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Just back from a day at the shore, but I'll write about that tomorrow, and there will be photos.
The post-novel depression hit full force while I was sitting there watching the sea. It's a couple of days overdue, but I was still writing even as the editing began, hence the delay. And here I am, back at that place where I want no one to read the novel. I sure as fuck don't want it read and reviewed and "reviewed" and have to watch the sales figures and all that shit.
And that sort of brings me to thing number next:
As we finish up Suzanne Collins' Mockingjay, the part of Katniss Everdeen has been cast for the forthcoming film/s. She will be played by Jennifer Lawrence. And yesterday Spooky alerted me to the great mewling outcry from the books' community of "fans." YA boards and communities were abuzz (and likely still are) with outraged cries of "racebending" and "whitewashing" and all sorts of other nonsense. I wish to state a few thoughts, which I'll put forth as bullet points, as this lamentable format seems so popular these days:
1) Race: Katniss Everdeen has dark hair and olive skin, yes. But she is Caucasian. Indeed, her mother and sister are blondes. Near as we are told, the people of the Seam are mostly, but not all, white. Peeta Mellark has blond hair. People of the Seam often have grey eyes. All this is hardly surprising given that it seems that District 12 is located somewhere in the West Virginia/Pennsylvania region of the Appalachians. So, cries that the casting is racist are...well...it makes me wonder if the people who read the book, you know, read the book. Let us wait to see how Rue is cast before we howl about "whitewashing."
2) Can Jennifer Lawrence play Katniss Eberdeen? How about this. Watch the trailer for Debra Granik's Winter's Bone:
Truthfully? You ask me, this looks like Lawrence having a trial run at playing Katniss. I say she's damn close to perfect.
3) Does the author approve of the casting choice? Yes, very much so. To quote AccessHollywood (there's a first in this blog):
In a statement released by the studio, Author Suzanne Collins and director Gary Ross expressed their excitement at having Jennifer join the cast.
“Jennifer’s just an incredible actress. So powerful, vulnerable, beautiful, unforgiving and brave. I never thought we’d find somebody this perfect for the role. And I can’t wait for everyone to see her play it,” Suzanne said.
Now, for my part, points one and two aside, this ought to shut all the naysayers the fuck up. It won't, of course, but it should. These books do no belong to the fans, not matter how devoted and no matter how much they might believe otherwise. They belong to the author, that person whose name follows the © symbol. Everyone else has the pleasure of reading the books, and may own copies, but the novels belong to the author. And if she's happy with the choice, that's good enough for me.
More and more, I realize there's this great mass of humans who squat in waiting on the internet, just waiting for an opportunity to be offended. The chance to whine and bellyache and point fingers and pull the holier-than-thou routine. And, usually, a chance to be utterly wrong. This is, of course, their right. But they're only embarrassing themselves.
The post-novel depression hit full force while I was sitting there watching the sea. It's a couple of days overdue, but I was still writing even as the editing began, hence the delay. And here I am, back at that place where I want no one to read the novel. I sure as fuck don't want it read and reviewed and "reviewed" and have to watch the sales figures and all that shit.
And that sort of brings me to thing number next:
As we finish up Suzanne Collins' Mockingjay, the part of Katniss Everdeen has been cast for the forthcoming film/s. She will be played by Jennifer Lawrence. And yesterday Spooky alerted me to the great mewling outcry from the books' community of "fans." YA boards and communities were abuzz (and likely still are) with outraged cries of "racebending" and "whitewashing" and all sorts of other nonsense. I wish to state a few thoughts, which I'll put forth as bullet points, as this lamentable format seems so popular these days:
1) Race: Katniss Everdeen has dark hair and olive skin, yes. But she is Caucasian. Indeed, her mother and sister are blondes. Near as we are told, the people of the Seam are mostly, but not all, white. Peeta Mellark has blond hair. People of the Seam often have grey eyes. All this is hardly surprising given that it seems that District 12 is located somewhere in the West Virginia/Pennsylvania region of the Appalachians. So, cries that the casting is racist are...well...it makes me wonder if the people who read the book, you know, read the book. Let us wait to see how Rue is cast before we howl about "whitewashing."
