{"id":123,"date":"2011-01-05T07:00:14","date_gmt":"2011-01-05T15:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=123"},"modified":"2011-01-05T10:05:08","modified_gmt":"2011-01-05T18:05:08","slug":"mark-reads-catching-fire-chapter-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2011\/01\/mark-reads-catching-fire-chapter-13\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads &#8216;Catching Fire&#8217;: Chapter 13"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the thirteenth chapter of <em>Catching\u00c2\u00a0Fire<\/em>, SLOW DOWN <strong>THIS IS GOING WAY TOO<br \/>\nFAST. <\/strong>Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read<em>Catching Fire<\/em>.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nJesus hell, we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get any time to think about this at\u00c2\u00a0all. This chapter moves at lightning speed and while I might\u00c2\u00a0normally appreciate the breakneck pace, something is bothering me\u00c2\u00a0about all of this. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s too much in a short period of time and\u00c2\u00a0Collins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s best writing generally happens when she allows moments to\u00c2\u00a0breathe. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know. I know I said that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m willing to admit that\u00c2\u00a0without seeing the whole picture, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m misjudging this. But this chapter doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make a whole lot of sense to me. For now. Katniss acts out of character for herself in the beginning of this chapter, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easy to write off as an extreme reaction to the terrifying news she just heard. I am not judging her in this moment because I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even begin to imagine how I would react myself. Would I run out of my house, run to an electrified fence, become dejected, run to an abandoned house, hide in the cellar, scream with part of my shirt stuffed in my mouth, and then fall asleep under the sheeting you use when you are painting? No? Well, its not happening to me, so who am I to judge? I SWEAR I AM NOT JUDGING.<\/p>\n<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just that this is all a lot to process, you know? I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t\u00c2\u00a0think Collins would ever return to the arena, and even if she did,\u00c2\u00a0it wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be with Katniss. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just <em>too cruel for\u00c2\u00a0words<\/em>. SERIOUSLY. Think how depressing this is.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Yes, victors are our strongest. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re the ones\u00c2\u00a0who survived the arena and slipped the noose of poverty that\u00c2\u00a0strangles the rest of us. They, or should I say we, are the very\u00c2\u00a0embodiment of hope where there is no hope. And now twenty-three of\u00c2\u00a0us will be killed to show how even that hope was an\u00c2\u00a0illusion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Endlessly fucked up. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even\u00c2\u00a0comprehend this. Waking up and feeling no better, Katniss heads\u00c2\u00a0straight to Haymitch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s house. Haymitch is his old self, perhaps\u00c2\u00a0more cynical than usual, and he already has his part prepared for\u00c2\u00a0for Katniss when she arrives. Peeta immediately sought out Haymitch\u00c2\u00a0and said that even if Haymitch was chosen, Peeta would offer to\u00c2\u00a0take his place. THANKS PEETA. This totally helps everything. So<br \/>\nwhat does Katniss do?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>What did I come\u00c2\u00a0for?<\/em> I think. <em>What could I possibly want\u00c2\u00a0here?<\/em> \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I came for a drink,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I say.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Nothing like some underage drinking in a YA novel! I jest. Again,\u00c2\u00a0in any other context, this would be 100% out of character, but\u00c2\u00a0there is an interesting parallel Collins creates between Haymitch\u00c2\u00a0and Katniss. In one moment, hope was removed from Katniss\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0worldview. Who is the most hopeless in her life? Haymitch. What\u00c2\u00a0does Haymitch do? Get drunk.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Peeta\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s argument is\u00c2\u00a0that since I chose you, I now owe him. Anything he wants. And what\u00c2\u00a0he wants is the chance to go in again to protect you,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says\u00c2\u00a0Haymitch.<\/p>\n<p>I knew it. In this way, Peeta\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not hard to predict.\u00c2\u00a0While I was wallowing around on the floor of that cellar, thinking\u00c2\u00a0only of myself, he was here, thinking only of me. Shame isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a\u00c2\u00a0strong enough word for what I feel.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You could live a hundred\u00c2\u00a0lifetimes and not deserve him, you know,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Haymitch\u00c2\u00a0says.