The sad thing about writing blog posts with some creativity is that it means they suddenly become subject to writer's block and iffy moods. Sadly, this happened and it's been a little longer since our last lesson than I intended. Fortunately, I have returned! So where were we class?
Oh, yes, Voldemort.
Voldemort's history is one that is easily identified with real world events as far as we know them. As a boy, under his true name, Tom Riddle, he attends a private school dealing in a very specific philosophical view point with a tightly structured rule system and a group of like-minded, authoritarian individuals following the guidelines of a closet homosexual who maintains authority through fear of his mighty power within the community. Over the course of his upbringing he begins to feel unclean about his personal identity, an identity he wishes to keep secret, and begins to hate others like himself, feeling the need to harm them to appear as though he is not like them.
This behavior grows over time and he finds like-minded individuals of his own that gather around him, put on elaborate outfits and ceremonies and begin to systematically attack these individuals who are unlike themselves. Tom decides to rename himself after becoming part of this group, switching to a single name of Voldemort rather than his birth name. His followers claim to have a moral authority to do so, but are almost universally hated by anyone not a part of their order. However, despite the protests and actions taken against them, very little is done to stop them in public.
However, over the course of this time, Voldemort starts to have a growing interest in young boys. He begins to hunt down specific boys, an act which soon becomes his downfall. During one of these excursions he is caught by the boy's parents who try to stop him. In the aftermath, the boy's parents are killed, Voldemort is forced into hiding and the boy is left with a peculiar mark on his forehead left by discharge from Voldemort's wand. Soon after this event, the authorities see fit to cover up anything having happened at all, making witnesses disappear under the guise of helping keep the peace within the community. Voldemort's power and influence make talking about the situation simply unacceptable.
Taking into account his strict upbringing, hatred of people who are different from himself, gathering of individuals who think like him who dress in elaborate fashion, and his decision to change his name upon taking leadership of this order, we can determine that Voldemort was an allegory for another individual rising to power in the same decade: Pope Benedict. Yes, down to the cover up of incidents involving little boys, Voldemort is clearly a representation of the Pope to anyone who clearly examines the material and the important events of the time.
Yes, some would argue that Benedict wasn't Pope until just before the end of the series, but clearly these people are deluding themselves to maintain some fantasy where the author's work was not a statement against all religion and decency. But as we know from the articles of the time, the church was onto her from the start for promoting witchcraft and the occult against the church. Further evidence is in the reaction of the characters as well.
Faced with trauma and danger from this papal-figure, the children take part in several events and activities to give them some moment of peace in a troubled world. Like any red blooded boy in this world, Harry resorts to a heart racing experience to get his frustrations out. In Harry's case, it's an activity known as Quidditch. In Quidditch, young males mount wooden shafts referred to as broomsticks, despite never being used to sweep, and fly around frantically whipping balls around in hopes of scoring. These boys take different roles with labels such as Beaters, Chasers and Seekers.
Using a reference manual "Quidditch Through the Ages" we know more about this "sport". There are a wide variety of balls involved in this activity. The Quaffle, which is big, red and spherical, is enchanted to drop slowly and also given an enchantment to make gripping it easier with one hand. Meanwhile, the Bludgers, smaller balls made of iron, act as obstacles and slap against players during play. Finally, the Snitch, one of the most important objects of the game, is chased around, doing everything it can to avoid being caught by these boys while still remaining within the field of play. Also, in Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, the Snitch is revealed to have a "flesh memory" where in it remembers the first person to touch it and will only respond to that person. Chasing the snitch is a key objective of this game the boys take part in and the game will usually not end without the capture of the snitch, sometimes taking months before successful capture. Those who catch the snitch are held in high regard, the seekers having a key role in ending the game while the rest of the team handle their respective balls without much purpose.
As you can see, the minds of the author and readers of these books are horribly corrupted beyond all hope. This was a time of history where the sick and depraved used children as play things and wrote books about it with glee.
And so, that ends my first preemptive analysis of modern works using all that I've seen from university courses and their analysis of fairy tales throughout history. As you can see, it goes a little screwy along the way. I don't really hold any of these opinions and it's all satire, but consider this for a moment when you read a book (or write one) and about just how exactly some things you consider innocent will be viewed in the future. I'll do this for other series just to show how other things could be warped by future generations. But for now, I have to stop myself before I start to look too closely at other elements of this particular series and scar the children of the world.
Still, as always, I leave you with this parting thought:
It could STILL be worse.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
Overthinking it much? - Harry Potter
So, as I stated in the last post, I'm going to analyze some modern literature as if it were written at least a century or more in the past. Why? Because I've watched people analyze anything over three generations old and come to conclusions that would have required some sort of intoxication to come up with when the works were first published. So, I'm considering this a preemptive strike on the future. Take that grandkids! Get off my lawn!
