So this is what happened when I was in flight yesterday. Entertainment Weekly has the exclusive first look at Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen in the movie adaptation of The Hunger Games. Thank you for your emails and your reactions. And my reaction?

Medium.

Does that count as a reaction?

I think they’re going in the right direction. I don’t think they’re there yet. Also, why is she so clean? And is Katniss modelling for Noxema? The way they’ve retouched it, this looks like a skin care advert. Maybe the braid should be longer too…

Anyway, like I said, I didn’t punch myself in the face from love or hate either way. So…

Medium.

Interestingly, I was talking to Laura about this not too long ago and she only read The Hunger Games AFTER Lawrence was cast. So in her mind Lawrence has always been Katniss. I think it’ll be like this for a lot of people as the wave of original readers becomes the minority when the books start selling as a result of the Hollywood treatment. In a way I wonder if that’s actually more comforting. This way, you’re just told who it will be. And you don’t have to struggle with finding her in your own mind and risk disappointment later on. Interesting how we take ownership of the things we love, are attached to. Especially when it’s been so shaped by your imagination. Those very real feelings of pleasure or anger when expectations built by imagination aren’t met, this is the power, I think, of reading, of an investment between you and a story and its characters that can turn into possessiveness over something, frankly, that we didn’t create.

So is it better to be handed the face of a character, to have that decision already made for you before you meet her, or do you still prefer conjuring her for yourself, even if that means someday that image keeps fighting with the one they force you to accept?

Click here to read more about Lawrence as Katniss at Ew.com.