13 posts tagged “harry potter”
Don, the eloquent story-teller, tagged me for to share my favorite Christmas memories in the circulating Meme. I'm going to cheat by using Youtube videos, but really, watching the movies and the shows depicted below have taken me to that warm, charmed, transcendent place better than about any real life memory I can think of. Not to say that watching movies isn't a real experience...
I especially liked Don's snow scene while driving alone in his car (but please read all four of his stories). I suppose that watching snow fall while alone takes me there too. When I first was rejoined with Andy Williams and the Williams Brothers Christmas album a few years ago, and listened to it alone in my tree-lit, but otherwise dark, living room, I was taken back to that place of my earliest memories of listening to it over and over. I can't share those songs because they are copied onto my CD, and besides I really want to stick with these scenes.
First, Linus sharing the true meaning of Christmas,
I love the debut of Irving Berlin's White Christmas in the movie, Holiday Inn. Please stick around for the second verse for the harmony and tinkling of the bells on the real candle-lit Christmas tree.
Judy Garland was never lovelier or heartfelt, except for Somewhere Over the Rainbow, than in this scene in Meet Me in St. Louis, where she sings Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Merry Christmas! And God bless us every one.
I'll tag Matushka Elizabeth, her lovely daughter and her other lovely daughter and our friends Jo and Holly who have non-public blogs, my son and my other son and my other son, who have public blogs (that's 4 public ones so far), and the new blogger, Maxim.
What a wonderful story. I am very impressed with the ability of J.K. Rowling to weave such a plot and keep the characters and story consistent throughout. So many sequels sort of get reinvented as they go along, but she keeps all 7 books right on track with very satisfying developments and conclusions.
At the end of book 6, I complained about Harry's attitude, but we all work through stressful situations in sometimes less than perfect ways, don't we? What's a little venting among friends? He seemed to mature past it in the last book.
My one general gripe that I still have after reading the whole series is how she brings out how everyone is talking about Harry and looking at him. I know the premise of the whole story is what would it be like to be famous, but I wish she had handled that aspect of it a little more subtly. I don't know how else she could have handled it. I know he couldn't help but be aware of it, and I know some people do have to deal with adoring, or unadoring but persistently attentive numbers of people. He didn't seem to like it, so maybe he could have worked on treating it differently than just categorizing the attention unilaterally from "the masses". How to categorize a group phenomena composed of complex individuals, hmmm....
We finished HP#6 last night. I was hoarse by the end. I kinda wish it'd ended where we'd stopped in the afternoon because Harry's attitude in the last pages was getting on my nerves. I was with him during his painful angry phase, but I'm not seeing his obnoxious disrespect for authority, even Prof McGonagal, as following so naturally what has happened. But maybe that's because I never expressed it that directly to those in authority while the traumas where still so fresh when I was young. Maybe it's healthier to be open and direct with your feelings like that as you're having them, instead of having to deal with the stuffed down, or indirectly expressed build-up when you're 41 years old. Maybe we create dual personalities by demanding such rigid respect for elders, no matter what.
Also, why do the superheros always feel they have to cut ties and go it alone?
43 more pages to go in #6 Harry Potter book! Major things happened where we left off and now we have to wait till Jared gets home from Chick Fil A to finish the thing, hopefully tonight, and still let him and Ben get to bed early enough to get up and take their SAT's tomorrow morning.
This is their second time to take it. We registered for them to take it twice before we got their scores from the first one, figuring that even if they did well (which they did!), they could still stand the extra points they'll hopefully get knowing better what to expect. Good thing we did because Ben couldn't find the essay question, so he made up a topic thus earning a zero for that section, but he still got an 1840 total score! Jared was his usual cool, calm, collected, consistent, competant self and got a 2120. He thinks he can improve by budgeting his time better and allowing more time on the essay question where he got a 7 out of 12.
My very good friend, Carol, sent this to me after taking out some of the plot spoilers knowing that we haven't finished reading yet. (I haven't checked out the links)
Harry Potter's Secret
Hint: It Has Nothing to Do With Gay Headmasters
By
Michael Gerson
Friday, October 26, 2007; A21
There is something inherently odd about considering the sex lives of fictional characters in children's books. Just how hearty were the Hardy boys? And we will not even speculate about Heidi's reclusive grandfather.
