Reimagining Harry Potter Already; Shifts in Tone

Reimagining Harry Potter Already

I wish I could be academic about this. I really wish I could. So I’m going to try.

But first, I’m going to gush.

As the self proclaimed Video Game Nerd among my group of friends, I have no trouble with also saying that I may have also dabbled in Cartoons.

And yes, because if it exists, the internet will do terrible things to it sometimes;

I present to you, Nacho Punch productions.

Harry Potter Cyber Punk Adventure: The 1980s Anime

Yes. Yes it was as glorious as you don’t want to admit it was.

And in case you don’t think just about anything can get the same sort of treatment;

Star Wars: The Lost 1980s Anime

“But Shane,” I can hear you saying, “These are parodies, if anything. Not reimaginings.”

To which I reply; SHUT UP. THIS IS BEAUTIFUL.

Grand Theft Auto For Kids

I know people who would watch that last one for days. 

I WOULD WATCH THAT LAST ONE FOR DAYS.

Okay. Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system.

I think these are all fantastic examples of the dramatic shift in tone that’s able to be achieved through the processes of either genre-shifts or medium-shifts. Just how different does the Harry Potter story become if it takes place in a Cyberpunk world? How different is the same narrative if it’s told not as a children’s novel written in England, but as as a Japanese cartoon written in the 1980s?

The Star Wars example stays more true to the source material, and shows a more obvious example of how this shift takes place as a part of the transition from American movie to Japanese cartoon. There is a more obvious focus on the emotional concerns of the protagonist (played here for laughs with a joke that relies on the “squick” factor of Luke and Leia’s revealed sibling relationship, and stereotypes about Japanese animation) while simultaneously ramping up the levels of action.

Lastly, that Grand Theft Auto could be converted into a Dora the Explorer style children’s cartoon is, frankly, a phenomenal achievement. Though at the same time, so much is lost in the translation. For all the attention that the media places on the crime “simulation” part of the game series, each entry in the franchise, following the release of Grand Theft Auto III, tries very hard to take itself seriously, and it presents a serious crime-drama narrative.

I’d like to take this as an opportunity to talk about this sort of thing, and to discuss what exactly makes something “lose” a part of itself in rendition or adaptation.

But even more than that, I want you to just link similar videos. Because those were amazing.

Thank you, Nacho Punch, for brightening my day.

Rambling about H-H-Harry Potter

I don't really feel like I can say a whole lot about Harry Potter that I didn't already say in the super awesome secret class discussion Lloyd, Andrew and I had before class. I think it was probably more fun for Lloyd since he has read it before while Andrew and I are newbs. But I think Andrew is more of a newb than I am because I know a LOT of what happens in the series. I just didn't have to read that information.

So, we were basically rappin' to all the magical inconsistencies of Harry Potter. Like Prof. Bins is a ghost so how do they pay him? Are all of Ollivander's wands 7 Galleons? Why is Hagrid so amazing? Why isn't the ground of a quidditch pitch enchanted to be soft or bouncy so people don't die on impact of falling? Are there deaf wizards, and if so why doesn't everyone get to that stage of magic? Why verbalize anything? WHAT ARE THESE PROFESSORS DOING?!

I think the fact that we took time before class to talk about these things speaks to two things. One is how the world of Harry Potter is crafted to allow these questions. Two, this is fan behavior to the max and how cool is it that we can spend time thinking about these things.

I think that the universe of Harry Potter works so well because magic.

And that is a serious reason. There is friggin' magic and people love the idea of magic. But I feel like it's because of the way J.K. Rowling crafted the story to be just enough magic. There is just enough background magic to make us question what else magic can do. We can imagine things in more depth, like what it's like for a professor to be a ghost. The information is supplied in passing almost but we as readers can pick that up and run with it.

