I don't hate Harry Potter so much as to totally emasculate him. I'm sure Sady Doyle doesn't hate him either but that did not stop her from cutting his balls off and handing them over to (in her eyes) the star of the 'Potter' series, Hermione Granger. After reading this, I'm very torn between taking her article at face value or as satire. It's just too 'right' to just be a joke.
http://globalcomment.com/2011/in-praise-of-hermione-granger-series/ Its the end of an era. The entertainment which has stretched across books, movies, and countless marketing tie-ins, which has captivated children and adults for well over a decade and which has, for better or worse, managed to become the defining myth for an entire generation, is winding to its close. I speak, of course, of the Hermione Granger series, by Joanne Rowling. So, before she goes away for good, let us sing the praises of Hermione. A generation could not have asked for a better role model. Looking back over the series from Hermione Granger and the Philosophers Stone through to Hermione Granger and the Deathly Hallows the startling thing about it is how original it is. Its what inspires your respect for Rowling: She could only have written the Hermione Granger by refusing to take the easy way out. For starters, she gave us a female lead. As difficult as it is to imagine, Rowling was pressured to revise her initial drafts to make the lead wizard male. More universal, they said. Nobodys going to follow a female character for 4,000 pages, they said. Girls dont buy books, they said, and boys wont buy books about them. But Rowling proved them wrong. She was even asked to hide her own gender, and to publish her books under a pen name, so that children wouldnt run screaming at the thought of reading something by a lady. But Joanne Rowling never bowed to the forces of crass commercialism. She will forever be Joanne Rowling, and the Hermione Granger series will always be Hermiones show. And what a show it is. In Hermione, Joanne Rowling undermines all of the cliches that we have come to expect in our mythic heroes. Its easy to imagine Hermiones origin story as some warmed-over Star Wars claptrap, with tragically missing parents and unsatisfying parental substitutes and a realization that she belongs to a hidden order, with wondrous (and unsettlingly genetic) gifts. But, no: Hermiones normal parents are her normal parents. She just so happens to be gifted. Being special, Rowling tells us, isnt about where you come from; its about what you can do, if you put your mind to it. And what Hermione can do, when she puts her mind to it, is magic. Ditto for the whole Chosen One thing. Look: Ive enjoyed stories that relied on a Chosen One mythology to convince us that the hero is worth our time. I liked Buffy the Vampire Slayer as much as anyone. But its hard to deny that Chosen Ones are lazy writing. Why is this person the hero? Because everyone says hes the hero. Why does everyone say hes the hero? Because everyone says so, shut up, theres magic. Hermione is not Chosen. Thats the best thing about her. Hermione is a hero because she decides to be a hero; shes brave, shes principled, she works hard, and she never apologizes for the fact that her goal is to be very, extremely good at this whole wizard deal. Just as Hermiones origins are nothing special, were left with the impression that her much-vaunted intelligence might not be anything special, on its own. But Hermione is never comfortable with relying on her gifts to get by. Theres no prophecy assuring her importance; the only way for Hermione to have the life she wants is to work for it. So Hermione Granger, generation-defining role model, works her adorable British ass off for seven straight books in a row. Although she deals with the slings and arrows of any coming-of-age tale being told that shes bossy, stuck-up, boring, annoying, etc shes too strong to let that stop her. In Hermione Granger and the Prisoner of Azkaban, she actually masters the forces of space and time just so that she can have more hours in the day to learn. --- continued at http://global ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:345138 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
