Catching Fire, Chapter 18
May. 17th, 2011 10:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
farlaLast time on Catching Fire, more mockingjays and flames.
A shadow of recognition flickers across Caesar's face, and I can tell he knows that the mockingjay isn't just my token. That it's come to symbolize so much more. That what will be seen as a flashy costume change in the Capitol is resonating in an entirely different way throughout the districts. But he makes the best of it.
“Well, hats off to your stylist. I don't think anyone can argue that that's not the most spectacular thing we've ever seen in an interview. Cinna, I think you better take a bow!” Caesar gestures for Cinna to rise.
So can we just say this is confirmation Caesar is evil, and he's not "making the best of it" so much as "making sure everyone knows who's about to bite it"?
I remember his words ...
“Don't worry. I always channel my emotions into my work. That way I don't hurt anyone but myself.”
... and I'm afraid he has hurt himself beyond repair.
This is actually quite nice. I think it's the first bit like this so far that works - not only is it understandable why Katniss wouldn't see it coming, it wasn't meant to be something anyone would pick up on, but a natural outgrowth of events.
Caesar and Peeta have been a natural team since they first appeared together a year ago. Their easy give-and-take, comic timing, and ability to segue into heart-wrenching moments, like Peeta's confession of love for me, have made them a huge success with the audience. They effortlessly open with a few jokes about fires and feathers and overcooking poultry.
Way to fuck up the atmosphere the rest of the tributes worked on, Peeta. Is this more of your usual attitude about throwing everyone else under the bus in the hopes it'll save Katniss?
Peeta pauses for a long moment, as if deciding something. He looks out at the spellbound audience, then at tin floor, then finally up at Caesar. “Caesar, do you think all our friends here can keep a secret?”
An uncomfortable laugh emanates from the audience. What can he mean? Keep a secret from who? Our whole world is watching.
“I feel quite certain of it,” says Caesar.
How did this get past an editor.
I mention this occasionally in really terrible, lazy fanfic. I'll read a string of sentences where it is so painfully obvious that the author wrote a line, realized it was a bad idea, and then instead of deleting the line, tried to fix it in the next sentence. This is like that, but drawn out into ungodly paragraph form.
What he should have said here was that he had been keeping a secret, and now he was going to tell them.
The secret Peeta confesses is that they married early. He then gets into fine manipulative form. It's actually quite well done and I think I'd have liked him a lot if the book hadn't written him as such a Nice Guy.
“So this was before the Quell?” says Caesar.
“Of course before the Quell. I'm sure we'd never have done it after we knew,” says Peeta, starting to get upset. “But who could've seen it coming? No one. We went through the Games, we were victors, everyone seemed so thrilled to see us together, and then out of nowhere—I mean, how could we anticipate a thing like that?”
So this builds beautifully to the real bombshell:
“Surely even a brief time is better than no time?”
“Maybe I'd think that, too, Caesar,” says Peeta bitterly, “if it weren't for the baby.”
Way to fuck with them, Peeta.
Katniss promptly ruins the scene for me.
There. He's done it again. Dropped a bomb that wipes out the efforts of every tribute who came before him.
THEY WERE WORKING TOGETHER CAN YOU FOR FIVE FUCKING SECONDS STOP TREATING YOUR FELLOW VICTIMS AS IF THEY'RE PERSONAL ENEMIES KATNISS IS THIS SO MUCH TO ASK
The book backpeddles a minute later.
Well, maybe not. Maybe this year he has only lit the fuse on a bomb that the victors themselves have been building.
Yes, maybe the really fucking obvious is true. It's a faint possibility, I suppose. Still, at least she's acknowledging the option. But really, what the hell book? Why is it written like this?
She suggests that maybe the other victors were in fact hoping one of them would blow things up.
Perhaps thinking it would be me in my bridal gown. Not knowing how much I rely on Cinna's talents, whereas Peeta needs nothing more than his wits.
FEMINISM!
it sends accusations of injustice and barbarism and cruelty flying out in every direction
You know, it's rare I feel like bringing up the the unspeakable horror, but for god's sake, pick up a thesaurus and stop calling everything barbarism.
Even the most Capitol-loving, Games-hungry, bloodthirsty person out there can't ignore, at least for a moment, how horrific the whole thing is.
