Still No Book...

Ack! I didn't finish the book as I had planned to do today. I've been lax on a lot of things, but next week, this gets serious because I have four weeks to finish ten books! Oh my goodness, I want to finish this goal. In the mean time, I was rereading my review for Mockingjay. I absolutely loved the first two books, and I still think the stories are brilliant.

But I stand by my original review of Mockingjay. I liked it enough, and I gave it three stars. But I was disappointed because it fell flat.

War is a brutal, horrible thing. I actually think of all the absurd things that human beings do, war might be the embodiment...the quintessence...of all that is absurd. We disagree with one another, can't come to any other agreement, so we start killing each other? I know it's much more complicated than that, of course, but absurdity of the human condition that would lead to war...it makes my head nearly explode. I just cannot comprehend any circumstance that makes people bomb their neighbors.

So yes, war is absurd and brutal, and yet somehow heroes emerge out of the chaos. I think they emerge from their humanity...those soldiers who go in reluctantly and yet who find a way to fight ethically and to lead others. You hear about those soldiers who risk everything to save their fellow fighters and who treat their enemy with dignity. Real life is proof that something good can come out of something so horrible as war.

When I read Mockingjay I really wanted Katniss to be that character. I can't say that I loved her from the first two books, but I liked her a lot. Her actions indicated that she had not only spunk and spirit, they also demonstrated compassion and a respect for others that she loved. I thought that was the same for Peeta and Gale. They both personally sacrificed for the people they loved, too.

Now comes what I've really been thinking about. When it comes to stories, all stories are just recycled versions of old tales. For example? Every hero tale harks back to The Odyssey in some way. Almost any story I've ever read has some retelling aspect. But yet we read those stories over and over, and I wonder why that is. In particular I've been thinking about this as I write my own books. How is it that we can recycle these story archetypes and yet we still want to read?

I think it is because of characters. Good characters make good stories. I'm thinking of characters like Frodo from Lord of the Rings or Jane from Jane Eyre. And to me, characters have to be consistent, or at least their inconsistencies must be accounted for. I suppose if a character is supposed to be real, they will have inconsistencies. But they should be minor, in any case. In other words, Katniss, a once strong, smart, capable leader turns into a complete weakling. It isn't just that she can't seem to pull it together at all but instead runs and hides in a closet. She cannot do anything. It's a far greater inconsistency than I can actually believe. And I believe the same goes for Peeta and Gale.

Now I'm going to go there and make the dreaded Harry Potter comparison, but stick with me just for a minute. When Harry goes out to face Voldemort for what Harry believes will be the last time because Harry believes he will die, I fell in love with his heart. How did Rowling do that? Harry knew what he was doing, and he had to talk himself into it. He goes out, and he needs reinforcements. He cannot do it alone, so his mother, father, Sirius and Lupin are there. But even his reluctance and his need for help do not take away from his commitment to make the sacrifice. And there is nothing romantic about it, no opining about this choice being a far, far better thing. I wept like a baby when I read that passage. Brilliant.

The Hunger Games series is not Harry Potter. I don't want it to be. I don't want any other book to attempt to be that, either. I respect Suzanne Collins for her creativity and originality, and I do not think she was trying to that. But if not HP, then what, exactly, did I want? I hoped for a Harry or a Frodo or a Jane. I hoped for a character with weakness who stood up and got the job done anyway. Katniss didn't really do that, and so that is why Mockingjay disappointed.