Lois H. Gresh's Blog, page 12
February 16, 2012
DARK FUSIONS: WHERE MONSTERS LURK
Cody GoodfellowNicholas KaufmannMark McLaughlinDarrell SchweitzerRobert M. PriceAnn SchwaderLynn SpitzJames Alan GardnerMichael MaranoLisa MortonNick CatoJohn HaefeleChristopher FulbrightDavid SakmysterYvonne NavarroNancy KilpatrickScott David Aniolowski & T.E. GrauNorman Prentiss
We have a great lineup and some terrific stories in this anthology.
Abundant thanks to Weird Fiction Master ST Joshi and Fantastic Publisher Pete Crowther!
Lois
February 6, 2012
BIG BANG THEORY TV SHOW SCIENCE: Magnetic Monopoles, a Holy Grail of String Theory
Big Bang Theory Episode 2.23: The Monopolar Expedition
In the final episode of season two of the Big Bang Theory TV show, our second favorite physicist, Sheldon Cooper -- our all-time favorite physicist, of course, was Albert Einstein -- proposes an expedition to the North Pole to search for Magnetic Monopoles, find them, and receive the coveted Nobel Prize.
Magnetic monopoles are particles that have only magnetic pole (for example, north or south). By analogy, an electron has a negative charge and a proton has a positive charge. However, all magnets that have been observed in nature have both north and south poles.
In nature, particles with charge, such an electron or proton, are constantly spinning, and a spinning electric charge acts as a permanent magnet with a north and south pole. The electron has an electric charge and is a tiny magnet; the proton has an electric charge and is also a tiny magnet.
A monopole is a particle for which a magnetic field is not generated by a spinning electric charge, but by a new kind of charge, a magnetic charge. No such particles have ever been observed in nature.
String theory predicts that magnetic monopoles were created during the big bang, so they should exist in nature, although not in large abundance. Some must be whirling in outer space, and thus, they could end up coming down from the sky among all the cosmic radiation that rains on the Earth.
Many experiments have looked for these monopoles. For example, the MACRO experiment at the Gran Sasso tunnel in Italy looked for monopoles by investigating the interactions of cosmic rays in large scintillation counters and by measuring their velocity and magnetic charge. After years of searching, no monopoles have been found.
Sheldon's hypothesis was that more monopoles would be attracted to the North Pole due to the Earth's magnetic field.
However, if magnetic monopoles were created during the big bang, galactic magnetic fields would have accelerated them over distances of light years, and therefore, they would have such high speeds that they would hit the Earth at any location, not necessary at the North Pole.
Over billions of years, they would have been deposited into rocks on the Earth and Moon. However, no monopoles were found in Moon rocks or in magnetic rocks on Earth. Over the lifetime of the Earth, monopoles would also have produced small tracks in materials such as mica. Again, many searches failed to find monopoles in mica.
Physicists have tried to create monopoles in particle accelerators, but to date, none have been created in any accelerator.
Over the next few years, experiments at the LHC will attempt to create and search for new states of matter as the Higgs Boson, Supersymmetric Particles, mini black holes, and last but not least, magnetic monopoles. So stay tuned.
This is the second in a series of BIG BANG THEORY TV SHOW SCIENCE posts for the general public. With two physicists in the family, we're huge fans of the show.
c. 2012 Lois Gresh
January 27, 2012
BIG BANG THEORY TV SHOW SCIENCE: Faster-than-light (FTL) Neutrino Particles
One of 2011's Biggest Science "Discoveries"?Big Bang Theory Episode 5.08: The Isolation Permutation
In September 2011, the OPERA neutrino experiment (located in the Gran Sasso tunnel in the Abruzzo region of central Italy) announced that a beam of neutrinos generated at the CERN accelerator in Geneva, Switzerland traveled 450 miles from Geneva to Italy faster than the speed of light. The experimenters claimed that the neutrinos beat a metaphorical beam by 60 nanoseconds. For reference, light travels about 60 feet in 60 nanoseconds.
In the Big Bang Theory TV show called The Isolation Permutation -- episode 5.08, theoretical physicist Sheldon Cooper tries to make fun dinner conversation by discussing this topic. He says, "Faster-than-light particles at CERN: paradigm-shifting discovery or another Swiss export as full of holes as their cheese?"
