Hare Potter, Harry Potter, Potter Potter Hare Hare
Much as certain Tolkien-Nazis may disapprove, the ride on the Harry Potter bandwagon isn't entirely unpleasant. There are still places where the paths run close to each other and if you crane your neck just a little, and peer into the mist, you can see the bobbing lanterns of the Tolkien travellers, maybe even an enterprising hobbit or two waving.
I was a Tolkien-Nazi myself till about 2 years ago, when after running out of gas midway into the Silmarillion, I stood waving my thumb at a horseless carriage that came rattling down the street. It stopped a few feet from me and the door opened, and in there sat an old wizard with sharp blue eyes and half-moon spectacles. I pursed my lips and got on. The old man silently handed me an hourglass-shaped object.
"It's a Time-Turner", he rasped. "A couple of turns should do it." And that was how I landed at Number 4, Privet Drive.
Five books and seven chapters later, I realise that (in these days where "Generation Gap" means a couple of years) the author has not written for just a generation, but for a generation to grow up with. Granted, the depth and seriousness of Tolkien's work can never be emulated, but the Harry Potter world doesn't pretend to do so, and that's what saves it. The dragons, the wizards, the elves that inhabit this universe don't make deliberate attempts to be similar or different; they are just as convinced of their reality as "Muggles" are of theirs. And that reality isn't the stuff of fairy-tales either.
Before my brother gave me a leg-up onto the Tolkien wagon, I was tricycling up and down the driveway on a different vehicle: Enid Blyton. While a lot of my friends graduated to Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, and dreamed their earliest American (wet) dreams, I resolutely stuck to what is often dismissed as "kid stuff". The Famous Five (and the lesser-known Five Find-outers) were closer and more real to me than cheesy teenagers who were ju-jitsu experts and flew planes and had sexy dates. It was a part and parcel of my happiness, to grow up with a bunch of ink-and-paper characters, to know and befriend them.
That is what JK Rowling has given the present generation. There have been books and books about the Harry Potter phenomenon. But when I see my 9-year-old nephew listen to his dad read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, hear him create imaginary incidents with Dumbledore, watch him scare himself by imitating Vol - I mean, You-Know-Who...I don't need an analysis of what makes it work. And I know that growing up, he will identify only more with Harry, see his liking for Hermione change shades. JK Rowling hasn't created a cult, or a religion, or a lasting pop-culture icon, as much as merely handed a broomstick to the child that lives in everyone, and let their imaginations fly with hers.
I was a Tolkien-Nazi myself till about 2 years ago, when after running out of gas midway into the Silmarillion, I stood waving my thumb at a horseless carriage that came rattling down the street. It stopped a few feet from me and the door opened, and in there sat an old wizard with sharp blue eyes and half-moon spectacles. I pursed my lips and got on. The old man silently handed me an hourglass-shaped object.
"It's a Time-Turner", he rasped. "A couple of turns should do it." And that was how I landed at Number 4, Privet Drive.
Five books and seven chapters later, I realise that (in these days where "Generation Gap" means a couple of years) the author has not written for just a generation, but for a generation to grow up with. Granted, the depth and seriousness of Tolkien's work can never be emulated, but the Harry Potter world doesn't pretend to do so, and that's what saves it. The dragons, the wizards, the elves that inhabit this universe don't make deliberate attempts to be similar or different; they are just as convinced of their reality as "Muggles" are of theirs. And that reality isn't the stuff of fairy-tales either.
Before my brother gave me a leg-up onto the Tolkien wagon, I was tricycling up and down the driveway on a different vehicle: Enid Blyton. While a lot of my friends graduated to Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, and dreamed their earliest American (wet) dreams, I resolutely stuck to what is often dismissed as "kid stuff". The Famous Five (and the lesser-known Five Find-outers) were closer and more real to me than cheesy teenagers who were ju-jitsu experts and flew planes and had sexy dates. It was a part and parcel of my happiness, to grow up with a bunch of ink-and-paper characters, to know and befriend them.
That is what JK Rowling has given the present generation. There have been books and books about the Harry Potter phenomenon. But when I see my 9-year-old nephew listen to his dad read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, hear him create imaginary incidents with Dumbledore, watch him scare himself by imitating Vol - I mean, You-Know-Who...I don't need an analysis of what makes it work. And I know that growing up, he will identify only more with Harry, see his liking for Hermione change shades. JK Rowling hasn't created a cult, or a religion, or a lasting pop-culture icon, as much as merely handed a broomstick to the child that lives in everyone, and let their imaginations fly with hers.
Labels: books
posted by Sketchy Self at 7:54 AM
Your thoughts: 4
Finally an honest opinion about Potter- valuable even if its belated!
Not only did it give a generation something to grow up with... it also is an excellent way to grow up again with that generation. Opportunities like that don't always come our way... and when they do...i'd rather not miss. And so,
I'm here... bunked school...bent on finishing HBP.
Being a "tolkien-Nazi",(Yea! I read "The Sil"--as the Silmarillion is called in our parlance, more than once--planning another expedition shortly!), I shouldnt agree with what you said, but then, I am also a piscean, and the dreamy child in me refuses to go away.
Quite coincidentally, through the most freakish accident in my life, I came to see all 3 movies of Harry Potter.
One thing I have learnt over the years is, not comparing two different things-- apples and oranges, Potter and LOTR, the book and the movie, etc...
Still, preferences do not go away...And they are not expected to either!
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kedar!
ur analogy of apples and oranges not only applies to LOTR and HP but also for harry potter movies and the books...
that is bcuz there is something in the books that the movies (1 and 2 to be more precise) missed. its the free reign to imagination that was just compromised with special fx (hp 1 and 2 movies totally suck - 3 is way better)--dont let your tolkien-soup nazi get the better of you.
Ravi
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