says Bonnie softly. “Maybe not about any of it.”
Well, obviously. I mean, I know Katniss was the spark, but I sort of hoped people had moved on by now. Even if they believed Katniss was a fellow rebel, she's not connected to their own rebellion.
They say they're running to District 13, and Katniss says there is no 13, which is dumb, because there's at least a crater left there and it's about the only land we know of not controlled by the capital.
Katniss remembers the hovercraft, so she asks if anyone's chasing them and they say they're believed dead, or so they hope.
Anyway, they're making pine needle tea. Fun fact: pine needle tea is an abortifacient! I just remind you of this because it can never be mentioned too often.
“We're not sure, really. I remember seeing someone do this with pine needles on the Hunger Games a few years back. At least, I think it was pine needles,” says Twill with a frown.
This is a pretty good line. They're so out of their depth that the closest thing to survival knowledge they have is what they saw on the childmurder games.
I remember District 8, an ugly urban place stinking of industrial fumes, the people housed in run-down tenements. Barely a blade of grass in sight.
Um, why? Dandelions are pretty hardy, and if they know how to gather weeds they could try to find them under the snow. I guess maybe the pollution is too heavy for plants to grow, but in that case they should be pretty messed up too.
I mean, they're still fucked when it comes to surviving in the wild but this feels way too forced.
(Incidentally, you know what would have been nice? Hearing about this back on the tour, instead of only bringing it up now.)
But long story short, they're starving. Luckily Katniss brought food.
People are starving all over the district and we still have more than enough. So I've been spreading things around a little. I have my own priorities: Gale's family, Greasy Sae, some of the other Hob traders who were shut down. My mother has other people, patients mostly, who she wants to help. This morning I purposely overstuffed my game bag with food, knowing my mother would see the depleted pantry and assume I was making my rounds to the hungry.
Finally, Katniss. I'd have liked to actually see you do this yourself, but whatever, at least you're not being sociopathic for a bit. (...also, why are people only now starving, when the book kept saying people were always starving?)
Twill taught at school, Bonnie was one of her pupils, and when the final bell had rung, both of them spent a four-hour shift at the factory that specialized in the Peacekeeper uniforms. It took months for Bonnie, who worked in the chilly inspection dock, to secure the two uniforms, a boot here, a pair of pants there. They were intended for Twill and her husband because it was understood that, once the uprising began, it would be crucial to get word of it out beyond District 8 if it were to spread and be successful.
The day Peeta and I came through and made our Victory Tour appearance was actually a rehearsal of sorts. People in the crowd positioned themselves according to their teams, next to the buildings they would target when the rebellion broke out. That was the plan: to take over the centers of power in the city like the Justice Building, the Peacekeepers' Headquarters, and the Communication Center in the square. And at other locations in the district: the railroad, the granary, the power station, and the armory.
The night of my engagement, the night Peeta fell to his knees and proclaimed his undying love for me in front of the cameras in the Capitol, was the night the uprising began. It was an ideal cover. Our Victory Tour interview with Caesar Flickerman was mandatory viewing. It gave the people of District 8 a reason to be out on the streets after dark, gathering either in the square or in various community centers around the city to watch. Ordinarily such activity would have been too suspicious. Instead everyone was in place by the appointed hour, eight o'clock, when the masks went on and all hell broke loose.
Why aren't these our main characters?
There's a minor flaw here, namely that it'd make more sense for them to get to other districts to coordinate a rebellion rather than after the rebellion, but you know what, they're awesome. Maybe they weren't sure until the day they finally rebelled that it was actually happening, that the peacekeepers weren't about to swoop down on them right before and cart them off to whatever torture pits the capital runs, because the capital had done such a good job of propaganda.
Also wow wouldn't it have been nice to actually see District 8 when they were there if apparently they were using that gathering as a test run? Katniss could have seen it happen.
Anyway, they initially take over, but it doesn't work. Swarms of new peacekeepers arrive and the capital bombs the place. Within two days they've crushed the rebellion. Then they keep everyone in their homes for another week to starve. Then they tell them to get back to work.
A street made impassable by the bombs caused them to be late for their factory shift, so they were still a hundred yards away when it exploded, killing everyone inside — including Twill's husband and Bonnie's entire family.
“Someone must have told the Capitol that the idea for the uprising had started there,” Twill tells me faintly.
...that's really, really dumb.
See, the capital is in charge. That means that if they kill you, it's legal. They don't need to blow up a factory, they can round up every person who worked there and shoot them on television. As a bonus, this means you don't accidentally miss some people as happened here.
Anyway, the pair of them figure it's time to run, so they grab the uniforms, raid the homes of the other factory workers for food, and take off.
“I understand why you're running, but what do you expect to find in District Thirteen?” I ask.
Bonnie and Twill exchange a nervous glance. “We're not sure exactly,” Twill says.
“It's nothing but rubble,” I say. “We've all seen the footage.”
“That's just it. They've been using the same footage for as long as anyone in District Eight can remember,” says Twill.
Uh, wouldn't that be pretty noticeable? I mean, it's rubble, rubble usually doesn't look exactly the same for seventy-five years straight. Why has only District 8 noticed? Or have most of the districts noticed, and it's just that Katniss' hick district is behind the curve? Regardless, the capital really should have seen this coming.
