Hum-Bugging Potter

[talktooloose]

Buried in HP hype!

I've caught up with the series and the movies and I am looking forward to Deathly Hallows but I do want to say a few things:

While well-written, I don't believe these books will stand the test of time. In the New York Times today, Jim Dale, who reads the American versions of the audiobooks says that his readings are a legacy he is leaving for future generations. I'm dubious. I don't know as the books give us any new perspective on good and evil in the way, say, Leguin's Earthsea books do. HP is of its time and appeal to a contemporary nostalgia; I'm not sure it's so well-written or original to maintain this level of cultural significance.

To me, the most annoying aspect of the series is its inward-looking Englishness at a time of growing cultural internationalism. A battle among British wizards is seen as equivalent to a global battle. The way the books parody British schools and mores profits from this lack of cosmopolitan worldview but the seriousness suffers.

Imagine if the wizarding world could bypass the muggle world in that kind of xenophobia! Or if the books ridiculed the way it could not.

The only internationalism comes in the form of parody. This is especially annoying in the stereotypical depictions of the snooty Frenchmen like Fleur (Phlegm) and the Teutonic militarism of the Durmstrang boys. Only in relation to Karkaroff (and, I suppose, the Giants) is the sweep of Voldemort's ambition seen to be in any way global.

Where are the wizards from elsewhere? Shacklebolt is African but he's depicted as an English immigrant, working at the Ministry of Magic. We know that Bill Weasley was off chasing dragons in Roumania, but there is an old colonial sense of the "civilized" magicking world and the barbarians beyond the tea-cozy confines of the British Isles.

I hope this kind of attitude makes no sense to future generations who grow up in a world with broader horizons.

That being said... oboy! Deathly Hallows!

Comments

[rfmcdpei.livejournal.com]

We know that Bill Weasley was off chasing dragons in Roumania, but there is an old colonial sense of the "civilized" magicking world and the barbarians beyond the tea-cozy confines of the British Isles.

There's a lot of space there for fan fiction.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Do. not. get. me. started.

[mentalmakeup.livejournal.com]

You are SO not borrowing my copy.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Good counter-arguments!

[mentalmakeup.livejournal.com]

Don't be a dick! :) :) :)

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

How do you say "stupefy" in Esperanto?

[mentalmakeup.livejournal.com]

Svenigi, snobo.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Oooh, well done!

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Also...

Cool Hallows predictions (http://minisinoo.livejournal.com/401016.html) from HP (and X-Men) fic authorminisinoo.

[quirkstreet.livejournal.com]

Did you know that when The Wizard of Oz premiered, it got panned? Critics said it was 'boring and unimaginative'.

People: what if Rambo III was GOOD?





.... and they rerun it every Easter?


From an old Paula Poundstone comedy special.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

You saying I'm not all-seeing?

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

Biggles Goes To Magick School!

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Exactly! Which is fine... but couldn't the Voldemort war expand everyone's horizons a bit? You'd think the Dark Lord only wants to take over the concessions at Brighton.

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

Goodness my dear, why would you want to go anywhere else? It's all full of foreigners.

[strumquill.livejournal.com]

Well considering the American white hetero male perspective we are constantly bombarded with I find the British (mainly white) angle refreshing.

Hmm, when I was a small child I lived in Birmingham and my mother really introduced me to the childhood culture there - as did nursery school. Maybe it is so anthropocentric in British children's lit because, my gawd, there is such a DEEP culture of childhood in England with tons of nursery rhymes, chants, songs, and stories that are infused in you from the onset. By the time I was four I apparently had a repetoire of no less than 20 songs - and that didn't include me rambling off Yellow Submarine from the radio every chance I got.

I consider British culture as foreign but also as unique, ancient, rich and fascinating as Japan's. (the two are very comparable -outside of language and this can be evidenced by how well Mishma's novel The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea translated to a movie about British school boys).

I understand the frustration you espouse, since England is now one of the most multicultural countries on earth. But England's multiculturalism is much different than ours.

It is said that people "return to the motherland of the former Empire to become British" (just as they go to the USA to pledge their allegiance to America first; their heritage second) not to, as they do here, keep their culture in a new land. But then, Canada just doesn't have the rich singular tradition that England has had so there is no identity to be absorbed into.

So I can see how this is a huge blind spot for Rawlings et al...and a very powerful one.

Hey man, in two weeks I will be in TO. First time in 7 years, See ya then :)

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Actually, JKR doesn't shy away from multiculturalism at the school, though there are no leading characters who aren't purebloods anglo-saxon stock.


(excuse triple emails - coding joke problem)

[strumquill.livejournal.com]

Maybe the fact that Harry's a halfblood (?) and the purebloods are all white is some sort of half assed comment on British heritage based snobbery? Have never read her books though so I can't really judge from that medium.

Ironically to your observations, the Potter series is a huge favourite among ESL students.