I feel bad because it took me so long to become as skeeved out by the rebellion as you are now. For these first three chapters, I could not understand why Katniss was so reluctant to be the mockingjay. It wasn't until this point that I started to add everything up and consider that maybe she has a touch of PTSD, and, okay, maybe she's not happy about how they're treating her, and I guess it's weird how they've come up with an image for her for their own gain just like the Capitol. You picked up on all that right away. What does that say about you and me as people? (It says that I'm a very naive person.)
Doesn't something have to be grounded? I get that the electricity from the lightning tree will flow through the wet sand on the beach and that Brutus and Enobaria would probably be electrocuted unless they had rubber soled shoes or something which would ground them. Does the circuit need to be completed for the electricity to run? If you have a direct source, a conductive wire, and the conductive saltwater (I remember something about electric currents from saltwater), shouldn't it work? They don't need the thing to keep running; they just need a quick zap.
I would bet that Panem has a pretty strong isolationist attitude going on to keep the strict control that they have. Whatever happened had to have been pretty big. One small sentence in Book One mentions that some parts of the North American landmass are now underwater, so I would imagine that other countries were similarly decimated to some degree.
I'm trying to open your page, but it's not working for some reason. :(
The general idea is not to use those terms, which are slang, in ways that hurt or dismiss people. I would say that calling someone mad/crazy/insane without their okay (because there are plenty of people who self-identify as these things and plenty who use them in a reclamation sort of way) is wrong because it makes no attempt to understand the person or their condition. In this context, we don't really know anything about Annie at all other than that she's a "poor mad girl," someone to be pitied because of her 'madness.' I would say that that's not okay, but there are those who will argue differently.
Does it matter at all that people with disabilities the ones asking people to think about these words? Mark linked to the articles which gave him the idea that ablelist language is wrong. Several of the people commenting in this thread have disabilities. I would think that Mark would know that people with disabilities read this blog, thus his opening of this discussion. So really, it's people with disabilities defending themselves and asking for support.
The anecdote you shared was completely irrelevant and does you no favors.
I like that each possibility holds a different forms of support. Katniss would have to choose between two people with different things to offer, and I can completely see either possibility happening. But no matter how things with Gale wind up, Katniss would always have that intense time with Peeta in the arenas. They acted like a couple in love during the most dangerous weeks of their lives. How do you ever get over that?
Gale Hawthorne + Katniss Everdeen = Hawtniss? It fits!
Another thing to consider is how people with disabilities are treated in the HG world. Katniss clearly had issues dealing with her mother's depression, but she is maturing enough to begin to understand it. Wiress was written off and mocked by some of the other tributes. No one but Beetee and Katniss bothered to try to understand her atypical way of communicating. But it was Wiress that revealed the secret of the forcefields and the nature of the arena. I can't help but compare her a little to Bellatrix Lestrange (the subject of a whole other discussion)*. If the characters would listen to these "crazy" people, they'd find that they have important things to say.
*http://disabledfeminists.com/2010/04/07/the-importance-of-being-bellatrix-lestrange/
From the chapter: "Once in a blue moon, I've seen my mother try something similar, but not often. If your heart fails in District 12, it's unlikely your family could get you to my mother in time, anyway."
There you go!
![[Avatar]](/images/avatar26.png){kind=avatar}
Medley