Posts Tagged ‘Harry Potter musings’

14 Jul

Random thoughts on Mr. Clancy and Harry Potter

Posted by renxkyoko in mangas/animes, my life, random musings, Random thoughts. Tagged: , , , , , .

Hello, there !

 Renxkyoko Iglesias musing.

It;s been 8 days, so here I am again. As usual, I’ll  just write down whatever comes to mind, so kindly bear with my unorganized thoughts, okay ?

First off, I’m going to see Harry Potter on July 14, midnight showing. I don’t know if it’s a premier showing . I didn’t buy the tickets. Hahaha  I’ve got a date , same fellow Muggle guy   I saw the  last Potter movie with  last year.

I don’t think I’d be that happy . I’m sure I’d feel sad,  because  this is it…….the last one.   Good-bye to the Boy Who Lived.  *sniff*  Excuse me while I get a tissue…………….

Pardon me for the misty eyes, I’m just being myself,  a sentimental fool, as always.  You see, I consider this last movie as the end of my youth. ……….Ugh. I’m not in the mood.  I think I’ll just repost something that I wrote last year before  the first part of  Deathly Hallows was released. I feel quite lazy right now.

Ahhh ! Inner voice. It sounds profound.But I’m not thinking anything profound at this moment. In fact , I’m not thinking at all. My mind is totally blank.  Does it mean my brain is getting fuzzy? Or is my sagging attention span  getting to be a bit of a problem now .  Nah. I’m just bored. I did my laundry this morning, and I think I find watching my clothes tumble dry more fascinating than the rest of my activities today. So sad. Oh, well….. story of my life. ^_^”

Ooooh, Harry Pottah ! The last movie in the series is going to be released in November.  Well, no, it’s second to the last, actually………. there’s a part 2. Of course, I assume everybody knows that.  Anyone who doesn’t is an alien……..

 I’m feeling nostalgic…  Is he going to live or die ? I agonized over that for a long time.  I thought it would be so cruel… no, evil… of JKRowling to off  my  beloved Harry after making him suffer since the day he was born.  Oh, but good thing my whole family ( except my father ) were as obssessed as I was with the books.  We always had very lively and colorful discussions over dinners, exchanging theories,( ad nauseum ),  on whether Harry was going to live or die……I reread the books a million times, looking for clues. I listened to podcasts and went on HP sites like Mugglenet and Leaky Cauldron   These discussions went on for years, until the last book was released and   we finally learned Harry lived.  ( collective sighs of relief ). Oh, that was such a momentous event.  We bought the book on the very first date of release, at 12 midnight. We  were at the bookstore as early as 10 PM, got in line, and got hold of the book at 3 AM. Yep, you heard it…. 3 freakin’ AM.  Hey, what’s 5 hours of waiting in line compared to years of anticipation? I was the first to read the book, with a promise I wouldn’t spoil it for the rest of the family.  In fact, I placed my right hand over a stack of Bibles and swore  an oath not to tell, so help me God.  Oh, yes, , this episode in my life loving Harry Potter is absolutely priceless. …………… Now, about Daniel Radcliff, Mr. Harry Potter himself, in person…………….. First time I saw the movie, I thought he was God’s gift to little girls like me.  I was 11 and he was 11, and he was sooo cute. I had a humungous teenage crush on him.  And he was so handsome in Goblet of Fire.  ……… Okay, that’s just my opinion.  ^^” ………………………  So, what was my reaction when JKRowling revealed a secret…. that Prof. Dumbledore is, in fact, gay ?  I was  flabbergasted  surprised, but thinking back,  a lot of things that made me think, ” hmmm”,  now made a lot of  sense.    Oh, one more thing, did I get disappointed that Harry and Hermione didn’t end up together ? So, okay , Hermione , played by Emma Watson,  is  pretty.  But, take note, However,  Hermione in the book, isn’t pretty . In fact, the author’s description of her isn’t flaterring  at all.. And , apparently, Harry likes good-looking girls. So, he ends up with Ginny. ………… I was disappointed, of course.  Hermione   Emma Watson and Harry  Daniel Radcliff  do  look good together.

