I is crazy please shoot me now

What was I thinking?

What am I thinking?

My frenzied, maniacal charge through Nanowrimo last year was done with the backing of a full six months' worth of planning (yeah, I double checked my notes and chats, it had actually been that long). And although I didn't work through all of the notes, hadn't finished and can probably consider the story only 65% complete, what remains is hardly as detailed. That was supposed to have come later.

So why, oh why, was it that a brief twitter conversation that started with someone saying this...

Ola!! You doing Camp Nano with us? We have coffee! And cookies ;-)

...ended with me saying:

 *laughs* Fine! But you better be bribing me with awesome cookies, madam :D

Please someone kill me now.

The worst part of it is that the evil woman who tweeted her accursed offer of cookies at me lives on the other side of the country. I've never met her and most likely won't. *mutters* Probably poisonous cookies.

So what is it?

Well, as you can guess from the name, Camp Nanowrimo an offshoot of Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month... although it's interNational now, but anyhoo). There are some distinct differences, but the idea of it is the same. You sit and write a story from scratch aiming to reach a specific wordcount by the end of the month. One of the differences to Nano being that you can actually set your own target. Camp Nano also allows you to choose between one of two months (or both) to participate - namely April and July. It makes use of the Nanowrimo forums as a means for participants to communicate. Camp Nano also allows them to be grouped into 'cabins'. These cabins can be a group of strangers who have a similar interest or friends who try and be grouped together. My suspicion is that, due to the participation of Camp Nano being considerably less, municipal liaisons aren't really there to fire up the local group. The cabins are there to push up morale so that you don't feel like you're the only one participating.

Camp Nano is essentially there for those who couldn't get enough of Nanowrimo or those whose Novembers are far too busy to participate.

There are of course as always some Nano Rebels. People who use the time and deadline for their own nefarious schemes such as writing screen plays, writing 30 poems instead writing fiction to satisfy a word count, writing non-fiction, writing a collection of short stories instead of a novel, continuing old work rather than starting something new. (I don't really consider the last one that much of a rebellion, but I'll be falling into that category this month.)

So what's my target?

I'll be aiming for 50k again. Yes, I know. I'm going to hate myself, but I know I can make it. I'm not aiming for higher and frankly babbling 1667 words a day - not really a challenge for me. That is, if I have a storeroom filled with ideas.

So I have 6.5 days left before the April craze begins. What I will be doing until then?

Such a silly question. Of course I will be PLANNING!!!!!!!!!

I'm not a pantser.




Those better be bloody good fictitious cookies...

Game Babble: Tomb Raider Reboot

Lara Croft. Strong. Smart. Sexy. 

Ask a gamer what comes to mind when they think of her and the common thread would be that she is appealing. In just about every way possible, she's managed to capture the attention of a majority of the gaming community who have followed her into tombs since 1996. She has been to just about every part of the globe, driven just about every vehicle, fired just about every weapon, has died, has returned and now she's reborn as something we have not yet seen Lara Croft as.

A human being.

Lara has always managed to be something of a symbol. She carries a power within her that inspires women. No longer are we the damsels in distress, the ones fawning over the genius of a man, carrying their equipment while they set out to explore and discover. Lara blazed ahead as someone who could take care of herself and achieve success in whatever she put her mind to. She could overcome the odds and still manage to do so without having to butch up.

But the British explorer has always been perfect. She may struggle, but she never really gets any grit underneath her fingernails. As awesome as it is to have a woman represented as something more than a submissive sex toy, she's always seemed a little out of reach for me.

Cue the reboot.

The latest Tomb Raider sets out to show us what shaped Laura into being the all-but-fearless badass we have grown up with. She's on her very first expedition and along with the crew of the Endurance is off to find the lost kingdom of Yamatai. While Laura is not the lead archaeologist, the crew knows her well and trusts her judgement and so when she points them into the worst possible direction on instinct, they follow.

And the boat sinks. Nice one Laura.

And that's where the game starts off. Laura is separated from her crew and they need to all get together and leave the island they wash up on. Of course things are never that easy.

