As promised...Friday Harry Potter'ing (NO SPOILERS)
EDITOR'S NOTE: A BIT OF HARRY POTTER (SPOILER-FREE) NEWS. AND THEN, SOME GROOVY GOF (GOBLET OF FIRE....BUT IF YOU'RE READING THIS, DID I NEED TO TELL YOU THAT?) PICS.
New Wizard of the Month on JKR.com
Bridget Wenlock(1202 – 1285)Famous Arithmancer. First to establish the magical properties of the number seven EDITOR'S NOTE: I HAVE BEEN TOLD, BY THE WAY, THAT GINNY WEASLEY IS THE ONLY GIRL FOR GENERATIONS AND IS THE 7TH CHILD (AND POSSIBLY OF 7TH CHILDREN....NOT SURE ABOUT THAT PART). SO SUPPOSEDLY SHE IS QUITE POWERFUL (AS WE ARE LEARNING) AND VERY SPECIAL. (AND NOT JUST CAUSE SHE IS FUNNY)
Jim Dale reading in Georgia - report and pic
The narrator of the US Potter series has been on a tour across the US reading at several Barnes & Noble book stores.
Jim was in Alpharetta, Georgia yesterday where two MN visitors, Mandy and Heather, were also in attendance.
Mr. Dale tells us how he came up with the different character's voices:
McGonagall was structured after an aunt of his. Dobby, he said, came from a small man in an elevator several years ago. Jim said that he walked into the elevator, pushed the button for the floor he needed, and then turned to face the door. From behind him, he heard a quiet voice and turned to see a small man who said, "Excuse me, sir, could you please move your bum out of my face."
Mandy also described him as being "extremely entertaining".EDITOR'S NOTE: READ THE BOOKS. THEN EXPERIENCE THEM AGAIN READ BY JIM DALE. YOU WILL THANK ME!....(AS I HAVE THANKED DWEEBPAL ANDREW FOR LOANING ME THE FIRST HP BOOK ON TAPE THAT FIRST TIME.)
EDITOR'S NOTE: AND HERE'S A POINT/COUNTERPOINT FOR MS. ROWLING-----
Pratchett takes swipe at Rowling
Writer Terry Pratchett has poked fun at Harry Potter author JK Rowling for saying she did not realise she was writing a fantasy novel.
He wrote to the Sunday Times:"I would have thought that the wizards, witches, trolls, unicorns, hidden worlds... would have given her a clue?"
Harry Potter and the Halfblood Prince has been a runaway bestseller in the UK and US since its release on 16 July.
Pratchett is one of the UK's most successful novelists.
His comments came on Rowling's 40th birthday, also Harry Potter's birthday.
In a recent interview with Time magazine, Rowling said she was "not a huge fan of fantasy" and was trying to "subvert" the genre.
The magazine also said Rowling reinvented fantasy fiction, which was previously stuck in "an idealised, romanticised, pseudofeudal world, where knights and ladies morris-dance to Greensleeves".
Pratchett, whose first fantasy novel was published 34 years ago and has since sold more than 40 million books, said in his letter that the genre had always been "edgy and inventive". EDITOR'S NOTE: WELL....EXCEPT FOR ALL THAT MORRIS-DANCING.
"Ever since The Lord of the Rings revitalised the genre, writers have played with it, reinvented it, subverted it and bent it to their times," he wrote.
"It has also contained come of the very best, most accessible writing for children, by writers who seldom get the acknowledgement they deserve."
His full response to Rowling's admission that she did not think Harry Potter was fantasy as she was writing it, was:
"I would have thought that the wizards, witches, trolls, unicorns, hidden worlds, jumping chocolate frogs, owl mail, magic food, ghosts, broomsticks and spells would have given her a clue?" EDITOR'S NOTE: CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG HERE? (AND HOW MANY ANGELS CAN DANCE ON THE HEAD OF A PIN?)
Growing Up With a Dose of Magic
By KAAVYA VISWANATHAN
Franklin Lake, N.J.