Ooooooookay.
So, I will agree that pregnant women are more vulnerable and therefore deserve extra consideration to make up for this. But are you really saying it's more horrible for a pregnant woman to be playing than a starving twelve year old?
I've been harping on the fact that birth control doesn't seem to exist and the generally implicitly pro-life sex-for-reproduction worldview, but it's here that the book makes it explicit. A single unborn fetus without a brain is a bigger deal than two thousand actual children who die screaming and begging in front of them.
Saying she's pregnant to twist the knife a little more, as part of the general loss of their own lives and futures, fine. But saying this horrifies them when nothing else does? Please.
(A scene like this could work if the book was more self-aware - but this is like what I was saying about retrieving the bodies. It is quite possible for a culture to act like this - one can make a good case modern America gets quite close. But the book consistently fails to develop any actual culture for these people. It's treated as if that's just the way it is, that all people would always act like this, and the childmurder bit is the one exception. Everyone still has the same understanding of right and wrong on all other subjects, an understanding that's treated as if it's some objective, perhaps instinctive, fact.)
Anyway, at this point Peeta misses the obvious capstone. What he should end with is, "And that's why I volunteered. I'm not playing to win, I'm here because it's the only chance I have to protect her." That's the only kind of rebellion there is in the games, to not play to win. To not only go against the fiction you're happy to be there, but the entire concept of how the games are played. To show that they're good people who care about others, not rabid monsters who happily tear each other part, and forcing the capital citizens to realize that this is the sort of person they murder in these games.
For some reason the books never seem to get to that concept. The idea of opposing the childmurder games by saying you're not in it to win never happens. Like so many other things, I suppose it's a matter of not wanting the characters to have any real challenges.
I turn spontaneously to Chaff and offer my hand. I feel my fingers close around the stump that now completes his arm and hold fast.
And then it happens. Up and down the row, the victors begin to join hands. Some right away, like the morphlings, or Wiress and Beetee. Others unsure but caught up in the demands of those around them, like Brutus and Enobaria. By the time the anthem plays its final strains, all twenty-four of us stand in one unbroken line in what must be the first public show of unity among the districts since the Dark Days. You can see the realization of this as the screens begin to pop into blackness. It's too late, though. In the confusion they didn't cut us off in time. Everyone has seen.
Katniss' first real act of rebellion! And it's an act of unity. The book has improved immeasurably.
…it would really have been nice if she'd been a bit more into unity before instead of petty sniping, but whatever, the book doesn't want continuity anyway.
I'd like to take this as a sign that the games themselves are going to be all unified, but the book keeps avoiding bringing up that option and it'd get in the way of Katniss being a sociopath, so I'm not sure if I should hope.
Anyway the people of the capital are all upset but does it matter, really? They're not going to stop the games, as the book even acknowledges. Is there really a point to this beyond that Katniss is so special and tragic?
Oh, and Peeta asks if he needs to apologize for pulling the whole married and pregnant thing only for Katniss to agree he made the right choice because she's a dumb woman and would just have fucked it up somehow, and that he should feel free to continue keeping secrets for her own good. She, of course, is very very very very wrong if she does the same.
It was a big leap to take without my okay, but I'm just as glad I didn't know, didn't have time to second-guess him, to let any guilt over Gale detract from how I really feel about what Peeta did. Which is empowered.
FEMINISM: Letting your man make all the decisions.
But even if all of us meet terrible ends, something happened on that stage tonight that can't be undone. We victors staged our own uprising, and maybe, just maybe, the Capitol won't be able to contain this one.
I really wish the book would stop doing this. Symbolic gestures are not worth more than real ones. What she did is not more impressive and noble than the actual uprisings that led to actual deaths.
Anyway, they get back and Haymitch says that yes, they've kicked over a hornet's nest, but that they do realize there's no way Snow will cancel the games. Anyway they say goodbye. Haymitch has one last thing to tell her.
just remember who the enemy is,” Haymitch tells me.
THE CAPITAL.
...Katniss doesn't say anything, so I'm not sure she gets it.