   I guess I was on fangirl mode  when I wrote the above. Ha ha !  Well, that’s me.   One question though…… do you think  Harry Potter is a great piece of literature?  Whether it is, or not, doesn’t matter . To me, it’s one amazing piece of literature. It got me ( and million others ) started  to read books other than Nancy Drew. . Oh, yes, if  it can get people , from age 9 to 90, to read a book with 1000 pages, and finish it, then , in my book, it is a great piece of  literature , and literary snobs be damned.   

The bottomline here is, each to his /her own. No one can force me to read Atlas Shrugged, for example, unless it’s shoved  down my throat. I’d rather gladly eat it, than read it.  Now,  I’m just wondering,  when the book is extremely popular, why do critics trash it ?  So, okay, there’s one completely rational answer to that….. Tom Clancy. Although I have  literary ( pardon the irony) read  almost all of his books, and enjoyed them, I have to admit  the plots of his latest books are so “out there ”  I find Prof. Dumbledore conjuring a goblet of water from the air  more believable. I swear  Tom Clancy’s  recent story lines are computer – generated.  Fill in the blanks and he’s good to go. I don’t blame him though. The dollars  just keep coming.  I just hope Mr. Clancy goes back to his roots and  writes another novel as compelling as The Hunt for Red October.  That is one awesome book.  * ponders*  You  know, there’s one book of Tom Clancy’s that reminds me of  9/11 . The book is Debt of Honor.  The  difference between what happened on 9/11 and the book’s plot is that the antagonists  are not Muslim terrorists but a  Japanese pilot flying a commercial 747, if I recall correctly.  What  is more surprising about this  novel is that it  was written years before 9/11 happened.  In the story, the  building that gets  hit is not  an ordinary structure  like the Twin Towers in New York, but the  Capitol Building in Wahington, D.C., and it happens while the President of the of the United States is delivering his annual State of the Nation Address, with all the officials of the land  present . They all die. …… and Jack Ryan becomes the President of the United States.  Well, this book is part of Mr. Clancy’s Jack Ryan series. In movie versions , Jack Ryan is Alec Baldwin in Hunt for Red October, Harrison Ford in Patriot  Games , Executive Orders, Clear and Present Danger, and John Affleck in Sum of All Fears. 

So okay, you can tell I actually like Tom Clancy…… and Robert Ludlum. In fact, I like Robert Ludlum more than Tom Clancy even though their novels belong to the same thriller genre.  If Tom Clancy has his  Jack Ryan, Robert Ludlum has Jason Bourne.  By the way,  Matt Damon is Jason Bourne in the movies.

 I’m starting to blabber. Oh, well, what’s new. I’m always like this, anyways.   …. Guess I have to say bye for now.  Be cool and stay cool.  PEACE .

30 Nov

Musings on Harry Potter and some

Posted by renxkyoko in my life, Random thoughts. Tagged: .

It’s 6:30 AM. It’s warmer this morning, if I can call 37 F  (  4 C ) warm, considering that in Lake Tahoe, California, about an hour from our place, the temperature is   – 2 F (  – 20 C ).  I wonder how things are in Dakota, Minnessota, and Idaho. Oh, and in Michigan ! ( or is it Missouri?  Hello , Kyoki ! It’s just 37 F here in my neck of the woods !  Jealous ? Haha. )

Oh, I’m sorry. I’m digressing again. I’m supposed to be musing on Harry Potter Deathly Hallows, Part 1.  I prefer to muse and just give my 2 cents worth of thoughts on my all-time favorite book, Harry Potter, rather than write a ” review” of the film. I definitely cannot write an objective review because, for sure, I’ll be one extremely biased  critic. I love the books. I love the movies. Harry Potter can do no wrong, as far as I am concerned. 

