Again about JKR and Dumbledore

[fpb]

In her private life, JK Rowling is a fairly typical, though not slavish, member of the moderately educated left. Her honesty to her own imagination, though, has been leading her in all sorts of directions which seem increasingly incompatible with the ordinary sort of left-wing attitudes prevalent in Britain. In her private life, after a few

Comments

[redcoast]

No offense, but since when is Italian a “cool” nationality?

Oh, I'm going to get in trouble for that one.

[fpb]

Some might say, since Armani and Versace and the rest. Others, since Verdi and Rossini and Vivaldi and Puccini. Others, since Canaletto, Michelangelo, Leonardo, etc. And others, since Virgil and Horace and Cicero. Not to mention those who would bring in Paolo Rossi or even Gianni Rivera.

[johncwright]

If you ask me, the Italians started being a cool about when Brutus deposed Tarquin the Proud. Some commentators would push the coolness back to the time of Aeneas. See (Virgil for details).

Of course, my question is, when did nationalities start becoming cool? Isn't the imperium and the ecclesia somewhat older than this newfangled notion of dividing The Oecumene into nation-states? I think we should all regard nationality as a temporary stop-gap or jury-rig until such time as all the peoples of the West reunite under a duly elected and anointed Holy Roman Emperor.

(Correct me if I am wrong, but that was the role filled by Aragorn in Tolkien: Arnor and Gondor were his fantasy version of the Western and Eastern empires: the siege of Minas Tirith was his version of The siege of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1543, but with a happier ending.)

[haikujaguar]

I have to say... I was skimming my Friends list this morning (as usual, since I am still trying to figure out how to live with the lack of routine that comes with an 8-week-old baby), and before I knew it I found myself reading this whole essay. It was wonderful. :)

[prylliepwns]

As a mother of two kids, ages five and one, I must inform you that you never recover your pre-children routine and rhythm.

The best you can come up with is an alternate routine that factors in the things you need to do most, then snag a few things off the list of things you want to do most and hope for the best. :o)

[haikujaguar]

Ah, my life was like that before kids. :)

[patchworkmind]

Always good to read of you, sir. :)

Again, well done.

[privatemaladict]

First, as I pointed out last time, it rests on an odious fallacy, rooted mostly in female suspicion and jealousy - that passionate male friendships must have something sexual at the bottom of them.

See, this is the big thing I disagree with in this post (and in the last one I commented on.) What makes you think women feel this way? I don't think I've ever heard a woman express any such idea. Women can get jealous/suspicious if their partner spends a lot of time with a woman - that's common enough. But if he's got a really close male friend - why on earth would anyone think that had to mean they were gay? If anything, I'd say men are more likely to think that way. When watching the LOTR movies, it was invariably my male friends who'd start making Frodo/Sam jokes. The girls would tell them to shut up and stop being immature. Boys seem to be much, much more uncomfortable with the idea of passionate male friendships than girls are.

[fpb]

This disagrees with the fact that such fantasies are a wholly female matter. And pardon me, but just how many male friends=slash fics have you ever read written by men? As for the LOTR movies, there is an evident problem there, which some infantile spirits solve by dirty jokes: namely the fact that Peter Jackson is wholly out of sympathy with JRRT's hierarchical view of the world, and therefore wholly unable to place a good master/good servant relationship credibly in his world. I do not recall a single place in all the movies where Sam is called what he is - a servant. And it follows that the intimate, yet hierarchical relationship that is necessary for the characters to exist at all, becomes something inexplicable and even rather morbid.

Frodo and Sam and Gay Hobbits Gone Wild

[cdm014]

I don't know it was that Peter Jackson couldn't have displayed the master/servant relationship or that he know most people who haven't already read the books not having servants and having very little mastery would not be able to understand an accurately depicted one. I think though in that regard he depicted plain male friendship very well, the gay jokes I think were a result almost more of the appearance of the actors than the relationship of the characters. Elijah Woods looks a little effeminate and if he goes for the build of the chubbier Sam well that's a private thing I guess.

As for morbidity all friendships between soldiers (which they were whether they wanted to be or no) are morbid "see ya if you make it through the day."

Re: Frodo and Sam and Gay Hobbits Gone Wild

[cdm014]

I think overall it was a very American movie of a very English book.

[knorg]

I fear, sir, that you have missed the point by a somewhat wide margin.

[fpb]

I fear, sir or madam, that I do not take very seriously people who appear, preen themselves, refuse to proffer any argument, pretend to have simply seen through someone else's, and leave. In case you had not noticed, this comment space is for people who comment. Preferably, after having, one, read the post, and, two, thought.