I've read some terrific books lately, and this week's un-put-downable novel was the third part of the 'Hunger Games' trilogy, by Susanna Collins. I was so sucked in that yesterday, when I was planning to work on marking my kids' books during their French lesson, I found myself cracking open the book and promising myself that I'd just read a few more chapters. And then a few more chapters. And then the chapters after that. And before I knew it, it was home time, and I had to teach Drama Club - so I perched outside the canteen and devoured the final chapters as quickly as I could, finally buckling to the inevitable and trudging into the canteen to collect my Drama Club kids.
An hour later, I waved them all out the door, grabbed the book and didn't move from the carpet until I'd reached the end.
So I thought it would be a good idea to tell you (in as unspoilery a way as possible) why I loved these books.
THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins
The Plot:
This is a trilogy of SciFi novels set in a distopian future (that means pretty much the opposite of a paradise-like future) in a place called Panem. I kind of assumed that it was supposed to represent a future America, but that's never made explicit. Anyway, in this future society, life is pretty hard. Our hero is Katniss Everdeen, a sixteen year old girl who's been supporting her mother and her little sister ever since her father died down the mines. They've come very close to starving to death, but between Katniss's hunting skills and a little bit of kindness from some of their neighbours, so far they've survived.
Now, Panem consists of twelve districts know only by their numbers, and one central, powerful district called The Capitol. The people in The Capitol are spoiled rotten, while the people who live in the districts - the people who actually do all the work and produce all the goods and grow all the crops - are living lives of tremendous hardship. This is because the Capitol has all the weapons and the police, and because 75 years ago there was a great rebellion, which the Capitol won. They totally destroyed District 13, and they punished the other 12 districts very harshly. The most horrible thing the Capitol did was to set up 'The Hunger Games'.
Every year, each district has to send two teenagers, a boy and a girl, to compete in The Hunger Games. The competition 'arena' can be anywhere - desert, jungle, forest, island, whatever the game designers can come up with. It will be full of all manner of viciously cruel and deadly surprises - mutant animals, volcanos, poison fog, earthquakes, elaborate booby traps. And the twenty four kids who have been dropped into the middle of this place have to fight to the death. There can be only one survivor. It's a battle of skills and wits and ruthlessness, in which people's humanity is gradually stripped away - all for the amusement of the television audience who are watching every moment, and betting on the results.
This is the first year that Katniss's little sister has had her name put into the lottery. But what are the chances of it being little Prim who gets chosen? Unfortunately she IS, and this is more than Katniss can stand - so she volunteers to take Prim's place, and the next thing she knows, she's being whisked off to the Capitol to be primped and preened and scrubbed and made up, given her own stylist to make her look appealing for the TV audience as she dies - or kills - for their amusement...
The characters:
I really liked Katniss. She's competent and loyal, but she's also pretty ruthless. She's in a horrible situation, but she keeps her head and tries to stay true to herself. I like the fact that she's not shown as being too sweet or perfect - she's very pragmatic and pretty ruthless, but she does still have moments of compassion. She's not looking for a boyfriend, but at the same time she's aware that her friendship with Gale has been changing as they both get older, and she's trying to figure out what to make of Peter, the other kid from District 12 who's been chosen for the Hunger Games. (I wouldn't say that these books are romances, but there is a love triangle. Mostly, Katniss isn't thinking about romance though, because she's got far more important things to worry about - but she DOES have strong feelings for two different characters, both of whom are pretty smitten by her. Can she trust them, though...?)
Katniss is a hero; she's courageous and talented, but only in the ways that normal people can be. She puts herself into danger because she loves her little sister too much to stand by and watch her suffering - it's a gesture of selflessness which makes her stand out from the crowd, but Katniss is no meek little sacrificial victim. She's impulsive, and temperamental, and not particularly sweet or nice; she's not the kindest, or the strongest, or the fastest kid in the arena - but she is kind, and strong, and fast, and she's smart too, and determined. She comes across as being flawed, but basically a good person doing her best in a pretty terrible situation.
The writing:
The story is all written in the first person ("I shot the rabbit" rather than "She shot the rabbit"), and so we only know what Katniss knows. This is pretty effective, because as readers we're not sure whether we can trust people either. Sometimes we are able to figure things out before Katniss from the clues in the text -sometimes we're just as uncertain as she is about what's going on. I really enjoyed the writing style, and I liked the focus on action. It's a thought-provoking story, but it's not a story that wastes a lot of time on standing around talking about ideas. It makes YOU want to stand around talking about ideas intead.
