I’m enjoying the Saturday discussion prompts at the My Friend Amy blog, so I thought I’d respond to this week’s as well. The question: Who is your favorite and least favorite fictional politician? I’ll stick with Harry Potter on this. Feel free to answer either from Harry Potter (considering every member of the Ministry is a politician in one way or another) or from any other kind of fiction.
- My favorite: You’ll have a hard time guessing this one, won’t you? Albus Dumbledore, of course – primarily because, in good libertarian fashion, he turned down the Minister position 3 times, prefering to work in the fields of justice (Wizengamot), international cooperation, and education. Honorable mention: Arthur Weasley, who wouldn’t compromise principle to get more recognition and power.
- My least favorite: Delores Umbridge – and by least favorite, I mean that I hated her, not that she’s not a brilliant character. Honorable mention: Lucius Malfoy and Cornelius Fudge. I never liked Scrimgeour, but he died defending Harry, so you can’t get too mad at him.
For all the U.S. Hog’s Head patrons, Happy Election Day to all.
Here’s a blast from the primary past – How Would Harry Vote? (Hog’s Head PubCast #48 – I’ve attached it to this post, so the player is below), which includes my random speculations about which Potter character would vote for which candidate in the primaries.
So let’s have a little fun today. (And keep it fun – no plugs for candidates or political debate). Of the current candidates for president (and I mean all of them, not just the two major parties), take your best guesses about which Potter character would vote for which candidate for president – and back up your guess! Why do you think character X would vote for candidate Y? What about character X makes you think s/he would be inclined toward that candidate?
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by Travis
Rowling rarely mentions Tolkien, but I’ve found in the process of writing my book that she has far more in common with him than I had previously realized. Chalk it up to the Cauldron of Story (which is precisely what I do, actually….) In the recent interview for El Pais, translated (with some possible errors) here, Rowling invokes Tolkien on the theme of death:
Q: Solitude, death. We speak of dark things. At its best, literature comes from that.
A: Well, I think it was Tolkien who said that all the important books are about death. And there’s some truth in that because death is our destiny and we should face up to it. All that we have done in life had the intention of avoiding death.
Does anyone know the exact quote to which she’s referring, and is it accurate? She seems uncertain about her quote. This is a happy moment for me, because I just sat down to day to write a section of the book on the theme of death and the links between Tolkien and Rowling. [click to continue…]
A completely absurd question: How would all those British characters vote in the U.S. elections?
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Rowling invokes Tolkien, talks literature and politics
by Travis Prinzi on February 13, 2008
by Travis
Rowling rarely mentions Tolkien, but I’ve found in the process of writing my book that she has far more in common with him than I had previously realized. Chalk it up to the Cauldron of Story (which is precisely what I do, actually….) In the recent interview for El Pais, translated (with some possible errors) here, Rowling invokes Tolkien on the theme of death:
Does anyone know the exact quote to which she’s referring, and is it accurate? She seems uncertain about her quote. This is a happy moment for me, because I just sat down to day to write a section of the book on the theme of death and the links between Tolkien and Rowling. [click to continue…]
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