Worst Blogger Ever?

So as several delightful readers have pointed out (in a more polite fashion), I am horrendous at this keeping-up-a-blog-while-at-college thing. I promise it will get better over the summer! Anyway, for now, here's the blog for a trip that I am going on to study the Holocaust in Germany and Poland. Orientation starts today but we fly out tomorrow and will return on the 23rd. The blog will have contributors from both my college and the other college, Nazareth, that is participating in the program. I hope you find it interesting!

Happy Hunger Games?

I love The Hunger Games. I love Katniss (everything about her, from her physical and emotional strength to her realistic albeit annoying flip-flopping between Peeta and Gale); I love how intensely the series pulled me in; and, most importantly, I love Suzanne Collins’ commentary of ethics, society, and American culture.

That said, something has been bothering me. I’ve been thinking about it for a long time and have been struggling to find a way to articulate it: I think fans are forgetting to be careful. We have an added burden as fans of a dystopia: so much of this world is undesirable, so we have to make sure that our enthusiasm does not take on a Capitol-like tone. We’ve been falling down on the job.

I’m worried about the lack of careful, critical, and thoughtful expressions of fandom. Sure, there are some out there (for example, look at the Harry Potter Alliance’s “Hunger is Not a Game” campaign), but most of the fandom seems to be expressed in an embarrassingly similar fashion to this video.

I fully recognize how easy it is to be swept up in the series, and to express fandom in an unintentionally Capitolistic fashion. It’s so tempting to use phrases like “Happy Hunger Games!” (See? Even I gave in to the temptation!), to choose what district you’d be from,  buy China Glaze’s themed nail polish, and revel in the badassery of the tributes. But in doing this, we pervert the series, masking the terrible, nauseating dystopia that is really there. We need to really remember that it is a dystopia—we are not meant to want to live in that world. What is appealing about being a citizen of Panem? What is cool about being a tribute? Maybe I’m missing something, but to me the answer should be (and is) nothing. We're spending so much time debating the merits of Team Peeta versus Team Gale (and, unfortunately, never even debating if neither are good for Katniss), we're letting the most interesting, thought-provoking aspects of the story slip through our proverbial fingers. 

What are your thoughts? I’ve ranted about this to individual friends quite a bit, but I would be thrilled to discuss it more.  

Powerful Female Characters?

Happy day after International Women's Day! A little while ago Flavorwire published a list entitled 10 of the Most Powerful Female Characters in Literature. As a feminist and an avid reader, I felt this list was worth exploring. I found some of their choices surprising, some delightful, and all of them thought provoking.

The author made sure to note that this selection is in no way a comprehensive list, and I would certainly agree. While I have a strong affection for some of the characters (heck yes, Lyra Belacqua!), others I have mixed feelings about (Hermione and Katniss, for example), and still others I find surprising (Jane Eyre?). Of course, many of my favorites, including those who really shaped my idea of strong female characters, were not included (shout-outs have to go to Alanna from Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness Quartet, Cimorene from Patricia C. Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles, and virtually all of Gail Carson Levine's characters).

This article brought up some interesting questions for me. What is the definition of a powerful female character? Is it related to her complexity, her ability to stand in the face of oppression, or her popularity with readers? (Side note: did anyone else notice that all but The Canterbury Tales have had film adaptations?).

So, what do you think? Which characters should (or should not) have made the list? Which do you wish had been included? I'd love to get a discussion going in the comments.

Prologue

Hi there!

I’m glad you found your way over from Facebook, my other blog, Twitter, etc. Welcome!

I decided to create a new blog because I enjoyed blogging about my abroad experience so much that I wanted to continue. However, I also wanted my Bath blog to be a more finite collection of posts about my experience there. So, voilà! A new blog has been born.

So, this blog is going to be about everything else: my life at college, my struggles to readjust, brief reviews of films I watch and books I read, and anything else that sparks my fancy. Feel free to come and go as you please, or subscribe to have posts sent to your email, or follow my blog through Google. And feel free to comment—this doesn’t have to be a one-sided dialogue!

Best wishes!