 The other thing is that it is a different world existing in the world we currently reside in. While I'm still tetchy about the muggle-wizard divide it does allow for us to pretend that it is real. That there is magic but that it's hiding at the edge of our vision. It's more involving this way because if J.K. Rowling had created a whole new universe then the reader would have no place in the story. Rowling includes the reader in the world like background radiation, which is more than others writers can say.

So, in conclusion that is why I don't need to read the books. No, seriously. Hear me out. I love the universe of Harry Potter and I am super grateful it was written. Now, I get to read about characters I actually care about navigate the universe of Harry Potter and I don't have to listen to Ron and Harry's problems. I don't really care for them as characters. Now, Hagrid's character is the BEST!

He is a big burly man who is incredibly sensitive and honest to a fault. He carries around a pink umbrella and is a loyal friend. HE LOVES ANIMALS AND HE IS MY BOO! Seriously, if you want me to read your book or story just put a character like Hagrid in it and I'll all up in there. I just want him to be happy and safe and raise little baby Chocobos!



Can't you see it?! Can't you see Hagrid being followed around by little chickens and then letting them roost on his house because he doesn't mind and then when they're big they still follow him around the grounds of Hogwarts but now they're helpful!  SO CUTE!

See, give me a Hagrid. Hagrid and Magic and I am yours 5ever.

Starting with a Normal we Hate

Professor Mitchell-Buck brought up an interesting point in class this week.

Quote: “How many of you even remembered that the first chapter of Harry Potter is all about Vernon Dursley?”

Frankly, the first passage of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is boring. A hateful kind of boring. The sort of boring that audiences have been trained to hate.

Rowling is specific enough to note that this story begins on a Tuesday. Tuesday is arguably the worst day of the week (for anyone not involved in this particular Pop Culture class). The work week has already begun, so there’s no point in channeling a cartoon cat to complain about that, and yet the weekend is still incredibly far away. To top it all off, Vernon Dursley celebrates this boring, uneventful Tuesday by picking out “his most boring tie” to wear. This man cannot possibly be anything good. If the book made any mention of Vernon Dursley in its title, page two would be the point where decisions would need to be made about whether or not to continue reading. If the reader could not make it past Dudley screaming in his high chair, the book would be doomed.

Even when things begin to get interesting, they are only interesting in relationship to the mundane drudgery of everything else that is happening. And yet, in some ways, Vernon Dursley almost becomes a character that we can like through the way that he reacts to the things around him. He’s aware enough of his surroundings and the truth of his sister-in-law that even if he doesn’t want to admit to himself that the cat reading street signs may be more than a trick of the light, he’s able to put the clues together to correctly conclude that Lily Potter’s “kind” are involved in the oddness of the day.

And yet, before we can really get to like this man, who is presented as the worst kind of boring reacting with curiosity to the peculiarities and truth of the world around him, we shift focus to the “Wizarding” world.

While Harry Potter, as a franchise, deals (almost necessarily) with Harry above all others, this is largely a product of the fact that the target audience is children. Certainly this was the case when the book was first released, but now that a number of years have past, the readers who grew up with the books are, well, grown up.

The time between the first chapter and the second is nearly ten years. Ten years of time that is not at all important to the story of Harry Potter; but time that is very significant to Vernon and Petunia Dursley.

All of this is a long way of saying that I would actually really enjoy reading something like Vernon Dursley and The Unwanted Magical Adoption. I want to hate the Dursleys because they’re boring. I do wind up hating them because I’m intolerant of intolerant people. But there are ten years of raising a child that isn’t theirs, that represents any number of harsh Universal truths for the Dursleys, that only add fuel to a fire of their own anger. As it is, the Dursleys have no character arc. They start boring, hateful, and intolerant, and they end that way, with no real explanation why. Perhaps, for a children’s story, this is an important lesson; some people just are the way they are, and there’s no changing that, even if we don’t like them for it. But from narrative, dramatic development, I want to see the Dursleys fail at growth. I want to see them try to understand and raise their magical nephew, and I want to see the things that keep stopping that from being an achievable reality.