2) Can Jennifer Lawrence play Katniss Eberdeen? How about this. Watch the trailer for Debra Granik's Winter's Bone:
Truthfully? You ask me, this looks like Lawrence having a trial run at playing Katniss. I say she's damn close to perfect.
3) Does the author approve of the casting choice? Yes, very much so. To quote AccessHollywood (there's a first in this blog):
In a statement released by the studio, Author Suzanne Collins and director Gary Ross expressed their excitement at having Jennifer join the cast.
“Jennifer’s just an incredible actress. So powerful, vulnerable, beautiful, unforgiving and brave. I never thought we’d find somebody this perfect for the role. And I can’t wait for everyone to see her play it,” Suzanne said.
Now, for my part, points one and two aside, this ought to shut all the naysayers the fuck up. It won't, of course, but it should. These books do no belong to the fans, not matter how devoted and no matter how much they might believe otherwise. They belong to the author, that person whose name follows the © symbol. Everyone else has the pleasure of reading the books, and may own copies, but the novels belong to the author. And if she's happy with the choice, that's good enough for me.
More and more, I realize there's this great mass of humans who squat in waiting on the internet, just waiting for an opportunity to be offended. The chance to whine and bellyache and point fingers and pull the holier-than-thou routine. And, usually, a chance to be utterly wrong. This is, of course, their right. But they're only embarrassing themselves.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-19 04:29 am (UTC)After reading just the first two chapters of Drowning Girl I can't comprehend how you managed to keep yourself in Imp's head space, for lack of a better term, for so long. I would have been screaming in a corner.
You possess stern mental fortitude. I raise my wine to you.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-19 05:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-19 07:32 am (UTC)You only have to look at all the post about how JK Rowling not ruining her own characters to see that.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-19 11:26 am (UTC)You have no obligation to us.
That said, I'm waiting for publication with a great deal of excitement.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-19 12:15 pm (UTC)Oh yeah, this. Exactly.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 03:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-19 06:09 pm (UTC)I know you've received recommendations regarding the film adaptation of Winter's Bone and I would also like to recommend the novel to you and Spooky. In keeping with your own axiom, Woodrell does not romanticize the hill folk he portrays.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 03:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 09:34 pm (UTC)I am offended that children starve to death in a world filled with food. I am offended that animals are killed because pet owners have been too irresponsible to spay or neuter. I'm offended that people are sent to prison because they suffer from the disease of addiction rather than being provided with treatment.
No matter how much I love the source material, does the casting of a film offend me? Um.....not so much.
Doesn't seem as though these internet squatters have much going on in their lives, if that is all they have to be offended about.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 01:15 am (UTC)I have to be careful what offends me. At some point I figured that thanks to personality type (i.e., I brood), I could be way too bothered by many, many possible issues and not be able to let go of them, so I told myself OK, try your best not to be offended. This (http://chris-walsh.livejournal.com/77948.html) was a (relatively) rare moment where I did. Five years ago. Obviously I've been offended at times since then, but I try to limit the instances.
I understand wanting a wider representation of types of people in our pop culture and being burned by whitewashing in said pop culture, especially when it got as ridiculous as it did with that Wizard of Earthsea miniseries a few years ago. We can do better at that representation; the stories are out there, as are the potential readers and viewers. (A friend of mine has written a YA superhero novel as told from the POV of a young boy who's black, since he was sick of publishers thinking that young black kids only want to read about sports, if that.) But I don't feel that there's a problem with that here; come to think of it, how often does science fiction deal with Appalachia, the way The Hunger Games most likely does? The closest work that comes to my mind is The Man Who Fell to Earth, which was set in Kentucky.
P.S. Oh, and Caitlin, since it may also help with the mood, actual filming has commenced in New Zealand on Peter Jackson's version of The Hobbit (http://www.slashfilm.com/hobbit-official-set-photos-released-production-begins-facebook-page-launched/). The script's by the same team that scripted the LotR films, plus Guillermo del Toro. Howard Shore will provide additional "sweet Shore score" (to borrow Kevin Smith's phrase) to it.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-22 03:48 pm (UTC)So: more signs the author's happy with the casting. For what it's worth.