Are theoretical physicists the only ones who are skeptical of this experimental result because they can't imagine that Einstein's theory of relativity could be wrong?
Despite all the headlines that one of the biggest science discoveries of 2011 centered around faster-than-light neutrino particles, it turns out that experimental physicists are equally skeptical, and not due to theoretical prejudice. In a nutshell, this experimental result contradicts what we learned from other observations in 1987.
In 1987, two experimental groups -- one in Japan and one in the USA -- detected a pulse of neutrinos originating from a supernova explosion. The SN1987A supernova was in the Large Magellanic Cloud about 168,000 light years from Earth, close enough to be visible to the naked eye. Traveling at the speed of light, the neutrinos reached Earth 3 hours before the light did. The neutrinos originated from the core of the supernova.
The light from the supernova was delayed because it had to get through the remnants of the stellar explosion, not because the neutrinos traveled faster than light. According to University of Rochester Physics Professor Arie Bodek, winner of the Panofsky Prize in Experimental Particle Physics, "If the neutrinos from SN1987A had the same speed as that reported by the OPERA experiment they would have arrived about 4 years before the light did."
Some would argue that neutrinos from a supernova are at substantially lower energy than the neutrinos from CERN, and that the CERN neutrinos travel at a speed faster than light because they are more energetic. According to Professor Bodek, this "explanation" is difficult to quantify because it implies that neutrinos at low energy, which travel a little slower than the speed of light (since we know that the neutrinos have small mass), can be accelerated to some energy that allows them to break the speed of light barrier. Tachyons, which are hypothetical particles that that can only travel at speeds faster than light, must have an imaginary mass. Although it is not clear what an imaginary mass means, the neutrinos either have a real mass, or an imaginary mass, but not both.
A devil's advocate would say that we know that the SN1987A neutrinos are electron-type neutrinos, while the neutrinos from CERN are muon-type neutrinos, and therefore, there is no contradiction between the two results. However, the discovery of the phenomenon of neutrino oscillations, in which electron neutrinos oscillate and become muon neutrinos and then return to being electron neutrinos as they travel to earth from the sun, implies that electron-type and muon-type neutrinos are not really different from each other since one can turn into another.
So what should we believe?
A confused student at the University of Rochester asked a theoretical physics professor what he thought about the report that neutrinos travel faster than light. The professor paused for a moment and said, "I think it must have something to do with the European financial crisis."
For more information, please see:
Dennis Overbye, Scientists Report Second Sighting of Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos, The New York Times
OPERA experiment reports anomaly in flight time of neutrinos from CERN to INFN Gran Sasso, LNGS Gran Sasso Laboratory News
OPERA photo credit: Pasquale Migliozzi, INFN Napoli, OPERA Collaboration.
This is the first in a series of BIG BANG THEORY TV SHOW SCIENCE posts for the general public. With two physicists in the family, we're huge fans of the show.
January 25, 2012
ELDRITCH EVOLUTIONS on Bram Stoker Ballot
I almost forgot to post this item! ELDRITCH EVOLUTIONS: 26 Weird Science Fiction, Dark Fantasy, and Horror Stories somehow made it onto the HWA Preliminary Bram Stoker Award Ballot for Best Collection of 2011.
Thank you to everyone who recommended it. This particular book means a lot to me.
Here are some of the reviews:
"An extravagant gift...devastating genius...and oh, that story, Debutante Ball - in a perfect literary landscape it would now be as well-remembered as Shirley Jackson's The Lottery."
--Adam-Troy Castro, SCI FI, official magazine of the SYFY TV channel
"Riveting stories with mind-bending ideas intensely creative!"
--Catherine Asaro, Nebula-Award winning author of The Ruby Dice
"Lois Gresh is a terrific writer and this collection is a terrific book for anyone who wants to read the best in science fiction, dark fantasy, dark humor, and horror."
--Robert Weinberg, Winner of Lifetime Achievement Award, HWA
"Everything you want in horror fiction."
--Scott Edelman, Five-time Nominee for the Bram Stoker Award, Editor of Syfy's Blastr
"Lois Gresh makes me scared of things I've never been scared of before. In person, Lois seems so nice and ordinary...but in her writing, she's *evil*."
--James Alan Gardner, Winner of the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial award
"Intensely memorable stories...shocking, funny, disturbing. A uniquely gifted writer whose work I have admired for many years."