The scene we get from Dudley’s birthday touches on this, but even before that, there’s hints of the years of struggle here. One of Harry’s potential babysitters, Marge, is specifically counted out because “she hates the boy”, and when Harry suggests that he stay home by himself, Petunia denies him by snarling and questioning that if they did they would “come back and find the house in ruins” to which Harry specifically says “I won’t blow up the house,” This suggests to me that at one point in time, Harry very nearly blew up the house when he was left alone. “He always sp-spoils everything!” We do get examples of the weird things that happen around Harry, but since the story is told largely from Harry’s perspective, we only see them as examples of the wickedness of the Dursleys.

Did Petunia Dursley cry herself to sleep the night after she cut off nearly all of Harry’s hair? Her and her husband both know the whole truth. This sort of thing shouldn’t have been a surprise to her. Maybe she was always jealous of Harry’s mother, her sister, being able to do crazy things with her hair because she could use magic. Did something happen to Petunia’s hair when Lily was off at school, leaving Petunia effectively bald? Why was this a big deal to her? What was Vernon doing during all of this? Sighing quietly, trying to distract Dudley, and thinking of ways to keep his marriage together?  

And this is what Fan Fiction is really all about, I suppose. I want these characters to have development, or at the very least an explanation. They’re really only a plot device in the source material - easily hated, hateful, intolerable, intolerant people who represent everything that is the sort of normal and boring that audiences have been trained to hate.

But they’re people. (At the very least, they’re characters.) And I want to know why they failed.

Magic Unmoored

            I got the impression last class that as varied as our opinions of Harry Potter were there appeared to be a prevailing wonder as to why some parents would not want their children reading this. Why would take issue with it and try to ban it? This will be my attempt to explain one possible reason, and I’ll start by saying that I feel rather unqualified to write this post. I have only read the first book, I don’t have access to the mind of every parent, and I don’t know everything there is to know about real witchcraft and wizardry. But here it goes.

            One of the main complaints about the books that I have come across is its use of magic and sorcery, or more specifically its portrayal of them. In Rowling’s world magic is something for the every day. It is for doing the dishes, getting from one place to another, entertainment and communication. Also it is an inherited casual phenomenon, like eye color or having a dominate side. The characters train to use magic like we are trained to use our bodies to play sports or heads to solve problems. It seems that magic is dangerous only as much as the people who control it are. The same clumsiness that makes Neville blow up his potion would also probably make him something of a scary driver, and it seems like to train Malfoy with a wand is as dumb an idea as train him with a weapon. There seems to be nothing inherently more dangerous in magic than there is in cars (which are plenty dangerous if ill or maliciously handled).

            When looked at from a Christian world view, this is a flawed and problematic representation. If you insist on calling odd or supernatural occurrences “magic” then the Bible is full of “magic” but of only three kinds. One variety is the fake variety, where conmen are pretending to be magicians. Many of the Babylonian wise men and perhaps some Egyptian ones appear to be this kind. Then we have people acting through what is more properly called divine power and events caused by angles. Good examples of this are the prophets God is using to part seas, cause drought and call out plagues. They are acting as directed by God to be a witness to his power and plan. The third kind of “magic” (again such a misused and inadequate word) is also a form of spiritual power but of a sinister nature. These are people who really do have certain power but power that comes from demonic dealings. Examples would be the medium at En Dor that Saul consults (it doesn’t end well), or the masters of a girl possessed by a demon of “divination” in Philippi (lots of money to be made in fortune-telling there). These cases are always tied to very serious eternal and often earthly consequences. This is quietly literally dealing with devils.

            I am only familiar with medieval sorts of “magic,” but even in that there is very specific spiritual implications attached. I am not saying that these are necessary or even correct projections of the Cristian belief, but the basis is still very strongly there. The magic of Merlin and alchemists is really more of what we would think of as science today. Merlin can do all of this because he perfectly understands this physical world and how it relates to the spiritual, and alchemists use planets and seasons in their calculations because they recognize this is a universe is a complex creation that ties to the a spiritual Creation in particular ways. By this definition airplanes are magic because they use knowledge about air to function.

