School's Out for the Muggle

 

Hi Carolyn,

 

 

Well, my first semester at Hogwarts is over and I offer a few observations therefrom. First thing that struck me - because I'd seen the flick first - was how well and completely the movie stuck to the book's blueprint. I can't really think of another instance where the film adaptation was just about verbatim. I'm not able to think of a key component of the  written story that was not carried over to the screen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The thing that struck me most about both this fantasy tale and The Hobbit was just how much everyone likes to do the banquet/feast thing and how both authors spent some fair detail on just what all was to be found on the tables. Luv that food appearing and disappearing bit at Hogwarts - no cumbersome cleanups for these wizards and wizards to be!  The "owl mail" thing was cool as well. Beats snail mail all to smithereens. Plus, a whole magnificent hall filled with young folks sitting together and intently texting or fingering their personal smartphones would be clumsy and sophomoric social commenting, for sure.

 

 

 

 

 

As to what gadget or item in this story I'd most like to have - a Nimbus 2000 broomstick perhaps, but I'm not into reaching heights without a very strong, visible and encompassing means of support - like an airliner. The choice is fall off a log easy, though - the invisibility cloak , for sure! It trumps Bilbo's ring simply because one can use it to cover/conceal other stuff  and people as well as oneself. I think turning invisible at will is one of those truly timeless fantasies.

 

 

 





 

 

There was something underlying about the whole Hogwarts experience that got to me as much as anything, I think. I couldn't pin it down initially but a couple of sessions in class with Snape really brought it out. I suddenly heard my inner soundtrack playing Pink Floyd's  " The Wall " and that ominous voice droning " no dark sarcasm in the classroom " .  It got me off on a tangent thinking about how British Arts and Literature paint such a grim picture, at times, of the whole education process.

 

 

 
 
 









 For me, at least, the first inkling of this came from Dickens. Young Oliver asking "Please, Sir, may I have some more " and all of those young minds being ground down by Thomas Gradgrind in Hard Times especially.  Historically There seems to be a strong streak of utter disdain for formal education and it's effects on spontaneity and individual creative thought.







 

 

 

Musically, as well as the Floyd, I  hear Supertramp singing about  "School"  and being sent away to become a " presentable vegetable " in   "The Logical Song" and other edgy  observations  from bands across the pond. In North America, meanwhile,   The Beach Boys warble on about being true to your school, Chuck Berry rocks on with  "School Days" spent listening to the teacher teach the golden rule and The Coasters tell us about Charlie Brown, that irreverent fella who  " ...called the English teacher  Daddy-o ". Oh yes, and  Alice Cooper reminds us lasciviously that " School's Out " for the summer or forever.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm also reminded of a young John Lennon at Quarry Bank School and later at The Liverpool College of Art  who, when he wasn't busy evolving his band " The Quarrymen" ( who would further evolve into you know who ) was feeding his love of doggerel, and illustrating and expressing his disdain for the education process he found himself in, by circulating a newsletter of sorts known as " The Daily Howl ". He would use it to take aim in a humourous but quite edgy way, at his instructors. Later, in his solo career he'd revisit this area in a much more visceral and vindictive manner with songs of therapeutic self-analysis like Working Class Hero.

Now, did I get any of this effectively reinforced by my time spent with Harry and his cohorts at Hogwarts - most definitely not! But I did get reminded of that particularly British - or perhaps non-North-American sense that education was to be a one way process and an endless procession of Socratic method. It appears to have sent me off on one of them there, non-linear  musically induced tangent thingies, I guess.!  ( Besides, I haven't had a chance to work in The Fab Four lately )



Anyhow, I'm back now from wherever I was above.


After your last blog, Carolyn, I'm quite sure that you and I have ideas about what constitutes clutter that are as diverse as our musical proclivities. I'll admit that if the clutter is piled high and haphazardly and could fall on you causing injury - that's too much clutter!  Short of that I'm sorta laissez-faire about it.


Riddles haven't been cluttering things up here lately, though,  and that's hereby changed. Here is one to clutter up your consideration:

Symbols and letters and numbers galore

Poke them and prod them and peck them and more

Showing the pencil and paper the door

 

See ya later,

Don



All images sourced from Google Images

Fig. 1 - gryffindorglory.tripod.com
Fig. 2 - flickriver.com
Fig. 3 - mattlowenmusic.com
Fig. 4 - lovliestbookgroup.com
Fig. 5 - articles.philly.com
Fig. 6 - meetthequarrymen.com