I WISH I could say I started reading Harry Potter before the mania hit, but the first time I ever heard about the books was months after the release of "Sorcerer's Stone," when I ran across a small display table at the local Barnes & Noble. I read the jacket flap, decided not to buy a copy, and forgot all about Harry Potter.
It wasn't until "Chamber of Secrets" hit best-seller lists, the summer before I began eighth grade, that my dad brought the first two books home and persuaded me to read them.
Within three chapters of "Sorcerer's Stone," I had jumped on the Potter bandwagon, little realizing that more than an innocent - and forgettable - children's series, "Harry Potter" would prevail as my favorite through adolescence and into adulthood in a world that doesn't feel so safe anymore.
I spent $17.95 of my own allowance to buy a copy of "Prisoner of Azkaban," broke every lights-out rule at sleep-away camp by reading under the covers till dawn, then promptly (and unethically) returned the day-old book for a refund.
When "Goblet of Fire" was announced, I ordered my copy a month in advance and waited impatiently on my doorstep for the U.P.S. truck. And by the time "Order of the Phoenix" finally hit stores, I was in line at my local bookstore by 10 p.m. the night before the release date. My three best friends and I shrieked when midnight arrived, abandoned all dignity and scrambled over 10-year-olds in our mad rush to the counter, then stayed up all night reading. EDITOR'S NOTE: IT'S HARSH. BUT 10-YEAR-OLDS NEED TO LEARN HOW TO TOUGHEN UP.
Even though I'm now in college, and buried in a reading list that's more Proust than Potter, I made sure I got my copy of the "Half-Blood Prince" on July 16 and seriously considered taking a day off from my job to read. Every Harry Potter remains compelling, especially because I feel as if I've grown up with Harry. Throughout elementary and middle school, I had read the "Little House on the Prairie" series and the "Chronicles of Narnia," Roald Dahl and the eternal "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, but these were finite, already completed series. I never doubted that Frodo would eventually destroy the ring, or that Aslan would save the day; there was no risk of unforeseen plot twists, no tantalizing feeling that I didn't quite know what was around the corner.
But Harry's development followed my own. Of course, the long waits between books meant that I aged faster than he did, but I never lost the feeling that each Harry Potter story was relevant to my life. With the "Sorcerer's Stone," Harry and I were both young, still bubbling over with excitement and discovery, certain that every story had a happy ending. I saw "Prisoner" end with a sympathetic character on the run despite his innocence, and realized with a pang that life really wasn't always fair.
And by the end of the "Half-Blood Prince," I came to the same heart-wrenching realization as Harry - that parents and friends and mentors couldn't always be shields, that some things you just had to experience and overcome on your own. Sure, my freshman year romantic heartbreak wasn't in the same category as Harry's life-or-death struggle with Lord Voldemort, but it was nice to know that my life and Harry's enchanted universe had something in common - not everything was perfect.
That knowledge has been especially driven home during the last few years. As a 12-year-old, I relished the Harry Potter novels as simple outlets of escape. The first few books were enchanting because of J. K. Rowling's extravagantly imagined universe, which tempted me to dive in with no thought of resurfacing. But especially from the fourth book on, Harry's world grew successively darker, and all of a sudden, far from being complete flights of fantasy, the novels became a reflection of reality.
The Death-Eater attacks ravaging Harry's world bear a frightening resemblance to today's terrorism, and scenes where Hermione scans the daily paper for the latest casualty toll must have been achingly recognizable to thousands of American families reading the headlines about Iraq. In eighth grade it had been easy to put off studying for a geometry test in favor of a trip to magical Diagon Alley, but it wasn't so easy to forget about Sept. 11 and subway bombings, especially when Harry was struggling with loss and betrayal and the wizarding world was its own war zone.
So why did I keep reading? Considering our current international atmosphere of fear and terror, where every week seems marked by security alerts and suicide bombings, it seems counterintuitive to seek fantasy that faithfully mirrors an increasingly grim reality.
