Blog 7

So I am still reading the Hunger Games. I am at the part where Katniss and Peeta are still in the Capitol getting ready to train. Katniss has so much more personality in the book than she seems to have in the movie. In the movies, she seems like a flat, depressing blob. But now I see that there is much more to her. She is harsh, but she has so much determination for survival, even before the reaping.

I am wondering why the hunger Games is called the "Hunger Games". I thought the games were about punishing the districts for the rebellion? What does that have to do with "hunger"? Obviously, hunger plays a HUGE role in this book. It's on every page, but not necessarily linking with the games itself. This book makes me so hungry. Katniss seems to describe every single meal she faces in extreme detail. Drives me crazy, but I like it. I've never read a book that puts so much emphasis on food and hunger. Hence Hunger Games I guess. I wonder if that emphasis will change once the actual games begin.

Who are these people who live in the Capitol? How did they get there? Is there a dominant race type thing going on or is it solely based on wealth? And I wonder why that server girl that Katniss recognized was in District 12 that one day. Katniss mentioned that she and the boy she was with looked like they were from the Capitol. If that's true, why did they leave? I wonder if the people living in the Capitol even know how bad the rest of the districts are. Or are they kept in complete oblivion?

I am excited to see the changes, twists, and turns this book makes when the Hunger Games begin. Katniss and Peeta both seem so calm. I'd be crying the entire time! Being shipped off from family to an almost certain death is not something I'd bottle up. Yet Katniss was smart to keep everything in. She immediately knew that she would need to be as intimidating and perfect as possible.

It's so hard to believe that a society got to the point where they can get all cozy around the television to watch children murder each other. What are all the other countries of the world doing? One of Katniss' recollections from previous Hunger Games stood out to me.... I find it super creepy. Katniss mentioned that one year, the only weapons were spiked maces.... How terrible would that be? Just clubbing a kid to death. No quick solution. Just a slow, beating process. Made me shiver.

kk

     So I finished Columbine by Dave Cullen, but I haven't had the time to go out and really look for a book. Even though Columbine is full of super intense action, it didn't make me want to read a more soothing book. Just the opposite. I wanted to fall into another book full of suspense and stuff. Maybe because I suck at getting into other kinds of books. I decided to pick up The Hunger Games. I have seen the movies but have never read any of the books. I felt sort of lame as I opened it up to read because I feel like everybody has read it, but I thought what the heck!
     So far, the book seems just as depressing as the movie. Reading it actually makes me want to bundle up and scarf down my entire pantry. I really wish that I had read the books before seeing the movies, because now I have all the actors in my head instead of letting my imagination paint the picture. Also, at the beginning of the book, Katniss talks a lot about the reaping as if the readers know what she's talking about. But I actually did. Because I saw the movies. So there's a lot of missing suspense. But it's also interesting to discover the little things that Hollywood left out specifically.
     To be honest, I am not a huge fan of Katniss. She's so bland and sassy. I guess I can't blame her since her life does seem to suck, but I find it hard sometimes that she's the narrator. Everything she describes seems to be through a dull, sad, gray lense. Maybe things will shake up a bit when she's in full survival mode.
     I find the plot to be pretty scary. Not just because children are killing each other during the hunger games, but it seems to highlight the gap between the rich and the poor, which is something that exists in real life. It actually kind of reminds me of Nazi Germany. I guess the 2nd book does. Not that I've read the 2nd one..... I saw the movie.... But it's creepy! Silencing the people. And no one knows what's actually going on. Everyone living in their own cluster of oblivion.

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The end of Columbine was....fine. The writing was interesting and elegant as always, but there was nothing that blew me away at the very end. Around the 3/4 mark, we found out that Cassie Bernall really wasn't the one who said "Yes" in the library. When one of the killers asked if she believed in God, it was really Val who said yes. She survived, yet she had trouble telling the real story. Word had gotten out that it was Cassie who had said "Yes", which gave Cassie's mourning family so much relief and love. It's no wonder Val didn't want to say anything. Eventually she did, and investigators were also able to prove that it was Val who said it, since all the witnesses heard the dialogue from where Val was sitting instead of where Cassie's body was found. If I were Val, I wouldn't have said anything. At least not publicly.

     The last fifty pages of the book consist of the killers' final goodbyes (audio from the Basement Tapes), a very quick summary of the killers' rampage, and the tenth anniversary of the massacre. This featured a lot of families' and their closure mechanisms. Many parents of victims wrote books or blogs. Cassie's mom wrote a book call She Said Yes despite the fact that it was proevn to her that it was not her daughter who said yes....  Awkward.

     I was watching an interview with the dad of the boy whose body was left on the sidewalk overnight without his parents even knowing what happened. At first, this father seemed to be a pretty rational guy. Then he starts to blame himself... Okay that's somewhat natural. But his reason for blaming himself was OBSURD. He said that it was his fault for sending his son to school where evolution was being taught rather than creationism....... WHAT? Then he goes on to say how the theory of evolution is a dangerous thing to teach students and that the massacre wouldn't have happened if Creationism was taught instead.... I had to stop the interview there cause I couldn't take the irrelevancy of evolution on the topic of the massacre at Columbine High School.

     I totally recommend this book to anyone and everyone. It shows us so much about psychology, issues in police protocol, issues with lawsuits.... SO many things. And the writing is amazing. Dave Cullen is a genius. However, I don't recommend reading this right before bed. If you don't get freaked out about it in general, then it'll most likely have you up till 3am thinking of what you would do if you were face to face with Eric and Dylan.