Cinna is still there and helps her into her outfit. They remark on how weird the material is, it's not going to do much to protect her from the elements. They take this to mean she'll be dropped somewhere that won't be an issue, but personally I'd just take it as one more fuck-you from Snow. If I was him, I'd want to get this over as fast as possible. If that means dumping people dressed in spandex onto a glacier, so be it.
Katniss gets ready to go but there's a weird delay. Then peacekeepers rush in, beat Cinna into the floor, and drag his limp body off. Fucking finally! Cinna's mollified me a lot by finally doing something, but this is an evil government and they really need to get with the oppression already.
Something seems to be wrong with my vision. The ground is too bright and shiny and keeps undulating. I squint down at my feet and see that my metal plate is surrounded by blue waves that lap up over my boots. Slowly I raise my eyes and take in the water spreading out in every direction.
I can only form one clear thought.
This is no place for a girl on fire.
:DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDddddddd....
Okay I looked ahead.
When I read this I thought it meant this year's arena was the ocean, ensuring the games would be over in a matter of days. Snow has every reason to want to get through this as fast as possible. And that would definitely be a way to avoid rehashing last book's plot - the tributes won't be able to avoid each other, won't have the option of hiding and resting and getting supplies, they'd just have to kill each other in the water.
For the record, despite how much of my criticism is directed to Katniss and other characters, I really have no desire for them to die. But if there's going to be some sort of out of game attempt to save Katniss, like getting the capital people to demand the games be called off, it'll have to be done fast, or else Katniss will have to think outside of the box for once, so something like this promises interesting things.
But actually there's an island a little way off, and on it's the cornucopia thing, presumably with the usual supplies, all of this presumably part of the regular Hunger Games sort of arenas which, in turn, we'll be stuck in because this book shows every sign of being about to repeat the same plot.
I'll give Katniss her initial fear - it's still the ocean, which she's never seen. But we already know she can swim and presumably the games will be taking place on that island, so it's pretty melodramatic of her to be talking about water like that. It's a good chapter ending line, but it's not actually that accurate, and it's never good to have a misleading line when it's just going to lead to disappointment. People have already bought the book, you shouldn't need to try to get them to keep reading with trickery. This kind of bullshit is for the cheapest kind of serial fiction, where you can't rely on things like basic quality to get people to come back.
A shadow of recognition flickers across Caesar's face, and I can tell he knows that the mockingjay isn't just my token. That it's come to symbolize so much more. That what will be seen as a flashy costume change in the Capitol is resonating in an entirely different way throughout the districts. But he makes the best of it.
“Well, hats off to your stylist. I don't think anyone can argue that that's not the most spectacular thing we've ever seen in an interview. Cinna, I think you better take a bow!” Caesar gestures for Cinna to rise.
So can we just say this is confirmation Caesar is evil, and he's not "making the best of it" so much as "making sure everyone knows who's about to bite it"?
I remember his words ...
“Don't worry. I always channel my emotions into my work. That way I don't hurt anyone but myself.”
... and I'm afraid he has hurt himself beyond repair.
This is actually quite nice. I think it's the first bit like this so far that works - not only is it understandable why Katniss wouldn't see it coming, it wasn't meant to be something anyone would pick up on, but a natural outgrowth of events.
Caesar and Peeta have been a natural team since they first appeared together a year ago. Their easy give-and-take, comic timing, and ability to segue into heart-wrenching moments, like Peeta's confession of love for me, have made them a huge success with the audience. They effortlessly open with a few jokes about fires and feathers and overcooking poultry.
Way to fuck up the atmosphere the rest of the tributes worked on, Peeta. Is this more of your usual attitude about throwing everyone else under the bus in the hopes it'll save Katniss?
Peeta pauses for a long moment, as if deciding something. He looks out at the spellbound audience, then at tin floor, then finally up at Caesar. “Caesar, do you think all our friends here can keep a secret?”
An uncomfortable laugh emanates from the audience. What can he mean? Keep a secret from who? Our whole world is watching.
“I feel quite certain of it,” says Caesar.
How did this get past an editor.
I mention this occasionally in really terrible, lazy fanfic. I'll read a string of sentences where it is so painfully obvious that the author wrote a line, realized it was a bad idea, and then instead of deleting the line, tried to fix it in the next sentence. This is like that, but drawn out into ungodly paragraph form.
