Episode 43 – Too Old and Too Bald

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 Dave laments a gas station chimichanga, which leads us to discuss recent bad press about Harlequin publishing.

We discuss the dodgy sales tactics and licensed distributors Harlequin are using.

This leads us to talk briefly about the idea that all publishers are bad.

We go on to talk about some contract clauses of which to be aware.

Alan then discusses the online beating he took for having an opinion about The Hunger Games. The whole thing was triggered by a couple of blog posts:

www.alanbaxteronline.com/hunger-games-hype-adults-reading-ya/

http://www.alanbaxteronline.com/hunger-games-movies-books/

The idea Alan proposes that the film, in this rare instance, was better than the book caused some visceral responses from 11 year-old fans. This exchange happened on Google+, not Alan’s blog, incidentally.

We also talk about adults reading YA fiction and whether we should expect to be bored.

This leads us to talk about why The Hunger Games, flaws notwithstanding, is such a popular story.

Here’s the article written by Alan’s wife which he mentions in the podcast. The article does a good analysis of The Hunger Games and it’s ethics and morality:

http://www.thirteenoclock.com.au/the-hunger-games-movie-review-and-analysis-by-halinka-orszulok/

We then go on to talk about some of the accusations that Suzanne Collins (author of The Hunger Games) ripped off an earlier book, Battle Royale by Koushun Takami. Dave read the book recently and talks about the similarities and differences.

Alan gets one last dig in about The Hunger Games towards the end.