marramgrass

I didn’t go shopping for a new novel at midnight - although I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t tempted ;-)

There’s maybe a little bit of a backlash going on against JK and Harry. That’s normal, though - it’s hardly the first time something’s got really popular only to have the critics show their intelligence by moaning about how poor it is. The ‘review’ in the New York Times (if that link asks you for a login, may I recommend BugMeNot.com? - one of those websites everyone should know about, just type in the site and it’ll give you a login to use) makes a very valid point:

Rowling’s gift is not so much for language as for characterization and plotting

Sometimes the writing is a little… not so good. But it’s been a while since I’d picked up a Potter book, and I’d forgotten how compelling and engaging the characters are. And the latest book is definitely much more about character than about plot progression. I like that. That’s why I enjoyed Lost In Translation so much.

I’d been thoroughly underwhelmed with the last book, and didn’t think too much of this one. But for each of them I’d grabbed a copy on the morning of their release and then burned through it in well under 24 hours. Over the last six days I’ve re-read them both, and discovered that taken at a more sensible pace (as sensible a pace as I ever read a novel at, anyway, 1200-odd pages in maybe 5 days - okay, so I am on holiday) they’re both highly enjoyable.

The visible growing-up of the series continues, even in writing style. As an experiment, compare the first couple of chapters of the first book to the first couple of one of the more recent ones and you’ll see what I mean. In happenings, the last few have certainly got much nastier. But before we complain, how do you remember Little Red Riding Hood going…?

There’s a surprising amount of snobbery out there, against ‘grown-ups’ reading books meant for ‘kids’. To that, all I can say is get over it. A cracking story is a cracking story. Just look at The Da Vinci Code - as I’ve said before, cracking yarn, mental plot, but Dan Brown can’t write for buttons. And that’d also be a good lesson in how not to do characters. But if you leave your prejudice behind, I’ll bet you enjoy.

If you’re new to the whole thing, I will say that Potter takes a while to really get going. I’d peg Goblet of Fire as where it all starts happening in earnest (and probably as the highlight so far), but the unfortunate thing is that without the earlier books you may well get a bit lost.

Man, this has turned into a bit of a ramble, hasn’t it? What can I say, I like it.

And I hope you all appreciate the trouble I’ve put myself to avoiding spoilers :-D

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Now, to the serious bit.

An interesting read from Mark Greene of LICC on the Potter phenomenon and the varied Christian response:

If you’re undecided about whether the Potter books are essentially a ‘good thing’ or not, then the latest instalment, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, is unlikely to help you make up your mind. No darker than Potter 4 or 5 but much easier to read, it is a funny, engaging tale in which, if anything, Rowling’s powers of characterisation are keener than ever.

Whilst the Pope and a number of other Christian commentators regard the series as a portal to the occult, Rowling has constructed a coherent fantasy world that has little, if any connection, with the worldviews or values of real witchcraft or Wicca.

Indeed, the first novel celebrates the willingness of three separate individuals to lay down their lives out of love for others. Similarly, throughout the series, it is not Harry’s skill as a wizard that rescues him from death but his courage and loyalty, the sacrificial love of his mother and the selfless help of his friends and teachers.

It is, of course, entirely right that we should carefully critique the work of the most popular author of our age, but sobering that, back in the school room, our children are studying all kinds of often brilliant literary texts - humanist, existentialist, nihilist, materialist and expressly anti-God – with hardly a pamphlet on how to do so through Biblical lenses.

Alas, the Church’s rapid engagement with Rowling is not an indicator of a wider engagement with literature or the national curriculum in general. Sadly, it reveals the opposite: we are obsessed with the superficially ‘spiritual’, the fantasy world of witches and wizards, and have, on the whole, ignored the superficially ‘secular’ – from Aldous Huxley to Harold Pinter, from the theology of maths to the philosophy of history.

Christ, however, came to reconcile all things to himself – “whether things on earth or things in heaven”. (Colossians 1:20) And that includes the ordinary as well as the extraordinary, the world of pots and pans and performance targets, as well as the world of cauldrons (leaky and sound), kettles, and the Care of Magical Creatures.

Need I say I whole-heartedly agree with him?

I might even go so far to say that the books contain quite a powerful and relevant moral for today. If you take the series as it is to date (1 to 6), then I find one of the major recurring themes to be power and the correct use of power. Another one might be picked up in the trailer for the next movie, the choice “between what is right, and what is easy.”