But if Harry Potter is a reminder that not even magic can solve everything, it is also a promise of hope, sustaining the fundamental childhood belief that in the end, good really does triumph over evil, and justice is meted out to those who deserve it. EDITOR'S NOTE: FROM HER MOUTH TO GOD'S EARS! Harry is an endearingly normal hero, enduring the same romantic insecurities, friendship pressures and temper tantrums that I encounter all the time, and it is oddly comforting to think that such a seemingly ordinary boy could achieve the extraordinary.
Each time I reread a Harry Potter novel, I am reminded of the ability of everyday people to reach unprecedented heights for a cause they believe in, as well as of the importance of love, friendship and loyalty - qualities as essential to the wizarding struggle as to our own. Even adults like to think that somehow, everything will be all right.
Kaavya Viswanathan, a sophomore at Harvard, is the author of the forthcoming novel "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life."
Meanwhile, Rowling celebrated her 40th birthday on Sunday, the day she has also made her young creation's birthday.
The author's website displayed pictures of a birthday cake and birthday card with the words: "Happy birthday Harry Potter."
Fans have been trying to deduce how old he is, with one site saying the boy wizard has now turned 25. EDITOR'S NOTE: ASSUMING....EEK...HE IS STILL ALIVE?
Rumor: Helen McCrory to play Bellatrix in OOTP
The Mirror reports today that OOTP producers are keen on 35-year-old actress Helen McCrory for the role of Bellatrix Lestrange in the fifth movie, saying "she has the gravitas and looks to pull off the part."
You can see a picture of her here.
EDITOR'S NOTE: FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO KNOW MY STRANGE NOTION THAT THIS IS THE PART I WOULD HAVE PLAYED IN THE MOVIES....DOESN'T SHE KINDA LOOK LIKE ME????!!! (I'D MAKE A GOOD CASTING DIRECTOR, HUH?!)
New GOF screening report
An interesting report from the Goblet of Fire's test screening, which took place last month in Chicago, has been posted on MoviesOnline.ca.
Here's a snippet:
The first task of the competition is amazing. It is very well produced. Professor McGonagall gives the students a firm speech about the yule ball and it's importance for social reasons and then gives a dance lesson using one of the students as her partner. Ron and Harry have made up at this point, and they have an awful time finding dates as all the girls are chasing around Victor and Cedric. Cho Chang is brilliant, she speaks with a heavy accent and is very pretty. Ron is in total denial that Hermoine has a date to the ball, and she is beautiful when she arrives. Victor and Hermoine hit it off, Ron becomes very jealous, and Hermoine ends up yelling at him. You really see the sparks fly between them in this scene. The only person to really enjoy himself is Neville, who comes home very late after dancing the night away with Ginny EDITOR'S NOTE: CAN'T WAIT CAN'T WAIT CAN'T WAIT!!! (AND LET'S GET CRACKIN WITH FILMING NUMBER 5, WHILE WE'RE AT IT!!)
EDITOR'S NOTE: DID YOU EAT YOUR VEGGIES? OK...THEN YOU CAN HAVE THOSE GROOVY PICS I PROMISED!
More GOF pictures
An excellent new set of pictures has surfaced featuring Harry, Barty Crouch, Mad-Eye and many others.
A GROUP OF GRYFFINDORS
BARTY CROUCH SR.
CEDRIC DIGGORY
ALSO CEDRIC
AWW...ISN'T SHE A CUTIE? CHO CHANG.
DUMBLEDORE, DUH.
DUMBLEDORE AND THE PENSIEVE
DUMBLEDORE CASTING A SPELL
HARRY AFTER A TASK
HARRY AT THE FEAST
INSIDE THE WEASLEY'S MAGIC TENT AT THE QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP
FIRE AT THE CAMPSITE AT THE WORLD CUP
KARKAROFF
HARRY AND MADEYE
MADEYE MOODY
VIKTOR KRUM (DID ANYONE ELSE PICTURE HIM A BIT GAWKIER? THIS GUY'S KIND OF A HUNK. POOR RON!)