But J.K. Rowling has forced such considerations upon us with her announcement that Albus Dumbledore, the beloved headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, is gay. The news, delivered by the author after a Carnegie Hall reading, was received with gasps in the audience and around the world. The popularity of the Harry Potter books is unprecedented; the final installment, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," sold 11 million copies in 24 hours. For many fans, the characters of the series have more real blood in their veins than all the wax figures of politics and entertainment.
The Dumbledore revelation was taken by many Christian conservatives as additional confirmation that Rowling is a corrupter of youth. What could be more subversive than the combination of witchcraft and homosexual rights?
Having undertaken the monumental task of reading "The Deathly Hallows" aloud to my boys each night -- the book runs 759 pages -- I am certain this critical reaction is badly mistaken.
Ruling out magic in children's literature would, of course, completely depopulate Narnia and Middle Earth, leaving just silent forest. The use of magic in fairy tales recurs for a reason; it reveals another reality -- what C.S. Lewis called the "deep magic" -- just beneath the surface of our days. Magic is usually the way that children are introduced to the idea of transcendence.
As to Dumbledore, it would have been disturbing if Rowling had used her final book to argue for some baldly political agenda -- if the Hogwarts headmaster and professor Snape had married, for example, in a touching civil ceremony. Whatever your view of homosexual rights, this would have been an abuse of parental trust, the exploitation of an unfair advantage. But this is not what happened. Dumbledore's sexual identity was an assumption Rowling brought to her writing, not explicit in the text itself. And the implicit reference is to a tragic, youthful infatuation with an evil character whom Dumbledore is later called upon to defeat in a duel. "I think a child will see a friendship," says Rowling, "and I think a sensitive adult may well understand that it was an infatuation."
That said, tolerance is one of the main themes of the Harry Potter books. In a marvelous social comparison, lycanthropy is treated as a kind of chronic disease, with werewolves subject to discrimination as if they had AIDS. The political ideology of Lord Voldemort is Nazi-like -- racist and totalitarian. "Pure-bloods" -- those with untainted magical lineage -- oppress those of mixed parentage, called "half-bloods." As the series progresses, the body count of this ideology builds. Like much great children's literature, the series takes evil, hatred and death quite seriously.
But the really subversive element of the Harry Potter books is the answer they offer to death. Voldemort believes that death must be mastered and "eaten" -- resisted through Dark Arts that always involve exploitation and violence. Harry Potter, in contrast, is protected from death as an infant by the voluntary, courageous sacrifice of his mother's life.
These, of course, are central themes of religion, particularly Christian religion. And the question naturally arises: How can a book series about tolerance also be a book series about religion? This represents a misunderstanding of both tolerance and faith. For many, tolerance does not result from the absence of moral convictions but from a positive religious teaching about human dignity. Many believe -- not in spite of their faith but because of it -- that half-bloods, werewolves and others should be treated with kindness and fairness. Above all, believers are called to love, even at the highest cost.
In the series, the Hogwarts headmaster explains to Harry, "The true master does not seek to run away from Death. He accepts that he must die, and understands that there are far, far worse things in the living world than dying." That is wisdom, whatever Dumbledore's youthful inclinations.
Many of the bloggers I read have had new posts about a certain new revelation about J.K. Rowling's Dumbledore. As we are about half way through book 6, I have not wanted to read any spoilers, so I've not read the content of any of those blog posts. But the headlines affected how I saw Dumbledore when I was reading him aloud last night, and I'm not happy that he now lisps! And we just got to the part where he was wearing a plum, velvet suit! The timing couldn't have been worse, darn it. If only I hadn't been so behind everyone else. Rowling at least waited until most people had already read the whole series. But there's an argument of when to tell children about the truth of their parents - always be open and honest with them, or wait until they are grown? I guess I vote for always be open because finding out you've been brought up with a lie can be more devastating. Oh I don't know. I'm glad I didn't know that Richard Chamberlain was gay when I had a crush on him in the 70's. Actually no, like I just wrote about Shakespeare, unrealisitic romantic dream world doesn't really do anyone any good except for a temporary escape. It's probably better to learn to face harsh reality early on.
So why am I blogging instead of reading them? Well I needed a respite after the big fight scene yesterday afternoon, and then I needed to let Dumbledore's explanation sink in - it's about time! - next the aftermath and book 6 and the Order of the Phoenix movie.
I really appreciate how Harry's struggle is mostly with himself and his struggle against outside forces is secondary. The dynamic between individualism and community of various integrity is also well-done. It's a complete story. I think I'm finally over the hurdle of whether to trust Ms. Rowling's conclusions - they were really tested in this book.
