Hero’s Journey vs Heroine’s Journey: A Sex Based Distinction in Literature

December 13, 2024 by Leave a Comment

Much of postmodern storytelling is predicated on Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey ideas and its being applied to women protagonists.

Joshua Lisec argues in this extended twixter thread that this is a mistake, that a woman’s journey differs from a man’s inherently because of the sex-based differences that are innate and immutable.

Read the whole thing.

It is a fascinating read for those who study the work of J. K. Rowling both because of her public defense of “sex-based” reality contra the “transgender” extremists and because of how much of the Strike-Ellacott series turns on sex roles and how much they are biologically inherent and how much they can be bent in light of vocation.

Hat tip to Kelly for the find!

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes

‘Black Severus’ versus ‘Black Hermione:’ Similarities and Differences in Casting

December 7, 2024 by 7 Comments

Yesterday in ‘The Casting Genius of Black Severus,’ I wrote that the decision to make the Potions Master black instead of white was “much more in the traditions of American filmmaking than, say, ‘Black Hermione’ was, which Cursed Child casting was pure tokenism and click-bait.” This raised a few on our moderator back-channels to rise to Noma Dumezweni’s defense, saying that she was not a diversity hire but chosen because she was the best actress for the role, a thespian whose skills and accomplishment made her hiring a race-blind, no brainer.

I think I would have to agree, especially after reviewing as I had before writing the piece, Dumezweni’s CV and noting her achievements and awards won before and after her work in Cursed Child. As with Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape, Noma Dumezweni is a first tier actress who certainly could have been hired strictly on her qualifications for the part.

But she wasn’t. John Tiffany, the director responsible for casting of Cursed Child, said that she wasn’t as clearly as one can say it in his 2017 interview with the BBC at the Edinburgh Festivals. You can watch and hear him say it in the TRL capture of the interview above on YouTube (starting at 2:45) or just read it here:

BBC: Even though you worked so hard to not create something where there would be preconceptions, there were preconceptions around the casting and actually some quite unpleasant comment around the casting choices –

Tiffany: ‘Hermione-gate’

BBC: – exactly, and I think you were you’ve been deeply uncomfortable at that and quite quite vocal about —

Tiffany: I was furious because I expected, I expected resistance, I expected people, you know, because we’d seen it before and they’d had it with John Boyega and Star Wars, yeah, and, you know, that wasn’t even a character that existed before, but still the idea of somebody non-white being the hero or heroine of a story —

BBC: and this is Noma Dumezweni —

Tiffany: — this was Noma Dumezweni  and I’d known Noma for years. In fact we met at the Edinburgh Festival when she came to the Traverse with a one woman show called ‘Bogus Woman’ but  (laughter) you know, it all comes back to Edinburgh, but, yes, I  did get furious because people would, it was, it was absolute racism that was happening and they, but they were tweeting things and tweeting them directly to Noma. I got two people removed from Twitter —

BBC: Oh wow

Tiffany: Yeah, because I just had it.

BBC: Well done —

Tiffany: We’ve got to say “No” to this, that, you know, at some point because this is inciting racism if you know, I won’t even repeat the things that they were saying. I mean so [the people who were on Twitter] were the ones that I could do something directly around, the ones that deeply saddened me and still will, will always start with “I’m not racist but you know Hermione’s white” and you go “You don’t get to make that call.”

BBC: And it was clear  it’s never been clear in the novel at all —

Tiffany: No, but even if she was, we’re doing something different in a different medium. Even if Hermione had been white [in the books] and she certainly was in the film’s and that was great and really successful, this is, this is different. This is a different event. Obviously it’s taking those characters and it’s taking the story, but also to my mind as soon as JK Rowling [pronounced ‘Rawling’] as she did, says, “This is Hermione,  it’s Noma Dumezweni,”  then who says it isn’t? You know, the author is not dead.

BBC: Social media is interesting, isn’t it? Because thinking back to that sort of fourth wall, it’s as if people put it for a fourth wall for themselves. They forget but actually it’s a direct conversation they they do I think say things that they probably wouldn’t say if they were sitting in having this conversation —

Tiffany: Absolutely, exactly, and, you know, the idea and very early on — another conversation with myself, there were many through the whole Harry Potter and the Cursed Child kind of event — I said “I can’t have the three main characters, there’s three main characters, all white in London in 2016. It’s not going to happen.” So I was very, very clear that, that, that, that we would be we would be exploring that — and Noma was immediate, being Noma Dumezweni and, she felt like Hermione to me, and she did the workshops, Jo fell in love with her, and and that just seemed like like the natural thing to do. And that’s going to continue; Hermione will now always be non-white, whenever we do it, wherever we do it.