New Wizard of the Month on JKR.com
Bridget Wenlock(1202 – 1285)Famous Arithmancer. First to establish the magical properties of the number seven EDITOR'S NOTE: I HAVE BEEN TOLD, BY THE WAY, THAT GINNY WEASLEY IS THE ONLY GIRL FOR GENERATIONS AND IS THE 7TH CHILD (AND POSSIBLY OF 7TH CHILDREN....NOT SURE ABOUT THAT PART). SO SUPPOSEDLY SHE IS QUITE POWERFUL (AS WE ARE LEARNING) AND VERY SPECIAL. (AND NOT JUST CAUSE SHE IS FUNNY)
Jim Dale reading in Georgia - report and pic
The narrator of the US Potter series has been on a tour across the US reading at several Barnes & Noble book stores.
Jim was in Alpharetta, Georgia yesterday where two MN visitors, Mandy and Heather, were also in attendance.
Mr. Dale tells us how he came up with the different character's voices:
McGonagall was structured after an aunt of his. Dobby, he said, came from a small man in an elevator several years ago. Jim said that he walked into the elevator, pushed the button for the floor he needed, and then turned to face the door. From behind him, he heard a quiet voice and turned to see a small man who said, "Excuse me, sir, could you please move your bum out of my face."
Mandy also described him as being "extremely entertaining".EDITOR'S NOTE: READ THE BOOKS. THEN EXPERIENCE THEM AGAIN READ BY JIM DALE. YOU WILL THANK ME!....(AS I HAVE THANKED DWEEBPAL ANDREW FOR LOANING ME THE FIRST HP BOOK ON TAPE THAT FIRST TIME.)
EDITOR'S NOTE: AND HERE'S A POINT/COUNTERPOINT FOR MS. ROWLING-----
Pratchett takes swipe at Rowling
Writer Terry Pratchett has poked fun at Harry Potter author JK Rowling for saying she did not realise she was writing a fantasy novel.
He wrote to the Sunday Times:"I would have thought that the wizards, witches, trolls, unicorns, hidden worlds... would have given her a clue?"
Harry Potter and the Halfblood Prince has been a runaway bestseller in the UK and US since its release on 16 July.
Pratchett is one of the UK's most successful novelists.
His comments came on Rowling's 40th birthday, also Harry Potter's birthday.
In a recent interview with Time magazine, Rowling said she was "not a huge fan of fantasy" and was trying to "subvert" the genre.
The magazine also said Rowling reinvented fantasy fiction, which was previously stuck in "an idealised, romanticised, pseudofeudal world, where knights and ladies morris-dance to Greensleeves".
Pratchett, whose first fantasy novel was published 34 years ago and has since sold more than 40 million books, said in his letter that the genre had always been "edgy and inventive". EDITOR'S NOTE: WELL....EXCEPT FOR ALL THAT MORRIS-DANCING.
"Ever since The Lord of the Rings revitalised the genre, writers have played with it, reinvented it, subverted it and bent it to their times," he wrote.
"It has also contained come of the very best, most accessible writing for children, by writers who seldom get the acknowledgement they deserve."
His full response to Rowling's admission that she did not think Harry Potter was fantasy as she was writing it, was:
"I would have thought that the wizards, witches, trolls, unicorns, hidden worlds, jumping chocolate frogs, owl mail, magic food, ghosts, broomsticks and spells would have given her a clue?" EDITOR'S NOTE: CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG HERE? (AND HOW MANY ANGELS CAN DANCE ON THE HEAD OF A PIN?)
Growing Up With a Dose of Magic
By KAAVYA VISWANATHAN
Franklin Lake, N.J.
I WISH I could say I started reading Harry Potter before the mania hit, but the first time I ever heard about the books was months after the release of "Sorcerer's Stone," when I ran across a small display table at the local Barnes & Noble. I read the jacket flap, decided not to buy a copy, and forgot all about Harry Potter.
