21

Dec

the murder and revolution franchise

br22We are getting hit by an avalanche.  That’s right, an avalanche of youtube advertisements, 3D posters and movie trailers, all to celebrate the next installment of the Hunger Games trilogy.  Lord help us.  If you haven’t already realised this, I am not a big fan.  I found the second book of the trilogy just disappointing.  Having survived a crazy situation of ‘kill-everyone-until-there’s-no-one-left’, the characters surprisingly enough get to go straight back into another game of ‘kill-everyone-until-there’s-no-one-left’.  I think it’s worn a little thin, don’t you?

But that’s not the point here.

I just recently finished reading Battle Royale.  That’s right, the creme de la creme of sadistic-game-show novels.  Look on the internet and you will find time and time again people comparing Battle Royale to the Hunger Games.  Apparently HG wasn’t inspired by BR, but I’m going to take that with a grain of salt.  There is one striking similarity between the two, and that is that both are incredibly popular.

Despite the fact that these books force children into horrifying situations and brutally kill them, often with graphic descriptions, Battle Royale has become a cult classic and The Hunger Games is now a million dollar franchise.  That’s not all.  One of my favourite books of all time, The Lord of the Flies, features children killing one another as well.  Although it was criticised for being so violent, especially because the violence involved young people, it is now a classic.

  • Kill Theory (2009) is a movie where a crazy evil guy forces a group of teenagers to kill one another until one person is left
  • The Tournament (2009) is a movie about a tournament devised by rich, bored people, who pick contestants from the special forces and underworld groups to kill each other until one is left, for a cash prize
  • Gantz (2000-13) is a manga series about a group of students who, on reaching the afterlife, realise they have to kill aliens before the end of the human race occurs (or something like that)
  • The Lottery (1948) is a short story in which townsfolk are told to draw slips of paper out of a lottery; the chosen person is then stoned to death to ensure a good harvest
  • The Running Man (1982) is a Stephen King novel about a game show in which a couple of men run to escape ‘Hunters’ before time runs out; individual members of society can also receive cash if they see the men
  • The Long Walk (1979) is a Stephen King novel where teenage boys must endure a grueling walking race until only one is left alive
  • Series 7: The Contenders (2001) is a black comedy film about a game show where contestants are given guns and told to kill each other for the cameras
  • The Condemned (2007) is a film in which convicts are brought together and told to kill each other for a broadcast
  • The Most Dangerous Game (1924) is a short story about a man who enters a game situation on a deserted island where he must elude capture for three days

A couple of things stand out about this list.  First of all, none of these have become best-sellers or cult classic movies, although they tick the crazy-killing-game box.

Perhaps the write-a-bestseller-like-Suzanne-Collins list should go something more like this:

1. Crazy game show scenario
2. Include small children
3. Include a revolution against society

For some reason, it’s the combination of a brutal game show and a revolution against society that makes these books so popular.  But the two pretty much go hand in hand already; you have to have a totalitarian society already (in most cases) if the characters are going to be caught in any scenario where they have to kill each other off.  And in that circumstance, the most sensible thing for any decent protagonist to do is to decide to team up and rebel against society as a whole.

I don’t really know why people are so fixated on this idea, but it seems to have been that way for a while.  Remember right back to the Roman era (you can remember that far, can’t you?) when there were gladiator fights in pits to entertain the richer Romans?  Doesn’t that sound strikingly familiar?  Suzanne Collins states that this is one of the places where she drew her inspiration for HG.

But there seems to be an extra element added to this that makes it so popular.  The inclusion of very young people.  My sister pointed out that a lot of these books that become extremely popular are aimed at a Young Adult audience, so perhaps it is a result of YA readers out there being excited by something completely different that has finally become available to their genre by the inclusion of age-appropriate characters.

Or maybe there’s just something morbid in us that likes to see children be brutally killed?  It’s definitely controversial.  I feel that literature, for a while now, has been like those murder mysteries I like to watch on TV.  They will kill off old ladies and women and men, but never children.  Anybody under 20 years old is strictly avoided.  Well, they’ve finally broken past that and it’s hell for leather.

What do you think makes violent/mass murder novels so popular?  Why do you read them?

Because personally, I love them.