Yeah, I know, that's sad from a guy in his 20s.
So, let's start off with a kids story that's sure to survive the ages simply because it's sold enough copies to be considered a religious text: Harry Potter. Sure, we know all of the modern day opinions of this about how witch craft and so on are buzz topics. But remember for a moment that this thing will probably out last a lot of the protests against it along with a handful of printed articles in magazines that someone pulls from an attic somewhere. So, what would we get?
The first thing that you'll notice while reading Harry Potter is that it indicates the strange sexual nature of our culture (as all stories invariably end up being about sex). Harry, an orphan, has been placed with a family of relatives who have taken to the decision to use Harry as their whipping boy. Now, as the surviving newspapers and magazines from the era have let us know, this was a time of sexual deviancy. It was not uncommon for people, such as the famous civil rights leader Tiger Woods, first black golfer, to keep sexual partners hidden from the community at large. While none of this is said blatantly, we notice that Harry is given a room under the stairs, likely to be kept out of sight of any guests which may come over.
Then, a school run by an eccentric gay man contacts Harry and his family by sending an owl. As we know from the news of that era, especially from a politician in Nevada: poultry bartering was coming back into fashion due to weak economies. The owl, a rare bird at the time, was an appropriate price for buying a child of Harry's age. As to why he was able to keep the owl following the transaction, this speaks greatly of Harry's secret personality that the author wished to keep quiet: Harry Potter was also a thief and kept the bartered owl while running away from home. His frequent returns to the house are simply the result of the family demanding their boy back after finding that their owl was missing. It's clear as day people, keep up.
Harry goes to attend this school that has purchased him. To get there he must take a train. Now, we find that the train is wedged in a tight space between two other trains. To ride this train, force is required to penetrate a wall at the right time and place. The symbolism of this should be obvious to anyone who's been paying attention to class so far. Carrying on!
The school in question is a large, isolated place kept away from the rest of society and following strict rules for all of the children kept within. From the author's own words we know that the man operating this school, one "Dumbledore" is in fact a homosexual. Given the issues of people in power being left alone with children at the time, it's not hard to understand the symbolism behind a man like Dumbledore keeping children locked up under strict rules with privileges to speak to any of these children alone at any time he wished.
Dumbledore is a rather opaque figure. He dresses in fancy clothes which are considered part of the attire for a man of his position, such as robes and what not, while at the same time keeping a phoenix, a flaming bird, as a symbol of his passion and the fact that he is, in fact, flaming. The man keeps many secrets, has many hidden chambers and possesses objects which serve little purpose to him aside from the fact that "friends" have told him to keep them. When coming in contact with these objects which are to be kept hidden, the children experience wild and chaotic situations where in they see giant snakes and dead people. Obviously, Dumbledore was meant to represent drug mules of the era along with the sexually deviant priests of the day. The fact that he is eventually killed by one of the students only goes to prove this analysis, as this is obviously revenge for years of abuse.
While attending this school, Harry is instructed in the use of various wooden shafts, be it wands or brooms, which he is told are key objects of use for his future. The wands, most especially, are used in almost every scenario, often through a waving and shaking motion to be accompanied by magical spells which are clearly normal words modified for special use much in the way safe words are used by dominatrices. The children, including females, are given careful instruction in the proper use of these wands. Several of these "spells" require happy thoughts in order to function correctly. And when these happy thoughts are insufficient, chemicals are used as "catalysts" for the spell to function properly, often being consumed or sprinkled onto other objects.
The wands have special properties, said to have minds of their own and sometimes quite uncooperative. These wands have to be treated with care and attended to properly or they may at times misfire, backfire or break. The children often times have unfortunate and embarrassing issues with the wands which in turn can cause severe consequences, and if breaking your wand, it will never quite be the same. The descriptions of the wands vary from person to person, Ron Weasley being said to have a particularly long wand.
Harry, initially finding that he was handling the wrong wands and causing great damage, then handles the wand which will become his, an act which gives him a warm feeling. Harry's wand is 11 inches long, with a phoenix feather at the core, providing some connection to the eccentric figure of Dumbledore and his habit of keeping of a phoenix in his room. At times, Harry's wand has been a bothersome thing, even having unusual behaviors around the figure of Voldemort which concerns Harry at one point.
"Professor, when I was in the graveyard, there was a moment when Voldemort's wand and mine sort of connected."
Of course, this connection is troubling for a reason to be discussed for our next class. In the next part, we shall examine Voldemort, the Death Eaters and, of course, Quidditch. Please do not be late for class, I would be very unhappy. And remember, as a parting thought...