Anyone who disagreed, per the BBC host and Tiffany, with the assertion that nowhere in the books was it specified that Hermione was white (because every non-white character had their race specified, etc.) was a troglodyte Nazi advancing “absolute racism” and either attacking Noma Dumezweni directly or hiding their racism behind a veneer of fidelity to canon. That kind of reflex categorization of those with whom we disagree hasn’t aged especially well in light of the Trans Wars and the attempts to cancel Rowling as a “transphobe bigot,” “Nazi TERF,” and “murderer” for stepping out of the cognoscenti’s accepted narrative lane, but this was 2017 and Rowling was still accepted as a Progressive icon.

But Tiffany had much more to say,

In a bizarre non sequitur to the host’s comment about the Fourth Wall and social media, Tiffany proceeded to admit that he had to have a non-white character among the “three main characters” (though the assertion that Harry, Ron, and Hermione are the three main characters of Cursed Child is prima facie not true), that Noma Dumezweni was the best non-white actress available given that casting necessity, and that, no matter the quality of actresses available in future productions, all Cursed Child Hermiones will forever more be “non-white.”

That is the very definition of “diversity hiring.” Tiffany was shameless, even proud of broadcasting his private decision consequent to “a conversation with myself” to force a non-white character into Harry Potter in conformity with West End practice. It is, however, pure and simple “racism” to cast a character simply on the basis of contemporary ideas of race, whether that bias favors white or non-white potential characters. Fighting racism with tokenism is racism, pure and simple, however fit and qualified the token may be.

Is this true of the hiring of Paapa Essiedu to play Severus Snape in the HBO+ production? Readers of the post I wrote yesterday who bothered to reply all seemed to think so; every one of them at the time I wrote this post were disappointed in the choice because, to their thinking (and all indications of canon), Severus Snape is a white character which requires a white actor in any screen or stage adaptation.

I’ll continue to take the contrarian role to this position and offer three points of defense of the Essiedu choice:

First, no one at Bronte Studios or HBO+ has been as clueless and honest as Tiffany in sharing her or his diversity requirements in casting. We know Noma Dumezweni, though an accomplished actress, was cast as Hermione by Tiffany because she was not the best actress available but the best “non-white” actress” and that all future Cursed Child Hermiones will also be “non-white” in conformity with his casting parameters. Asserting that this was the case without that from the ambo confession a la Tiffany is to assert what cannot be known for certain.

Second, ‘Black Severus’ happens eight years after ‘Black Hermione.’ One expects a bathhouse gay man to be playing Dumbledore today, a “transgender” Hagrid, and a TERF MacGonagall at Hogwarts today. There’s very little shock effect to be had, really, in casting a “non-white” character, even in a role that literary canon repeatedly calls “sallow-faced.” It has already generated controversy among those committed to the books the way old school Anglicans are to the early Book of Common Prayer and King James Bible, but, as I noted yesterday, that is a good thing for a small-screen production that has to differentiate itself from the Warner Brothers films imprinted on almost every person’s imagination other than Rowling herself. “Black Severus’ helps the audience get over their attachment to Alan Rickman in this role, no small challenge, and every bit helps in that effort.

And third, and last for today, Tiffany was right in his dissembling counters to those objecting to ‘Black Hermione’ that the different medium of the adaptation must be considered. He was wrong in saying that postmodern West End ideas of Racial Diversity were an Absolute rule for casting, but the television adaptations, because they will be much longer and more detailed productions than the films or the staged Child, will allow for much more nuanced and faithful (or divergent!) takes on the books, all under the eye of the “not dead” author. Maggie Smith is supposed to have said that she and Rickman felt that what they did in the Potter films was not really acting; all they did was look shocked or angry in response to what the other actors, mostly children, were doing. Much more than that is possible with the longer shows for each book — and no one doubts, I think, that Paapa Essiedu will be phenomenal in portraying the depths of Snape. He just won’t be a good Alan Rickman, for which, who can blame him?

Again, I’m totally on board with this casting decision, if I dread what other “defamiliarizing” cast choices we’ll get.

