Thursday, July 21, 2005

It was all...

Harry Potter last Friday night. I was channel flicking around midnight and suddenly it's Edinburgh Castle suffering what looked like a severe damp problem or as we in the trade say, blotchy walls. I was thinking about the scrubbing contract when it became obvious they were projections of Harry Potter's image. Bloody odd I thought, Harry Potter in Edinburgh. I'll admit being drunk and a tad befuddled but a hundred foot Harry Potter at midnight on a castle wall, in Scotland, was puzzling. Closing an eye did not help one bit. The camera then cut to JK Rowling who walked onto a stage sat down and began to read. At her feet where an unknown number of children cross legged on cushions. AND IT WAS MIDNIGHT! Of course there were the usual one's who couldn't stand the pace, sleeping ones, dozing ones, ones with dribble, ones sucking thumbs, ones with teddies, ones on mother's laps, ones on father's laps, ones in police custody (don't ask, I've really no idea) ones in cots, ones with dogs (vicious dogs with scars and spikey collars), ones in flat caps covered in soot (those bastard fucking Royals!), ones with their lawyers, ones flicking things at the front row ones, ones with chewing gum in their hair, ones with snot, ones with snot in their hair (just in front of the ones with snot, incidentally), ones with crossbows, ones dressed like angels (aaahhhhhhhhh), ones with ones in their hair, jaunty ones, ones using their fingers to draw shapes in pools of sick, cuddling ones, big eyed ones, little chubby ones that were so beautiful you could nip them, ones called Razor, ones with dreams, ones with items in their ears, ones with an unhealthy interest in poo, and towards the back calculating ones, dow jones ones, suspenders and red tie ones, slick haired ones, pin striped ones, piggy eyed ones, Gordon Gecko ones, greed is good ones, fuck you all ones, Wake up at the front! ones, childhood's wasted on the ones ones, in the office first thing ones, at the desk ones, impress Sir ones, lose loads of money ones, caught for fraud ones, four years inside ones, find God ones, new job in Far East ones, hush hush ones, Karl Rove ones, name in the open ones, oh bugger that's not so good ones, I'll stand by him says Bush ones, Grand Jury ones, ha ha says the rest of us ones, tired little ones, fidgeting ones, curly haired ones, droopy eyed ones, rubbing eyes ones, yawwwwwwwwwwning ones, looking around ones, "High mum!" ones, where's dad ones, I'm soooooo soooo tired ones, take me home ones, who is that woman at the front ones, what is she saying ones, where's my bed ones, time to go ones, this bloody soot's everywhere ones, zzzzzzzzzzzz ones, the lights go out ones. Click.

7 comments:

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

All, all o' them been there, eh?

I never did get around to reading Harry Potter. I must, one day, not to follow the crowd, but I've heard she's a good writer. So...from a writing point of view...

Dan Flynn said...

G,

If you like a good yarn, not too technical, not too difficult but real page turners then Harry Potter's your lad. But if Harry Potter is good but basic you might turn to Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy. The first novel is 'Northern Lights' and it is literature of Nobel Laureate quality. A children's tale based very loosely on Milton's Paradise Lost, the battle between good and evil where good and evil is always fluid, and boring old God gets a pretty poor press and is shown as tired and sneaky, it's got angels, polar bears, magic, torture (of children)and the heroine is an 11 year old girl called Lyra. To general acclaim the trilogy is never described as anything less than magnificent. And it rips along at a fair old pace. And it's anti-racist as Gypsies are given a really strong role in the story. Read this before you read Harry Potter, both are good but Pullman is soooooooooooooo much better.

piu piu said...

dark materials is a good read

Anonymous said...

Dan, you've struck the nail on the head....whole HP-hype is very clever marketing, the midnight release of the book designed to add millions to JKR's coffers by sunrise next morning. My 10-year old daughter is a big fan. I grew up on Enid Blyton & all the other classic children's novels without the plastic merchandise that comes along with HP.
Have you ever read the Lemony Snicket Series of Unfortunate Events? Three orphaned children in never-ending unfortunate happenings is somehow compelling reading. The identity of the author is almost a big fascination to my daughter as the books themselves.

Hayden said...

Thank heavens. I thought I was the only one alive who hadn't yet read HP. I've been keeping it a dark secret, just one more oddity to go with not watching tv and never having seen the proper movies to make dull and boring attempts at conversation. There is a whole world to make dull and boring conversation from, why limit it to parroting favorite lines and making comments like "yeh, and when the big guns got him ... man, that was so hot!"

Dan Flynn said...

Twine,

Read the first of the 'Series of Unfortunate Events' and loved it. Those poor Baudilaire children!

Hayden,

Ah, you're too hard on the arts. There's plenty of room here for literature and boring conversation I think.

Hayden said...

Clare, I do read books - and some fiction, too. I read a LOT. it goes in cycles. I do enjoy discussing books/movies/theatre - just not rehashing them. Talking ABOUT them instead of repeating.