Happy Friday the 13th!! Hope you’re not superstitious. I know I plan to have black cats crossing my path all day long as I have 5 of them. 
Here’s a blast of various stories and links with a few probably not so pithy comments by me. Enjoy!
First up, Daniel Radcliffe will be hosting Saturday Night Live for the first time this weekend. From the story I read apparently he can be funny. So, if you like that sort of thing, be sure to check him out.
In other Potter news, the President of China has declared a culture war against Harry Potter, along with people and things like Lady Gaga and The Transformers films, as being destructive to Chinese culture and unity. Now, while I agree that Lady Gaga and The Transformers would eat away at the cultural foundations of any nation, I wouldn’t say the same for Harry Potter. Hu Jintao, the President, has called for the Communist Party to respond with some culture of its own, forgetting, as the article aptly points out, that government cannot really produce “culture” on demand. Check out the full article for all the details. (H/T to Carrie-Ann Biondi for the previous two links.)
You may or may not know (I didn’t) that in 1961 J.R.R. Tolkien was nominated for a Nobel Prize in Literature by C.S. Lewis, who as a professor of literature, was qualified to offer one. You’d think Tolkien would be a shoe in but recently released documents show The Lord of the Rings was rejected rather summarily by Anders Osterling, the primary literary critic of the Nobel Academy. In his words, “…the result [LOTR] has not in any way measured up to storytelling of the highest quality.” Other authors like Robert Frost and E.M. Forster were rejected because they were “too old.” So, the prize went to an author you’ve never ever heard of, Yugoslavian writer Ivo Andri. Yes, Anders Osterling, who wins an award of his own for looking pretty silly right now.
Continuing on with Tolkien, a lost 1966 animated feature of The Hobbit has been rediscovered. Let’s just say it would’ve been better to have remained lost. I was only able to watch a minute of this feature before I started feeling terribly nauseous.
Here’s an article on the 20 Hot Movies in 2012. The only one I have any passing familiarity with is The Hunger Games. And of course they’re rebooting Spiderman. Because it’s been, what, two or three years since the last one?
Guess which author and book is missing from this list of The 25 Greatest Epigraphs in Literature.
Finally, director Chris Columbus is branching out into writing books. He and co-author YA author Ned Vizzini have penned a middle-grade trilogy called House of Secrets. HarperCollins has already gotten the rights to the series. The first book won’t come out until 2013, but the article does have a brief summary of it.
Well, that should give you a lot to chew on for this weekend. Feel free to share your comments on any of the stories. Also, please remember The Hogshead Forum is also available to you to either continue conversations started here at the Pub or to start your own. Check it out.
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for all the news, revgeorge!
The Greatest Epigraphs list was particularly interesting. Hmmm. . . . could JKR and The Deathly Hallows be the missing author and book?
With all the brilliant scholarship we have on the Harry Potter series, I’d say Harold Bloom is looking as silly as Anders Osterling these days. (Actually, my daughter went to Yale and says Bloom is not thought of very highly by the students . . . )
Maybe I’ll even stay up to watch SNL tomorrow night . . . .
With regard to the “Greatest Epigraphs in Literature,” I rather like better some not included on this list. For example, L. M. Montgomery has some charming and lovely epigraphs for her Anne books. Here are the first three:
Anne of Green Gables: “The good stars met in your horoscope,/Made you of spirit and fire and dew.” –Browning
Anne of Avonlea: “Flowers spring to blossom where she walks/The careful ways of duty,/Our hard, stiff lines of life with her/Are flowing curves of beauty.” –Whittier
Anne of the Island: “All precious things discovered late/To those that seek them issue forth,/For Love in sequel works with Fate,/And draws the veil from hidden worth.” –Tennyson
Great post, George! Lots of interesting stuff.
cbiondi, I’m going to have to go look at my Anne books… I TOTALLY FORGOT about those. They’re wonderful.
Of course, I love the Harry Potter ones too, and thought them rather worthy of mention. And then forgot to mention them myself when I reposted the link on my own blog, because I was thinking instead about the epigraphs to Twilight and Eclipse, which I also liked. Shame on me.
As for item #3, Nobel judges seem to frequently operate under complete disconnection from the way the rest of humanity thinks.
I didn’t see Mr. Radcliffe on SNL–I’m constitutionally incapable of staying up that late anymore, and it’s been years since I found SNL worthwhile anyway. But I’ve heard he pulled a William Shatner and more or less told adult fans of the Potter books to get a life because they were written for kids. Between that and his public comments regarding his atheism (his interview with Dotson Rader was published in Parade Magazine a couple of weekends ago) I find my esteem for this young man eroding.
I recorded SNL and watched it later. (I ‘m not a fan of the show, and I agree, Ken, that it’s not worthwhile! I won’t be watching it again.)
Dan made a joke about adult fans of Harry Potter, then made it clear that he was doing it because it made for a good laugh, not because he really dislikes adult fans. I’m an adult fanatic of the Harry Potter stories, and I didn’t take it wrongly at all. I was laughing at myself along with him.