It wasn't until "Chamber of Secrets" hit best-seller lists, the summer before I began eighth grade, that my dad brought the first two books home and persuaded me to read them.
Within three chapters of "Sorcerer's Stone," I had jumped on the Potter bandwagon, little realizing that more than an innocent - and forgettable - children's series, "Harry Potter" would prevail as my favorite through adolescence and into adulthood in a world that doesn't feel so safe anymore.
I spent $17.95 of my own allowance to buy a copy of "Prisoner of Azkaban," broke every lights-out rule at sleep-away camp by reading under the covers till dawn, then promptly (and unethically) returned the day-old book for a refund.
When "Goblet of Fire" was announced, I ordered my copy a month in advance and waited impatiently on my doorstep for the U.P.S. truck. And by the time "Order of the Phoenix" finally hit stores, I was in line at my local bookstore by 10 p.m. the night before the release date. My three best friends and I shrieked when midnight arrived, abandoned all dignity and scrambled over 10-year-olds in our mad rush to the counter, then stayed up all night reading. EDITOR'S NOTE: IT'S HARSH. BUT 10-YEAR-OLDS NEED TO LEARN HOW TO TOUGHEN UP.
Even though I'm now in college, and buried in a reading list that's more Proust than Potter, I made sure I got my copy of the "Half-Blood Prince" on July 16 and seriously considered taking a day off from my job to read. Every Harry Potter remains compelling, especially because I feel as if I've grown up with Harry. Throughout elementary and middle school, I had read the "Little House on the Prairie" series and the "Chronicles of Narnia," Roald Dahl and the eternal "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, but these were finite, already completed series. I never doubted that Frodo would eventually destroy the ring, or that Aslan would save the day; there was no risk of unforeseen plot twists, no tantalizing feeling that I didn't quite know what was around the corner.
But Harry's development followed my own. Of course, the long waits between books meant that I aged faster than he did, but I never lost the feeling that each Harry Potter story was relevant to my life. With the "Sorcerer's Stone," Harry and I were both young, still bubbling over with excitement and discovery, certain that every story had a happy ending. I saw "Prisoner" end with a sympathetic character on the run despite his innocence, and realized with a pang that life really wasn't always fair.
And by the end of the "Half-Blood Prince," I came to the same heart-wrenching realization as Harry - that parents and friends and mentors couldn't always be shields, that some things you just had to experience and overcome on your own. Sure, my freshman year romantic heartbreak wasn't in the same category as Harry's life-or-death struggle with Lord Voldemort, but it was nice to know that my life and Harry's enchanted universe had something in common - not everything was perfect.
That knowledge has been especially driven home during the last few years. As a 12-year-old, I relished the Harry Potter novels as simple outlets of escape. The first few books were enchanting because of J. K. Rowling's extravagantly imagined universe, which tempted me to dive in with no thought of resurfacing. But especially from the fourth book on, Harry's world grew successively darker, and all of a sudden, far from being complete flights of fantasy, the novels became a reflection of reality.
The Death-Eater attacks ravaging Harry's world bear a frightening resemblance to today's terrorism, and scenes where Hermione scans the daily paper for the latest casualty toll must have been achingly recognizable to thousands of American families reading the headlines about Iraq. In eighth grade it had been easy to put off studying for a geometry test in favor of a trip to magical Diagon Alley, but it wasn't so easy to forget about Sept. 11 and subway bombings, especially when Harry was struggling with loss and betrayal and the wizarding world was its own war zone.
So why did I keep reading? Considering our current international atmosphere of fear and terror, where every week seems marked by security alerts and suicide bombings, it seems counterintuitive to seek fantasy that faithfully mirrors an increasingly grim reality.