Instead of the fact the rubble is apparently indestructible, their proof is that there's a mockingjay that takes off in the corner every time.
God am I ever sick of mockingjays. How could it even be a mockingjay? If this was seventy-five years ago, the mockingbirds would only have just started crossbreeding.
Katniss objects to this on the basis that the capital would blow it up if there were people there.
“We think the people moved underground when everything on the surface was destroyed. We think they've managed to survive. And we think the Capitol leaves them alone because, before the Dark Days, District Thirteen's principal industry was nuclear development.”
“They were graphite miners,” I say. But then I hesitate, because that's information I got from the Capitol.
“They had a few small mines, yes. But not enough to justify a population of that size. That, I guess, is the only thing we know for sure,” says Twill.
...so, wait. Does "we think" refer to the capital's motivation or that they were making nukes at all? Bad writing is bad.
I have the sinking feeling this might actually be the explanation. The capital has magic science. They can dump weaponized ebola or whatever on the place to clean it out.
Also, how did they spent almost a century underground? What were they living off of?
Oh yeah, our count. So, more female characters I guess? I mean, there's nothing really wrong with them, they're just pretty blah. I'd have liked to see the rebellion, but they're just here now to infodump to Katniss. They're just another iteration of Rue, with femininity tied to vulnerability.
The book is doing far better than last time, but - well, this level is pretty much what I was expecting originally, which is not actually all that good. It's only good in comparison to how terrible last book was.
But then ... if there are people in District 13, with powerful weapons ...
“Why haven't they helped us?” I say angrily. “If it's true, why do they leave us to live like this? With the hunger and the killings and the Games?” And suddenly I hate this imaginary underground city of District 13 and those who sit by, watching us die. They're no better than the Capitol.
Uh, no, no that makes no sense. There's a big difference between killing people for the lulz and letting it happen. One is deliberately harming other people. I do think people are obligated to try to help others if they can, but I hate the idea that someone who doesn't help is exactly as bad as the person doing it.
Also I think we just got it clarified that yes, we're talking about the bomb kind of nuclear. That's dumb. It's just too much of a risk to let it lie around. They should have bombed the place and set off the nukes to prevent them from being fired.
If we must have this, the better explanation is they had a lot of nuclear reactors and absolutely no missiles. Bombing would result in a meltdown and fallout, so the capital was willing to take the risk of leaving the place semi-intact and cutting their loses. Anyone who leaves the area is killed, of course, and they don't have any real way of counterattacking. And having nuclear power would go a long way to making the place self-sufficient.
Anyway, Katniss figures it's a delusion but that it makes them feel better and since they have to go that way to survive anyway, there's no reason to argue. She gives them a quick course in wilderness survival and how to hunt.
She's got a weapon that if necessary can convert solar energy into deadly rays of power, so that could last indefinitely
Uh, if they have beam weapons, why did she hear gunshots? Are they also using bullets? Why would you use both?
“I have to go now,” I say.
They pour out thanks and embrace me.
Tears spill from Bonnie's eyes. “I can't believe we actually got to meet you. You're practically all anyone's talked about since—”
“I know. I know. Since I pulled out those berries,” I say tiredly.
Ugh.
Katniss is really not that great. And I'd be more willing to believe she was great if I wasn't constantly getting told she was great.
What these two people did was incredibly brave. What their entire district did was. The fact they were willing to be the first ones to try an uprising despite knowing that they couldn't possibly win without the other districts, and therefore that even if everything went as planned they'd take the heaviest losses? Miles better than anyone we've met so far.
Katniss - Katniss did what she had to. She was brave sacrificing herself for her sister, and brave to eat the berries, but it was always the bravery of someone backed into a corner. It's nothing like what the people of District 8 did.
Katniss should be honored to speak with them, not the other way around.
a mockingjay lights on a branch and trills at me. At the sight of it I realize I never got a full explanation of the bird on the cracker and what it signifies.
“It means we're on your side.” That's what Bonnie said. I have people on my side?
Apparently. But she shouldn't. It isn't her side. Even if we go along with the idea she's the one that started things, she's not what this is about. They're not rising up to help her, they're rising up to beat the capital. Katniss' own problems are not the point here.
Anyway, Katniss heads back and we get our dramatic ending line - the electricity is back on at the fence. I'm sure that's going to turn out to be quite bad or whatever, but Katniss said back last book that the fence is generally off but is electrified several hours a day, usually in the evening. And now the fence which was off before is on now, in the evening. So...yeah.
Well. This chapter was actually pretty good. Especially the part where Katniss helped people, and the part where we learned about what they'd gone through. The problem was it mostly reminded me of all the stuff I'd rather be reading. From the sounds of it, District 8 is way worse off than 12 even now, and the people there actually do things about this! I mean, I keep whining Katniss won't work together with people, and look at 8, they did get the entire population to work together without anyone spilling the plan to the peacekeepers. And just based on the fact the story never goes where I want, I have no real hope Katniss' present caring-about-others thing will last past the end of this chapter.
Also, for some reason this starts a new section is titled THE QUELL, despite the fact this chapter and the last are a single connected scene and despite the fact there's no quell in sight. I am cautiously hopeful for the quell, though - Katniss having to be a mentor has promise.
