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Showing posts with label voldemort. Show all posts
Showing posts with label voldemort. Show all posts
Friday, January 31, 2014
Monday, December 3, 2012
Monday, July 30, 2012
There Will Always Be an England
Anyone who's ever seen Oliver! or My Fair Lady or Mary Poppins already knows that London is full of colorful characters, ready to burst into song and lively dance at the drop of a hat. But even beyond the winsome orphans, the mystically wise chimney sweeps and the oh-so-proper upper crust at Ascot, we now know that delightful musical pageantry extends even to ruthless killer James Bond and and the effervescent Dark Lord, Voldemort himself!
Yes, it was a veritable Disney parade style roll call of British icons at the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony. The headiness was almost enough to make you forget that the main characters, James Bond, the Beatles, Mary Poppins et al, were a half century old or more. And yet stage and film director Danny Boyle also managed to work in the history of Britain's contributions to industry and technology, from the railroads to the industrial revolution to the World Wide Web.
It really was an entire theme park packed into one stadium and 3 and a half hours.
Yes, it was a veritable Disney parade style roll call of British icons at the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony. The headiness was almost enough to make you forget that the main characters, James Bond, the Beatles, Mary Poppins et al, were a half century old or more. And yet stage and film director Danny Boyle also managed to work in the history of Britain's contributions to industry and technology, from the railroads to the industrial revolution to the World Wide Web.
It really was an entire theme park packed into one stadium and 3 and a half hours.
Friday, July 15, 2011
Post Voldemortem
It's finally over. Osama bin Laden's been killed. "Whitey" Bulger's been captured. And now Voldemort's dead. Somehow the movie imparts a greater sense of finality than the book did. Maybe we actually needed to see Harry, Ron and Hermione as dowdy, paunchy middle-aged people ... as, ugh, parents!
Parents don't fare too well in Rowling's world. With the exception of the Weasleys they're mostly absent (Hermione's folks), abusive (the Dursleys), infectiously evil (the Malfoys), or just plain dead. Young readers can indulge the fantasy that their real parents are kind and just and good, unlike the morons they're forced to live with.
The HP stories are interesting both because they follow in a long-tradition of hero legends, and because they don't. The tales of the superhero predate even the King Arthur fable, going back at least to Achilles and Beowulf and Gilgamesh. People seem to love these stories of someone with extraordinary powers, generally foreordained by birth or magical circumstances, arising in order to set things right. In addition to those mentioned above, there are the Last Airbender, Frodo Baggins, Clark Kent, Luke Skywalker and many others.
And Harry Potter has all the traditional earmarks. He's chosen by prophesy. His noble lineage is hidden from him. He copes with both celebrity and scorn in his adventures.
But there's one major difference between Harry and most of the other legendary heroes ... He's actually a pretty mediocre wizard. He's not as bright as Hermione, and nowhere near as powerful as Dumbledore or any of the Deatheaters. He and his friends are completely outmatched in the battle at the Ministry (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix), and Snape essentially toys with him in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Harry himself acknowledges that most of his successes were the result of pure luck, with no particular skill or knowledge.
In some sense, Rowling created the first politically correct legendary hero ... one whose strength is his ordinariness. He succeeds because he has friends. That's all. Like the politically correct view of history, that things happen because of tides and trends rather than individuals, Harry is caught up in the forces that surround him. Even his prophesied role comes to him because Voldemort believes the prophesy. It's self-fulfilling. The chosen one could just as easily been someone else (though Neville Longbottom and the Chamber of Secrets doesn't have quite the same ring.)
The question is: Does the politically correct hero story work? Does it satisfy the urge that has driven people to create and embrace these legends for thousands of years?
Judging from the crowds at the midnight release of the final book in 2007, or the final movie today, the answer appears to be: Duh!
Parents don't fare too well in Rowling's world. With the exception of the Weasleys they're mostly absent (Hermione's folks), abusive (the Dursleys), infectiously evil (the Malfoys), or just plain dead. Young readers can indulge the fantasy that their real parents are kind and just and good, unlike the morons they're forced to live with.
The HP stories are interesting both because they follow in a long-tradition of hero legends, and because they don't. The tales of the superhero predate even the King Arthur fable, going back at least to Achilles and Beowulf and Gilgamesh. People seem to love these stories of someone with extraordinary powers, generally foreordained by birth or magical circumstances, arising in order to set things right. In addition to those mentioned above, there are the Last Airbender, Frodo Baggins, Clark Kent, Luke Skywalker and many others.
And Harry Potter has all the traditional earmarks. He's chosen by prophesy. His noble lineage is hidden from him. He copes with both celebrity and scorn in his adventures.
But there's one major difference between Harry and most of the other legendary heroes ... He's actually a pretty mediocre wizard. He's not as bright as Hermione, and nowhere near as powerful as Dumbledore or any of the Deatheaters. He and his friends are completely outmatched in the battle at the Ministry (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix), and Snape essentially toys with him in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Harry himself acknowledges that most of his successes were the result of pure luck, with no particular skill or knowledge.
In some sense, Rowling created the first politically correct legendary hero ... one whose strength is his ordinariness. He succeeds because he has friends. That's all. Like the politically correct view of history, that things happen because of tides and trends rather than individuals, Harry is caught up in the forces that surround him. Even his prophesied role comes to him because Voldemort believes the prophesy. It's self-fulfilling. The chosen one could just as easily been someone else (though Neville Longbottom and the Chamber of Secrets doesn't have quite the same ring.)
The question is: Does the politically correct hero story work? Does it satisfy the urge that has driven people to create and embrace these legends for thousands of years?
Judging from the crowds at the midnight release of the final book in 2007, or the final movie today, the answer appears to be: Duh!
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