What he should have said here was that he had been keeping a secret, and now he was going to tell them.
The secret Peeta confesses is that they married early. He then gets into fine manipulative form. It's actually quite well done and I think I'd have liked him a lot if the book hadn't written him as such a Nice Guy.
“So this was before the Quell?” says Caesar.
“Of course before the Quell. I'm sure we'd never have done it after we knew,” says Peeta, starting to get upset. “But who could've seen it coming? No one. We went through the Games, we were victors, everyone seemed so thrilled to see us together, and then out of nowhere—I mean, how could we anticipate a thing like that?”
So this builds beautifully to the real bombshell:
“Surely even a brief time is better than no time?”
“Maybe I'd think that, too, Caesar,” says Peeta bitterly, “if it weren't for the baby.”
Way to fuck with them, Peeta.
Katniss promptly ruins the scene for me.
There. He's done it again. Dropped a bomb that wipes out the efforts of every tribute who came before him.
THEY WERE WORKING TOGETHER CAN YOU FOR FIVE FUCKING SECONDS STOP TREATING YOUR FELLOW VICTIMS AS IF THEY'RE PERSONAL ENEMIES KATNISS IS THIS SO MUCH TO ASK
The book backpeddles a minute later.
Well, maybe not. Maybe this year he has only lit the fuse on a bomb that the victors themselves have been building.
Yes, maybe the really fucking obvious is true. It's a faint possibility, I suppose. Still, at least she's acknowledging the option. But really, what the hell book? Why is it written like this?
She suggests that maybe the other victors were in fact hoping one of them would blow things up.
Perhaps thinking it would be me in my bridal gown. Not knowing how much I rely on Cinna's talents, whereas Peeta needs nothing more than his wits.
FEMINISM!
it sends accusations of injustice and barbarism and cruelty flying out in every direction
You know, it's rare I feel like bringing up the the unspeakable horror, but for god's sake, pick up a thesaurus and stop calling everything barbarism.
Even the most Capitol-loving, Games-hungry, bloodthirsty person out there can't ignore, at least for a moment, how horrific the whole thing is.
Ooooooookay.
So, I will agree that pregnant women are more vulnerable and therefore deserve extra consideration to make up for this. But are you really saying it's more horrible for a pregnant woman to be playing than a starving twelve year old?
I've been harping on the fact that birth control doesn't seem to exist and the generally implicitly pro-life sex-for-reproduction worldview, but it's here that the book makes it explicit. A single unborn fetus without a brain is a bigger deal than two thousand actual children who die screaming and begging in front of them.
Saying she's pregnant to twist the knife a little more, as part of the general loss of their own lives and futures, fine. But saying this horrifies them when nothing else does? Please.
(A scene like this could work if the book was more self-aware - but this is like what I was saying about retrieving the bodies. It is quite possible for a culture to act like this - one can make a good case modern America gets quite close. But the book consistently fails to develop any actual culture for these people. It's treated as if that's just the way it is, that all people would always act like this, and the childmurder bit is the one exception. Everyone still has the same understanding of right and wrong on all other subjects, an understanding that's treated as if it's some objective, perhaps instinctive, fact.)
Anyway, at this point Peeta misses the obvious capstone. What he should end with is, "And that's why I volunteered. I'm not playing to win, I'm here because it's the only chance I have to protect her." That's the only kind of rebellion there is in the games, to not play to win. To not only go against the fiction you're happy to be there, but the entire concept of how the games are played. To show that they're good people who care about others, not rabid monsters who happily tear each other part, and forcing the capital citizens to realize that this is the sort of person they murder in these games.
For some reason the books never seem to get to that concept. The idea of opposing the childmurder games by saying you're not in it to win never happens. Like so many other things, I suppose it's a matter of not wanting the characters to have any real challenges.
I turn spontaneously to Chaff and offer my hand. I feel my fingers close around the stump that now completes his arm and hold fast.
And then it happens. Up and down the row, the victors begin to join hands. Some right away, like the morphlings, or Wiress and Beetee. Others unsure but caught up in the demands of those around them, like Brutus and Enobaria. By the time the anthem plays its final strains, all twenty-four of us stand in one unbroken line in what must be the first public show of unity among the districts since the Dark Days. You can see the realization of this as the screens begin to pop into blackness. It's too late, though. In the confusion they didn't cut us off in time. Everyone has seen.