It could still be worse.
Yeah, I know, that's sad from a guy in his 20s.
So, let's start off with a kids story that's sure to survive the ages simply because it's sold enough copies to be considered a religious text: Harry Potter. Sure, we know all of the modern day opinions of this about how witch craft and so on are buzz topics. But remember for a moment that this thing will probably out last a lot of the protests against it along with a handful of printed articles in magazines that someone pulls from an attic somewhere. So, what would we get?
The first thing that you'll notice while reading Harry Potter is that it indicates the strange sexual nature of our culture (as all stories invariably end up being about sex). Harry, an orphan, has been placed with a family of relatives who have taken to the decision to use Harry as their whipping boy. Now, as the surviving newspapers and magazines from the era have let us know, this was a time of sexual deviancy. It was not uncommon for people, such as the famous civil rights leader Tiger Woods, first black golfer, to keep sexual partners hidden from the community at large. While none of this is said blatantly, we notice that Harry is given a room under the stairs, likely to be kept out of sight of any guests which may come over.
Then, a school run by an eccentric gay man contacts Harry and his family by sending an owl. As we know from the news of that era, especially from a politician in Nevada: poultry bartering was coming back into fashion due to weak economies. The owl, a rare bird at the time, was an appropriate price for buying a child of Harry's age. As to why he was able to keep the owl following the transaction, this speaks greatly of Harry's secret personality that the author wished to keep quiet: Harry Potter was also a thief and kept the bartered owl while running away from home. His frequent returns to the house are simply the result of the family demanding their boy back after finding that their owl was missing. It's clear as day people, keep up.
Harry goes to attend this school that has purchased him. To get there he must take a train. Now, we find that the train is wedged in a tight space between two other trains. To ride this train, force is required to penetrate a wall at the right time and place. The symbolism of this should be obvious to anyone who's been paying attention to class so far. Carrying on!
The school in question is a large, isolated place kept away from the rest of society and following strict rules for all of the children kept within. From the author's own words we know that the man operating this school, one "Dumbledore" is in fact a homosexual. Given the issues of people in power being left alone with children at the time, it's not hard to understand the symbolism behind a man like Dumbledore keeping children locked up under strict rules with privileges to speak to any of these children alone at any time he wished.
Dumbledore is a rather opaque figure. He dresses in fancy clothes which are considered part of the attire for a man of his position, such as robes and what not, while at the same time keeping a phoenix, a flaming bird, as a symbol of his passion and the fact that he is, in fact, flaming. The man keeps many secrets, has many hidden chambers and possesses objects which serve little purpose to him aside from the fact that "friends" have told him to keep them. When coming in contact with these objects which are to be kept hidden, the children experience wild and chaotic situations where in they see giant snakes and dead people. Obviously, Dumbledore was meant to represent drug mules of the era along with the sexually deviant priests of the day. The fact that he is eventually killed by one of the students only goes to prove this analysis, as this is obviously revenge for years of abuse.
While attending this school, Harry is instructed in the use of various wooden shafts, be it wands or brooms, which he is told are key objects of use for his future. The wands, most especially, are used in almost every scenario, often through a waving and shaking motion to be accompanied by magical spells which are clearly normal words modified for special use much in the way safe words are used by dominatrices. The children, including females, are given careful instruction in the proper use of these wands. Several of these "spells" require happy thoughts in order to function correctly. And when these happy thoughts are insufficient, chemicals are used as "catalysts" for the spell to function properly, often being consumed or sprinkled onto other objects.
The wands have special properties, said to have minds of their own and sometimes quite uncooperative. These wands have to be treated with care and attended to properly or they may at times misfire, backfire or break. The children often times have unfortunate and embarrassing issues with the wands which in turn can cause severe consequences, and if breaking your wand, it will never quite be the same. The descriptions of the wands vary from person to person, Ron Weasley being said to have a particularly long wand.
Harry, initially finding that he was handling the wrong wands and causing great damage, then handles the wand which will become his, an act which gives him a warm feeling. Harry's wand is 11 inches long, with a phoenix feather at the core, providing some connection to the eccentric figure of Dumbledore and his habit of keeping of a phoenix in his room. At times, Harry's wand has been a bothersome thing, even having unusual behaviors around the figure of Voldemort which concerns Harry at one point.
"Professor, when I was in the graveyard, there was a moment when Voldemort's wand and mine sort of connected."
Of course, this connection is troubling for a reason to be discussed for our next class. In the next part, we shall examine Voldemort, the Death Eaters and, of course, Quidditch. Please do not be late for class, I would be very unhappy. And remember, as a parting thought...
It could still be worse.
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