{"id":1099,"date":"2025-05-01T22:53:55","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T22:53:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/05\/01\/arts-talks-sunrise-on-the-reaping\/"},"modified":"2025-05-01T22:53:58","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T22:53:58","slug":"arts-talks-sunrise-on-the-reaping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/05\/01\/arts-talks-sunrise-on-the-reaping\/","title":{"rendered":"Arts Talks: \u2018Sunrise on the Reaping\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Michigan Daily Arts section presents Arts Talks, a series where The Daily Arts Writers gather to discuss their opinions on and reactions to the latest and major releases in the art world.<\/em><\/p>\n

In this segment of Arts Talks, four Daily Arts Writers gather to discuss the latest Hunger Games book, \u201cSunrise on the Reaping.\u201d Full spoilers ahead, beware.<\/em><\/p>\n

This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity and brevity. <\/em><\/p>\n

Cora Rolfes, Senior Arts Editor:<\/strong> \u200aThere\u2019s been a lot of hype for this release, with five years since \u201cThe Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes\u201d and 10 years since \u201cMockingjay\u201d before that. There\u2019s a common saying online that Suzanne Collins only writes when she has something to say. How did you guys feel about not only the content of the book, but its timing? <\/p>\n

Estlin Salah, Daily Arts Writer:<\/strong> It\u2019s coming at a very poignant time. Collins opened the book with four different quotes about propaganda, and the whole book really has two primary messages. One of them doubles down on how much the Capitol controls the district\u2019s perception of everything, especially with how much Haymitch\u2019s experiences in the games are edited. The second message is the importance of community action \u2014 we get to see that Katniss\u2019s revolution has been a long time in the making. I think those are very purposeful messages: Don\u2019t trust the government; rally with your community.<\/p>\n

CR:<\/strong> I agree that the theming felt purposeful, but I think a lot of the trouble that I had with the book was that it didn\u2019t feel super cohesive with the characters and the story. There\u2019s one example with Beetee that I keep going back to; Haymitch goes up to him during the training section, and in his head he\u2019s like, I wonder why Beetee is in training right now, mentors aren\u2019t usually here. And the first thing Beetee says is that he\u2019s there because the Capitol is punishing him. I just felt the blatant discussion was a little jarring and not entirely convincing. <\/p>\n

Camille Nagy, Managing Arts Editor:<\/strong> One of the things that I admire so much about the original trilogy is that it\u2019s a book for kids, it’s written at a lower reading level and it\u2019s accessible for younger readers, but it\u2019s not stupid. It treats its audience like they\u2019re smart and can figure these things out for themselves. Everything in this book comparatively feels very on the nose and very in your face. There\u2019s the Beetee example, but there\u2019s also \u2014 like you were saying Estlin \u2014 this idea that it\u2019s coming at a time when these messages feel very obvious, which kind of makes me question how powerful they really can be. While it might be relevant and topical, it\u2019s not really bringing anything new to that conversation. <\/p>\n

CR:<\/strong> It\u2019s like a baby book, like \u201cBaby goes to the Doctor\u201d but instead it\u2019s \u201cHaymitch Learns About Censorship.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Laughter]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meagan Ismail, Daily Arts Writer:<\/strong> I also think it was purposeful with the time as well, but agree that they were saying the message, whereas the original books showed it more. The Beetee scene reminded me of Finnick and the punishment for him, which I feel like was also very hidden in the original books. But then in this book, they\u2019re just saying things. Especially at the end, when Haymitch made the connection with Lucy Gray and President Snow, I feel like that was really weird and out of place. <\/p>\n

ES: <\/strong>I think I missed that. <\/p>\n

CR:<\/strong> When he\u2019s watching the broadcast of the 10th Hunger Games he sees a video of Lucy Gray singing, and Haymitch puts together that the reason Snow knows about his girlfriend, Lenore Dove, is because Snow knew Lucy Gray and they had \u2026<\/p>\n

MI:<\/strong> That they had some type of relationship. <\/p>\n

CR: <\/strong>Yeah, why does he know that? It felt like the only reason that was in there was for fans to make the connection as well. \u2026 I think that both this book and \u201cBallad\u201d attempted to show a very clear descent of how the Hunger Games changed a character as a person. And I think with Snow, they do a very good job of setting it up beforehand. But Haymitch\u2019s descent is a complete reversal of his character in the span of around 20 pages, which I do think served who we know him to become in some ways but also felt a little unearned.<\/p>\n

