Page 510 Harry Potter; interesting(Bush) reference NO SPOILER

[lildreamer316]

"Don't you see? Voldemort himself created his worst enemy; just as tyrants everywhere do! Have you any idea how much tyrants fear the people they opress? All of them realize that,one day, amongst their many victims; there is sure to be one who rises against them and strikes back!"

Go ahead; flame; I really don't care. Nice to read political inspiration when you're not really even trying to.
Also interesting conclusion to the thought on 512.

[notadmblnd]

1. it's just our mindset theses days

we are so occupied whit current events and have become so distrusting and cynical of the current admin. Heck, I saw a connection on the first page. Was 512 reallly the first time you noticed it?

[lildreamer316]

4. No no; not first

I got that right off but saw someone else had already mentioned it on here. Just wanted to point out this other quote.

[notadmblnd]

6. I think there's going to be lots of them.

It would be interesting to hear an interview with her and have somone ask here if she was drawing from current events.

[funflower]

17. The President of WHAT country was a "wretched man" on page 1?

You can't tell me any Brit reading that didn't see * there!

:kick:

[notadmblnd]

25. no, I'm not telling you that

re-read my post.

[europegirl4jfk]

20. You're right!

It's our mindset. One moment in the book when Harry says to the Minister of Magic: "You don't care whether I live or die, but you do care that I help you convince everyone you're winning the war against Voldemort" I actually read "winning the war on terror".

My daughter read the first chapter aloud in the car on Friday night after picking up our copy of the book and she changed "waiting for a call from the President of a far distant country" automatically to "President of the US".

I see references to what happens in the US right now in movies and books everywhere, some of them written or filmed decades ago. Rowling's tale is a story about fascism and appeasement politic too but her reference is Hitler and WW2, and England's reaction when Hitler came to power. But still lot of it fits nowadays with Bush & Co. as well.

[MarianJack]

2. No Spoiler Here, Either,...

...but on the very first page the Prime Minister is waiting for a call from the president of another country. That president is described as a wretched man.

[Liberal In Texas]

3. Absolutely no flame. Someone earlier posted something about the first

page or so, which was SO anti-Bush.

I think Ms Rawlings has a bit of a liberal bent. And I'll bet she's pissed as hell about the fundies always trashing her books.

[funflower]

18. J.K. Rawlings' response to the fundies who think her books are

Satanic:

"If a fool looks into a book, you can't expect a wise man to look out." (Rough approximation. It's a quotation from someone famous - I can't remember who!)

[napi21]

5. OK, what are you people doing reading Harry Potter?

I thought these book were written for pre-teens.

I love what you've found in the book, but what in the world made you read it at all?

[notadmblnd]

7. I've read them all

my son and I read every one together. It's a tradition.

[lildreamer316]

8. ESCAPISIM!!!!

Everything else I have is non-fiction or heavy novels etc. I like a little "light" fantasy every now and then; especially since I'm going on 2 1/2 years with no vacaton. Or babysitter (last 3 months)

[Mythsaje]

9. Are you kidding?

I've read all of them so far, and sooner or later I'll read this one too.

I think the HP books are GREAT.

[knitter4democracy]

13. Read it and see.

:evilgrin:

[radfringe]

16. They are a great read

pre-teen or not -- it's a good story

from your post I take it you haven't read any of them -- so before you pooh-pooh it as a "pre-teen" book -- read them

[Lars39]

23. Some of us started out reading them to our kids.

We got hooked. :)

[Pithy Cherub]

24. You have GOT TO BE KIDDING!

:evilgrin: They really cover the full dimensions of life and the parallels are juicy! JKR uses allegory and analogy beautifully!

You have to read them first for pure story and then you go back and say oh wow. The book Order of the Phoenix does one of the best cut-ups of the press, bureaucracy and abuses of power, anywhere.

[Lisa]

27. it's a wicked social satire ...

Really good juvenile fiction tends to be quite observant about social and political issues -- and in Britain, where the class system is more noticeable, it tends to show up in children's books quite a bit (Roald Dahl and Terry Pratchett are other examples). I know several people who went to British private schools -- all of them fit the "Hermione" rather than the "Draco" type -- and they loved the books. (In fact, one of them introduced me to Rowling's work in the first place, before she really caught on in North America.)

In previous books she's skewered the consumerist slant of the publishing industry, which has increasingly favoured self-promoting authors -- Rowling herself is rather shy about book tours and signings, and most of the writers I know also object to the PR-driven hype because it interferes with their work! She's also gone after tabloid journalism, and the justice system. The last book slams the bureaucracy that's grown up in a lot of organizations, especially academia (performance evaluations, etc.) -- which often turns out to be anything but fair and objective.

And it looks like this time, she's set her sights on the "see what a good job we're doing protecting you" propaganda churned out by governments. Possibly she's drawing on her experiences during the Cold War and the Irish troubles -- but it takes on an extra sharpness today. (Plus, American readers are increasingly able to relate ...)

[kath]

26. PLENTY of adults read these books - so much so, that they actually print

"adult" versions of each one, with different cover illustrations, for adults who don't want it to look like they're reading a "kids" book on the subway. I've never heard of this being done for any other book or series.

[immoderate]

29. Hint: Read "Alice In Wonderland"

--IMM

[Fridays Child]

10. Dr. Seuss' story of Yertle the Turtle...

...was an allegory for how the oppressed will eventually bring down the oppressor.

[knitter4democracy]

12. Yertle was my story my senior year in forensics.

In Michigan, we have the storytelling event, and that was my gig. I did Yertle, and I never did all that well. I seemed to have a run on 7th place, if I remember correctly, which always knocked me out of the finals. It just proved my point that it's hard to win with Seuss.

Still love that story, though. :D

[XemaSab]

11. Spoiler Discussion here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=279x1025

And yeah, in the first chapter I thought of Bush and Blair.... especially how they're totally clueless and unable to stop what's going on.

[MisterP]

14. oo, real Joseph Campbell stuff!

I'll love it

[mduffy31]

15. Come on now...

Now I would love to find a connection and a slap against shrub, but lets not read too much into the book. Just enjoy the story...

[funflower]

19. Welcome to DU, mduffy 31!

:hi:

[soothsayer]

21. You can't separate the artist from her time. It's totally influenced

by current events, consciously or not.

[WolverineDG]

22. there's one in the first chapter too n/t

[DireStrike]

28. Yes, I might've caught one also

About the old leader pretending nothing bad was going on, and the new leader going way overboard and outside the rule of law and the purpose of the government.

Of course this assumes some bad things about Clinton... some untrue bad things...

[Lisa]

30. I'd like to think that they're still focused on Britain ...

Which would mean that it was the Major (and Thatcher) governments which were pretending that everything was okay. When one considers that John Major is in the Carlyle group along with Bush's dad ... and that Margaret Thatcher's son has been implicated in some weird kind of right-wing African coup attempt ...

It seems to me that JKR has been trying to look more at what's going on in the British/European sphere -- she hasn't hinted at wizards in the US (though I wouldn't be surprised if she's been getting a lot of pressure from fans and publishers to introduce American characters or have Harry go to the US in some future book!).

[uppityperson]

31. Goes to show we are living in a cliched time, universal struggles

oppressors vs freedom lovers (cliches there)