Tag: Harry Potter

The trilogy and the tragedy

Back in September of 2008, the first of the Trilogy (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) provided us with a perfect literary escape: exotic, foreign yet so close to home. She managed to play with fire and rose from the grave to finally “kick the hornet’s nest”.

What a catharsis! You look at the two columns, fiction and non-fiction, the choice is clear: who wants to read about “Too big to fail”, “Crash of the titans” “On the brink” etc.. Our heroine got juice: she could ride the motorcycle,

hack into a database and defend herself in the subway.

Sort of Charles Bronson (Death Wish)  reincarnated.

The trilogy acquaints us with an alternative and fascinating life style. It is an euro-exotic escape, at least for the entire three installments.

Stocks were up, stocks were down.

Our character was shot down, bandaged up and got in shape to stand trial against the system, or more likely, a rogue group using the system to keep her down.

Hollywood was thriving during the earlier Great Depression.

This time around, it plays safe with the return of Superman, Spider Man, Batman and Iron Man.

Except that, this time around, the audience won’t sit still and wait to download the movies.

The audience (User-generated content) is filming real events (and should Superman fly by, he will get on video as well).

Street protests in Iran, Tunisia, Egypt and Libya , shot by I-phones,

gave us front-seat view.

No, the trilogy has nothing to do with the tragedy surrounding us still.

But somehow, it resonates and connects the millions of us, who read the books, and viewed the films. It’s as if finally the adults can show their kids that “hey, I am hooked on something too” ( since you got your Harry Potter series.)

Most of us, in our life time, might not get to Stockholm. But this gives us a chance to hear , see and feel the winter chill of a Nordic street. And perhaps, for the first time, felt connected with those Icelanders, who despite similar distance from New York Stock Exchange, have been affected in a big way by securitization and CDO’s.

Just like Asian stocks today. The event in Tripoli triggered a $100/barrel of oil, which forced a lot of automobiles in China and elsewhere to stay idle in their designated garages. If the “Girl with a dragon tattoo” is finally translated into Mandarin, I am sure many will find the time to read and feel fascinated.

At least, in fiction, the ending seems to tidy up.

Unlike our common tragedy called life.

Short-tail product pool

Muzak pipes out “Beautiful stranger” by Madonna. Yahoo celebs still carries head-shots of Paris Hilton.

And Vanity Fair features Cher-is-back.  Holiday best-seller list shows John Grisham and Harry Potter. Across the pond, we are refreshed with royal wedding. I know 20 per cent of celebrities dictate 80 per cent of what we see or hear.

Easy comes, easy goes (Ricky who?).

At least, via I-tunes, you can still buy Beatles music. Long tail.

The British invasion, still.

I thought about taking a picture in front of the book shelves. It will be a documentation of a great transition (from print to online). I am sure future generation will look back and ask, what are those things behind great grandpa?

And I hope in the background, one can zoom in to see a variety of authors and subjects.

Why would anyone want to go through life, watching formula-movies, franchise TV shows, and read plots whose outcome one could already guess? The whole point of this side of life (art), is to surprise you, to uplift you, and to awaken you to new possibilities and twist.

No wonder children can’t stand going through the Edu-mill. They opted for stimuli on-line, whether it’s gaming or texting.

Friedman even op-eds that Education is the latest frontier (of warfare).

Seeing the intellectual poverty on display, kids “got it”. Doesn’t matter what they come up with, the market economy still dictates what and who are to be sold.

Blair-witch Project will go down in history as one of those rare blips on the radar.

And perhaps, with more affordable cam(era), young filmmakers will risk new narratives. Growing up digital, they have “mashed” multi-source in their brain.

What comes out will , at the very least, surprise us all, if not a call for change: kids ain’t dumb. We just don’t listen to them that often. Too busy to “follow”  the Armenian sisters, the wedding across the pond and who Paris is seen with last night.