According to her website, Collins was inspired by clicking between TV shows like 'Survivor' and 'Big Brother' and news channels which showed real people enduring actual atrocities and disasters. She was also reminded of the legend of 'Theseus and the Minotaur', which tells of how the Minoan king forced the city of Athens to send a yearly tribute of seven maidens and seven youths to be trapped in the labyrinth and killed by the monster that lived there - until at last Theseus, the Athenian king's son, volunteered. He went along with the other victims, and he turned the tables on the Minoan king - but at a terrible cost.
You can see traces of this classical tradition throughout the book: the kids are basically forced to be gladiators for the entertainment of the masses; the names often recall classical Greek and Roman names; the country itself is named after the phrase 'Bread and Circuses' ("panem et circenses" in Latin) which comes from a satire by a Roman writer - he was saying that the people didn't care about justice or morality or human rights, so long as they had enough to eat and frivolous entertainments.
As well as reminding me of modern TV shows like 'Survivor' and 'Big Brother' (and also the Pepsi Refresh campaign, which makes desperate people compete to try to get funding for charities http://www.refresheverything.com ), this book also reminded me of some other books. The theme of a group of children trapped in a hostile environment and turning on one another reminded me a little bit of a famous book by William Golding called 'The Lord of the Flies'. I know there's also a Japanese book (and manga and movie) called 'Battle Royale' which has a very similar concept to 'The Hunger Games'.
This is a story about a possible future - but it's also a story about how we live our lives today. It makes you think about which is more important - survival at any cost, or maintaining your own beliefs and integrity under pressure. (And it didn't give you saccharine, goody-goody answers either, or try to divide everyone into white hats and black hats.) It made me reflect upon the ways that the media and consumer culture frame disasters and tragedies as entertainment right now, and how the poor are exploited and ignored. It made me think about the ways in which I am part of this system, both directly and indirectly. It made me want to be a better person. It wasn't a comfortable book to read - the subject matter is pretty dark, obviously, and I found myself being shocked and saddened at various points along the way. (Yes, it made me cry. I didn't expect it to, but some really sad things happened to characters I'd grown to care about.) Still, it was a very satisfying story, and I found myself really gripped to see what would happen next all the way along.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Being a silvertongued devil
Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen!
This half term we're going to be turning our attention from poetry to prose (which, you'll recall, means normal writing, whether fiction or non-fiction). Before we sink our teeth into George Orwell's political satire Animal Farm, we're having a little warm-up by looking at Neil Gaiman's short story Babycakes. *
Good work today on identifying some of the layers of meaning packed into this creepy little story! As we discussed, your homework this week, to be handed in on Thursday, is to write a piece of PERSUASIVE WRITING to convince people that they should start using babies to replace all the things that animals were used for, before all the animals suddenly disappeared.
Here's a copy of the story online, in graphic novel format:
http://ljconstantine.com/babycakes/page1.htm
(And you can also listen to the author read it himself on Youtube.)
So, to repeat: YOUR MISSIONshould you choose to accept it is to create a piece of extended persuasive writing putting forward all the reasons why it would be sensible to use babies instead of animals, now that we have suddenly woken up to find all the animals gone.
The title of your piece of writing (which should be at least one full page long) should be "A Modest Proposal". (Inspired by Jonathan Swift's satirical essay http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Modest_Proposal )
LO: Use persuasive language successfully.
Structure your argument carefully, expanding on each point in detail
Use appropriate and effective vocabulary.
As we said at the start of the year: words are power. Someone who can use language skillfully can convince you that something terrible is actually perfectly reasonable. You see this all around you, in advertising, in politics, in religion. We're going to see a lot of this in 'Animal Farm'.
In Babycakes, the narrator paints a picture of a world in which the lines between 'us' and 'them' have been changed, and people have adjusted their world view so that they no longer think of babies as human, as "us". Although it's a horror story and a parable (rather than something literal and realistic) the frightening truth is that people DO do this all the time. Not usually by considering babies as disposable (although if you put people under enough pressure, that can happen too) but usually by dividing people up by something equally meaningless, like skin colour, or religion, or gender, or nationality, or class. People in the real world DO accept atrocities being performed on other human beings by telling themselves that those other human beings are less human, less worthy - that they're not "us". (It is even more common to accept the suffering of other living beings if it benefits us, although devout Buddhists and Jains, as well as many non-religious vegans, consider this intolerable.)
(*It is perhaps worth mentioning that Neil Gaiman is of Jewish extraction. Thinking about what we discussed regarding the Nazis' treatment of the Jews (and other groups) during World War II, you can probably see why he might be inspired to write a horror story in which babies are recategorised as not human, and are brutally tortured in the name of scientific investigation, and have their body parts used for food or for leather.)