So how does one became "fearless"? You overcome your fears. How do you do that? By being immersed in them and having to find your way out. The game goes to just about every level to shake Laura - and by extension you. Laura is terrified and with good reason. She has to fend for herself and, like anyone of us may be in that situation, she doesn't truly believe that she can do it.

In one of the earliest cutscenes the player watches Laura begging someone to come get her; to find her and save her. The idea of surviving on her own, of trudging off into the unknown, hips swinging, doesn't come into her mind at all. I think this in particular is something that I admired. Laura does have some advantages, some survival training, but she is forced into trying circumstances simply because there isn't any other option. There isn't anyone else able or available to perform whatever task needs to be performed at that particular time.

Laura grows through the game much like a blade gets sharpened on a whetstone. Painfully.

I was really scared to buy this game without hearing from anyone else how it was. Not being as deep into the Tomb Raider series, I was already not completely sold on the idea that this game was going to be worth R600 (and tthat's with a pre-order discount). It's a lot of money. I'm still waiting for Far Cry 3 to come down on its price and I've been itching to get my hands on it.

Stinginess aside. The biggest reason for my hesitance was this:

Those of you who have been following the build up to the game's release may instantly know what my reluctance was about. In one of the trailers, it shows Mister Baddie shown in the screenshot above seemingly very interested in his young, beautiful, female captive. Laura fights him off, grabs his gun and shoots him. He becomes her very first kill and she understandably freaks out about it.

The problem being that it brought up a rather painful question: Should rape be portrayed in games? The reason for that question was naturally the interest Mister Baddie showed. Even from the picture above, it hardly seems as if he's just about to stop with his hand on her shoulder

It caused an uproar. The idea that Laura would have to fight off this dude from raping and then killing her. It's stomach turning. It's revolting. Bring the pitchforks. I'll take the lead.

Fortunately, the trailer was incredibly misleading.

I've played past this point. Let me give you a spoiler. You see Mister Baddie's hand? That hand has a massive fascination with squeezing the life out of Laura, and not slipping any lower as the trailer implied. I've purposefully missed the fighting cues to see what would happen. The furthest he goes is to trail his hand down her arm, then he grabs her throat - just like he does when you miss any of the cues . In no instant is there an idea that he's going to take her. The only explanation I can give for the 'tenderness' in his touch is his love for killing.

So if you're like me and were willing to tear things apart with your bare hands. Stay calm and rest assured. There are no dodgy scenes besides the occasional strangling, being shot, knifed, falling to one’s death or being crushed by boulders. Oh and a lot of corpses, skulls and body parts.

Hope that puts you at ease. ;)

I have to say, I'm impressed. I didn't think I was going to be. I was hoping for a good game, but was cautious to get too excited about it. Naturally I failed. Thankfully the game didn't let me down. The scenery is breathtaking. The music is good.

The acting... oh my word, the acting! These actors are making magic in a room that gives them virtually nothing to go on. They're utterly brilliant. The script is also superb. I haven't had a moment where I felt like asking what the writers had been smoking when they cooked up the dialogues. Everything is relevant, whether you take the time to listen to it or not. Nothing is trite. Nothing is cliche. The creators really did good on this one.

I'm about halfway into the game according to the percentage of completion the game gives me, but I think I'm a little further in terms of story. And it has been a hell of a ride. I've cringed and freaked out (I don't like heights), I've gasped and snarled (softly, the dogs were sleeping), I've laughed as Laura did some snarling of her own.

I'm enjoying every bit of this game.

From a story side, I'm extremely curious to see where it's going to end off. I love the character progression thus far, I love themes that get seeded into the story. I'll admit it. I'm hooked. I'm not devoted. But I'm hooked.

I'm not going to go into gameplay and what not. I might do that in a later post... maybe. I can tell you the only problem I've had with the game is finding a flaw worth mentioning. Yes. I'm having trouble finding fault. Imagine that.

Tentatively Excited

So my past self left my present self a surprise.

I pre-ordered Tomb Raider and forgot about it.

Now this was back in the beginning of 2012 when the release date was still somewhere around November. So after all that jazz and the craziness that was last year - seriously, crazy doesn't actually come near to describing it - I eventually ended up forgetting about the whole thing.

That is until last week when I got a text message reminding me of it.

I wasn't really planning on getting it immediately. I figured I'd go the same route as I'm going with Far Cry 3 which I actually really want to play. That route being to wait it out until the crazy price drops to something more manageable. But seeing as I did pre-ordered and since I haven't bought any games in several months... Hell, why not?

I'm hoping that it's going to be worth the money. I'm hoping there aren't any rape scenes or any nonsense in there (you'll hear me ranting about it if there are, believe you me). These are things that had me thinking that if I heard so much as a whisper of it, I wasn't going to touch the game at all. So I'm taking a leap of faith. I'm excited because from what I've seen, it's going to be good.

I'm planning on blogging about it this weekend regardless. Here's hoping it's going to be a gush and not a whine. Or a meh. Tired of meh.

Book Babble: The Hunger Games

Hi! Been a while, hasn't it? Well, I'm glad to inform you I'm still alive. Now that we've got that out of the way, let's get to what this post is actually about.

What it's about

The Hunger Games centres around 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen who becomes a tribute (an offering) from her district to the Capitol - the oppressive governing body of what was formerly America. She and eleven other tributes are sent to the Capitol to take part in an annual televised death match. The winner, being the only one left alive, will walk back out again and thereby grant their district the grace of not going hungry for a year. The games is expressly for the enjoyment of the Capitol and acts as punishment for the twelve districts and their rebellion 74 years before. As Katniss fights for survival, little does she know the impact she's having on those watching outside of the games. 

I'm going to write both about the movie and the book. I think they're such a brilliant complement to each other that one can actually consider them as a single unit. I might spend a little time on the other two books in the series: Catching Fire and Mockingjay. 

The Hunger Games

The book is written in first-person from Katniss' point of view and really sets up the shock of what happens throughout the story. Katniss is stubborn and strong-willed with a survivalist instinct born from having to take care of her family. She can be cold and calculating and has difficulty really knowing her own feelings let alone expressing them. This makes her withdrawn and difficult to warm up to. This is a big problem in the Hunger Games as the survival of the tributes could depend on gifts sent to them during the games from sponsors. These gifts don't come often, but can be anything needed in a moment of crisis be it food, medicine, extra weapons, etc. Should the sponsors like you, they'd want to keep you alive. So capturing their attention may very well be in your best interest. Which means making yourself worth noting - something that Katniss only is good at the moment she forgets herself and does something out of instinct.

The movie, in many ways, shows the story from the perspective of those outside of the games and specifically from the perspective of the Capitol. It's reality tv in its gruesome finest. As the movie cannot show you Katniss' thoughts, insight is supplied by interviews and eager Capitol commentators talking about strategy, obstacles, and the 'excitement' of the games. The movie goes out of its way to contrast the decadence of the Capitol versus the desperation of the districts it oppresses.

As I've said, the movie is in many ways a complement to the book. It shows a different perspective on the same story and helps fill in the spaces that readers might not have immediately understood from the books. I specifically had that problem. When I finished the first book I was very neutral about it. I couldn't decide because I couldn't understand some of the choices Collins had made. I didn't understand why she went to some of the extremes she had gone to.

It took Alyssa (a partner in crime) to sit and explain it; to point out the underlying message the Capitol was sending to the districts for me to first understand, then appreciate and finally marvel at how amazing the book actually was. I felt dumb not getting it the first time 'round. Soon after that, the movie came out and emphasised all the points she had made and again I felt dumb, but maybe I wasn't the only one. That's what I console myself with at least. In any event, the movie shone a light in the patches hidden within the pages of the book and so they really end up making a neat whole.

