WSJ: ‘Why the Hunger Games is Also the Gender Games’

March 10, 2012 by Leave a Comment

The Lionsgate/Scholastic ‘Four Quadrants’ marketing plan for Hunger Games has been revealed in The Wall Street Journal! Watch the video and read the article.

Three quick notes before you share your comments:

(1) Why no comments about the Glamour magazine shots? Those cleavage numbers were aimed at whom? I’m guessing Glamour is a women’s magazine but those fotos probably have a lot to do with male interest in the film running as high as 48%.

(2) Not a peep here, either, about the in-your-face irony of this kind of marketing-styling of a story (product?) about the demeaning use of story by propagandists and film makers.

(3) 23.5 million copies of the novels sold and rising… The films could be a bust or just break even and they’ve already done a great service in drawing in that many readers to Suzanne Collins’ remarkable work.

Your thoughts? Sound off below! (Hat tip to Rev George)

Filed Under: Hunger Games

Flavorwire: Katniss and Hermione and Jane Eyre — but no Bella?

March 10, 2012 by 5 Comments

Where to begin with this Flavorwire assessment of 10 of the Most Powerful Female Characters in Literature? Do we need to note first the absence of any characters not made into popular films? Or should we mention the evident bias against women who find love and marriage rewarding, not to mention faith of any kind? Jane Austen’s heroines are shut out, Anne of Green Gables is a loser, and Shakespeare’s shrewish, brilliant Kate is a non-starter. How about literature beginning in the 14th century? No Penelope, Clytemnestra, or Beatrice for this power focused group of feminist readers… and don’t tell me you believe Mulan makes the list except for the Disney flick and an ironic nod to cultural diversity.

How about just the mistakes and mistaken memes? Hermione is the only member of the Terrible Trio that never falls apart come crunch time? Katniss Everdeen “annoys us to no end with all her boy-related waffling and wailing”? I think this bizarre “annoyance” and the love note addressed to Jane Eyre (” Though she suffers greatly, she always relies on herself to get back on her feet — no wilting damsel in distress here”) are meant to be arrows aimed at Bella Swan. Because we all know Bella is stupid, totally boy crazy and dependent, and incapable of independent feminist action, right?

For the counter-spell or antidote to this political correctness about Twilight, check out these posts at The Briarfield Chronicles about both Keats’ Eve of St. Agnes and Lamia. There’s a lot more to Bella than those despising so-called ‘Chick Lit’ would have you think (as in “all of Victorian letters,” none of whose heroines made the powerful list, either). Considering the deep Jane Eyre roots of Bella’s Twilight adventures, it’s a hoot that she is left off as ‘despised’ on a list that her ancestor and inspiration tops.

Really, where’s the love? Or the parameters? I do love this kind of list because of the things it reveals, most notably, the blinders and biases of the list makers, not to mention the opportunity to make a sweeping review of Canon. And this Flavorwire piece was rich in both regards. (Hat tips to Prof. Baird-Hardy and Caroline at Briarfield).

Filed Under: Hunger Games, Twilight

Mailbag: Harry is a Christian Saint?

March 10, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Friend of this blog Bruce Charlton across the pond has thrown down the gauntlet, I fear, to Christians believing that Harry is the gateway to the occult or even a problematic hero. He argues at his always challenging and more often than not edifying weBlog that Harry Potter is a Christian Saint, period, full stop. The letter he sent to me as introduction for the idea:

Dear John,

I try my best here to argue that Harry becomes an actual Saint throughout the series; knowing that this apparently contradicts what both JKR and yourself have said, but hoping that that this apparent contradiction is merely a matter of superficial definitions rather than underlying substance!

In one sense this essay is a Marshal McLuhan ‘probe’ – but in fact it does express my deep-felt intuition about what is going on in Harry Potter. If I am correct, the scope of JKR’s ambition is simply staggering (akin to, say, Dostoievsky in Brothers Karamazov) and this would also explain why she cannot be candid about what she was trying to do.

It would certainly invite ridicule and scorn (and hostility from the forces of Darkness, especially) to state or even admit that she was trying to write a book about the making of a Saint!

Still, the series is by now well enough established that it might be helpful to let people know what is going on?…

Best wishes, Yours,

Bruce

I have argued, as most of you know, that Harry is a Christian Everyman rather than a Christ figure per se and that his seven year journey and alchemical transformation as living symbol of the human ‘inner heart’ is as much about his interior illumination or enlightenment within the ‘Light of the World,’ his death to ego and persona and his choice of sacrificial love, as it is about his external victory over the Dark Lord. I’m not sure this is much different in story from saying he is a “Christian saint” though there is nothing ecclesial as such in the books.

I look forward to reading your comments about the Charlton Thesis, if I must dread the blowback from Those Who Read With an Unblinking Eye.

Filed Under: Mailbag

Hogwarts Fandom News: All Aboard Pottermore at last in April! SXSW Super Panel of Leaky, MuggleNet, HPEF, and AccioLisa

March 9, 2012 by 1 Comment

Some ‘time sensitive news’ Potter Philes will be interested in:

Read the press releases beneath jump!

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Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes

Tim Parks: ‘The Writer’s Job’ in The New York Review of Books A Hogwarts Professor Conversation About the Literary Machine

March 9, 2012 by 2 Comments

At The New York Review of Books, Tim Parks has written a bleak and challenging assessment of the ‘life of a writer’ in the early 21st Century, ‘The Writer’s Job,’ and the consequent ‘state of literature,’ Capital L. John Patrick Pazdziora wrote a group of friends and HogwartsProfessors with his thoughts about Park’s gloomy picture, which note inspired a reflective exchange both on the history of this kind of assessment and what a writer’s life is like at any time among his correspondents. With their permission, I share that exchange below. Please read the Park article, enjoy the conversation, and feel free to contribute to it here in the comment boxes!

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Filed Under: Hog Profs Round Table