Posted on 07/15/2005 10:25:17 PM PDT by Williams
Well the new Harry Potter book has arrived and I can report the first page of the first chapter contains an obvious jab at our president. The book begins with the British Prime Minister awaiting a phone call from the "President" of an unnamed distant country, and wondering when the "wretched man" would call.
As a fan of the books and for that matter of Rowling's personal story and success, I'm saddened that liberal madness had to invade this children's classic. The first chapter was otherwise perfectly enjoyable.
I'm not saying anything else in the chapter was intentionally connected to current events, but I had to draw the comparison with what has ended up in British headlines at the same time as the book release. In the book, the Prime Minister is dealing with unexplained events, at least some of which could be terrorist like. Indeed, they are the work of sinister forces. Whereas I'm sure in this book series, ultimate help will come from the wizarding world, in reality Britain needs the support of the leader J.K. Rowling refers to as that "wretched man." How sadly misguided.
Why on earth would you assume it was Bush? I am sorry but this is just plain stupid!
Junior, down at your level of understanding, there is likely no difference.
I bow to your holier-than-thouness.
When writing about wizards, children at an English boarding school ( no matter WHAT kind ), fantastical monsters, etc., there isn't anything new since ancient Celtic mythology. And THAT is NOT what I was talking about; even though I threw the come alive paintings into the mix.
And as far as Tolkin is concerned, he took all kinds of myths/characters, swirled them about, and came up with original stories, but, written in a NEW style, which was his own.
Unless she has formidable magical powers of her own, Rowling couldn't have been writing the book for the last two years based on the headlines at the time of its release.
Let alone the last thirteen years, if you believe what Rowling says about that first chapter. Which I'm inclined to do. If I were Rwoling, as soon as I had the concept, I'd be thinking about the intersection of the wizard and muggle worlds, and how to make the suspension of disbelief plausible. She just couldn't work it into the narrative until now.
In the most rabid fan debate circles, there's a running debate over when the Harry Potter books are set. If Harry's first year is when Rowling first had the idea, then book six is still solidly in the Clinton years.
But that speculation is silly because the time is deliberately vague -- I don't recall much muggle technology more modern than telephones, power drills and toasters. There is an enchanted Ford Anglia, which means we're talking about the 50s at earliest. Something might have slipped from my memory, but I don't recall any computers, mobile phones, PDAs, or even digital watches and pocket calculators.
That's both wise marketing and an aesthetic decision. You don't need to be too specific or write anything that will get dated. Great juvenile fiction stands the test of time. Rowling's work could be at the same time as Roald Dahl's -- I've always thought the two were very similar -- though they were written decades apart.
But back to politics.
If you've finished the first chapter, it's difficult to see how you can see it as a partisan dig, no matter whom you assign to which role -- the Prime Minister is befuddled and largely ineffectual, the opposition leader an opportunist exploiting tragedy for political gain. No one is noble. It's an easy dig on all politicians, not an endorsement of any one over any other. And part of that general dismissal of politicians is that the PM is dreading a call from the "dreadful man" he smiles at and slaps on the back in public.
I haven't finished book 6 yet, so I'll focus on Book 5, in which it becomes obvious that Rowling is a pro-Bush Tory through and through.
(Spoiler space just in case folks haven't read book 5 yet)
A devious evil, which is obvously meant to represent Islamic terror, has risen. The bumbling feel-good bureaucrats in the Ministry of Magic (clearly the Clinton administraton) refuse to believe it until it strikes on their own soil, by which time it has infiltrated and corrupted the Ministry itself. They finally accept the truth, but only after many losses and even then they are equivocal and ineffective at fighting it until (in book 6) replaced by a hawkish leader.
Bottom line: It's kid fiction. Very, very good kid fiction, but if you squint hard enough you can find anything in it. It's a silly exercise, just as it is when some know-it-all college sophomore goes looking for exemples of Marxist dialectic in Hop on Pop.
My response was gauged to the nature, and ingenuousness of your question.
Little early for that, I'd say.
What a stupid post. There are plenty of wretched presidents, including (for example) Robert Mugabe. You're free to read in a swipe at Bush if you want, but it's a pretty lame thing to do. (It's hard, for example, to call him the president of "a far distant land," which the US is not....)
I pray to God that never happens; I'm deeply saddened by what has happened to Britain's soul in my lifetime.
Darn it, your reply to me was deleted by the moderator...makes me wonder what sort of imbecile response did you manage to give that made the moderator suspend your account as well!
could not agree more
Maybe she has the same view of Hollywood that freepers do.
Who's to say it isn't Chirac?
Well, it couldn't be Tony Blair and W, they are fast friends.
My daughter, who loves Harry Potter, recently found my old copy of "King Solomon's Mines." She loved that also.
Give her a copy of "SHE"; your daughter will enjoy that as well.
I've not heard of that one, will check it out. Thanks.
H.Ridder Haggard wrote "SHE", "THE RETURN OF SHE", and "KING SOLOMON'S MINES". They're all great books. :-)
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