Orwell would have recoiled at seeing the symbol of Sir Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists on otherwise unblemished brows, even if the emblem was tamed by its new white-magic associations.
Harry Potter
Christopher Hitchens reviews Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows »
Harold Bloom writing in 2003 about JK Rowling »
Her
mind is so governed by cliches and dead metaphors that she has no other style of writing.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
March 13th, 2005Watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban DVD.
I often hear about movies in general that "the book was better". In the case of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban as well as all the movies in the Harry Potter series, the books were equally as good as the movies. (It is impossible and therefore foolish to compare the two media, because the two are very different: books you can put down and pick up at any time, and rely more heavily on the reader being able to imagine the story, while movies are an almost purely visual medium, letting people supend believe for about two hours. Books tell while movies show.) At first I thought the movie was going to be too long for my liking, but then I remembered the twist, making the movie really two in one. It's not as scary as the second movie, but it does have a spider and snake scene (all rolled into one), and the Dementors, one of whom we meet at the very beginning, are probably the scariest neutral characters ever.
A Sort of Intimate Empathy
November 5th, 2003Not having read the forth or the fifth book of n the Harry Potter series, it was still interesting to see that evidently the latest book is causing "Hogwarts Headaches" in its young readers.
Ian R. Williams has found the explanation: “It's no wonder these young readers have headaches: their hero gets them all the time. Human beings often share physical conditions without any visible contagion. The Couvade Syndrome, for example, is a phenomenon in which the husbands of pregnant women get morning sickness. Through a sort of intimate empathy, we shoulder the condition of our close company — just try yawning in a crowded elevator.”
His concluding bit is pretty great, and contain these lines: “parents should be happy that their children are willing to drag a three-pound book around. These young readers may be aching, but they are unbowed. They aren't reading too much — they're feeling too much, which is the miracle of fiction. Here's to the Hogwarts headache. Long may it throb.”
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
January 4th, 2003Finished reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
November 30th, 2002Watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets at the theatre.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling
November 24th, 2002Finished reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
July 14th, 2002Watched Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone video.
Except for quoted text, Just a Gwai Lo is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Canada License. A clearly-indicated direct link back to the original article is sufficient attribution. Just a Gwai Lo is powered by Drupal.