The Hunger Games ~ new essay & movie review on Underwords

Writers write even without the promise of publication

A truism for most writers, I think. Whenever I get more than usually interested in something, my first thought is to write about it. I think it’s my natural inclination to share this intriguing or funny or insightful or powerful whatever-it-was with others, so that they can enjoy the same experience. Or maybe it’s just the idea that no thought is really complete in the world until it’s somehow expressed. Or maybe it’s just that I think a lot of my own opinion. 🙂

Who knows?

But, as I was telling my friend Erin yesterday ~ by way of saying a BIG Thank You for publishing my last couple of pieces in Underwords ~ it’s wonderful to have an outlet that encourages me to actually finish those reviews, essays, and articles that I would often get excited or intrigued enough by the experience (of the book or movie or whatever) to start but, without a venue for publication, generally never bothered to finish.

My review of The Captains (which I wrote during my trip in the WaBac machine), for instance, would never have been finished if not for Erin and Underwords, and I very much enjoyed writing it. It was fun, as well as enlightening for me (because, you know, you learn something from everything you write as well as everything you read ~ sorry ~had a teacher moment there).

The most recent, posted yesterday on Underwords, is an essay/review on the blockbuster movie: The Hunger Games. I saw the movie in the theater almost by accident, when a friend of mine called and asked me to go, since her 14-year-old daughter had asked some friends to come along and she didn’t want to be stuck sitting alone or (perhaps worse) be the mother goose among the teenaged gaggle of girls. I was glad to spend time with my friend, and now I’m even happier I went, as I was most impressed by the movie ~ and by Jennifer Laurence’s portrayal of Katniss Everdeen ~ which, of course, inspired me to write about it. And not just about the movie, itself, but about its antecedents and the societal value shifts that have made this the right movie for right here, right now.