Reading through the story for the first time, the song that
came to mind immediately when Katsa discovers Po’s fighting Grace after the first dinner party was Britney
Spears’ Toxic. This interpretation is serious, but would probably be best in a not-so-serious
adaptation since the song is a bit old and campy now. I thought it was fitting since
Katsa’s immediate relationship with Po is very murky and driven by emotions
which she couldn’t comprehend. Most directly, their sparring is similar to
Toxic’s comparison between infatuation and a drug-induced high since Katsa,
without even thinking about potential other reasons for why she would feel so
strangely around Po, truly enjoys the opportunity to finally be able to fight a
worthy opponent. Also, since the story is pretty heavy-handed about suggesting
her infatuation with him, the song’s aggressive, romantic lyrics fit well—especially
considering Katsa’s original distaste toward relationships in general. Finally,
I think that since the book is aimed toward an adolescent audience, the usage
of a pop song would be apt in a movie adaptation though I’m not sure how
outdated Britney is at this point.
Hi Liren,
ReplyDeleteHaha, I do think that Britney has the most sway with my generation, not as much with the youths any more, though these things do circle back around. It would be helpful for the post to embed a youtube video of the song or link to some other media file. I also would like to see more specific lyrics analysis. I think that something like this could work for a campy adaptation of Graceling, at least in the promo trailer. I'm thinking of something like the promos for Suicide Squad.