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In Reply to: I was so with you... posted by Harmonia on November 29, 2004 at 21:04:24:
Harmonia,I'm not against Harry Potter per se as I'm told the books have a much more balanced and deeper set of characters, but I really objected to the movies philosophically and aesthetically smug English know-alls children are just intolerable. In my former life I saw thousands and know just how the little phlegm bags can be!
The consumerism quality of them is that here are children who expect to command powers over materials objects and people by waving their arms and without any price- that is change and effect have no cost in the cosmic sense. This is a fantasy of power and material gain without work- an assumption of right to this kind of control. Non-magic folk or "muggles" aee assumed inferior and can never achieve these powers becuase they are not of "pure blood". The second movie with this pure blood theme has a kind of creepy junior fascism to it. The first movie had the famous alchemist Nicolas Flamel as a kind of backroom unseen character. But alchemists were appalled at the so-called black arts as they did not address the need for balance of energies. They would consider there would be an eventual price for this and it would not be pretty. The "Philospher's Stone:" was renamed the "Sorcerer's Stone" and this is a severe cheapening/deadening of a very elegant idea*** that children would probably find more interesting than the more or less literal eternal life idea.
***The "Philospher's Stone" is a metaphor for a long psychic process whereby the alchemist observes in miniature by an experiment called the "Magnum Opus" the evolution of the Universe. The resulting contemplations imply the nature of the mind of God no less. Eternal life was the result of bonding with the spirit of God- a side benefit to the knowledge of Creation.
I should read the books to get perspectives on the movies to really comment, but I already have this prejudice against this kind of idealized English children- really the movies show something from the 1930's public school world. I still feel the movies at least portray a middle class fantasy of gaining elite powers.
Cheers,
Bambi B
Follow Ups:
What you say about both, while not far from the deep truth, is not quite right.You say "***The "Philospher's Stone" is a metaphor for a long psychic process whereby the alchemist observes in miniature by an experiment called the "Magnum Opus" the evolution of the Universe. The resulting contemplations imply the nature of the mind of God no less. Eternal life was the result of bonding with the spirit of God- a side benefit to the knowledge of Creation."
The Philosopherīs Stone was referred to as a stone able to transmute cheap, innoble materials such as Iron, Lead, et al, into the most noble one, Gold; and anybody who touched it would be cured of any illness: that was the "official version for consumers", while the truth is that the alchemistsīs true search was for the transmutation of manīs instinctive and emotional nature into the highest spiritual one, thus getting them closer to the contemplation of God: Jesus Christ Himself was a perfect example of the Stone, as He not only healed the ill ones, and changed water into wine, but He became the way to the highest spiritual transformation, too...
The whole matter of Alchemy was that, and the search for the Stone would take the alchemistīs whole life, in a neverending process of transformation and spiritualization, disguised to profanes under the cloak of their physical experiments with matter, from which Chemistry (Al-kimia was the Arab word, from an ancient Egypt term, Khmi, meaning "Black Earth", as opposed to the golden desert sand, as the Black Earth was the fertile soil coming from Nileīs periodical floods..., thus evoking growth and transformation) was born.
The whole process, requiring a whole life, was then properly named by Medieval alchemists as the "Magnum Opus", Latin for "The Great Work". And today that term is still being used to name a manīs lifeīs greatest achievement, be it an artistic work, a scientific discovery, or whatever else. Itīs not just an experiment... while it certainly leads to facing, and transforming, manīs innermost nature, and to meeting with God Himself, what makes you, in the long run, right.
Other than these small precisions, I fully concur with you in dispising most of todayīs Hollywood-based films, while I still must say that, in what makes reference to thieves and cops, black sheep have always been much more interesting than the average member of the flock...
Best regards
BF
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