Welcome to the Hunger Games read-along! Beginning July 1st, 2010, we will be reading and chatting about one chapter a day of both The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins in anticipation of the release of Mockingjay on August 24th.

In the unlikely event that this is your first read of these amazing books, welcome! And more importantly, beware of spoilers! There will be spoilers.







Friday, August 6, 2010

Catching Fire Chapter 10

And so begins Part II, The Quell in which Katniss spends the day with Twill and Bonnie, runaways from District 8, the textile district, who are on their way to District 13.  (It seems that my previous assertion that there were no graphite mines in the US was shortsighted.  Further research indicates that much of the East and Southeast United States have some graphite mining, and Cleveland and Georgia both have some nuclear development, but uranium mines don't seem to line up.  Where do we think District 13 is, and 8, for that matter?  Are Twill and Bonnie going through 12 on their way to 13, or are they going out of their way to stop by Katniss's place?)  I think that we may need to start adding in where districts are located in our comprehensive list to the right.  And I'm adding Bonnie and Twill to the tributes list, even though they aren't tributes.

Katniss teaches the gals how to hunt ("She's got a weapon that if necessary can convert solar energy into deadly rays of power" and yet, they still use TAPES for video), skin things, make fires.  She gives them food and extra socks and makes Bonnie a new crutch to hobble through the snow for (presumably) hundreds of miles.  They tell her about the resistance in 8, which seemed very well planned.  No cowards, those textilers. 

Katniss understands that President "Blood-Breath" Snow has been playing her for the fool, and that "the wedding is just a necessary extension of that."  Does she feel free to call it off, now?  I know what's coming, but I choose to pretend I don't.

Firestarters!
Katniss cuts Twill off at one point after Bonnie says, "She doesn't know.  Maybe not about any of it."  Katniss feels the need to appear on top of things, and she says "I know you had an uprising in Eight."  What do you think makes Katniss feel like she has to know what's going on?   How do you think this affects how much she can find out from other people?  Meaning, would Bonnie and Twill have told Katniss more if she'd played dumb?

Twill's theory is that everyone moved underground after District 13 was blown up, and that the Capitol leaves them alone because before the Dark Days their primary industry was nuclear development.  What do you think this means, and why do you think District 13 has not reared its nuclear head in 75 years?

3 comments:

  1. Great firestarters, Heather! My thinking is K feels that she is in a unique position as an unwitting representative of District rebellion, and she doesn't know what to do with that. In fact, why isn't she embracing the idea that her Games performance was co-opted by rebels? Oh how I wish she were more naturally curious, and had asked Twill and Bonnie more about their travels and D8. I think K puts on her know-it-all-tough-girl face because she's not ready to pursue or learn much about the uprisings. I know she's stressed out, but this is what's going on, and K needs to step up.

    I LOLed at "President 'Blood-Breath' Snow." Can I call him BB for short?

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  2. I think District 12 is definitely between the Capitol and District 13. Katniss says that specifically in Chapter 6 of THG, when they were discussing where the Avox girl might have been going.

    I don't really see how there can be survivors in District 13, with the superior weaponry of the Capitol. Perhaps 75 years ago they weren't as advanced?

    I don't see what the big deal is with the word "tape". I still use the terms "videotape" and "film" to talk about recording TV and video, respectively, even though it's done digitally now. Mostly because I don't have an actual Tivo so saying "I Tivoed the game" would be inaccurate, and saying "I DVR-ed the game" sounds awkward.

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  3. I really wonder about the surveillance technology of the Capitol. In the Arena, it seemed like the cameras could film Katniss almost anywhere. I imagined them being like hundreds of tiny robotic gnats that are invisible to Katniss but able to track her every movement. So how is it that K believes that she can make secret jaunts through the woods and clandestine meetings with potential rebels without being observed?
    Do we even know if they took out her tracker?

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