11 years ago Short URL Comments

Off topic

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25

Apr

~hilary mantel~ a place of greater safety

APOGSRead it in: just over a month

I have always been a great lover of the French Revolution.  Something about that time in history, all the coups and factions and blood and revenge and jealousy and madness, just plain madness, eternally keeps me interested.  A couple of years ago, I was just obsessed with the FR, reading all the books, watching all the movies, I could recite who played Robespierre and Danton in the French version of the 1970something film of something to do with something French Revolution.  I knew it all.  If you got me started, I would never stop talking.  I almost crashed the car once when somebody casually asked me to explain what exactly it was while driving them home one night.

So of course I have read all the fiction (well, most of it).  ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’ was an old favourite, ‘City of Darkness, City of Light’ was fun, ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ was wonderful, but ‘A Place of Greater Safety’, I think, tops them all (well, perhaps not Dickens, but we’ll see about that).

This book covers years and years and years of history.  Of course, I knew everything that was going on due to extended and obsessive wikipedia research and google image searching, but the best part about this book was that you actually didn’t have to know what was going on to enjoy the story.  The story was good anyway!

The characters are interesting – well, they always were, even in history – but Mantel gives them new facets, injects a little humour into the altogether sombre events of the Reign of Terror etc. and makes it a thoroughly readable, though informative, piece of history.  I even laughed.  I even laughed many times.  I almost cried.  I had to tag pages so that I wouldn’t forget their existence and I had to make my friend give it back when I lent it to her because I missed its presence in my bookcase so much.

Alright, so I have to give you an example of Mantel’s work.  This is one of my favourite scenes, and one of the only ones I can convey to you without ruinin some aspect of the plot:

‘”Put your head out of the window,” Marat said.  “See if you can hear what Danton is saying.  I’d put my own head out, but somebody might shoot it off.”

“He is saying, where is that fucking battalion commander.”

“I wrote to Mirabeau and Barnave.” Marat turned to Camille his tired, gold-flecked eyes.  “I thought they needed enlightenment.”

“I expect they didn’t reply.”

“No.” he thought. “I renounce moderation,” he said.

“Moderation renounces you.”

“That’s all right.”

…

“So here are the clothes, Dr Marat,” Francois Robert said.  “Monsieur Danton hopes they fit.”

“Well, I don’t know.” Marat said.  “I was hoping to make my escape by balloon.  I’ve wanted for such a long time to ascend in a balloon.”

“We couldn’t get one.  Not in the time we had.”

“I bet you didn’t try,” Marat said.

After he had washed, shaved, dressed in a frock-coat, combed his hair, Francois Robert said, “Amazing.”

“One was always well-dressed,” Marat said, “in one’s days in high society.”

“What happened?”

Marat glowered. “I became the People’s Friend.”

“But you could still dress normally, couldn’t you?  For instance, you mention Deputy Robespierre as a patriot, and he is always wonderfully turned-out.”

“There is perhaps a strain of frivolity in Monsieur Robespierre.” Marat said drily.  “Now,” he said, “I am going to walk outside, through the cordon, and through Lafayette’s troops.  I am going to smile, which I admit you do not often see, and affecting a jaunty air I am going to swing this elegant walking-cane with which Monsieur Danton has so thoughtfully provided me.  It’s like a story-book, isn’t it?”

…

When there was a knock at the door I didn’t know what to do.  But it was only little Louise from upstairs.  “I went out, Madame Danton.”

“Oh, Louise, you shouldn’t have done that.”

“I’m not frightened.  Besides – it’s all over.  The troops are dispersing.  Lafayette has lost his nerve.  And I’ll tell you a secret, Madame Danton.  Marat isn’t even in there any  more.  He got out an hour ago, disguised as a human being.” (page 281-283)

Mantel writes in a very interesting manner.  There are snippets from everything; play-like dialogue from meetings, letters written from one character to another, diary entries, speeches, and all very interesting and relevant.  We see all characters from many different angles, from the perspectives of their wives and husbands, their children, their parents, their friends.  It gives a broad and extremely deep view of the events, and I saw them like I had never seen them before.

Read it if you: are interested in the French Revolution, are uninterested in the French Revolution but still love a good story, deep, interesting characters, questionable morals, fantastic twists and turns of plot (most of which are based on fact), humour, history, intrigue, just read it.

While reading, listen to: go on, put on the French national anthem.  It was created during the FR anyway (here I go again…), and it will fill you with that wonderful spirit of nationalism and revolutionary hope.  Also, Ca Ira! is a good one.

11 years ago Short URL Comments

Historical fiction/Last Name M

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