This half term we're going to be turning our attention from poetry to prose (which, you'll recall, means normal writing, whether fiction or non-fiction). Before we sink our teeth into George Orwell's political satire Animal Farm, we're having a little warm-up by looking at Neil Gaiman's short story Babycakes. *
Good work today on identifying some of the layers of meaning packed into this creepy little story! As we discussed, your homework this week, to be handed in on Thursday, is to write a piece of PERSUASIVE WRITING to convince people that they should start using babies to replace all the things that animals were used for, before all the animals suddenly disappeared.
Here's a copy of the story online, in graphic novel format:
http://ljconstantine.com/babycakes/page1.htm
(And you can also listen to the author read it himself on Youtube.)
So, to repeat: YOUR MISSION
The title of your piece of writing (which should be at least one full page long) should be "A Modest Proposal". (Inspired by Jonathan Swift's satirical essay http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Modest_Proposal )
LO: Use persuasive language successfully.
Structure your argument carefully, expanding on each point in detail
Use appropriate and effective vocabulary.
- Think about who your audience is supposed to be for this. (You're basically playing a role here, and imagining that you're the narrator of the story we read, or somebody like him or her, and that we've lost all the animals, and that people are panicking.)
- Think about what people might say to argue with you, and undermine their points before they can make them, showing how your idea is better than theirs.
- Think about the tone of your writing - you need to be calm, reasonable, and persuasive.
- One of the tricks of rhetoric is to use repetition - some very powerful public speakers do this, subtly borrowing some of the skills used in poetry to make their words sound more authoritative. You might like to try that.
As we said at the start of the year: words are power. Someone who can use language skillfully can convince you that something terrible is actually perfectly reasonable. You see this all around you, in advertising, in politics, in religion. We're going to see a lot of this in 'Animal Farm'.
In Babycakes, the narrator paints a picture of a world in which the lines between 'us' and 'them' have been changed, and people have adjusted their world view so that they no longer think of babies as human, as "us". Although it's a horror story and a parable (rather than something literal and realistic) the frightening truth is that people DO do this all the time. Not usually by considering babies as disposable (although if you put people under enough pressure, that can happen too) but usually by dividing people up by something equally meaningless, like skin colour, or religion, or gender, or nationality, or class. People in the real world DO accept atrocities being performed on other human beings by telling themselves that those other human beings are less human, less worthy - that they're not "us". (It is even more common to accept the suffering of other living beings if it benefits us, although devout Buddhists and Jains, as well as many non-religious vegans, consider this intolerable.)
(*It is perhaps worth mentioning that Neil Gaiman is of Jewish extraction. Thinking about what we discussed regarding the Nazis' treatment of the Jews (and other groups) during World War II, you can probably see why he might be inspired to write a horror story in which babies are recategorised as not human, and are brutally tortured in the name of scientific investigation, and have their body parts used for food or for leather.)
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Homework
Reading Comprehension Questions
Check out this short autobiography of the poet Benjamin Zephaniah, and use it to answer the following questions. (As before, I'm looking for answers in FULL SENTENCES BASED ON THE QUESTION.)
http://www.benjaminzephaniah.com/content/kidz.php
1) What's the name of the country (not just town) where Benjamin Zephaniah was born?
2) Which football team does he support, and why is that a bit surprising?
3) How old was he when he left school?
4) How old was he when he got his first book published?
5) Why do you think that he is influenced by the music and poetry of Jamaica (since he was not born there)?
6) What is unusual about his dietary habits?
7) What are some of the issues he feels passionately about?
8) Watch this video, in which Zephania performs one of his poems:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2TiNi9w-XE&feature=related
(You may find it difficult at first, if you're not used to his accent. Listen to it a few times to get used to the rhythms and music of his speech patterns.)
What is the poem about? How does he feel about the subject of the poem?
Check out this short autobiography of the poet Benjamin Zephaniah, and use it to answer the following questions. (As before, I'm looking for answers in FULL SENTENCES BASED ON THE QUESTION.)
http://www.benjaminzephaniah.com/content/kidz.php
1) What's the name of the country (not just town) where Benjamin Zephaniah was born?
2) Which football team does he support, and why is that a bit surprising?
3) How old was he when he left school?
4) How old was he when he got his first book published?
5) Why do you think that he is influenced by the music and poetry of Jamaica (since he was not born there)?
6) What is unusual about his dietary habits?
7) What are some of the issues he feels passionately about?
