Posts tagged as:

heroes

Who’s the Hero? Harry or Dumbledore?

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by revgeorge on November 28, 2009

On her blog Quoth the Maven, Janet Batchler has some great comments regarding who is the hero of Harry Potter: Harry Potter or Dumbledore.  She’s responding to a story here arguing that Dumbledore is the real hero of the HP series not Harry.  Check out both and see what you think.

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Heroes and Villains

by Dave the Longwinded on April 1, 2009

I wouldn’t normally cite anything from Entertainment Weekly as an especially interesting analysis of things literary, but the most recent issue (3 April 2009) has a piece by Jeff Jensen exploring modern America’s fascination with villains and significantly flawed heroes (“Heroes and Villains”).  This passage struck me:

The current state of heroism can be summed up in a word: Lost.  Lke the castaways of ABC’s mystery drama, today’s would-be heroes are so flawed or messed up, they need to be saved from themselves before they save anyone else.  Some succeed, like Iron Man’s ethically murky Tony Stark.  But many others — Anakin Skywalker; the meth-cooking cancer dad on Breaking Bad [an AMC drama]; almost anyone on HBO, Showtime, or FX — find it more empowering to embrace the dark side.  These characters reflect a culture that feels powerless and pissed: We desparately want good to triumph over evil, but we can’t staunch our doubts that good is up to the task.  [click to continue…]

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Tim Kring: “What made Harry Potter great”

by Travis Prinzi on November 7, 2008

I’ve become a big fan of the TV show Heroes.  Tonight, I read an article by Jeff Jensen for EW with which I largely disagree,* but there’s an interesting quote embedded.  The series’ creator, Tim Kring, said the following:

There’s a premise to the show that we are actually trying to get back to more and more — the idea that ordinary people have been chosen for something extraordinary.  It’s what made the Harry Potter series so great, the idea that the most disenfranchised kid — the kid who lived under the crawl space of the stairs — could be chosen for greatness. That’s an archetypal idea that has tremendous resonance.

I find it interesting that TV shows are already taking cues from Harry Potter as they write their storylines and choose their themes.  

Thoughts?  Is this the key to the greatness of the Harry Potter stories?  Are there other important keys?  In what ways do you see Harry Potter influencing future TV-making, movie-making, etc?

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Our Hero Harry, the Snaped Crusader (Issue #1)

by Dave the Longwinded on January 26, 2008

by Dave

Harry is a hero. That Harry Potter draws from long established literary heroic traditions is well documented. Nearly every book length treatment or anthology concerning the series addresses this subject and examines the link between Harry’s more traditional literary roots in alchemical and mythic-heroic traditions and his postmodern deconstruction of the hero by figuring him through a Christ-like narrative wherein he never becomes an alleghorical avatar for Jesus. In some ways, the emphasis on Harry’s human-yet-transcendent character development has been the subtle spark driving the discussion among Christians about Harry’s place as a role model and/or tempter.

Yet, in postmodern popular culture, Harry also finds a conceptual home among superheroes of our day. One might look at him as a parallel to Superman — tragic orphan who learns who he is when he learns the truth of his parents and evolves into the savior of humankind; or Batman — orphan haunted by the horrendous murder of his parents and springboards into a larger, seemingly undending, often doubt-ridden crusade against a larger malevolent force. [click to continue…]

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