 Ring Ping!! |
Posted on 11/06/2002 10:19:37 AM PST by ksen
LA Times Article - Link:
So this year, as audiences prepare for Round 2 -- the Nov. 15 release of Warner Bros.' "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" and the Dec. 19 opening of New Line's "The Two Towers" -- the fans are very calm. Impatient, but calm.
Which actually makes the filmmakers a little nervous. Because the only thing more daunting than a suspicious audience is a really, really expectant one.
(Excerpt) Read more at calendarlive.com ...
Have you forgotten 13?
Oh yeah, like I'm worried about him studying without me knowning about it...
Er, uh, excuse me, I mean to say, I'm sure Miss Hair is constantly wrestling with prodigious issues of great pith and moment...
(whew!)
Ditto that. Why do these people try to compare children's literature with epic (grown-up) myths.
If I could get a house elf to do clean my house and scoop the cat pan, I would take back all my elf-bashing. :)
Ring Ping!! |
I feel like I used to when I was seven years old waiting for Christmas. I can't wait for the date to get here.
Have either of you been over to The Hobbit Hole? We are almost up to 40,000 posts so come on over and check us out. Don't feel you have to read the whole thing. We tend to recycle subjects, so feel free to jump right in wherever we are at currently. ;^)
Ditto that. Why do these people try to compare children's literature with epic (grown-up) myths.
Excerpt from "Potter's Magic" in Credenda-Agenda
http://www.credenda.org/issues/14-2recipio.php:
"Potter's magic is a magic for materialists. It is a magic that comes from nowhere and leads to nowhere. It attempts to make magic a neutral category that can be approached however one wishes. Everyone gets a degree from the same school and does with it whatever he or she deems fit. But the magic itself is impersonal. Sure there is a hero and an arch-villain. But they both draw from the same neutral force. And it would seem that this impersonal force could probably care less whether either of them existed, let alone which one of them was to win.
This is one of the things that Tolkien did well. His magic is always personal. The Forest of Lothlorien feels the way it does, because it is under the power of Lady Galadriel. Mordor feels the way it does because it is under the power of Sauron. One can't use magic in Middle Earth without immediately orienting oneself to cosmic powers. Every spell is biased. It comes from somewhere and leads to some ultimate purpose. Although Tolkien is never quite explicit in the text, he is always deliberately describing a Christian world, created by the Christian God. So Potter's harmlessness is really its biggest flaw. But this is no different than most books that Christians allow their children to thoughtlessly read. How many authors write as if trees are neutral? How many parents let their children go on reading stories about porcupines that presuppose the myth of neutrality? How often do we watch the ocean and miss the cosmic implications? Consequently, Harry Potter doesn't need to be burned, unless of course we are going to burn the bulk of our literature collections. He's a fine read for a Christian, so long as we pity all the things that the book is missing."
Hi all...I am one of those louts y'all are going to sneer at for saying that she likes BOTH Potter and LOTR...but a good friend of mine asked me if I would classify JKR's writing as literature, to which I replied with a resounding NO!!!! and my reasdn's for saying so has very little to do with commercialism or brand of magic or popularity.
Her writing mechanics and style SUCKS.
JKR is a WONDERFUL STORYTELLER, there is no doubt about that. However, she not only employs the liberal use of adverbs and rambling sentences and redundant adjectives, she practically floods her writing with them. I can tell you I have been to enough writing workshops and read/heard enough editors and fellow writers to know that the adverb is something of a 'dirty' and lazy tool for writing, and seriously weakens the writing. I am in my second round in reading the books, and am picking up on certain things I did not catch the first time around...(this was something I had to do with LOTR as well...difference is in Tolkien's work my appreciation for the effectiveness of his writing grows with each reading...). I keep wondering why JKR's editor keeps letting her get away with s**t like this. And I mean it. It's not that I think *I* can write the story better than that...but I *do* think I can write, in general, better than JKR. My basic criticism of her books are that if she would only tighten up her writing, she could cram in quite a bit more.
The other criticism I have is less a criticism as a regret for the potential of her story. While I recognize that it is a CHILDREN's Story, I would point out that even C.S. Lewis, who wrote his Narnia Chronicles with various different viewpoints QUITE EFFECTIVELY. JKR sticks to Harry's point of view and Harry's POV ONLY...which is a pity, because she has characters in there that SCREAM for development (*coughdracocoughroncoughhermionecoughginnycoughsnapecough*) yet we have to wait for the next 'episode' to get dribbles of developement so we can discover more of why someone is acting the way they do.
Then again, that is an EXCELLENT ploy to keep people reading...but I keep thinking JKR does not expand the world she has created as fully as she might.
Just my observation, of course.
Given that, the FINAL gripe I have is this annoying penchant she has in reminding her audience about how HP is 'all about tolerance.' What a PC reason to write a story!! That alone makes me choke. Fortunately, she does not come across as preachy and does a fairly effective job of showing some of the more realistic social discrepancies (ie Hermione wanting to 'SAVE' the elves, and Ron and Harry constantly pointing out to her the elvish cultural viewpoint of scorn for those who 'desert their master' and 'work for money.' Ron tells her 'Hermione, they LIKE serving...')
Anyway, this intense interest in providing a format for PC lectures on the faults of being human make me very uncomfortable indeed, something I will be keeping a very eagle eye on in the future.
Other than that, I like the books. I like the story. Daughter and I sit there and laugh like crazy over some of the more quirky and off beat situations. JKR has a sense of humor and way of telling a story that I *do* like.
But I would never call it literature.
why does a story about porcupines have to have any magical quality about it, Christian themed or not? Why do trees have to have a meaning when the story is about a child who is pretending to be an airplane and he pictures himself flying over a forest? I am afraid I don't quite get the point of what the author is trying to say. JKR is very much like Tolkien in that she has removed any 'religiosity' from her story, and from the interviews I have read, it is most certainly NOT from any particular and personal scorn she has for Christianity...it is more of a means of telling the story without having to laden the reader's mind with a distinctive theology. If she had written it with distinctively CATHOLIC themes, the Calvinists would be screaming bloody murder...and if vice versa, the Catholics would object to it as being devoid of any real depth. Its along the same arguments that Tolkien and Lewis had about the purpose of a myth, especially Christian mythology. Tolkien despised allegory, and Lewis encouraged it as a way of imparting basic tenets. I think JKR did what she could to avoid having to address that problem. The magic in her world, the way I see it, is more tongue-in-cheek and a wink and a nod to the more commercial ideas that people have of magic and witches and wizards. Not once have I read the story thinking she was ENDORSING something like that.
How have you been? :D I am avoiding the TTT spoiler pics as much as possible, but yes, have stumbled across those...I dont look forward to that at all. I am trying to keep myself as free as possible from prerelease stuff because last year i soaked up so much of it, I spent most of my first viewing trying to find the points in the film where I saw the pictures. I hope I dont end up doing it this time, but after seeing those pictures I may be faced with the same problem!! LOL
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