            The objection to Harry Potter then is it makes light of some serious things. Even though they celebrate Christmas, Hogwarts is not a Christian place with ghosts running around with nowhere to go. It has alchemy and mysticism all unmoored from their spiritual basis and consequence. The prophets did not take the power given to them lightly; even though it is from God and their on the right side, it’s not something to play with.

Well this is fast becoming a rant so I’ll end with this thought. While I am by no means condoning witch trials and similar things (nothing aggravates me more than actions like that taken in God’s name), most children have not had this kind of instruction when they start reading Harry Potter and just as I would not want my children to read a book about drug use without knowing what drugs can really do or that this is not something to bring into reality. However, when they’ve got that understanding there may be a lot they can learn about the world they live in through it (though it’s certainly not the highest on that reading list).

I Want Hogwarts

After rereading Harry Potter I felt there were a couple things that made HP as popular as it is.

Firstly: Just the obvious stuff, it didn't suck. It was competently written, the characters had personalities, it had a mix of humor and serious moments.  Even the movies were competently done.


Secondly: The world JK created. Hogwarts is such an appealing wonderful place, and JK does an amazing job writing and creating the world. Simply namedropping things like The Daily Prophet and using Harry to explain how the wizarding world works, JK was able to create an appealing world. I think people could see themselves going to Hogwarts. Hell there's a website where you can take online Hogwart's classes. If that doesn't show the appeal of the world itself (not the characters or the plot) I don't know what does.

I feel these aspects made HP popular. But it is the next aspects which took HP over the top and made it one of the best selling books of all time.

It's progression. Specifically it was able to take to grow at about the same pace as its readers. As the main characters grew up and new books were released the readers of it grew up. Having a growing up tale that parallels the readers growing up, having each book get more "mature" is an opportunity very few books have. And this sort of experience no other readers are going to be able to get from the books.


The last aspect that made HP as popular as it is today is its popularity. This might sound redundant but its extremely relevant. Events like the opening night release of the next book or movie, were very special and the only reason why these occurrences were able to become the EVENTS they were was because HP had an established popularity. These events added to HP's popularity. Even if the book wasn't as good as you liked you could still remember the fun you had at the event, Whether it was a book release, or a convention, or whatever.

Harry Potter and the Highway to Hell

So, my first interaction with the Harry Potter series was very interesting to say the least. I had actually checked out Prisoner of Azkkaban from my school library when I was in 3rd or 4th grade. I didn't really know what it was or that there were two books before this one but I though it looked interesting and I've always been a fan of Fantasy novels.

Suffice it to say that my mother was not happy. She had just recently found God again (no offense to the religious folk in the class) and according to her Good Book, Harry Potter was going to put me on the Highway to Hell.

 Now I saw this online a few weeks ago and knew I needed to save it for the first week of discussion. What is this woman doing? Telling these people that a fictional character is the enemy of her God?

 This is part of a sermon I found posted on Tumblr denouncing Harry Potter and his magic as Satan's work.

(Jesus Camp, 2006)



I needed to be saved from the dark forces that were clearly taking hold of me. By this time, I had decided for myself that organized religion was not for me and had stopped worshiping. Of course, this was another sign of my descent into madness and witchcraft.

I'm not saying this is representative of all religions everywhere but I had my fair share of experiences as a child and it says a lot about the power and pervasiveness of this text and its fans that sermons like this have gone on and still do go on around the country.

In 2012, the Harry Potter series was the most banned collection of texts in the country. Meanwhile, fans of all ages, choose Houses, live the dream of going to Harry Potter world, cosplay to the extreme and create original content all of the time, in spite of being told no.