But if Harry Potter is a reminder that not even magic can solve everything, it is also a promise of hope, sustaining the fundamental childhood belief that in the end, good really does triumph over evil, and justice is meted out to those who deserve it. EDITOR'S NOTE: FROM HER MOUTH TO GOD'S EARS! Harry is an endearingly normal hero, enduring the same romantic insecurities, friendship pressures and temper tantrums that I encounter all the time, and it is oddly comforting to think that such a seemingly ordinary boy could achieve the extraordinary.
Each time I reread a Harry Potter novel, I am reminded of the ability of everyday people to reach unprecedented heights for a cause they believe in, as well as of the importance of love, friendship and loyalty - qualities as essential to the wizarding struggle as to our own. Even adults like to think that somehow, everything will be all right.
Kaavya Viswanathan, a sophomore at Harvard, is the author of the forthcoming novel "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life."
Meanwhile, Rowling celebrated her 40th birthday on Sunday, the day she has also made her young creation's birthday.
The author's website displayed pictures of a birthday cake and birthday card with the words: "Happy birthday Harry Potter."
Fans have been trying to deduce how old he is, with one site saying the boy wizard has now turned 25. EDITOR'S NOTE: ASSUMING....EEK...HE IS STILL ALIVE?
Rumor: Helen McCrory to play Bellatrix in OOTP
The Mirror reports today that OOTP producers are keen on 35-year-old actress Helen McCrory for the role of Bellatrix Lestrange in the fifth movie, saying "she has the gravitas and looks to pull off the part."
You can see a picture of her here.
EDITOR'S NOTE: FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO KNOW MY STRANGE NOTION THAT THIS IS THE PART I WOULD HAVE PLAYED IN THE MOVIES....DOESN'T SHE KINDA LOOK LIKE ME????!!! (I'D MAKE A GOOD CASTING DIRECTOR, HUH?!)
New GOF screening report
An interesting report from the Goblet of Fire's test screening, which took place last month in Chicago, has been posted on MoviesOnline.ca.
Here's a snippet:
The first task of the competition is amazing. It is very well produced. Professor McGonagall gives the students a firm speech about the yule ball and it's importance for social reasons and then gives a dance lesson using one of the students as her partner. Ron and Harry have made up at this point, and they have an awful time finding dates as all the girls are chasing around Victor and Cedric. Cho Chang is brilliant, she speaks with a heavy accent and is very pretty. Ron is in total denial that Hermoine has a date to the ball, and she is beautiful when she arrives. Victor and Hermoine hit it off, Ron becomes very jealous, and Hermoine ends up yelling at him. You really see the sparks fly between them in this scene. The only person to really enjoy himself is Neville, who comes home very late after dancing the night away with Ginny EDITOR'S NOTE: CAN'T WAIT CAN'T WAIT CAN'T WAIT!!! (AND LET'S GET CRACKIN WITH FILMING NUMBER 5, WHILE WE'RE AT IT!!)
EDITOR'S NOTE: DID YOU EAT YOUR VEGGIES? OK...THEN YOU CAN HAVE THOSE GROOVY PICS I PROMISED!
More GOF pictures
An excellent new set of pictures has surfaced featuring Harry, Barty Crouch, Mad-Eye and many others.
A GROUP OF GRYFFINDORS
BARTY CROUCH SR.
CEDRIC DIGGORY
ALSO CEDRIC
AWW...ISN'T SHE A CUTIE? CHO CHANG.
DUMBLEDORE, DUH.
DUMBLEDORE AND THE PENSIEVE
DUMBLEDORE CASTING A SPELL
HARRY AFTER A TASK
HARRY AT THE FEAST
INSIDE THE WEASLEY'S MAGIC TENT AT THE QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP
FIRE AT THE CAMPSITE AT THE WORLD CUP
KARKAROFF
HARRY AND MADEYE
MADEYE MOODY
VIKTOR KRUM (DID ANYONE ELSE PICTURE HIM A BIT GAWKIER? THIS GUY'S KIND OF A HUNK. POOR RON!)
posted by QOTD (the Queen of the Dweebs) at 2:00 PM
1 Comments:
Excellent, that was really well explained and helpful
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