Hat tips to The Rowling Library for preserving the 2017 interview and to Nick Jeffery for recognizing its importance.

Filed Under: Cursed Child, Hog Pro Notes

The Casting Genius of ‘Black Severus:’ Paapa Essiedu Chosen as New Snape

December 6, 2024 by

Paapa Essiedu has been cast, according to several reports (see here and here) to play Severus Snape in the Bronte Studio adaptation of the HarryPotter novels for HBO+ television. The accomplished Shakespearean actor has played some of the most demanding roles in theatre repertoire to critical acclaim and successfully worked in films and television as well.

But there’s a hitch in this casting decision. Essiedu is black. Unlike the casting of a black actress to play Hermione Granger, which was defended as being canonical because the character was not described explicitly as being white [correction in comments!], Severus Snape is famously “sallow skinned,” a yellowish, unhealthy condition almost exclusively of Caucasians.

I woke up to this announcement as a virtual parliament of owls with messages from Potter Pundits flew through my chimney grate bemoaning the casting choice. “Another ‘Black Hermione’,” “The series is doomed,” “Every character that hates Snape will seem like a racist,” “What are they thinking? Isn’t Rowling being a transphobe bad enough — does she have to make the sadist Death Eater a black man, too?” etc.

I get all that (except for the ‘Rowling is a transphobe’ bit) and I’m not a fan of color-casting as a rule, especially when it is obviously more than just a little bit about generating clicks and fandom interest in the new shows.

But —

If Black Severus proves to be a reality — and I have to think it will — then it is not a poorly thought through choice, it won’t necessarily make the heroes into racists for hating Snape, and it solves several problems the Bronte Studios rebooters face. It’s also much more in the traditions of American filmmaking than, say, Black Hermione was, which Cursed Child casting was pure tokenism and click-bait.

The Rebooted Harry Potter adaptation for television has quite the uphill battle to win the hearts of global fandom. Three obstacles that come immediately to mind are

  • the continued popularity of the Warner Brothers big screen adaptations (everyone in the world except JKR now ‘sees’ the characters as the movie stars who played them),
  • the need to do something different from canon and prior adaptations that will not require re-writing the stories (there has to be a reason to watch the new shows, something that makes them ‘new’ in a way that isn’t just currency), and
  • the Everest the marketing team must summit, the Trans War association of the Author with ‘Far Right’ or ‘Anti-Progressive’ ideas, stigmata really.

‘Black Severus’ lifts the teevee adaptations over all these hurdles that have to be cleared for the show to excite fans around the world.

First, there’s the Rickman legacy. The actor who played Severus in the first films was much beloved and is now dead, which is to say, bereaved and sacrosanct, above criticism and irreplaceable. This is true for all the characters whose screen versions were played by people now departed, I think immediately of McGonagall and Hagrid, but especially for the Potions Master because of the anti-hero role he plays in the series. Minerva and Rubeus were always good guys; Severus was until the very end a great mystery.

How can any actor win the hearts and sympathy of fandom with the legacy of Alan Rickman hanging over him? Cf., fandom feelings for Michael Gambon who replaced Richard Harris, which caused many to cheer at his death in the Half-Blood Prince film finale.

The solution to the Rickman Hurdle, beyond choosing an actor with the chops and credentials that Essiedu has, is to make HBO+ Severus a ‘Magical Negro,,’ a real commonplace in American fiction and movie history.

In a single stroke of color-casting, the new Snape becomes an outcast whom the viewing audience will see as both unfairly oppressed and worthy of their sympathies, however odious his behaviors. Those behaviors become somehow understandable rather than just psychopathic sadism. The actor cannot be compared to Rickman (well, he will be, of course, but he cannot be hated qua usurper as he would otherwise be), the played race-card gives the series a signature new dynamic because of the whiff of racism any dislike of the character generates, and it is such a PC move, again of tokenism, one though that will win Woke hearts. It will rally the progressive fan base to his defense as Black Hermione did in the Cursed Child stage play, which to a degree deflates the ‘Rowling as Transphobe Bigot’ bugaboo balloon.

Rather than being another reason to think the Bronte/HBO+ adaptation will fail, Black Severus is the first sign I’ve seen that the producers and director understand the uphill fight they’re in. Black Severus, frankly, much as I’d prefer a straight forward adaptation of the books without considerations of marketing and previous versions, is casting genius for reasons beyond the acting ability and experience that Essiedu will bring to the most nuanced and complicated character in the Hogwarts Saga.