Telling children it's wrong to read Harry Potter is stupid. Don't make them read it if they don't want to but it's definitely a part of the fabric of our generation.

I know I desperately waited for my Hogwarts letter, realized I was in America and thus would be attending the Salem Witche's Insitute, concluded that it was an all gir's school and waited for someone to tell me I was magical

Harry Potter Time!!

I am so VERY excited we will finally discuss Harry Potter in class. This is one of my most favorite series. I love the books as well as the movies. I haven’t delved any deeper than that however. I haven’t played any Harry Potter video games, read or interacted with Potter fandoms, or anything else. Most of my friends are Potter fans, with few finding a reason to dislike it.

My friends who do not like Harry Potter usually fall into one of two groups: those who do not like the fantasy genre and those who do not popular fiction. The majority of people I encounter who do not like Harry Potter are those that do not like popular fiction. By this I mean that they do not like it because it is popular. I feel these people thirst for individuality, a want to be different from the mindless masses. I understand this need. I purposefully wanted to dislike the BBC Sherlock show because it is so popular—especially with fangirls. Personally, I don’t want to be identified as a fangirl. It is cataloged in my brain as petty and superficial, two things I never want to be associated with.

Yet, with this class I have looked at fandom very differently. Yes, there are still stupid, petty, superficial fans, but the majority of fans (I’ve come across) are extremely intelligent and offer well thought out ideas and criticisms. However, the stigma against fangirls still exists in my head. Picturing fangirls I see crowds of crying, screaming girls with signs that say things like “I want to have your baby!” and “have sex with me!”

 

http://cdn.filmschoolrejects.com/images/fangirls.jpg

I find this sad…but intriguing. I mean if you look, I mean really look at the main characters Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) they aren’t the greatest looking. (Though Emma Watson is a super-hot-hottie) But hordes of girls want them simply because of the characters they portray. Why is this a common occurrence? Within any popular fiction?

Daniel Radcliffe http://www.walpapershddownload.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/daniel-radcliffe-wallpapers-9.jpg

Rupert Grint http://wallalay.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Rupert-Grint-15.jpg

Emma Watson http://www.ladswishlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Emma-Watson-Sexy.jpg

I feel Harry Potter is popular for solid reasons. It is first and foremost well written. It is easy to read as well—making is accessible for more types of readers. The language is simple, but it relies heavily on Latin, mythologies, and logic. It is a simple story with smart under currents. The less educated audience is stimulated by the story and the educated audience is stimulated by the attention to detail. J.K. Rowling upholds the rules of magic and power words and stays true to the historical Greek, Nordic, and Roman myths (and other’s I’m sure I’m unaware of).

The story itself is nothing new. But that is a benefit as well. It is a known story of an underdog that saves the world. We’ve all heard it before. But this is different enough to be new enough to the audience. Again the detail is the key. It is an entire other world existing right under our muggle noses. A world of magic and wonder that if only it were real we’d live there in a heartbeat. (I know I would). Which is another reason for its popularity. So many of us are dissatisfied with real life—fantasy is so much more. Harry Potter’s world is popular because it seems so real to the fans.

http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090509160456/harrypotter/images/e/ed/Hogwarts_boats_1.jpg

Since the story starts off with an eleven-year-old boy it makes it welcoming to children of both sexes. If it had been Harriet Potter would boys have read it? I don’t think so. Because it is a boy, both girls and boys read it. And the parent’s read it to their children too—another audience readily made.

Another reason why I find it so popular is the mini problems that arise in the novels. Underneath the main plot of trying to kill Voldemort, we also have Harry Potter’s struggles growing up—making friends, asking a girl out, losing friends, dealing with bullies, homework etc. These are problems that the audience can understand and relate to. We’ve all had an impossible teacher that makes us feel stupid and we think hates us. We’ve all lost close friends in a silly fight. We need the big fight of good and evil for the novel, but the little everyday struggles make Harry Potter’s world real, it makes it exist.