A Language in Constant Rebellion: Talking with Aura Xilonen
Aura Xilonen discusses her novel, Gringo Champion, the realities of immigration, translating texts, and her love of cinema.
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Posts Tagged: hunger games
Cold Shoulders
For Film Comment, Shonni Enelow discusses the restrained acting style present in many mainstream American films and the anxieties it reveals about emotional expression: We can see the same kind of emotional retrenchment and wariness in a number of performances by the most popular young actors of the last several years. We could look to Rooney Mara, Michael […]
...moreThis Week in Short Fiction
Granta’s summer issue is themed “The Legacies of Love,” and in a new story from the online issue, Glasgow-based writer Sophie Mackintosh strips love back to its animal bones in a story that is less rom-com and more Hunger Games, but without the love triangle. Murder class was the new thing, but of course they […]
...moreSave the Children
Graeme Whiting, headmaster of the Acorn School (motto: “Have courage for the truth”) of Nailsworth, Great Britain, recently published a blog post condemning “sensational” fantasy novels such as the Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Hunger Games series that feature “dark,” “insensitive,” and “addictive” subjects. At the LA Times, Michael Schaub wrote about the […]
...moreThe Comparative Value of Books and their Adaptations
As adapting book series for lucrative movie deals becomes an all-too-common sight these days, it might be easy to simply fall back on the bookworm’s argument that the books are better than their film counterparts. But how do the reviews from the readers, viewers, and critics actually compare? Electric Literature has a handy infographic compiling […]
...moreThe Dystopian Present
For the Guardian, Megan Quibell argues that climate change has changed dystopian fiction, as many recent dystopian works rely on a “catalyst” that stems from “the destruction of the environment.” The result is a series of books that “hammers home” the reality of climate change, which is “not something for the distant future.”
...moreFifty More Shades of Grey (And Counting)
Prospects for your serialized proto-fictional new generation adaptation of The Hunger Games are bright. As fan fiction solidifies its status as a literary genre in its own right, publishers are catching on: …what was once viewed as either uncreative, a legal morass of copyright issues, or both, is now seen as a potential savior for […]
...moreThe Martyr Story
What does Beloved have in common with The Hunger Games? How is the biopic Milk like Gone with the Wind? According to Amit Majmudar, they’re all variants of “the martyr story.” For the Kenyon Review blog, Majmudar explains our continued fascination with watching people be oppressed.
...moreThe Upside of Movies Based on Books
New data shows that when the movie version of a book comes out, kids actually go read the book. The book versions of The Hunger Games, The Lorax, and The Giver all gained new readers around the releases of their movie adaptations. You can see some interesting graphs of this data at the Atlantic.
...moreAre YA Dystopian Novels Breeding Conservatives?
The Harry Potter series might have been helping make young kids more open and accepting of diversity, but a new crop of young adult novels might be push kids in the opposite direction of the political spectrum. Heroines like Katniss Everdeen and Tris Prior aren’t just strong women–they’re exceptionally special people oppressed by nanny states […]
...moreThe Stories that Remain
Slender Man and the Hunger Games salute have crossed the boundaries from the fictional world to the real world. Begging the questions, what are the stories that remain with us? That we manifest into reality?
...moreYA Heroines Don’t Get Fat (Or Tall)
The action heroine archetype is enjoying something of a golden age with blockbuster young adult novels like The Hunger Games and Divergent series starring strong female leads. But Julianne Ross over at The Atlantic has noticed a disturbing trend: all of these women are petite. Being skinny isn’t a bad thing, but it becomes an […]
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What We Hunger For
I am always interested in the representations of strength in women, where that strength comes from, how it is called upon when it is needed most, and what it costs for a woman to be strong.
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