8) Watch this video, in which Zephania performs one of his poems:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2TiNi9w-XE&feature=related
(You may find it difficult at first, if you're not used to his accent. Listen to it a few times to get used to the rhythms and music of his speech patterns.)
What is the poem about? How does he feel about the subject of the poem?
Monday, October 11, 2010
Homework to hand in Wednesday 13th October
This exercise is to help you consolidate your understanding of technical terminology to use in writing about poems, novels, plays etc.
L.O: To understand literary terminology, in order to use it appropriately.
Sonnet =
Ballad =
Haiku =
Limerick =
Verse =
Stanza =
Rhythm =
Rhyme =
Alliteration =
Assonance =
Imply =
Evoke =
Resonance =
Freeform =
Irony =
L.O: To understand literary terminology, in order to use it appropriately.
Sonnet =
Ballad =
Haiku =
Limerick =
Verse =
Stanza =
Rhythm =
Rhyme =
Alliteration =
Assonance =
Imply =
Evoke =
Resonance =
Freeform =
Irony =
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
HOMEWORK! Cloze procedure
Sorry that I missed you folks today, while you were having your fascinating lessons with Mr Mark & Miss Ali!
Wednesday's homework is a Cloze Procedure and vocabulary analysis based upon a piece of classical music.
...well, kind of classical. Old, at least. As we discussed, song lyrics are a form of poetry. With that in mind, I'd like you to fill in the missing words from this very serious and classical piece of cultural history:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT-CzYse_VM
Thriller
Michael Jackson
It's close to _______________ and something evil's lurking in the dark
Under the moonlight you see a sight that almost stops your _____________
You try to ______________ but terror takes the sound before you make it
You start to freeze, as horror looks you right between the ______________,
You're paralyzed
'Cause this is thriller, thriller ________________
And no one's gonna save you from the beast about to strike
You know it's thriller, thriller night
You're fighting for your life inside a killer,
thriller __________________
You hear the _____________ slam and realise there's nowhere left to run
You feel the cold hand and wonder if you'll ever see the sun
You close your eyes and hope that this is just imagination
But all the while you ________________ the creature creepin' up behind
You're out of _______________
'Cause this is thriller, thriller night
There ain't no second chance against the thing with forty eyes
______________ know it's thriller, thriller night
You're fighting for your life inside a killer,
thriller tonight
Night _________________ call
And the dead start to walk in their masquerade
There's no escapin' the ___________ of the alien this time
(they're open wide)
This is the _____________ of your life
They're out to get you, there's demons closing in on every side
They will possess you unless you change the _____________ on your dial
Now is the time for you and I to cuddle close together
All thru the night I'll save you from the terrors on the screen,
I'll make you ______________
That it's a thriller, thriller night
'Cause I can thrill you more than any ______________ would dare to try
Girl, this is thriller, thriller night
So ________________ me hold you tight and share a killer, diller, chiller,
Thriller here tonight
Darkness falls across the ______________
The _______________ hour is close at hand
Creatures crawl in search of blood
To terrorize your neighborhood
And whosoever shall be found
Without the soul for getting down
Must stand and face the ______________ of hell
And rot inside a corpse's shell
The foulest stench is in the air
The funk of forty thousand ________________
And grizzly ghouls from every tomb
Are closing in to seal your doom
And though you fight to stay ______________
Your body starts to shiver
For no mere mortal can resist
The evil of the ____________________
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT-CzYse_VM
So far so good? Now match the word to the CORRECT definition:
lurk...................... to decay by the processes of nature
crawl ....................unpleasant feeling of coldness
cuddle ..................home of devils and damned souls after death
stench ..................red liquid flowing through the veins of humans and some animals
creep ....................very exciting story (can be a book or a movie), probably with scary bits
ghoul ....................bone structures containing teeth
grizzly ..................something evil that is to come, the end of the world
dare ......................a kind of dog used for hunting and racing
hound................... to be brave enough
jaw ........................gruesome, disgusting or scary
thriller ..................spirit that robs graves and feeds on the corpses in them
blood .....................tremble. especially from cold or fear
hell ........................move secretly close to the ground
chill....................... horrid smell
funk....................... hold close and lovingly in one’s arms
rot .........................move slowly, pulling the body along the ground
doom .....................to lie in wait or ready to attack
shiver ....................great fear
Aaaaand finally....
Massive bonus points and my undying admiration for anyone who can do the Thriller Dance tomorrow:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhbYxXg7p-A
Wednesday's homework is a Cloze Procedure and vocabulary analysis based upon a piece of classical music.