For one thing, Rowling’s most fervent critics, the Potter fandom elite, are wrong-footed by this choice. If they decry the casting decision as tokenism or not true to canon or even as the shameless attempt to distract us from Rowling’s horrific crimes against cross-dressing men, they immediately become subject to criticism as canon-purists, even racists. If they embrace the casting decision — “Hurrah, diversity!” — then they involuntarily mute or diminish their depiction of Rowling as a troglodyte Nazi.

In summary, then:

  • Black Severus, by defanging Rowling’s critics (or at least giving fans reason to think of her once again as a PC Queen) clears the major marketing hurdle for this adaptation.
  • Black Severus, as noted, clears the Rickman Effect obstacle; the Bronte Studio version transforms the character so significantly that fond memories and comparisons are eclipsed and Essiedu no doubt will bring out more of the Snape mystery than the pedestrian Warner Brothers films allowed.
  • Black Severus, too, generates a huge Buzz and twixter discussion point for fans of the books and Warner Brothers films. Screen Media addicts will be impatient to see this new Snape and especially those scenes where Harry and James come off as segregationists or worse. Imagine the irony, too, of Black Severus embracing the Dark Lord and the separatist ideology of the Death Eaters. Black Severus calling Lily Evans a “Mudblood” will be delicious, frankly, for the defamiliarization involved.

So, three cheers for the decision to cast Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape. The series reboot gets a world-class actor playing a key and very difficult role and Black Severus helps the marketing folks generate interest in and minimize resistance to Rowling’s revival of her most famous work. Hats off to Team Rowling for this choice!

 

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes

Harry Potter as “The Last British Myth”

November 30, 2024 by Leave a Comment

Robert Terry, long time friend and serious reader, wrote me today to say he’d found two interesting articles about the Hogwarts Saga on Johann Kurtz’ ‘Becoming Noble’ Substack page. The first is ‘The Last British Myth’ and the second is the conclusion of that essay, ‘Freedom.‘

Here is the introduction to give you a taste:

Ours is a windswept island. Time has carried many peoples and gods from our shores.

Peoples fade, and yet they linger, ever-present in an unspoken British folk communion. At the edges of our psyche, they’re all still there, dim but alive: the druidism of the ancients, the power of the Romans, the folklore of the Anglo-Saxons, the evangelism of the Christians. All live on as layers of psychic sediment which shift, flow, and resurface.

Our greatest king – Arthur – is to be found nowhere in the pages of earthly history. He lives in a different plane; yet it is one to which we also belong. Whatever we need him to be, he is – both chivalric knight of Christ and devotee of the wizard Merlin. Our patron saint – George – lives somewhere between ecclesiastical history and a folklore inhabited by dragons.

Our longest reigning monarch, Elizabeth II, was both ‘Defender of the Faith’ and initiate into the Gorsedd Beirdd Ynys Prydain – the Gorsedd of the Bards of Britain – revived on the principles of Celtic druidry.

We have always known secret worship: pagan priests on foggy hills, condemned Catholics in forest glades, witches burned for their heresy. Even now, silent prayer is hunted by the authorities.

Our churches are adorned with gargoyles; our nation is one of nations; our democracy adores its kings. Contradictions live in harmony. Our identity is certain and yet unresolved. We live in both earthly and eternal time, never certain which ancestors to honor and which eternity awaits us.

It is only against this background that one can understand the paradox of Harry Potter, the wizard who celebrates Christmas, the last of the great British myths. Like Britain itself, the tale of The Boy Who Lived is a pagan vessel out of which Christian greatness emerges, in a subtle and particular form.

J.K. Rowling’s mythopoetic masterpiece is an attempt at the resolution of the dying British soul. It is a final charge in the war for who we are and always have been. It amounts to a systematic defense of British culture, finding heroism in its eccentricities and beauty in its ways.

I believe that hidden within the work is an entire spiritual history of our land. My task here is to uncover that which lies beneath the surface, from druidic allusions to hidden scriptural quotations.

To do so, we must start at the beginning.

Enjoy — and thank you, Robert, for the tip!

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 28, 2024 by 2 Comments

From my family to yours, a joyous Thanksgiving!

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes