Over the Edge + October, 4

SOFT STALINISM

PAUL STRICKLAND
CONTRIBUTOR

arts&entertainment 7

CATCHING
FIRE

Do more with less.
Exceed production quotas. .
“This call may be monitored for quality and courtesy.”
Your e-mail may be read by management at any time.
The hatchet man will reduce staff at every branch office
by twenty-five per cent.
The corporate commissar comes in one day
unannounced.
He points to desks at random.
“You’re gone,” he says.
You’re gone.
And you’re gone!”

Get rid of the old union stalwarts.
They’re in their fifties;
They’re fat;
They’re lazy;
They’re over privileged; and
They’ re holding up the career progress of
Young Stakhanovites.
Aman slips and swears in earshot of authority: : os
He’s hauled up for suspension,
referred for psychiatric counselling and medication,
or terminated.

No, it’s not to a gulag that the suddenly redundant go

in our compassionately conservative society.
They go into the exile of family and community contempt.
“What's the matter with you?:

| Don't you know how to look for a job or make a living?

x

A er A ROERREEE SE OOPS NOSE

sep RRR SE SESAOCRnSSe

i ir RER RSS SPRE ST caROER

==» Are you really trying?
‘ Lazy bum, mooch, loser, living on welfare!”
No, it’s not death by cold or starvation,
but through shame, depression, alcohol, tranquilizers, drugs, suicide.
In the snowy wastes dreams are buried. :

=

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SPRSEORYY peepee taeda iO SNE SROOOE PROC CC eR EEE CROESE LESS

SUZANNE
COLLINS

ONLINE SOURCE -

CATCHING FIRE

IGHITES

A Look Into the Second Novel in the
Hunger Games Trilogy

DARCIE SMITH
ARTS EDITOR

If you have been keeping up with
my suggested reading from the last
issue, great! Keep reading and keep
following. Here is a little sneak peek
(and some spoilers) at the second
book in The Hunger Games trilogy. If
you have not been following, it is not
at all too late to start reading this fun,
adventurous trilogy.

The saga continues with Catch-
ing Fire, the intense, cliff-hanging
sequel that picks up where we left
Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark,
winners of the 74th Hunger Games.
The two victorious teenagers return to
their home district to do a victory tour
of the country. However, President
Snow, the autocratic ruler of Panem,
approaches Katniss and accuses of
her of sparking a rebellion within the
districts. During the final battle of the
Hunger Games between Katniss and
Peeta, they both refuse to kill one
another so they plan to commit sui-
cide — before they can follow through
it is announced that the competition
is over and they both have won. The
suicide pact was seen as an act of de-
fiance to the Capitol, therefore mo-
tivating President Snow to threaten
Katniss’ family in order to use her
influence to halt any talk of a rebel-
lion amongst her supporters. Katniss
then attempts to convince President
Snow that her actions were driven by
a love for Peeta, and not to stir up the

districts and encourage an overthrow
of the Capitol. However, none of
their efforts are successful, even the
tnarriage proposal, and the rebellion
continues.

During the tour, it is announced
that for the 75th Hunger Games, the
previous 24 victors will have to again
compete to the death, this time against
one another, which puts Katniss and
Peeta in the area together once more.
After some negotiations of allies and
enemies in the area, Katniss devises
a plan to destroy the area that they
are competing in. Her plan is a suc-
cess and the area is destroyed, but |
when she wakes up from the shock
she learns that the Capitol has appre-_
hended Peeta and a few other contest-
ants and she is now in District 13 —a
District that is not supposed to exist.
This book leaves the audience with
another terrible cliffhanger. When
Katniss awakes she is reunited with
her best friend from her home of Dis-
trict 12, Gale. Gale informs her that
her family is safe, but that District 12
was bombed and left desolated.

This novel was not as memorable
as the first book in the series (as many
sequels are), however, it was still,
completely exhilarating and every
ounce as stressful to read as the first.
It is a refreshing book to get into, and
it begs you to follow through and read
the concluding novel, Mockingjay.