ES:<\/strong> Why do you think it is a reversal of his character?<\/p>\n

CR:<\/strong> He starts out as a very innocent, happy person, and he becomes this completely devastated, mad and angry drunk. <\/p>\n

CN: <\/strong>I think the reason, for me at least, that it read like there was less of a real transformation or character arc is because unlike Katniss and Snow, Haymitch in this book was never really a character to me. Collins relied heavily on the fact that readers coming into this would most likely already know him from the original trilogy, and because of that, it felt like he never really came off the page the way that the other characters did.<\/p>\n

MI:<\/strong> I only read the original trilogy. I did not read the Snow book, so I can\u2019t compare to his narration, but I feel like part of it could be because we didn\u2019t really get much of Haymitch after the games. It was very quick at the end. So that could be another reason why we don\u2019t really feel that we saw his full transformation. <\/p>\n

CN:<\/strong> I think that really is the crux of my issue with the book. It feels kind of like filler, and like something that she produced not to say something new about the themes that she explores typically through these characters, but instead to entertain. Which I think is so ironic and inherently against the original messaging of the first books.<\/p>\n

MI:<\/strong> I understand the way that he reacted at the end, but I do think that it honestly would\u2019ve had the same impact if Lenore Dove wasn\u2019t even part of the storyline, like if it was just his family. I felt like it was thrown in to be similar to the Lucy Gray storyline from \u201cBallad,\u201d and maybe the point is that they\u2019re all connected through the Covey, but I feel like if she wasn\u2019t there, the book could have still had the same impact.<\/p>\n

CN: <\/strong>That\u2019s a good point. I do feel at times that Suzanne Collins leans on these archetypes that she\u2019s created and follows those patterns, almost to a fault. In the original \u201cHunger Games\u201d series and in \u201cBallad,\u201d the romances have intense thematic significance. Not to say that Haymitch and Lenore Dove have none, but it\u2019s another element of the book that cheapened it in my eyes. I think one of the things that is so powerful to find out about Haymitch\u2019s character in the original trilogy is that this is a man who not only had to go through such a traumatizing experience as a child, you know, being in the games and all, but then he also has to be a mentor for a district that year after year, never has victors. And he\u2019s the only one. He\u2019s doing it completely alone. And I think that is something that helps to make the case for why he would be willing to risk everything to take down the Capitol in the original trilogy. I don\u2019t like pinning all of that on like a teenage relationship in this book. <\/p>\n

CR:<\/strong> To be fair, it was also his family that affected him. <\/p>\n

CN: <\/strong>But the whole plot of the book was essentially Haymitch trying to take the Capitol down. I feel like it would have been more realistic for him to just be a scared kid trying to survive. <\/p>\n

ES:<\/strong> I think he is just a scared kid trying to survive. His internal monologue isn\u2019t, \u201cI can take down the Capitol. I am the sole being who can take down the capital.\u201d <\/strong>His internal monologue throughout the whole book is constantly: \u201cI am a girl failure. I am a wet sopping little meow, meow, man. And I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Laughter] <\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s really what he\u2019s constantly thinking. He just is doing it because he\u2019s like, well you\u2019re gonna kill me anyway.<\/p>\n

CR: <\/strong>That\u2019s true. <\/p>\n

ES: <\/strong>And he even doubles back on it sometimes and thinks, maybe I should try to live. I don\u2019t think the book is trying to pin all his revolution on necessarily just Lenore Dove and his family. I think he witnesses a lot of cruelty in his games because of the way that they keep fucking it up. He witnesses a lot of cruelty towards Ampert and Maysilee and Lou Lou and Louella.<\/p>\n

CR: <\/strong>I thought that the snap from A to B wasn\u2019t super convincing to me. Maybe him having to mentor a bunch of children from the district whose tributes never win, like you mentioned Camille, is what I imagined had broken him down. It might\u2019ve been interesting, I think, to see a book of him, post-winning, and mentoring someone.<\/p>\n

ES: <\/strong>To me, maybe I\u2019m just a little bitch, but I understand his crash out. He goes to the Hunger Games, he witnesses the brutal death of all of his friends other than Wyatt. He sees Louella get stabbed in the head. He sees Ampert get ripped to shreds. He sees Maysilee pecked to death by birds. And when he gets back \u2026 immediately his mom and little brother are dead. He thinks, at least I have Lenore Dove \u2014 and then he watches Lenore Dove die. If I were him, I would turn to substances so fast. Especially because he already has this connection to making liquor, and he knows that people who drink, drink to forget. <\/p>\n

CR: <\/strong>I think that the way that you just laid that out, I see that. But the way that Suzanne Collins laid it out, I didn\u2019t see it. And I can\u2019t pinpoint exactly why. <\/p>\n

CN: <\/strong>Maybe this is me hanging on too much to the Haymitch that I remember and created in my own head from reading the original books, but we\u2019re meant to believe that he is somebody who is rebellious and who will continue to fight past the point of it doing him any good. So seeing all these things taken away from him is tragic, yes, but I\u2019d like to believe that he would have, even when he lost everything, continued to try to fight back in the ways he could. Not necessarily loudly or to any sort of success, but continued to fight. <\/p>\n

CR: <\/strong>I mean, refusal to mentor the children is a way of fighting back for him maybe.<\/p>\n

ES: <\/strong>Or becoming a disorganized drunk so that he can\u2019t be prostituted or otherwise sold to the Capitol. He just becomes a joke.<\/p>\n

CN: <\/strong>And again, I agree with Cora, I see that and I see how that works, but I don\u2019t think that Suzanne Collins did that. <\/p>\n

CR: <\/strong>I don\u2019t know, Estlin\u2019s kind of winning me over!<\/p>\n

CN:<\/strong> They\u2019re convincing me that there\u2019s a better story in there, but I don\u2019t think that anybody can convince me that Collins pulled it off.<\/p>\n

MI: <\/strong>Yeah. I just don\u2019t think it was done the way that I expected or wanted it to be done. Which is the way that Estlin described it. <\/p>\n

ES:<\/strong> I think where you all might be coming from is the stark difference between the person he is in \u201cHunger Games\u201d versus the person he is in this book. For me, though, he did become distinct and well fleshed out. He\u2019s not super confident in himself, he lacks any self-importance and mostly just does things for other people, and that really came through to me of him being a protector. I think he is less 3D than Katniss and Snow, but at the same time Katniss had three books and Snow\u2019s book was longer.<\/p>\n

I do think it\u2019s my least favorite of what she\u2019s written, but I find it really hard to compare everything. All of the \u201cHunger Games\u201d books are almost incomparable to this one, because ultimately Haymitch\u2019s story is one of failure. And that\u2019s always what it was meant to be. There wasn\u2019t going to be anything rising from the ashes. We already knew that his family died and that his sweetheart was killed. It was mentioned in the original. So there was no room for anything other than that. <\/p>\n

CN: <\/strong>The next question I had was, in an interview<\/a> with her editor at Scholastic, Collins talks about the Hume quote that she includes at the very beginning of the book and the ideas that she went into the book with, which were implicit submission and the dangers of inductive reasoning. I was just wondering what you guys thought about the way that these messages are showing up in the text. Are they effective? Are they interesting? <\/p>\n

ES:<\/strong> I think implicit submission is one of the things that\u2019s definitely been done better by \u201cThe Hunger Games\u201d and \u201cThe Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.\u201d In this book, Plutarch asks Haymitch, \u201cWhy do you not fight back?\u201d or something along those lines. And the answer is that rebellion won\u2019t put food on the table. And I think that that was a huge sticking point in Katniss\u2019s relationship with Gale. Gale always had a rebellious streak in him. And Katniss was always thinking: And how is that gonna get me a squirrel? You\u2019re scaring off the birds. Even with Snow, I\u2019m not saying any of his actions are justified, but at the end of the day, everything he did came down to: He was poor and his family was poor. He had no prospects. He did what he thought he had to do in order to get food on the table. So, I don\u2019t think Haymitch revisits that with anything new. But I do think the other theme, not always believing what you see, I don\u2019t think that\u2019s something that can be over harped on.<\/p>\n