Katniss' first real act of rebellion! And it's an act of unity. The book has improved immeasurably.
…it would really have been nice if she'd been a bit more into unity before instead of petty sniping, but whatever, the book doesn't want continuity anyway.
I'd like to take this as a sign that the games themselves are going to be all unified, but the book keeps avoiding bringing up that option and it'd get in the way of Katniss being a sociopath, so I'm not sure if I should hope.
Anyway the people of the capital are all upset but does it matter, really? They're not going to stop the games, as the book even acknowledges. Is there really a point to this beyond that Katniss is so special and tragic?
Oh, and Peeta asks if he needs to apologize for pulling the whole married and pregnant thing only for Katniss to agree he made the right choice because she's a dumb woman and would just have fucked it up somehow, and that he should feel free to continue keeping secrets for her own good. She, of course, is very very very very wrong if she does the same.
It was a big leap to take without my okay, but I'm just as glad I didn't know, didn't have time to second-guess him, to let any guilt over Gale detract from how I really feel about what Peeta did. Which is empowered.
FEMINISM: Letting your man make all the decisions.
But even if all of us meet terrible ends, something happened on that stage tonight that can't be undone. We victors staged our own uprising, and maybe, just maybe, the Capitol won't be able to contain this one.
I really wish the book would stop doing this. Symbolic gestures are not worth more than real ones. What she did is not more impressive and noble than the actual uprisings that led to actual deaths.
Anyway, they get back and Haymitch says that yes, they've kicked over a hornet's nest, but that they do realize there's no way Snow will cancel the games. Anyway they say goodbye. Haymitch has one last thing to tell her.
just remember who the enemy is,” Haymitch tells me.
THE CAPITAL.
...Katniss doesn't say anything, so I'm not sure she gets it.
Cinna is still there and helps her into her outfit. They remark on how weird the material is, it's not going to do much to protect her from the elements. They take this to mean she'll be dropped somewhere that won't be an issue, but personally I'd just take it as one more fuck-you from Snow. If I was him, I'd want to get this over as fast as possible. If that means dumping people dressed in spandex onto a glacier, so be it.
Katniss gets ready to go but there's a weird delay. Then peacekeepers rush in, beat Cinna into the floor, and drag his limp body off. Fucking finally! Cinna's mollified me a lot by finally doing something, but this is an evil government and they really need to get with the oppression already.
Something seems to be wrong with my vision. The ground is too bright and shiny and keeps undulating. I squint down at my feet and see that my metal plate is surrounded by blue waves that lap up over my boots. Slowly I raise my eyes and take in the water spreading out in every direction.
I can only form one clear thought.
This is no place for a girl on fire.
:DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDddddddd....
Okay I looked ahead.
When I read this I thought it meant this year's arena was the ocean, ensuring the games would be over in a matter of days. Snow has every reason to want to get through this as fast as possible. And that would definitely be a way to avoid rehashing last book's plot - the tributes won't be able to avoid each other, won't have the option of hiding and resting and getting supplies, they'd just have to kill each other in the water.
For the record, despite how much of my criticism is directed to Katniss and other characters, I really have no desire for them to die. But if there's going to be some sort of out of game attempt to save Katniss, like getting the capital people to demand the games be called off, it'll have to be done fast, or else Katniss will have to think outside of the box for once, so something like this promises interesting things.
But actually there's an island a little way off, and on it's the cornucopia thing, presumably with the usual supplies, all of this presumably part of the regular Hunger Games sort of arenas which, in turn, we'll be stuck in because this book shows every sign of being about to repeat the same plot.
I'll give Katniss her initial fear - it's still the ocean, which she's never seen. But we already know she can swim and presumably the games will be taking place on that island, so it's pretty melodramatic of her to be talking about water like that. It's a good chapter ending line, but it's not actually that accurate, and it's never good to have a misleading line when it's just going to lead to disappointment. People have already bought the book, you shouldn't need to try to get them to keep reading with trickery. This kind of bullshit is for the cheapest kind of serial fiction, where you can't rely on things like basic quality to get people to come back.
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Date: 2012-04-12 03:45 pm (UTC)