--Charles Platt, former editor at Avon books & senior writer at Wired
"If you're hoping for surprisingly quirky takes on reality combined with cleverly worded fiction, you're in the right place. One of the cleverest writers out there."
--Nancy Kilpatrick, editor of Evolve: Vampire Stories of the New Undead
About Time: Cosmology and Culture at the Twilight of the Big Bang
University of Rochester Professor of Astrophysics Adam Frank's About Time: Cosmology and Culture at the Twilight of the Big Bang (Free Press, 2011) is a survey of the history of cosmology intertwined with the history of human society, religion, and culture. The principal point of About Time is that human society, religion, and culture change over time based on what we perceive as cosmological truths. By exploring both cosmological and human history side by side, Frank gives the reader a fascinating and provocative way to view cosmology and time.
The book expands on Frank's April 2008 article in Discover Magazine called "3 Theories That Might Blow Up the Big Bang: Time may not have a beginning--and it might not exist at all." Both postulate that science is ready to abandon the idea that nothing existed before the Big Bang, that time might be an illusion, that time might not run sequentially forward and backward. How can we talk about the dawn of time--that is, the moments before and during the Big Bang--when time has no beginning?
Rather than think of the universe and its inflation, theorists are now thinking in terms of multiverses and eternal inflation. This notion was proposed in the late 1980s by MIT V.F. Weisskopf Professor of Physics Alan Guth, who wrote that when the universe was between 10^-37 and 10^-24 of a second old, it doubled repeatedly in size until the expansion, or inflation, finally slowed down.
Along with Guth, other physicists in the 1980s proposed that pocket universes might constantly be popping in and out of our universe's uninflated background. They called the sum of these pocket universes the multiverse.
Eternal inflation refers to the inflation and deflation throughout the multiverse. Fluctuations in dark energy might provide the kick that creates pockets universes out of empty space. While some pocket universes might move forward in time, others might move backwards. Basically, so the theory goes, before our Big Bang, a lot of other Big Bangs might have happened, with the inflating universes possibly collapsing into black holes or running backwards in time.
In 1999, physicist Julian Barbour wrote in The End of Time that time might not even exist. Hence, what came before our Big Bang might be fairly irrelevant.
What's unique about Frank's book is his approach. As he writes, "Even today, human culture needs its dominant cosmology, and if culture changes, it appears that cosmos building will, too."
Frank is very skilled at presenting complex science to the general public. Anyone interested in string theory, multiverses, the Big Bang, and time will understand the concepts presented in About Time.
A recipient of an American Astronomical Society prize for his science writing, Frank is a frequent contributor to many magazines, including Discover and Scientific American. He is a frequent guest on the History Channel and is the co-founder of NPR's science blog.
You can buy the book here.
For more information, please see:
Adam Frank, "3 Theories That Might Blow Up the Big Bang: Time may not have a beginning--and it might not exist at all," Discover Magazine, April 2008.
Brad Lemley, "Guth's Grand Guess," Discover Magazine, April 2002.
January 15, 2012
HUNGER GAMES COMPANION - another great review!
A huge thanks to Fresh Fiction for a wonderful review of
THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION!
"What is just as exciting (well, almost) as the Hunger Games? THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION, of course! The reader will be taken through details that makes The Hunger Games the exciting, fast-paced, nerve-wracking series fans around the world obsess over."
--Krystal Larson, Fresh Fiction
January 3, 2012
TEEN INK EDITOR'S CHOICE AWARD!
A huge thanks to Rachel Herriman, who interviewed me about The Hunger Games for Teen Ink. Her wonderful interview received an Editor's Choice Award!Here's a small excerpt followed by a link to the entire article.
Lois Gresh is the author of several popular novels, including the short story collection, Eldritch Evolution and her sci-fi thriller, Blood and Ice. She has also written many unofficial guides which belong in any collector's or fanatic's library, such as The Science of Superheroes, The Twilight Companion and most recently, The Hunger Games Companion.
Rachel: You recently wrote THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION; how did that opportunity come about?
Lois: I was gripped by THE HUNGER GAMES trilogy, but I also felt that Suzanne Collins' books were filled with important messages. For example, people should focus on what matters (kindness, peace, nurturing their children, health, food for all) than on things such as what they look like and how mean they can be to other people. Is it more important to get ahead -- literally to survive in THE HUNGER GAMES -- by stabbing other people in the back, or does it make more sense to get ahead by using your skills and intelligence and trying to help the people around you?