CN: <\/strong>Yeah. And I mean, I definitely think \u2026 this wouldn\u2019t be a \u201cHunger Games\u201d book without these themes. I wanted there to be more than just those things, though. Otherwise, what\u2019s the point of having this book, other than to entertain us? Which, if that is the case, feels like it inherently goes against the message of these books \u2026 that we shouldn\u2019t be entertained by this kind of story. We shouldn\u2019t be entertained by seeing another game. <\/p>\n

MI: <\/strong>This isn\u2019t really that question, because I didn\u2019t even notice the Hume quote in the beginning, but I just wanted to bring up the full Edgar Allan Poe poem. It was right at the end, and Collins said in an interview<\/a> when asked how far in the future the Hunger Games take place, she responded that it depends how optimistic you are. I think that it really shows how, if that poem \u2014 \u201cThe Raven\u201d \u2014 survived till the time of this book, how very soon it is. <\/p>\n

CR: \u201c<\/strong>The Raven\u201d was a little bit like, whoa, to me. I remember thinking, wait, that\u2019s a poem that I actually know. \u201cThe Raven\u201d is such a famous poem that it totally succeeds in drawing attention to the fact that their world is kind of similar to our world, in a way that I felt was effective. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s really important to the series that there is this literary tradition being passed down that continues on as a form of hope and resistance. To bring it back to that point you made earlier, Meagan, I think that\u2019s why Lenore Dove and the Covey are a through-line throughout all of the books for the most part. It\u2019s nice to see that art is valued, even in a totally dystopian society. I think that\u2019s something that\u2019s missing in a lot of other YA dystopian novels like \u201cDivergent.\u201d It\u2019s also the idea of community action, as Estlin said, and a community that has shared culture and not just shared space, is super important.<\/p>\n

ES:<\/strong> I think I would have appreciated in this book, seeing more of Haymitch in District 12. With Katniss, you get this deep understanding of the community that she has there and even just of her character.<\/p>\n

MI: <\/strong>I agree. Because I was honestly kind of confused by the fact that Burdock was supposed to be his best friend. I feel like they could have built up his relationships in the district more.<\/p>\n

CR: <\/strong>I honestly didn\u2019t have as much of an issue with that. I think at the end of the day, his mom is his mom, he\u2019s gonna feel emotions toward her, and I don\u2019t really need a super large amount of world building toward that. It started on the day of the reaping the same way as Katniss\u2019s book did, so I also thought it was a nice, parallel structure with the original Hunger Games.<\/p>\n

CN: <\/strong>For me, the issue isn\u2019t that it starts on the day of the reaping. I think that that\u2019s powerful. Collins didn\u2019t really sell to me that this is a place this character truly grew up in and cared about. She told me that a lot. But I didn\u2019t feel it. <\/p>\n

CR:<\/strong> I wonder what a side by side of the first chapter of \u201cThe Hunger Games\u201d versus the first chapter of this book would look like. There\u2019s a lot of similarities, which I think is super interesting and it\u2019s kind of surprising to me that you didn\u2019t feel that connection. I will say, though, the whole drama that happens with the peacekeepers and Lenore Dove at the reaping, that to me was like, \u201cWhat\u2019s going on guys?\u201d Did we need to know that kid\u2019s name and his life story?<\/p>\n

CN: <\/strong>Yeah, <\/strong>it feels like they\u2019re throwing a lot at you but she\u2019s also holding my hand the entire time. Which is not a super enjoyable reading experience. <\/p>\n

CR: <\/strong>I feel it would\u2019ve been more visceral if it was just like: the kid ran and Haymitch doesn\u2019t really know what\u2019s going on, you know, and then all of a sudden, he\u2019s running to help the kid who fell, or whatever it was. Because it got bogged down by all of the context and all of the knowledge he has of the place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

CN: <\/strong>I mean at the same time, it feels like Haymitch is sold to us in the original as such a smart character, and it felt like there were very few times in the novel when he was truly knowledgeable or thinking about things in a way that demonstrated any sort of cunning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

CR: <\/strong>I think the knowledge that he has in the later books, though, is mostly knowledge of the Capitol and how the Capitol works. And I don\u2019t think that’s something he would\u2019ve started out with. That\u2019s something he would\u2019ve gained throughout his years being a mentor.<\/p>\n

CN: <\/strong>Yeah, but he was cunning and smart and quippy and I feel like a lot of that doesn\u2019t show up. <\/p>\n

CR: <\/strong>I think that might be jaded and depressed. A lot of his development in that area comes from spending years being drunk and forced to watch children suffer. But I think the book wanted us to believe that it\u2019s a change that happened in just one day. I would\u2019ve liked, okay \u2014 I don\u2019t want<\/em> to see him suffer for 25 years \u2014 but that\u2019s how I would\u2019ve expected his character to come to the place he\u2019s at. I would\u2019ve expected him to try to encourage, try to help the tributes for the first few years at least. <\/p>\n

ES:<\/strong> I mean, did we ever get confirmation that that\u2019s not what he\u2019s doing?<\/p>\n

CR: <\/strong>Very true. But those issues that you have, Camille, with the disconnect between his character then and now, I think are things that are in that span of 25 years that I would be more interested in than the story we got, because it\u2019s a story we also know a lot of already. I don\u2019t know. Did you all enjoy reading it? Did you cry at all?<\/p>\n

ES:<\/strong> Yeah, I did. I mean, it got me, I started sobbing on, like, page 41 when Haymitch calls Louella sweetheart. <\/p>\n

CN: <\/strong>There were a lot of very sweet moments. It got me in the end. I\u2019ll say I do think that there were a lot of very moving moments and moments that reinforced my love for Haymitch. I want to be clear. I don\u2019t hate this book. I\u2019m just let down by it. I trusted her so much as an author before this. I love the original books, and I\u2019ve read them recently. It\u2019s not a thing where I\u2019m misremembering them. I think that they\u2019re very good. Even \u201cBallad\u201d got some unnecessary flack in terms of not being as deep. I thought it was and that it did what it sought out to do very well. This book feels like there was a lot less thought put into it and a lot less effort. I don\u2019t know, like I just think that it\u2019s just a character that I love, and I think that there are things that we learn that make it very sad, things that are already sad, get sadder, and some things get cheapened.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ES:<\/strong> I liked the ending of the book. She has a very specific way of writing endings where the character really metamorphosizes right in front of your eyes. And really, I think all of her characters at the end of their books were fucking crazy. It very much reminded me of Katniss after the explosion in \u201cMockingjay\u201d that kills Prim, and Snow in the forest in District 12 had that same spiral that, although the voice is different, was very similar.<\/p>\n

MI: <\/strong>I liked the ending and I liked the repetition of the poem. I didn\u2019t listen to the audio book, but I heard that the poem kept speeding up throughout to show his spiral. And I feel like that really began to show how he started to go into his like descent.<\/p>\n

CR:<\/strong> On paper I do like the idea of the crash out. I think it\u2019s something she\u2019s done well before and I think it\u2019s something that I can appreciate, but ultimately, I don\u2019t know if I felt it was earned, but I also felt that way about Snow\u2019s book. So, I think I need to wonder if I\u2019m just not a Suzanne Collins person anymore, and maybe that\u2019s okay.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Managing Arts Editor Camille Nagy, Senior Arts Editor Cora Rolfes and Daily Arts Writers Estlin Salah and Meagan Ismail can be reached at <\/em>camnagy@umich.edu<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>corolfes@umich.edu<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>essalah@umich.edu<\/em><\/a>, and <\/em>mismai@umich.edu<\/em><\/a>, respectively.<\/em><\/p>\n

The post Arts Talks: \u2018Sunrise on the Reaping\u2019<\/a> appeared first on The Michigan Daily<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Michigan Daily Arts section presents Arts Talks, a series where The Daily Arts Writers gather to discuss their opinions on and reactions to the latest and major releases in the art world. In this segment of Arts Talks, four Daily Arts Writers gather to discuss the latest Hunger Games book, \u201cSunrise on the Reaping.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1220,1222,1221,49],"class_list":{"0":"post-1099","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-reaping","10":"tag-sunrise","11":"tag-talks"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1099"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1101,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099\/revisions\/1101"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}