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12-01-2011, 08:39 PM | #161 | |
Wisest of the Noldor
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Seriously– my own reservations about the HP series have nothing to do with (supposed) theft. It's more that I think Rowling's pretty limited as a writer, and that the ambitiousness of the later books only serves to highlight this. Obviously the real fans aren't going to agree with me here, but I just feel she ends up biting off more than she can chew.
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"Even Nerwen wasn't evil in the beginning." –Elmo. Last edited by Nerwen; 12-01-2011 at 08:44 PM. |
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12-01-2011, 08:46 PM | #162 | |
Blossom of Dwimordene
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: The realm of forgotten words
Posts: 10,373
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(no, I won't start a rant listing the HP series' faults)
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You passed from under darkened dome, you enter now the secret land. - Take me to Finrod's fabled home!... ~ Finrod: The Rock Opera |
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12-02-2011, 04:54 AM | #163 | ||
Wight
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Settling down in Bree for the winter.
Posts: 208
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Various Epics
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The big question is whether you can get more than a few chapters in before choking and gagging. I couldn't. Well, you likely know me by know. I find many scholarly readings of Tolkien somewhat pretentious. I find scholarly readings of Potter far more so. Still, there is enough there that I can see how Reverend Danielle takes her efforts as seriously as many contributors to this forum. The chapter titles in the book do reference basic Christian themes like Sacrifice and Faith. You can take the great questions various philosophers and priests have been debating for centuries and find themes based on these questions all over the Potter books. A Potter fan might find the book a solid short cut introduction to formal Christian theology. Ugh. I kind of enjoyed the Potter stories as stories, but can't take them seriously as a source of Truth or Wisdom. Of course, I'd say the same thing about Lord of the Rings or the Star Wars movies. Fantasy, especially when you take it towards an epic level, explores Good, Evil, Sacrifice, Faith, Heroism and similar stuff. If one immerses one's self in such sub creations at a young an impressionable age, such stories might well help shape one's values. The nuns at my Saturday School sure used similar stories and parables found in the Bible to that end. Middle Earth, that galaxy far far away and Hogwarts are to me primarily excellent yarns and entertainment. Various folks are attracted to one more than the other. Various people will take one or another of them seriously. Color me dubious. |
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12-02-2011, 03:39 PM | #164 |
Wight of the Old Forest
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Unattended on the railway station, in the litter at the dancehall
Posts: 3,329
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For all Gods and Goddesses' sake, blantyr, I meant nothing of the kind. I see Rowling alluding to a Christian myth, not writing a "christian creation" or, Danu forbid, a theological allegory. It's just rather ironic considering all the hullaballoo made about the series by hordes of Harry-hating Christian fundamentalist muggles.
And fully d'accord about Rowling's limitations, Nerwen - she's a competent and entertaining writer, but nowhere near e.g. Tolkien's league. There is at times a painful disharmony between the schoolboy story background with its classroom comedy and obligatory Quidditch match in every volume and the darker theme of the gradually increasing struggle against evil, and the way everybody (including, at times, the author) is doting on Harry would be unpalatable if we didn't have Snape. EDIT: PS.- You know one thing that irks me greatly about the end of the story? We have the Hogwarts motto "Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus", and we have a character named Draco. In my book, when you include a coincidence like that in your story, you have to do something with it. I always expected Draco to turn against Voldemort in the end and do something real flashy (like saving Harry's life or what do I know), so I could brandish the book at the ceiling and cry out, "I knew it!" That lukewarm not-quite-conversion Rowling wrote for him was a huge disappointment.
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Und aus dem Erebos kamen viele seelen herauf der abgeschiedenen toten.- Homer, Odyssey, Canto XI Last edited by Pitchwife; 12-02-2011 at 03:54 PM. |
12-02-2011, 04:54 PM | #165 | ||
Blossom of Dwimordene
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: The realm of forgotten words
Posts: 10,373
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An exception to that is the Sirius-Bellatrix-Molly thing. I find it satisfying that Molly "avenges" Sirius in a way. One thing that I could say in her favour, though, is her use of Latin. Many HP fans that I've talked to are annoyed by it, but I see it as positive thing, and I love deciphering the spells. She borrowed from Latin like Tolkien from Finnish and Anglo-Saxon. She sisn't steal the idea, but it's a similarity. Quote:
(But doesn't that phrase ring a bell? ) The thing that irks me is that Voldemort is completely destroyed. (I know I'm weird...)
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You passed from under darkened dome, you enter now the secret land. - Take me to Finrod's fabled home!... ~ Finrod: The Rock Opera |
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12-02-2011, 08:53 PM | #166 |
Doubting Dwimmerlaik
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Heaven's basement
Posts: 2,466
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Speaking of sacrifice, I don't see Gandalf's and Dumbledore's sacrifices on the same level (or maybe we're not talking about the same events, me having read HP only once). Gandalf sacrifices himself when facing the Balrog, again when he marches with others to the Black gate. Dumbledore, on the other hand, though finding a gagillion uses for dragon's blood (poor dragons), didn't see the Ring as cursed until it was too late. He then burdens Snape's with his murder/ euthanization and harry with finishing what should be an adult's task.
And regarding King's Cross, being a 'Merican, I know nothing of geography or allusions, but methinks that Rowling was just getting all of those fundamentalist haters back, showing that reading HP was not demonic.
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12-03-2011, 04:53 AM | #167 |
Pilgrim Soul
Join Date: May 2004
Location: watching the wonga-wonga birds circle...
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King's Cross is simply the London station which London trains depart from for the North so Rowling would have used it originally because Hogwarts is meant to be in Scotland.
However I suppose these names may still have significance.. Churchilll when overseeing plans for his own state funeral (such things are planned, prepared and even rehearsed way in advance of their subject's demise) was insistant that the French delegation and de Gaulle should arrinve at Waterloo rather than Victoria which was the normal station for the boat train.
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“But Finrod walks with Finarfin his father beneath the trees in Eldamar.”
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