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     Eric and Dylan shot up Columbine High School. The massacre lasted approximately 50 minutes, yet it took 3 HOURS until wounded victims were found in the school. There were dozens and dozens of cop cars at the scene, yet not a single cop entered the building. The protocol was to set up a perimeter and wait for the SWAT team. That makes me so mad!! On top of that, bodies laid outside the school, some stayed there untouched overnight. Danny Rohrbough's cold body sprawled on the sidewalk was on the cover of the local paper the next morning; that was his father's ONLY notification of his son's death. WHAT?! Also, the mother of an old friend of Eric and Dylan's, had gone to police reporting Eric for death threats against his son. Mysteriously, the documents regarding this mother's visit to the sheriff's office were 'misplace' following the Columbine Massacre. So many fishy things going on here.
     I really can't get over how well this book is written. Cullen reveals EVERY SINGLE DETAIL, and somehow, I have yet to read a boring part. Right now, Fuselier (a terrorism expert/psychologist who works for the FBI) is talking about how Eric showed all the signs of a young psychopath. Fuselier also mentions that the MRI scan of a typical brain and a scan of the brain of a psychopath reveals something that I think is actually pretty darn scary. A typical brain actually looks physically different than the brain of a psychopath. Better yet, the brain of a psychopath actually closely resembles the brains of animals. CRAZY! It makes sense, since there are so many things that psychopaths literally are not capable of feeling, but still! To think that Eric's brain is not completely human-like really makes me believe that pure evil is real.
    It amazes me how Cullen and so subtly enter the mind of someone in the book and almost narrate it from that character's perspective. When he does this, I know that he is still the narrator, but somehow I feel like I am inside the minds of different people within the book. I also have yet to sense any form of bias. Sometimes when I'm reading a third person piece, I can sort of imagine what the narrator looks and sounds like. In this book, I can't imagine the narrator at all, and I think that's a good thing! Absolutely zero bias. He's simply unfolding the full story of the Columbine massacre, simply because the public should know what happened leading up to that day, as well as the chaotic aftermath.

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Plot twist! I switched books. Although I was enjoying A Wolf Called Romeo by Nick Jans, I actually lost the book. And I also don't think it was the best book to blog about, because there weren't any characters that I felt strongly about. It was mostly about what was going on in Juneau regarding the regular appearance of Romeo the wolf.

Now I am reading Columbine by Dave Cullen. This book is elegantly written. First of all, Cullen takes one single day in American history and turns it into a four-hundred page book. Second of all, he doesn't just describe the people involved,  I'm in their heads; reading their every thoughts. It's awesome! Right now I'm on page 51, which is right in the middle of the blow by blow of the massacre. I had to stop reading because I was on a plane, and I can't read during turbulence, but I can't wait to get back into it! I'm right at the part where Ms. Nielsen staggers into the library screaming at the students to take cover from the gunmen. Cullen describes every detail, every nook and cranny of the school and the massacre. Everything you could imagine about April 20, 1999 is uncovered. It makes me want to go to Columbine High School right now and check out all the hallways, the entrances, the library, and the cafeteria. I started reading while I was in Colorado just an hour's drive from the high school so it was even more tempting to hop in the rental car and see everything for myself.

Everything about the two killers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, is divulged; their relationships with their parents, friends, and themselves. Just from reading the first 50 or so pages, I can imagine exactly what Eric and Dylan would be like if I knew them. Although Cullen is the narrator, he uses specific language according who he's talking about. For example, when he describes stuff about Eric's life, Cullen uses curse words and teenage slang. I can really feel a smooth shift every time he switches characters. It's refreshing, and definitely keeps things interesting.

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In A Wolf Called Romeo by Nick Jans, the pace is pretty slow. I am on page 33 and Jans has only described the events of two days. However, there have been about three flashbacks. These flashbacks provide insight on why things are the way they are in the present. I like how he does this, because it's a much more interesting way of explaining why he lives in Juneau, for example. Or why he stopped hunting animals and took up photography instead. He illustrates scenes instead of just saying, "Yo I live in Juneau and I don't feel like killing animals anymore". I dig that. His writing is slightly frustrating, however, because I really wanna know what happens with this wolf that keeps trying to play with domesticated dogs. Every time Jans gets to a good part, he jumps back in time to explain something. I get that he's trying to set the stage more, but he does it every time I get psyched about the wolf! 
       I love the way that the author has fleshed out the character of the wolf, Romeo, as well as the rest of his own dogs. They each have their own little personalities that Jans is able to illustrate very clearly. For example, from way he describes Romeo's several dog encounters, I can picture a huge, jet black wolf bowing and leaping in a playful manner while flicking wads of snow into the air with his huge paws. It reminds me of a sweet wolf named Zeab I met in Colorado at a wolf conservation. He was huge and as black as charcoal with beautiful, dark orange-crimson eyes. He's a little too old for me to picture him being as playful as Romeo from the book though, but I think I have a better visual of Romeo because of my experiences with Zeab along with the other wolves I was able to meet. Each of Jans' dogs have their own personalities too. Like Gus, for example. He's sweet and gentle, while Chase has to be kept on a leash at all times because she's a clever little troublemaker. I am having a little trouble, however, imagining what direction this book is headed. I feel like too many thrilling, action scenes have already been described, so I'm worried the rest of the book is going to spin off in a boring direction. But who knows, I just have to keep reading away.