Both series also deal with this idea of a seemingly untouchable and unequal social divide; an us and them which, in times like these, may be more relevant than ever before. It may be easy to define Suzanne Collins simply as a writer who struck gold with another teen faze. Her books have been a source of inspiration and delight to millions of readers around the world. Photograph: Susan Yin on Unsplash. Your email address will not be published. Notify me of follow-up comments by email.
Notify me of new posts by email. More than 1m copies of the books are now in print in the UK, and last month Amazon announced that Collins had become the bestselling Kindle author so far. The woman behind the phenomenon is a bit of a mystery. Collins wrote for children's TV before turning to novels. She co-wrote the screenplay of The Hunger Games and is married to a TV actor — so knows a bit about the media circus — but she doesn't do publicity, hasn't even met her UK publishers, and seemed to tread the red carpet reluctantly at the film's Los Angeles premiere.
On her website , she is photographed in Central Park in New York, nose to snout with a toy rat, her long hair flowing witchily around her. Indeed, the whole site seems oddly out of synch. Her biography page and sole author interview are all about The Underland Chronicles, a five-part fantasy series starring an year-old boy, which preceded The Hunger Games.
Apart from a scattering of jacket picture and excitable press quotes, the only mention of the books that has made her name is: "Her next series, The Hunger Games trilogy, is an international bestseller. Is her reluctance to self-publicise innocent or knowing?
Either way, it's striking in the context of The Hunger Games, which is set in a nation, Panem, in which everything is televised. A fragmented post-apocalyptic society is ruled by the fascistic Capitol, which keeps the masses quiet by feeding them reality war games featuring teenagers who must fight to the last one standing. The players who are "reaped" to play in the games are battling on two fronts: their primitive hand-to-hand combat, with whatever weapons come to hand, is mirrored by a more devious play for the sympathy — and sponsorship — of the people who are forced to watch.
So the central character, Katniss, is both a warrior and a reality TV star with her own personal stylist. In these hunger games, it's not enough to be deadly with a bow and arrow; to survive, Katniss must seduce viewers into sending her food and medicine. In a video interview made for her publisher, Scholastic, Collins says that the idea came to her when she was channel-surfing one night in bed.
But the troubling relationship between war and the media was impressed on her long before that night. And then to form an opinion about it, and then possibly to take action on it.
It's confusing and it's hard. It is! What advice do you give to young writers? A lot of people tell writers to write about what they know. And that's good advice, because it gives you a lot of things to draw on. But I always like to add that they should write about things that they love.
And by that I mean things that fascinate or excite them personally. The Hunger Games is full of things that intrigue me; you know, it's dystopia, it's got kids in it, it's gladiators, it's war, there are genetic mutations. The Underland Chronicles has fantasy, animals, sword fighting. And if you write about things that you feel passionately about, it is so much easier to write.
The Hunger Games "I never knew what would happen next in this story about a girl who finds herself fighting for her life in a cruel competition. Even though at times it was intense, the underlying story was so interesting that The Hunger Games is now my favorite book. Catching Fire "Katniss's family is in danger but she realizes that she cannot stop the frenzy that she started. On top of that, there is a new twist in the Hunger Games.
Catching Fire is full of surprises, action, and excitement. You will not be able to put this book down. Mockingjay "In Mockingjay , Katniss takes the fight out of the arena. She joins with the rebels in District 13 to try to get the other Districts to unite to overthrow the Capitol. It was a great ending to the series and probably my favorite one of the books. Create a List. List Name Save. Rename this List. Rename this list. List Name Delete from selected List.
Save to. Save to:. Save Create a List. Create a list. Save Back. The edible tuber roots she could gather, the arrowhead-shaped leaves were her defense, and the little white blossoms kept it in the tradition of flower names, like Rue and Primrose. I looked at the list of alternative names for it. Swamp Potato.
0コメント