I was struck by the horrific nature of Katniss' life from the first chapters of THE HUNGER GAMES. I saw the trilogy as a reflection -- a mirror -- of our own times, our own history as human beings. The trilogy is a bold warning, in my opinion, that as an intelligent species, we need to pull together and save ourselves from a future that could even remotely be anything like what we see in THE HUNGER GAMES. The novels are brilliant in that they acutely warn us about where we might be heading if we don't take care of each other on a global level. Mass starvation isn't right. Sending little children into the slaughterhouse of war isn't right. Environmental meltdowns, terrorist acts, and nuclear warfare aren't right. Set against these themes, Suzanne Collins brings us a story of rich beauty. Katniss, Peeta, Gale, Prim, Rue, and all the others: as readers, we care about them and desperately want everything to turn out okay. THE HUNGER GAMES novels are among the finest books I've read in quite awhile.
So when my longtime editor at St. Martin's Press asked if I wanted to write THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION, I immediately said, "Yes!"
Rachel: What can fans expect?Lois: THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION includes facts and insights into the main ideas and themes of the novels -- from the nature of evil to weaponry and rebellions to surviving the end of the world. I dig deep beneath the surface and offer opinions as to how the world has ended up in this hideous post-apocalyptic state; why Katniss agrees to be the Mockingjay, why she chooses Peeta, why she becomes intensely depressed, why she becomes addicted to morphling; why the Capitol is so evil, why the government lets their own people starve, why they send children into these deadly arenas, why they justify binge-eating and plastic surgery and fine clothing while letting everyone else die from grotesque torture. The book covers everything from the various type of muttations, including how they might be created in real life, to the poisons and medicines, the Avoxes, the hovercrafts, the Career Tributes; Thresh, Finnick, Plutarch Heavensbee, Haymitch, President Snow, Cato, Beetee, Johanna, Katniss' mother, Buttercup, Effie Trinket, Caesar Flickerman; and very interesting to me, the complex nature of the arenas themselves. As you might have guessed by my answers thus far, I'm obviously FASCINATED by THE HUNGER GAMES!
Rachel: What is the biggest difference between writing children's books and adult fiction? Which do you prefer?
Lois: I enjoy both categories. I don't hold back at all in my adult fiction.
As for children's books, with DRAGONBALL Z, I very much wanted to make children laugh and have a good time. I wrote DRAGONBALL Z with my 10-year-old son, and we received more than 2,000 letters from children who wrote that they loved the book. I can't tell you how happy that made me! The same thing happened with THE TRUTH BEHIND A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS -- so many wonderful letters, they made my heart sing.
That said, I don't believe in treating teens as if they're little children. They're mature, responsible, and old enough to read THE HUNGER GAMES. Teens should have books that reflect the times in which we live now, and they should have books that help them think about tomorrow, too.
Read the entire story here:
TEEN INK EDITOR'S CHOICE AWARD: HUNGER GAMES INTERVIEW WITH LOIS GRESH
December 15, 2011
HUNGER GAMES FANS to FOLLOW!
If you're a Hunger Games fan, make sure to check out these terrific sites. Each offers something unique - I always find something fascinating about the books, the upcoming movie, the characters, the actors, even the guy who's coordinating all the stunts for the films.
HGgirlonfire.com -- read a super interview with me courtesy of these wonderful Hunger Games fans!
NightlockPodcast.com -- take a look at another really nice interview with me on this site, which also ran a contest!
Currently, 3 lucky readers have won FREE copies of THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION, which I'll personally autograph and mail this week. Congratulation to the winners, happy holidays, and happy reading!
HungerGamesMovie.org -- this is a HUGE Hunger Games fansite with all the latest info about the upcoming movie, as well as just about everything else you could possibly want to know about the Hunger Games. The official partner of NightLockPodcast!
When I meet people like the ones who run these fansites, I remember what attracted me to fandom long ago. Nice people who love to read. That's what it's all about.
December 9, 2011
Fabulous Hunger Games Fansite!
Today, I'm pleased to welcome Sheila Cordero (left) and Lindsay McComber (right), who created and run the popular Hunger Games fansite, hggirlonfire.com.
