Peg Kerr's Journal

An interesting piece on textual analysis comparing most common words/sentences/etc. in Harry Potter, Twilight, and the Hunger Games trilogy: It includes the bit:

"Like the distinctive word lists, these sentences suggest something about each author’s style. Rowling’s betray her reliance on suspense: “Harry looked around,” “He waited,” “Harry stared.” (A list of her most frequently used sentences could be repurposed into a script for an absurdist play called Waiting for Voldemort.)"

"The stories we love best do live in us forever, so whether you come back by page or through the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home."

I just received my shiny new album from Riddle^TM, "This Time Around." Wonderful, wonderful, courtesy of the identical twin songwriters, Victoria and Georgia. Man, I'll buy everything those two girls put out.

I thought that today, the release of the first part of Deathly Hallows, would be a good opportunity to highlight one of my favorite songs of theirs, "For Jo." (This one's from one of their album, "Secrets of the Darkest Arts," also well worth your money.) Link for purchase here.



( Lyrics )

( And here's another one of their delightful songs, 'Beans.' )

I really don't like the Twilight series, mostly on feminist principles. Still, this article has a valid point. Interestingly, Rowling's case is examined in comparison. Reminds me of the post I wrote about Rowling's detractors, called "And Now Let the Sneering Begin."

Thoughts?

Journalist James Runcie was granted an incredible documentary opportunity in 2006 -- to film Harry Potter author JK Rowling for the entire year as she worked on the final book of the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

The final documentary is a gem, not just because Rowling is very selective about her public appearances and interviews, but because the film shows fans a side of her that reading a biography or articles about her life cannot begin to convey, including the childhood experiences that have shaped her writing and her emotional reaction to the conclusion of the Harry Potter series. An excerpt:

"What's your favorite virtue?"
"Courage."
"What vice do you most despise?"
"Bigotry."
"What are you must willing to forgive?"
"Gluttony."
"What's your most marked characteristic?"
"I'm a trier."
"What are you most afraid of?"
"Losing someone I love."
"What's the quality you most like in a man?"
"Morals."
"What's the quality you most like in a woman?"
"Generosity."
"What do you most value about your friends?"
"Tolerance."
"What's your principal defect?"
"Short fuse."
"What's your favorite occupation?"
"Writing."
"What's your dream of happiness?"
"Happy family."

So in honor of the release today of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, here is the hour-long documentary, in five parts:

( Part One )

( Part Two )

( Part Three )

( Part Four )

( Part Five )

You can watch a video of her delivering the speech and download an .mp3 here.

I have been mulling about betrayal this week, and about making mistakes in general.

It's a lot of little things coming together in my mind. I spent a lot of time--perhaps too much--kicking myself about a couple of bone-headed things I had said in this journal. Just stupid things, really, the sort where I look back at myself and wonder, My god, Peg, what on earth were you thinking??? (I've mentioned my seven year "statute of limitations" rule, where I refuse to feel guilty about anything that happened over seven years ago, on the basis of the fact that you all replace the cells in your body over the course of seven years, so you can rightfully say it was an entirely different person who made that mistake.) I've been reading a ton of fanfiction about Severus Snape (*waves to bohemianspirit), about the choices he made (not to mention listening to "The Bravest Man I Ever Knew" on the Ministry of Magic website on endless repeat). I've been following the coverage about the trial between J.K. Rowling and RDR Books. (Reminder: this is the trial concerning the Harry Potter Lexicon webmaster Steve Vander Ark, who, contrary to J.K. Rowling's wishes, is trying to publish a print copy of the Lexicon through RDR Books). The trial concerns issues of fair use copyright; I've mentioned the excellent analysis being done by praetorianguard. I was listening to PotterCast's [pottercast] episode about the trial, in which the PotterCast staff talked about the severing of their longtime relationship with Steve Vander Ark over the issues coming out of the trial and where sue_tlc in particular talked about her personal grief over the loss of the friendship.

I've mentioned it before; I, too, was friends with Steve because we worked together on the HPEF Board of Directors. This has all been bothering me a great deal more than I have said here.

I liked him. I can't understand why he has done this. I read the coverage about his words and actions during the trial, and while I want to scream at him for doing such a thing, the part of him that was his friend reads about his own grief at how he now feels cut off from the Harry Potter community, and I find myself sympathizing with him against my will. It hurts to find something inside of yourself that still tugs you toward someone who you feel has done something betraying.

This, coupled with all that Severus Snape fanfiction, has made me think again about the essay I wrote about remorse and transformation of character in Book 7. It's fascinating to re-read that essay, keeping the events of the J.K. Rowling trial against RDR books in mind. I wrote:

Rowling has always said that that series is about choosing what is right over what is easy. What I started thinking about as I read DH is that, especially in this book, Rowling has as much to say about the people who initially chose wrongly, and then went back to correct their mistakes. Choosing rightly the first chance you are given is best, of course. If you don't make mistakes, you don't have as much to fix. Some mistakes are enormous, and they can create consequences that are permanent.

Is it still possible to go back and choose again, differently? To say, I was wrong, I take it back. I want to now move in a new direction, the first one I should have chosen"? Since it is our choices that make us who we are, Dumbledore tells us, changing our choices means transforming our character. Is this possible, even when our initial mistake was enormous, leading to permanent consequences

I've been thinking about the Order of the Phoenix and how horrified they were by Severus Snape's actions in Book 6. How could he do such a thing? How could he betray them like that? (Of course, in Snape's case, ironically we learn in book 7 that the events in Book 6 weren't a betrayal, but he did truly betray someone in the past, and that--what he did to Lily--is really what shaped his life.) I've been thinking about Steve's actions in comparison to Severus' story arc. In the essay, I said that to correct a huge mistake, you need four things: remorse, courage, the willingness to seize the opportunity to correct your mistake as soon as it comes, and humility. From what I've read about Steve's comments about the case, he's lacking that first crucial element, remorse. As sad as he is about the bad feelings that have resulted, the broken friendships, he doesn't think he has done anything wrong.

I realized, as I was mulling this all over, that I'm still looking back with grief at my relationship with msscribe, who was on my innermost friends lock until her perfidy in the Harry Potter fandom was revealed over at the bad penny journal at journalfen. It gnawed at me for months. I missed her friendship, even as I was angry at her. And it badly shook my confidence in my own ability to accurately assess other people. How could I have considered someone who would do such things a good friend? How could I still miss someone who had the type of character to hurt people so badly?

Tell me about a case where you felt betrayed by someone. Were you able to forgive?

Or--even harder--tell me about an incident where you betrayed someone. What happened? Why did you do it? Were you ever able to change course and mend the relationship again? What did you learn?

Very interesting post from Prof. John Granger (http://hogwartsprofessor.com, syndicated at hogwartspro) here about Harold Bloom's (and other literary critics, e.g. A.S. Byatt's) continual rants against the Harry Potter books. Granger gamely attempts to answer the question of why Harold Bloom waxes so wroth on this particular subject and finds it rather uphill work. You may remember my addressing this topic earlier when Order of the Phoenix came out (And now let the sneering begin. . .) I've read a couple of Professor Granger's books, and although I tend to disagree with his conclusion that almost everything in the HP books essentially boils down to Christianity, he has certainly made some intriguing and original observations, and I have particularly appreciated his insight into the alchemical references in the books. (David Lenander, I keep meaning to point you toward his books; I think you would be particularly intrigued by his thoughtful discussion comparing Rowling to the Inklings).

Edited to add: Hmm. That syndicated feed doesn't seem to be updating properly.