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Wow. That is brutal. True? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know,\u00c2\u00a0but Peeta\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s devotion to Katniss is certainly more in one direction\u00c2\u00a0than the other. Thanks for the support, by the way. Haymitch, you<br \/>\nare a real winner.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something else I want\u00c2\u00a0from Haymitch. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Okay, I figured out what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m asking,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I say. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If it\u00c2\u00a0is Peeta and me in the Games, this time we try to keep\u00c2\u00a0<em>him<\/em> alive.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Something flickers across his\u00c2\u00a0bloodshot eyes. Pain.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Like you said, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to be bad no\u00c2\u00a0matter how you slice it. And whatever Peeta wants, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s his turn to\u00c2\u00a0be saved. We both owe him that.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d My voice takes on a pleading tone.\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Besides, the Capitol hates me so much, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m as good as dead now. He\u00c2\u00a0still might have a chance. Please, Haymitch. Say you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll help me.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>He frowns at his bottle, weighing my words. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153All right,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he says<br \/>\nfinally.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING. Have you\u00c2\u00a0resolved yourself to the reality that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have to participate in\u00c2\u00a0the Games? No uprising, no revolts, no running away? That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s it?<\/p>\n<p>Well, Katniss  is fairly drunk, so maybe I should wait until\u00c2\u00a0she sobers up before wondering if she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s accepted all of this. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0actually kind of scary to see her stumble at the stairs of her\u00c2\u00a0house, drunk to the point of incoherence, in front of her mother<br \/>\nand Prim. The next morning, she wakes up hungover and vocalizes why\u00c2\u00a0this was so frightening:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not ready to see my\u00c2\u00a0mother and Prim. I have to pull myself together to be calm and\u00c2\u00a0reassuring, the way I was when we said our good-byes the day of the\u00c2\u00a0last reaping. I have to be strong. I struggle into an upright\u00c2\u00a0position, push my wet hair off my throbbing temples, and brace\u00c2\u00a0myself for this meeting. They appear in the doorway, holding tea\u00c2\u00a0and toast, their faces filled with concern. I open my mouth,\u00c2\u00a0planning to start off with some kind of joke, and burst into tears.<\/p>\n<p>So much for being strong.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Man, this is all just\u00c2\u00a0too depressing for me. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t process how fucked up this is. WHY.\u00c2\u00a0JUST WHY. Katniss has always been the one in her family to act as\u00c2\u00a0an emotional stone in a way. For her, it seems like a sign of\u00c2\u00a0weakness to express anything that differs from her outlook on life.\u00c2\u00a0She shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be so hard on herself, though, but I guess there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no\u00c2\u00a0reason saying that. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to take this personally and she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0going to feel shitty about it. I wish I could be more eloquent, but\u00c2\u00a0words escape. This sucks so much.<\/p>\n<p>Guess who makes it all worse?\u00c2\u00a0Peeta. He arrives later that evening, as Haymitch and Katniss sit\u00c2\u00a0in abject depression at his house, not speaking. (True story: It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0probably my favorite image in <em>Catching Fire<\/em> so\u00c2\u00a0far.) Back to Peeta. He arrives with a box full of empty liquor\u00c2\u00a0bottles, announcing that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s now gotten rid of all the alcohol and\u00c2\u00a0told Ripper not to sell anymore to Haymitch or risk getting turned\u00c2\u00a0in to the Peacekeepers. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s now the introduction of Peeta the\u00c2\u00a0Sanctimonious Asshole.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153However it falls out, two\u00c2\u00a0of us are going to be in the arena again with the other as mentor.\u00c2\u00a0We can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afford any drunkards on this team. Especially not you,\u00c2\u00a0Katniss,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Peeta to me. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153<\/p>\n<p>What?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I sputter indignantly. It would\u00c2\u00a0be more convincing if I weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t still so hungover. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Last night\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0the only time I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever even been drunk.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yeah, and look at the\u00c2\u00a0shape you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Peeta.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Officially off of\u00c2\u00a0Team Peeta. Seriously, dude? Thanks for being understanding and<br \/>\nsympathetic to Katniss. So you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re also giving up and going with the\u00c2\u00a0Games?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Effie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sending me recordings of all the\u00c2\u00a0living victors. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to watch their Games and learn\u00c2\u00a0everything we can about how they fight. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to put on\u00c2\u00a0weight and get strong. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to start acting like Careers.\u00c2\u00a0And one of us is going to be victor again whether you two like it\u00c2\u00a0or not!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He sweeps out of the room, slamming the front\u00c2\u00a0door.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>YEAH, NOT A FAN OF PEETA ANYMORE. So much\u00c2\u00a0for personal identity over hegemony, right? Apparently not, though,\u00c2\u00a0as <em>Catching Fire<\/em> immediately lapses into my<br \/>\nleast favorite part of the story so far.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>But\u00c2\u00a0after a few days, we agree to act like Careers, because this is the\u00c2\u00a0best way to get Peeta ready as well.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>YEP. GIVING\u00c2\u00a0UP. Before, I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to elaborate on why I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like the\u00c2\u00a0pace of the book during the Victory Tour scenes. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s starts again\u00c2\u00a0here, as Collins cycles through months and months of training and\u00c2\u00a0studying in just a mere page. I finally figured out why I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t\u00c2\u00a0like this: it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fit with the narrative style. Collins\u00c2\u00a0willingly chose to narrate this book in first-person present. It\u00c2\u00a0more or less worked in <em>The Hunger Games <\/em>because we were living in the moment, even if she sort of brushed\u00c2\u00a0through certain moments. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s now the second time in this book\u00c2\u00a0that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re essentially fast-forwarding through some fairly\u00c2\u00a0important info, as if this is a montage scene in a film. We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t\u00c2\u00a0even get to learn what happened during Haymitch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Games, despite\u00c2\u00a0this seeming to be a perfect time to tell that story. (Of course, this could easily still happen in the future, so it&#8217;s not really a valid criticism right now.)<\/p>\n<p>Even worse,\u00c2\u00a0the reaping happens before the end of the chapter. If I understand\u00c2\u00a0it right, then four or five months just passed in a tiny handful of\u00c2\u00a0pages. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re supposed to believe that Katniss and Peeta responded\u00c2\u00a0well to physical training, that Haymitch isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t in the best shape,\u00c2\u00a0but the entire time we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve just been told it. None of it was\u00c2\u00a0<em>shown<\/em> to us. It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help me believe this\u00c2\u00a0world or this story at all. It feels really lazy.<\/p>\n<p>Predictably,\u00c2\u00a0Effie draws Haymitch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s name for the reaping and Peeta doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t\u00c2\u00a0hesitate to take his place. And then in just two tiny paragraphs,\u00c2\u00a0Collins stuffs Katpee, Haymitch, and Effie onto a train, without\u00c2\u00a0fanfare, and sends them off to the Capitol. Just like that. I<br \/>\nunderstand that the Capitol organized this on purpose, to restrict\u00c2\u00a0any sort of joy or signs of support. They don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to inspire\u00c2\u00a0another uprising. But it feels far too much like the last section\u00c2\u00a0and I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help but feel\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6disappointed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the thirteenth chapter of Catching\u00c2\u00a0Fire, SLOW DOWN THIS IS GOING WAY TOO FAST. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to readCatching Fire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,5],"tags":[32,28,24,27],"class_list":["post-123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catching-fire","category-hunger-games","tag-catching-fire-2","tag-katniss-everdeen","tag-mark-reads-the-hunger-games","tag-suzanne-collins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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