Hum-Bugging Potter
Jul. 17th, 2007 01:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
talktoolooseBuried 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!
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!
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Date: 2007-07-17 07:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-17 07:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-17 10:31 pm (UTC)Cool Hallows predictions (http://minisinoo.livejournal.com/401016.html) from HP (and X-Men) fic author