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With "The Hunger Games" coming out in theaters this weekend, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
shalmestere and I got a copy of the book and read it. It's a good read, with characters one cares about, and it looks as though it would lend itself reasonably well to movie treatment (handling the internal monologue with a combination of voice-over narration and flashbacks).
[VERY MINOR SPOILERS FOLLOW]
But I have to wonder: has author Suzanne Collins ever shot an arrow from a bow? Significant parts of the plot involve the protagonist's acquisition and use of a bow and arrows. I don't object to the shooting -- everything Katniss does in that realm could be done by a very good archer, which she is. There is no mention of ever stringing or un-stringing the bow, but that may not be a problem: I've never hunted with a bow, and I don't know how long it's practical to carry a strung bow before the constant tension starts damaging the bow. What bothered me was the references to putting down and picking up a "loaded bow". First, that's strange terminology... but more importantly, in my experience, if you put down a "loaded bow", the arrow falls off the string and it is no longer a "loaded bow". Asshalmestere points out, those passages might make sense if it were a cross bow, but a crossbow would be more complicated to build in the wilds (as Katniss's father has evidently done a number of times, and as it is suggested early on that Katniss might need to do).
The wilderness-survival parts are no "My Side of the Mountain", but (as a not-particularly-experienced wilderness-survival type myself) I didn't see any howlers.
Anyway, I think it'll probably be a decent movie.
Then last night, wandering around the satellite-dish menu at random, we decided on a lark to watch "The Big Bang Theory", which several people we know have raved about. I don't know: maybe this was a particularly bad episode, but neither of us felt any need to ever see it again.
shalmestere and I got a copy of the book and read it. It's a good read, with characters one cares about, and it looks as though it would lend itself reasonably well to movie treatment (handling the internal monologue with a combination of voice-over narration and flashbacks).[VERY MINOR SPOILERS FOLLOW]
But I have to wonder: has author Suzanne Collins ever shot an arrow from a bow? Significant parts of the plot involve the protagonist's acquisition and use of a bow and arrows. I don't object to the shooting -- everything Katniss does in that realm could be done by a very good archer, which she is. There is no mention of ever stringing or un-stringing the bow, but that may not be a problem: I've never hunted with a bow, and I don't know how long it's practical to carry a strung bow before the constant tension starts damaging the bow. What bothered me was the references to putting down and picking up a "loaded bow". First, that's strange terminology... but more importantly, in my experience, if you put down a "loaded bow", the arrow falls off the string and it is no longer a "loaded bow". As
shalmestere points out, those passages might make sense if it were a cross bow, but a crossbow would be more complicated to build in the wilds (as Katniss's father has evidently done a number of times, and as it is suggested early on that Katniss might need to do).The wilderness-survival parts are no "My Side of the Mountain", but (as a not-particularly-experienced wilderness-survival type myself) I didn't see any howlers.
Anyway, I think it'll probably be a decent movie.
Then last night, wandering around the satellite-dish menu at random, we decided on a lark to watch "The Big Bang Theory", which several people we know have raved about. I don't know: maybe this was a particularly bad episode, but neither of us felt any need to ever see it again.