Am I the only one who finds plenty to appreciate in that?

I don’t like to talk in terms of ‘the moral of the story’. It’s more the assumptions and ideas that are expressed underneath the storytelling. But it’s there.

I do believe we are guilty of not being critical enough of all the various media around us, but I also think we sometimes get a little too critical when something pops up big on the radar. When it comes to Harry Potter, my conclusion is to say relax and enjoy it - there’s plenty of good in there. The Crash Test Dummies are singing in my head, except I really doubt that a book-burning’s in order.

Fantastic Four is a bit of a missed opportunity. Nothing much happens, at all. As the comic-book movies go, it’s a whole lot better than Daredevil, but it’s certainly no Batman Begins.

About the only thing I can say for it is that it’s got Jessica Alba, but the less said about that… - my wife reads this :-D

The perfect way to get publicity for your band - a killer viral that everyone will love.

(Broadband recommended, however.)

The scenes you find wandering around the house shooting a test roll.

So just a couple of links.

I’m still nursing the last vestiges of my sunburn from Saturday, and I’ve now had time to develop my photos and my thoughts on the affair.

It was a long and hot day: with 225,000 people there it took a good 5 hours from the start of the march leaving to the last marchers leaving (yup, getting started). I know of quite a few people who gave up waiting for the march and stayed on the Meadows. We decided to, and then as we were thinking about going home the queues had reduced from the mental two and a half hours to a more manageable twenty minutes, so we went for the walk. Glad we did, too.

225,000 people turned out to peacefully, generally amicably make a point. And make it they did. I just hope that the events in Edinburgh of the days since then won’t be the ones that stick in people’s minds.

Like some others I’ve been wondering, though - and this is something that’s come up in a number of conversations I’ve had this week.

To how many of those 225,000 people will this continue to be a real, immediate emergency, and for how many will spending an easy, pleasant summer’s day walking round the town be sufficient to satisfy their nagging guilt about their place in the world? If that sounds harsh, forgive me. When I think of middle-class guilt being easily assuaged, I think too of myself. That’s my caveat: everything I’m thinking is tough, and costly to live out, and I’m really, really bad at it. Just ask my wife.

The MPH campaign lists three aims: Trade Justice, Drop the Debt, More and Better Aid.

Debt relief and aid are the well-known ones, and the ones that get talked about most. That’s because they’re the easy ones. They’re the ones that could well be of immediate benefit.

But trade justice…

On Saturday I saw people carrying around banners proclaiming ‘Fair Trade Not Free Trade’, and it struck me the sheer weight of that. After all, our western/northern societies are pretty much founded on the principle of free trade and free markets. So to speak out against that, well, that’s perhaps a little controversial. That challenges some of the most basic assumptions about how our world should work. Politically, it’s a tough one for our leaders to take on. Let’s just say that I don’t think they’re going to touch that one up at Gleneagles this week, even if it would be the one that had the greatest long-term effect.

But let’s come back to our middle-class guilt. We can leave the Meadows after Saturday feeling rather pleased with ourselves. We were there. We did our bit. We stood in solidarity with the poor and the exploited of the world. We can climb into our cars and drive to our out-of-town shopping centres and consume in comfort.

Or we can keep it going. What if 225,000 people consumed conscientiously? Invested and banked ethically? Actually considered how everything they do can either reinforce or challenge the way of this world? It’s a tiny, tiny proportion of the people in the UK, but there were still a whole lot of us there.

The trouble with this, of course, is the cost. For example (just one small example), to buy fairly traded biscuits costs substantially more. Or consider that the banks that hold themselves accountable to a careful ethical policy don’t tend to be the ones that have a branch on every street corner (for another example, the Co-operative Bank has but a single branch in Scotland).

We cannot pretend that these are issues solely for the politicians. We are part of the problem, but that means we have the opportunity to act, in however small a way it may seem.

A final thought from Brodie:

So here’s the question - do I think that my being there will help end poverty? The simple answer is no - “the poor you will always have with you” (Matt 26:11). This statement of Jesus is not a reason do then do nothing about poverty, but rather was recognition that until he returns and heaven and earth collide (Rev 21), there will always be those who by their greed, corruption and selfishness will condemn others to poverty. We do however have our part to play, we need to “act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God” (Micah 6:8).

(The full photoset is on Flickr.)

I was there.

I’ll actually say something about it when I get round to developing the pics.