Perceptions

[coriolan at worldnet.att.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 6344

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, "Scott " <harry_potter00 at y...> 
wrote:
> 

> 
> These books are all about imagination, and if there are any good 
> arguments against the movie one is that it could replace some 
> people's imaginations.  


Just check out any of the numerous "fan art" sites: while a good 
chunk of it is just "refrigerator art" (i.e., stuff only a parent 
could find merit with), there's a lot of it that shows incredible 
imagination and variety - and since none of us "knows" what Hogwarts 
or Hagrid or Harry or Snape or Privet Drive or Peeves or et al really 
looks like, we can let our imaginations run rampant. That was - at 
one time - the whole point of reading. It would be tragically ironic 
if JKR's HP series, which seemed at one point to herald a 
resurrection of print culture in the age of the televised image, 
would drown itself in the electronic noise of the times.

Once Hollywood interjects its dictatorial decrees, all alternate 
forms of imagining Harry Potter will be abolished. Let's hope the 
movie is awful and perishes at the boxoffice: because the better the 
movie, the more omnipotent the cultural imperialism (Can anyone read 
Baum's Oz series without falling back on Garland/Fleming imagery?).  
We will no longer be permitted to imagine Snape as we please - we 
will be compelled to fantasize about Alan Rickman, and draw 
irrelevant comparisons to Pride and Prejudice and Die Hard. 

   - CMC ("I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. Columbus.")