I recently interviewed Kira and Matt of Nightlock Podcast on TOR.com. I started the interview by noting that, in addition to being an author, I've been a part of science fiction, fantasy, and horror fandom for 25 years. After meeting an interesting variety of Hunger Games fans on the internet, I began wondering what drives them. What is it about the Hunger Games that they love so much? What do they think about the upcoming movie? Kira and Matt had some interesting answers, and so do Sheila and Lindsay. Read on!
Lois: What inspired you to create hggirlonfire.com , and what can fans expect to find on your site?
After reading the books we were so captured by the story and emotional depth of the characters that we found ourselves wanting the opportunity to connect with other fans by developing a site that provided the most current Hunger Games news and gave fans like us an outlet to share in our Hunger Games obsession. On our site, readers can expect to find not only the latest news reading the Hunger Games books and movie, but also information about the Hunger Games cast members other projects and participation in events.
Lois: How many people are involved with hggirlonfire.com , and what are your different functions?
We are currently a team of 5 Hunger Games obsessed fans!
Lindsay and Sheila are the founders and admins for the site. We maintain the site's daily operations coming up with special features, contests, and tracking the news.
To help keep up with all the news on a daily basis, we have 3 amazing, dedicated and talented bloggers in Colleen, Amie and Ella.
Lois: Are the actors portraying the tributes close to your visions of the characters in the book?
A lot has been debated about the actors cast in the Hunger Games movie. While visually we don't believe any of the actors fit the images we had in our heads, we support their casting, and after seeing some of the images from the movie, reading different interviews, and of course that AMAZING trailer, we couldn't be happier with the casting choices made. We also appreciate that much of the casting has been with relative newcomers and are excited to see what they bring to their characters.
Lois: I'm interested in your take on some of the main characters. For example, I think of Katniss as kind, thoughtful, resourceful, intelligent, heroic, and forced to act hard and tough due to the extreme circumstances of the Hunger Games. Do you agree? If not, how do you view Katniss' personality?
Yes, Katniss is all of these things. For us, she is the epitome of a survivor. She has endured such a difficult life at such a young age and found the strength to pull herself together to survivive. Whether that was learning to hunt and gather plants to eat, stepping up to take the place of her sister at the reaping, finding the courage to open herself up to possible love, and facing her fears to become a symbol of hope for people. At the same time Katniss doesn't claim to be more than she is, a young girl thrown into an impossible situation and experiencing all the fear and uncertainty that goes along with that.
Lois: Everyone's talking about the actors chosen to portray Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson). Do they meet your expectations as the two main male characters in the Hunger Games?
We know a lot has been said about these actors not living up to the image that fans had in their heads as they read these stories. While we can certainly understand the initial fan reactions to the casting, for us, it was ultimately more about whether these 2 actors could capture the essence of Gale and Peeta. Could we believe them in these roles, and would we feel the same way about them as we did about the characters in the book. Listening to interviews from both Josh and Liam, watching their work in other films, as well as the images we've seen and the Hunger Games trailer, we think the right decision was made. We have found that Josh does seem to embody all the traits of Peeta that fans love, and Liam exudes just the right amount of grit we imagined in a character such as Gale.
Lois: Oddly, I was very fond of Haymitch Abernathy in the books. He appealed to me as an "uncle" type of character, someone who cared about the kids in the arena; but like Katniss' mother, Haymitch had suffered long and hard, and he was too far gone to function well. His drunken behaviors added a bit of amusement and lightness to the story. What do you think about Haymitch?
Haymitch breaks our heart. While his antics in the book were great points of humor to relieve some of the seriousness of the story, when we think about who Haymitch was as a person and how he became the way he is, it's really a pretty tragic story. Haymitch was an intelligent young man who won his games by figuring out the so called "chink" in games. While in the games, Haymitch killed to survive, then witnessed the death of his district 12 ally. After the games, the Capitol kills Haymitch's family and he is left essentially alone, to deal with all of his feelings and the trauma from his experience. Then year after year, he is forced to mentor the district 12 tributes only to watch them die in their games. His only means of coping was by drinking himself into a stupor on a daily basis and become the source of of jokes. But internally, Haymitch was a tortured soul, one who was angry at the Capitol, and not surprisingly became a central player in the rebellion against the Capitol.
Lois: Do you have a favorite stylist?
Cinna of course is our favorite stylist. We loved his interaction with Katniss and the relationship they were able to form.