 Ah, let me correct that last statement. The Half- Blood Prince ,the second to the last in the series , has a pretty complicated plot. This is the book where the author explains  in great detail the concept of  horcruxes .  So why the director or the writer of the movie focused  more on the romance between  Harry and Ginny and Ron and Hermione rather than on Snape, who is the half- blood prince, and most importantly, on said horcruxes,   is , in my opinion , incomprehensible. The director lost the opportunity to tie so many loose ends that would lead to the finale. But, that’s all water under the bridge now. So, when I went to watch the movie last Friday,  I did not set my expectations on high.  But, surprisingly, Deathly Hallows Part 1, was, to say the least, pretty good and well-made, and , at least, to me, emotionally gripping. Dumbledore and Snape are gone. The three friends, Harry, Ron and Hermione, are truly alone now, and are well on their way  searching  for the remaining horcruxes. However, did the movie explain what those horcruxes were ?  You see, there is just no way any one who has not read the book could possibly understand  the existence of horcruxes, and , to compound it all, it is only in this last book that the existence of the Deathly Hallows is  first revealed. Even to a Harry Potter fan like myself , who has read each book at least five times,  that revelation  totally stunned and floored me. The first thought that came to my mind was, ‘ Why did the JKRowling  introduce such an astonishing plot so late in the game ?  Thinking back, I now realize  it was a brilliant decision of the author  to not  add to the confusion  and clutter our already befuddled  minds.

So, what exactly are horcruxes?  ” Horcruxes  are magical objects that hold a piece of a man’soul. ”  Making a horcrux is the ultimate and darkest spell  a wizard  can do because he must kill in order to make it. Tom Riddle, aka Lord Valdemort/ You-Know-Who , a brilliant wizard,  is able to split his soul seven times, making him invincible, and almost immortal . In other words, Lord Voldemort cannot be killed unless the magical abjects  where he keeps his souls are found and destroyed. And what are these horcruxes?  1. Tom Riddle’s diary which Harry Potter had  inadvertently destroyed in Chamber Of Secrets when he was just 12 years old. 2. The Gaunt Family ring. The Gaunts are Valdemort’s own family. In later books, I forget which one, we see Dumbledore wearing the ring. I don’t remember how he got it, though. 3. Slytherin’s locket.  In Order of the Phoenix, the trio are cleaning up Sirius’ ancestral house ( Sirius is Harry’s father’s bestfriend, and Harry’s godfather ) when they find a locket that cannot be opened.  In Deathly Hallows, they learn that Prof. Dolores Umbridge, ( yes, that evil, evil woman ) is in possession of this locket. 4. Hufflepuff’s goblet. I don’t remember why Tom Riddle needed to use this goblet to keep one of his souls. As expected, he had to kill the owner, a descendant of the House of Hufflepuff  in order to further split his soul.  5.  Ravenclaw’s diadem. A diadem is like a royal headband. We first saw this when Harry went to the magical Room of Requirement to hide Snape’s Book of Potions. Harry took a bust, put it on top of the book and put the diadem on top of the bust to mark the spot where he hid the book. Harry did not know the diadem was a horcrux. 6. Voldemort’s snake, Nagini   7. And , not surprisingly, because people have speculated and discussed this to death, Harry himself  is a horcrux ! !  Valdemort inadvertently made Harry a horcrux when he tried to kill him. But due to Harry’s mother’s sacrifice and love for Harry, the killing spell backfired on Valdemort, and instead of killing Harry, he was unintentionally made into a ” living”  receptacle of  a bit of Valdemort’s soul. 

I am glad to see that the movie Deathly Hallows has basically remained true to the book. One thing I notice though, the writer seemed to have given up explaining the complex events non- readers might not know about.  I also feel very strongly that the movie should have put scenes of  the Dursleys departing to hide from the impending war among the wizards and muggles. The books and the previous movies always begin with the Dursleys, and in this last one, it is just right that they show them again for the last time.  That good-bye scene with cousin Dudley and Aunt Petunia is, in my humble opinion, one of the most touching part of the series. They are, after all, family, and  Harry’s last true connection to her beloved mother, Lily.

Over-all rating,   5 stars.

I am a big Harry Potter fan,so I guess that rating of 5 stars doesn’t really count. * grins*

However, I am a big fan of the Eragon trilogy, as well. But I give the movie adaptation of the first Eragon book a big , fat  ZERO.  It’s the most horrible movie adaptation I’ve seen so far.

Well, this is all for now. I hope to continue discussing Harry Potter, and the objects, the deathly hallows on my next blog.  They are such an integral part of the story,  it would be remiss of me not to talk about them  in my next harry Potter musings. Bye, and peace.