Why is his admission of atheism a reason to lose respect for him? I’ve been through many stages of belief, non-belief, and questioning during my life. I’m glad I’m not a public figure. I have a new friend who states very adamantly that she is an atheist. But as I’ve gotten to know her further, I’ve found that she believes there is a wise, loving Spirit that pervades the entire universe that we can communicate with and who help guide us on our path. She just does not believe in any religion. I don’t consider that atheism at all. Her beliefs are about the same as mine, but I would never say that I’m an atheist. I did not see the Parade interview with Dan Radcliffe, but whether he is truly an atheist or not, because he is a public figure he opened himself to criticism and dislike just for being honest about what makes the most sense to him right now.
I hope we can have a sense of humor about ourselves and a respect for one another’s beliefs (or disbeliefs) and struggles. I don’t know much about Dan Radcliffe, but he’s a human being struggling to find what’s right for him, like the rest of us are. I saw an article a few months ago in which Dan admitted that he had been drinking too much, he had decided to give up alcohol, and he hadn’t had a drink in a few months. I don’t know if he has been able to stick with that resolve or not, but the fact that he recognized that he had a problem and was willing to admit it and quit gave me the greatest respect for him. I come from a family of alcoholics— I have alcoholic parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins on both sides. I know of only one other person in my entire family tree besides myself who ever admitted they had a problem and quit. So I admire Dan for seeing his problem clearly and beginning to deal with it at such a young age. In my opinion that is much more a sign of a person who is on a path of spiritual growth than acceptance of the cultural or religious beliefs one was raised in without very serious questioning of them.
If we are not yet congealed or dead but are alive and growing and learning, how we see the meaning of life will grow, change, and expand all through our lives. We can only be honest about where we are at currently, and I don’t think that should be a reason to disrespect one another. My disrespect is for those who believe that others should believe the same as them. There have always been thousands of different ways of understanding the meaning of life, and any of them that promote kindness and compassion are the ones that I respect.
Thank you, Phoenixsong58, for saying so many of the things that I was thinking! I pretty much “ditto” everything you’ve said.
Well, no dittoes from me. Not that I completely disagree in some areas of phoenixsong58′s comment, but really I think Ken was not trying to start a religious argument or anything like that. He was simply stating his opinion & his response to Radcliffe.
So, what I’m really saying is, let’s not go too farther into this, please.
Revgeorge, your point is well taken.
Ken, I am truly sorry for making a long argument to a passing comment you made.
But cbiondi, I truly appreciate that you “got” my comments— honestly, they were ideas I think about rather than a desire to criticize or argue with Ken.
No problem, phoenixsong58. Thank you for your response.
Regarding Radcliffe on SNL, when I heard he had made comments about adult Potter fans, I too thought it was simply part of the show. Whatever my opinions of him, I think he’s shown he has gotten the major themes of the series & realizes its enduring significance for people. He may have missed some of the specific Christian content of the series, as we discussed on a Pubcast a couple episodes back, but I don’t think that would necessarily be the result of his atheism, seeing as tons of Christians completely missed the Christian content & themes of the series.
Of course, if after several decades of being known as Harry Potter and being on the convention circuit, he starts making comments like William Shatner, then his comments might be more heartfelt & less part of a skit.
Thanks, revgeorge. I think you “got” what I was driving at best.
For the interested, here’s the pertinent part of the Parade Magazine interview; Mr. Radcliffe responded to a direct question from Mr. Rader about his religious upbringing:
“There was never [religious] faith in the house. I think of myself as being Jewish and Irish, despite the fact that I’m English. My dad [Ulster Protestant] believes in God, I think. I’m not sure if my mom [Jewish, English] does. I don’t. I have a problem with religion or anything that says, ‘We have all the answers,’ because there’s no such thing as ‘the answers.’ We’re complex. We change our minds on issues all the time. Religion leaves no room for human complexity.”
I understand he first publically declared his atheism in 2006. I also understand the extreme limitations of a published magazine interview such as this–there’s precious little room to develop a thought. But in all honesty if this is the best he can come up with after five-plus years, I’m very disappointed.
Thank you, Ken, for the follow up comment and the context around your original comment. I also want to apologize to phoenixsong58 for being a bit quick on the trigger in regard to her comment. We’ve had problems in the past with commenting on things religious getting out of hand & too personal, so I guess I tend to be oversensitive when I think that might be happening.
However, with the context of the quote Ken had in mind and with the remembrance that we’ve discussed such topics before, I think discussion could proceed, if you liked. Cautiously, of course.
With that in mind, I’d like to offer a thought on something Radcliffe said. I have a problem with religion or anything that says, ‘We have all the answers,’ because there’s no such thing as ‘the answers.’
Uh, Dan, by saying there’s no such thing as ‘the answers,’ isn’t that by definition ‘an answer?’