Lois: It's almost obligatory to ask everyone, "Which is your favorite book of the three?" I've been surprised by some of the answers! Which book did you like the best, and why?
Lindsay's favorite book is Hunger Games. I tend to like origin stories and this is the book that introduced me to Katniss and the world she lives in. As bad as that world is, I can't help but love the book that was my first glimpse into this world, and my first introduction to characters that I love so much.
Sheila's favorite book is Catching Fire. I loved this book because I really enjoyed reading about Katniss and Peeta's experience after the games, and what happens to them.
Lois: Do you think there's a danger that the real world could someday become like the world of the Hunger Games? Are people so mean to each other, so greedy, so vile that we're in danger of blowing ourselves into oblivion (via some sort of apocalyptic event) and then subjecting our children to gladiator-type death arenas? Are we capable of the inhumanities of the Hunger Games?
It's hard to imagine our world being like the Hunger Games. We like to think that people are better than that, and that we have enough controls in place to prevent such an occurrence, but then again, I think if there wasn't a balance of people in this world who fight to do the right thing, people can certainly be capable of some of the inhumanity of the Hunger Games.
Lois: Of all the inhumanities of the Hunger Games, which ones do you think are the worst?
The starvation of the children in this book was really tough. It made me so sad to read about Katniss' starvation with her family and that there were no resources she could turn to to get help. It broke our heart to read Rue exclaim she's never had a whole leg to herself before, and reading about how even the people in District 11 who provided food to the Capitol, never had enough to eat themselves.
Lois: Finally, I'd love to know more about the people behind hggirlonfire.com. Are you big fans of other series? When not running hggirlonfire.com, what other things do you enjoy?
When not obsessing about the Hunger Games, we are all big fans of Harry Potter and Twilight. Lindsay is the main admin for a Team-Twilight.com and Sheila blogs for this Team Twilight as well.
Lois: Thanks for stopping by, Sheila and Lindsay. I enjoyed interviewing you very much. For fans, please hop over to hggirlonfire.com and check them out!
In this holiday season, all best wishes to all Hunger Games fans!
~~Lois
November 29, 2011
THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION - IS PRESIDENT SNOW A PSYCHOPATH?
Here's an excerpt from THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION that I found on the UK Pan-Macmillan Publishing site. I figured it might be nice to include the excerpt on my blog, too!
In Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games, President Snow is the ruler of Panem. He is responsible for the creation of the Hunger Games. Author of The Hunger Games Companion Lois H. Gresh asks whether Snow and his cronies fit the bill of psychopaths . . .
A psychopath is quite different from someone who is psychotic. The psychotic person suffers from severe mental disorders that are probably caused by biological factors. For example, schizophrenics can be confused, they have delusions and hallucinations. They tend to be withdrawn, depressed, and anxious.
The psychopathic person, as defined by doctors, has a disorder of character or personality. These people are lucid, they do not hear voices or see things that don't exist. They can be quite charming. They do not suffer from increased angst, depression, or insecurities. Many simply lack any compassion or empathy for their victims.
It's likely that, as with most human behavior, psychopathic behavior results from a combination of biological traits and social environment. And then there's that gray area: How extreme does the behavior have to be for a person to be called psychopathic?
President Snow, for example, exhibits all the behaviors associated with psychopathic criminals.
Psychopathic Traits, President Snow, and His Gamemakers
Personality Traits and Behaviors Associated with an Egomaniac? - Yes
No compassion for others? - Yes
No empathy for others? - Yes
No remorse? - Yes
No feelings of guilt? - Yes
Meticulously plans tortures and killings? - Yes
Manipulative? - Yes
Chronic liar? - Yes
Superficially charming and personable? - Yes
Inflated sense of self-worth? - Yes
Very good at faking intimacy and compassion? - Yes
Callous? - Yes
Accepts no responsibilities for his actions? - Yes
Control freak? - Yes
Sadistic—enjoys humiliating and hurting other people? - Yes
Sexually promiscuous or selling others for sexual purposes? - Yes
Preys on others? - Yes
-------Extracted from The Hunger Games Companion
My thanks to UK Pan-Macmillan, which is featuring THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION throughout November!
Pssssttt... if you read this far down and you live in the UK, go their site and enter the contest. They're giving away 10 FREE COPIES TO UK READERS!