Katniss

There is this quote I heard as a teenager that has stuck with me ever since. "When we forget ourselves, we usually do something everyone else remembers." Katniss' story is very much about that. When she does what she's supposed to, when she controls herself as much as she can, then Katniss doesn't make much of an impression. However, the moment she just acts and reacts to her emotions, she blazes and captures everyone's attention.

I can't say I liked Katniss, but really now, this is me. Can we say we're really surprised that I didn't? Nope. Didn't think so. But I can't say I disliked her either. She is someone who has been shaped by very difficult circumstances to become she needs to be rather than just being who she is. She comes across distant and unapproachable; expressionless to some extent. I know Jennifer Lawrence has been faulted for playing Katniss too two-dimensionally, but in truth, the movie rendition of her is far more emotionally expressive than the book's. 

Maybe it is the necessity, the role she has to play that makes me dislike Katniss. She has to be manipulative to have her best chance at surviving the games. It's very much like supposed real-life television where everything is bs and spectacle. She has to adapt and in doing so, I get put off. Yes, hypocritical and heartless of me I know. It has to be said though, of all the protagonists I've disliked, she's at the bottom of the list. Which means she's very close to 'okay', but not quite there yet. At least not at the end of the first book. By the second and moreso the third, I'll go as far as bumping her up to the bottom of my 'like list'.

I'm not going to go into the whole team Gale/Peeta thing. 

Gale is hunky, Peeta is charming. Both are interesting in their own right and both are really not. But then we know I'm not the gushy love-puppy type. I think they act more as a way of pointing out the two sides to Katniss: the mind and the heart. They're instruments of hormones that Katniss very rarely has time for. Y'know, with the whole not-being-killed thing. They did cast the two characters really well in the movie, it has to be said.

Peeta comes across very flat both in the book and in the movie. He only starts showing his true depth in Catching Fire and then just fizzles out in Mockingjay. But the main reason he seems so 2D is because Peeta is all heart. He's very true to himself and that self just so happens to care about everything. As we know, a drawing is very bland without shading and that's very much how Peeta comes across. You feel for the guy. What he is admired for is also the his greatest weakness in the games. He is set up as a lamb for the slaughter and you're just waiting for the axe to fall.

Gale, on the other hand, is all wolf. He's a survivor, a hunter. He sets his mind to something and gets it done. He is also very dark and broody and can do an awesome Angel impression. He clearly cares for Katniss, but he isn't all heart. He comes out a lot more throughout the series and his rage against the Capitol knows no bounds.

The series
When you talk to people who've liked The Hunger Games and then read the series, get yourselves ready for two different reactions. The one group with tell you "For the love of all that is sacred, don't read the rest of the books!!" and the other will say "The other two books aren't as good as the first one, but I'd think they're worth reading."

I think I'm in both camps. If you want the two subsequent books to capture what the first book did, don't read them. You're going to be disappointed.

Catching Fire shows how Katniss is left in a very precarious position. She has survived the Hunger Games and managed to piss off people that can grind her home into dust. How do you bs your way through that? It's about realising the power of a small act and dealing with the possibility that everything can spiral out of control because of it.

Mockingjay in turn is about the power of a symbol, how people would do anything to manipulate such a symbol and how easily it is to become what one hates. In the last book, Katniss breaks free by doing exactly what she has done all along: forgetting herself and acting out on instinct.

The series has some surprises in store and does bring things to a close. I can't call it satisfying but I don't feel like pulling out a bullhorn and warding people off from reading it. Collin's did state that the reason The Hunger Games became a series was because the story didn't feel done yet. By the end of the third one, it has definitely reached that feeling.

Conclusion
Whether you read the series or not, I'd still recommend giving The Hunger Games a shot. I enjoyed the book. I loved the movie and it is definitely something I want to purchase - the score is lovely. And it's something I wouldn't mind revisiting again in the near future. That itself is definitely a thumbs-up.



_LOTR Storybook update_
Gandalf and Strider are debating the mountains versus Moria. I still want to chew my wrists and the disc in my car reached its end. I'm in no way tempted to put the next one in.