...well, kind of classical. Old, at least. As we discussed, song lyrics are a form of poetry. With that in mind, I'd like you to fill in the missing words from this very serious and classical piece of cultural history:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT-CzYse_VM
Thriller
Michael Jackson
It's close to _______________ and something evil's lurking in the dark
Under the moonlight you see a sight that almost stops your _____________
You try to ______________ but terror takes the sound before you make it
You start to freeze, as horror looks you right between the ______________,
You're paralyzed
'Cause this is thriller, thriller ________________
And no one's gonna save you from the beast about to strike
You know it's thriller, thriller night
You're fighting for your life inside a killer,
thriller __________________
You hear the _____________ slam and realise there's nowhere left to run
You feel the cold hand and wonder if you'll ever see the sun
You close your eyes and hope that this is just imagination
But all the while you ________________ the creature creepin' up behind
You're out of _______________
'Cause this is thriller, thriller night
There ain't no second chance against the thing with forty eyes
______________ know it's thriller, thriller night
You're fighting for your life inside a killer,
thriller tonight
Night _________________ call
And the dead start to walk in their masquerade
There's no escapin' the ___________ of the alien this time
(they're open wide)
This is the _____________ of your life
They're out to get you, there's demons closing in on every side
They will possess you unless you change the _____________ on your dial
Now is the time for you and I to cuddle close together
All thru the night I'll save you from the terrors on the screen,
I'll make you ______________
That it's a thriller, thriller night
'Cause I can thrill you more than any ______________ would dare to try
Girl, this is thriller, thriller night
So ________________ me hold you tight and share a killer, diller, chiller,
Thriller here tonight
Darkness falls across the ______________
The _______________ hour is close at hand
Creatures crawl in search of blood
To terrorize your neighborhood
And whosoever shall be found
Without the soul for getting down
Must stand and face the ______________ of hell
And rot inside a corpse's shell
The foulest stench is in the air
The funk of forty thousand ________________
And grizzly ghouls from every tomb
Are closing in to seal your doom
And though you fight to stay ______________
Your body starts to shiver
For no mere mortal can resist
The evil of the ____________________
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT-CzYse_VM
So far so good? Now match the word to the CORRECT definition:
lurk...................... to decay by the processes of nature
crawl ....................unpleasant feeling of coldness
cuddle ..................home of devils and damned souls after death
stench ..................red liquid flowing through the veins of humans and some animals
creep ....................very exciting story (can be a book or a movie), probably with scary bits
ghoul ....................bone structures containing teeth
grizzly ..................something evil that is to come, the end of the world
dare ......................a kind of dog used for hunting and racing
hound................... to be brave enough
jaw ........................gruesome, disgusting or scary
thriller ..................spirit that robs graves and feeds on the corpses in them
blood .....................tremble. especially from cold or fear
hell ........................move secretly close to the ground
chill....................... horrid smell
funk....................... hold close and lovingly in one’s arms
rot .........................move slowly, pulling the body along the ground
doom .....................to lie in wait or ready to attack
shiver ....................great fear
Aaaaand finally....
Massive bonus points and my undying admiration for anyone who can do the Thriller Dance tomorrow:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhbYxXg7p-A
Monday, October 4, 2010
Reading Comprehension Homework due in on Wednesday
Check out this website:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11444022
You're going to need to use this site to find the answers to the following questions:
(I hope I don't need to say this, but I AM EXPECTING ANSWERS TO BE IN FULL SENTENCES, BASED ON THE QUESTION eg "The newly-discovered planet is called....")
1) What is the name of the newly discovered planet?
2) How far is it from Earth?
3) Where is the telescope that was used to discover the new planet?
4) What is the name of the star that this planet orbits?
5) How long had the scientists been studying this star before they made this discovery?
6) How many planets have we discovered orbiting this star in total?
7) What is so special about this new planet?
8) What does "the Goldilocks Zone" mean?
9) What is the major difference between this new planet and our own earth?
10) Do you believe in the possibility of alien life? Why/why not?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11444022
You're going to need to use this site to find the answers to the following questions:
(I hope I don't need to say this, but I AM EXPECTING ANSWERS TO BE IN FULL SENTENCES, BASED ON THE QUESTION eg "The newly-discovered planet is called....")
1) What is the name of the newly discovered planet?
2) How far is it from Earth?
3) Where is the telescope that was used to discover the new planet?
4) What is the name of the star that this planet orbits?
5) How long had the scientists been studying this star before they made this discovery?
6) How many planets have we discovered orbiting this star in total?
7) What is so special about this new planet?
8) What does "the Goldilocks Zone" mean?
9) What is the major difference between this new planet and our own earth?
10) Do you believe in the possibility of alien life? Why/why not?
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