A Fan in Angst

July 28, 2009

I’ve read every book in the Harry Potter series since they came out more than a decade ago. These are not the most cerebral books known to man since their scope and prose aren’t even comparable to Tolkien or Lewis’s works, but they are definitely enjoyable. Harry Potter appeals to everyone’s fantasies and emotions, transcending the barriers of gender and age in doing so (like Twilight, lol). I am not a huge fan, but I appreciate Harry Potter for what is: an entertaining brainless read.

 

With that said, I want to direct your attention to an article that Jessica Zafra wrote two days ago at the Philippine Star called “Technology is Magic“. In it she compares Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy with the Harry Potter series. She says:

With scope comes the stakes. In Rings the whole world is in peril: if Sauron wins, all the races of Middle Earth and particularly men will be enslaved. In Harry Potter if Voldemort wins, there will be a change of management at Hogwart’s school. (At least that is what I have gleaned from the movies, which are said to be inferior to the books.)

It will probably be bad for regular people too, but in the movies a kind of apartheid exists between the wizards and ordinary humans (“muggles”). Occasionally we witness the casual destruction by dark forces of some famous London landmark, but few in the wizard dimension seem too perturbed. Since we are left in the dark about what’s at stake (Do we lose all our noses?) the war between good and evil has all the urgency of a battle for control of the high school drama guild.

 

Ms. Zafra admits (albeit implicitly) that she hasn’t read Harry Potter, which explains why she sounds quite clueless in the article. This is something that every Harry Potter reader knows: if Voldemort wins, both the supernatural and Muggle worlds—the whole planet— will be enslaved. Voldemort has particular hatred towards Muggle-born wizards and Muggles in general (hi Hitler!). He is not afraid to kill, he is ruthless, he is ambitious, he is evil. He is as much a villain as Sauron is. It’s sad that this wasn’t captured on film, but yeah, if you’ve read the book, you know it. It is a basic fact. It’s not just a change of Management at Hogwarts that’s at stake.

 

Ms. Zafra ads:

 

Then it hit me like a troll’s fist: Harry Potter is essentially elitist, while The Lord of the Rings is populist. I know how odd this sounds. Tolkien was a conservative, a member of the privileged class, and a defender of the old order. J.K. Rowling is a billionaire now, but at the time she wrote her novels she was a struggling single mother. But the hero of Tolkien’s epic is not Aragorn the reluctant king, Legolas the brave elf, or Gandalf, it’s little Frodo Baggins.

The smallest, most ordinary, least remarkable creature in the world changes the course of history. Power resides in the community of men, elves, dwarves and hobbits united by valor and sacrifice.

In contrast Rowling’s Harry Potter is a top student at a school so exclusive that ordinary people are unaware of its existence. There he competes with the other gifted kids, and by the sixth movie he is acknowledged as the chosen one who will save the world from the unspeakable evil. Power resides in one.

 

Harry Potter is not a top student. He’s actually pretty mediocre compared to other students at Hogwarts (except in Quidditch, sheesh). He’s just an average boy who just happens to always be at the right place at the right time and know all the right people. He was acknowledged as the chosen one, in a prophecy, but all he actually HAD to do was to literally give himself up to Voldemort and the rest was taken care of by his friends. Hogwarts isn’t an exclusive school, at least in the wizarding world. At a certain age, all wizards in the UK and Ireland are invited to attend. Therefore, it is erroneous to claim that Harry Potter is essentially elitist. It’s just a series about a, um, lucky lucky boy. I don’t quite know what to call it.

 

Ms. Zafra’s main points were 1.) Harry Potter is nooooo waaaay near the level of Lord of the Rings and 2.) technology is magic. My problem is that the arguments she made to support the former are moot. Why? Because she is comparing books she read to books she didn’t read (I’m not taking the level of comparison to films because she mentioned Tom Bombadil and barrow-wights, which aren’t in them). In doing so, she makes arguments that aren’t valid to support a—and I admit this—valid claim. An article like this from a journalist I respect is quite disillusioning. 

 

I know, I know, I shouldn’t have nitpicked. All this angst isn’t coming from a Harry Potter fan—I was a Jessica Zafra fan.

My Day’s Not Over

July 24, 2009

Today, I went to three banks wearing an outfit I really like. The one problem, however, is that the skirt makes me look extra fat. Sooo depressing if you ask me. And yeah I am aware that I sound like a total ditz.

 

 

 

Remember this?

Falcore Autumn - The Legend of Zelda (c64 mix) (Falcore Autumn)

Pet Peeves

July 16, 2009

1. I hate it when people touch my head. No one is supposed to touch my head, for the love of god.

2. I hate it when people tap their hands or feet. It drives me insane. It’s the most irritating thing in the world.

3. Scratch that. The most irritating thing is the world is when people breathe. I hate it when people breathe and I am made aware of it. Imagine feeling someone’s chest rise up and down, air escaping through his mouth and nose, in a monotonous pattern. The repetitiveness of the whole thing just kills me.

4. Oh, I also dislike heartbeats.

5. I am grossed out when strangers’ hair or skin brushes mine. That is simply the grossest thing in the whole history of the world. Imagine that prickly sensation, ever so softly caressing your skin—from another person’s head! Imagine the sweaty sticky arm of a person making contact with your dry, smooth arm. Yuck.

6. I hate it when people call me Aissa just to piss me off. Grow up people. We’re not in third grade.

7. Wet feet also kills me. This is why I have lots of boots. I would like to avoid muddified booger, saliva, mucus, and dirt giving my feet a beauty bath.

8. Slow lines. Of course.

9. Stupid people. Of course.

10. Sitting down in a bus and everyone else is standing up, restricting access to air and light.

11. Noisy restaurants.

12. Taxi drivers who are mad at passengers because A.) There is a traffic jam in the middle of rush hour B.) No reason, they’re jusr being their usual assholey selves. It’s not like they’re doing me a favor; I’m going to fucking pay their asses when I get off.

13. Trucks that have less than 18 wheels. Why bother being a truck if you only have 12 wheels? Or only 16, for that matter?

Meet me halfway by the bedrock

July 7, 2009

I honestly don’t understand why some people spend their youth (and often far beyond it) flitting from one relationship to another. Is it the constant drive to discover? Is it the illusion of freedom? Is it the sex? Is it the rush? Is it loneliness? Is it…what? I really don’t know. Sometimes I envy these people because they’re not bound by the invisible chains of being in a long-term relationship. Often I feel sorry for them, because it means that they haven’t found what they believe they’re looking for.

 
I think people go into romantic relationships because there’s a need to share a unique connection that cannot be achieved between parents, siblings, and friends. Part of that is the physical union of two bodies but there’s something more to it than that. I believe that a person needs a lover so that he can share his life with another person in a different context, a context which involves creating their own family and building their lives as one person with similar if not identical goals. Obviously, walking this path is not a short-term thing. It takes years of commitment. Having elaborate two-month stands constantly does not actualize it.

 

This is why when I decide to be in a romantic relationship I mean to marry the person. I build my whole life around him (and I expect him to do the same thing) because from that point onward I consider him part of my future. The consecutive plans I make will take into account the fact of his existence and desires. Yes, I expect him to do the same thing. If he can’t commit to that, then I won’t pursue a relationship in the first place. I won’t see the point.

 

The catch here is that I haven’t had enough time in this world to make that mistake. I hope never to, but who knows?