Sunday, August 26, 2007

Some musings on the Charm of Appearances

The world is governed more by appearance than realities so that it is fully as necessary to seem to know something as to know it. ~Daniel Webster

“It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.”- Oscar Wilde

While being politically correct we can hold on that appearances being just the
surface , they do matter though may be not as most people beleive they do
but then but one can never say they do not matter.
Of course when you've known a person deeply by chance and circumstance ....
appearances dissolve into irrelevance at times.

But whenever one has a choice of knowing a person appearances will matter....
how they matter is individuality but then
some appearances appeal/repel universally,
some to very few very strongly ,
some appearances grow roots and slowly but surely hold you intrigued.
Well why i got thinking of that...
Hmm quite some time pass on two of my all time favorites and a movie i saw made
me think of it.

I'm quite fond of that evergreen universally loved Austen novel hashed and
rehashed everywhere, but as much as the character of Mark Darcy is fascinating
in Pride and Prejudice , one must agree that Colin Firth simply increases it a 100
times. He's way too dashing as Darcy....




I've been spending the whole of last week downloading The BBC mini series from youtube and really beleive he simply enhances such a enchanting character. No wonder the fan following.



Then there is the most complex character in Harry Potter....Severus Snape.
He has a amazing fan following for a character so nasty at times at least till Book6.

I liked the complexity of the character and admired quite some stuff but no i did not
really feel deeply affectionate for him till Book7 wherein you cant do much but sob
off for him....its a pretty tragedy woven in there.

But then i did not watch the movies as i wanted to wait till book7.


And now i see Alan Rickman and while i wont say in part1 i love him ....One cant help liking him ... he's such class and so very addictive.and as some one on the Amazon forum said
"he cast a Confundus spell on half of the population?"
So Rowling clearly is dead right when she posed the question to someone who confessed to love Snape. "Are you thinking of Snape or Alan Rickman?".

Because lets face it till Book7 (here its a final shift and whatever be the face you
just would have to agree with Harry at the end), if you dont see the Harry Potter
movies it is very very difficult to like Snape.
You can trust him...admire him ......beleive he's is Dumbledore's man and
has reformed or whatever but to like or love him he has to get the face of Alan Rickman.
Well Snape gets appealing truly as Alan Rickman i guess.

Then there is this movie Chak de ...that i saw I liked it and enjoyed it enough to watch it twice a rarity these days for meBut the thought that played on was simple ....would the movie be the same without SRK. We'd have better actors...some of the girls in there were also as good.But some appearances can capture the imagination more universally.


If it was not SRK also the movie i believe would be good but would only be
watched by some very genuine movie goers and admirers .

Thus i will end with another quote

Appearances are not held to be a clue to the truth.
But we seem to have no other. ~Ivy Compton-Burnett

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

And some more of Harry Potter Book Seven after effects.

The Epilogue was boring and nonsense but well she probably did it to shut it off.
I mean Ginny ...she's so quite boring.Harry anyways was never the most

interesting its always the stories and people around. And now after book seven

oh wow ...its everything but Harry.
I 've been having soo much fun reading forums and watching videos on You tube.
Like i was so astonished to read Rowling was asked by a small girl...Does Snape

love anyone?? Wow ...clever question...Rowling surely must've been stumped .

Oh what a series its been and now you want to go back and read again those little

parts which link here.
All the lines which are explained.....
what dumbledore said...(she's made him bloody hell interesting....and i love it.)
Lily evans...hmmm....
and Snape well now his fan following would be the highest...forget Potter.

Hmm ive never seen the movie yet but after Book Seven i know the seventh one

i will see it in theater first day...i tell myself...its still t wo years but yeah ...it'll be

good. Katie Holmes as Lily ...cool.
All the characters now seem so very interesting except the main ones.
This book seven is not the best in terms of writing but what makes it special is that you will go back to the previous books all the more.
I'll end up re -reading the whole thing again...... I know.

Rowling's great and thank god for her timesof india article in 2001 (which was sort of very special in a different way to me at that time) when i picked up this

book......never bothered until book three thinking its just hype and kids books
are not any more for me.
Then she's kind of left it soo very open not for the main haracters but ah those side stories...you let your imagination enjoy.

I took the first book after reading her interview......not any review......
I have that times paper still in my old stuff....

i felt somehow very inspired being at very very low point in my life.Reading her interview (i'm searching for that archive sometime in 2003 or 2002 i guess) made me want to read the book.

I read the first few chapters in a bus and i still remember the feeling :----
i was like whats this cat waiting ...oh i dont get this kiddish nonsense
lets leave it ...and then after half an hour ...i've never looked back.

Its so much joy !!!!!!!!
I just wish there was a book more and all the stories of Dumbledore, Snape and all could've been expanded more.
Ah hopes
Hazaaron khwahishein aisi, ki har khwahish pe dum nikle
bahut nikale mere armaan, lekin phir bhi kam nikle!!

I will just update this like this..................

Sunday, August 05, 2007

Of Stories, Of Choices....Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

if someone still wants no word on the book 7 suspense please do not read any further

Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive.” ~Barry Lopez
well if not literally alive but to feel alive yes you do...some stories do that and
Rowling's magical Harry Potter books do that.
Last week almost seemed like the end of an era.....when i finished the book seven (Harry Potter and the deathly Hallows late at night.
It was too much to resist and it brought back that feeling you have when you leave school. There is so much in life beyond school everyone tells but you want it back...those rules which you despised...those innocent friendships.....that world which you owned and will love for life.Therein lies the charm of Rowling's world.

Unlike other books which critics praise as much more accomplished and classy,
Potter books are actually just a hark back of the wonderful days when we
believed, we hoped and we loved.

Unlike other books ,its not a magical world for all the magic in the book.
The same can't be said for other books.......its all about friendships, families...
responsibilities and choices.
Yes choices...somehow this line had caught my eye when i read it in Harry Potter
and the Chamber of Secrets.
"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."

Somehow in the end the whole series seemed to emphasize just that.If there was
one character who seemed to good to be true or above being just human it was
Dumbledore and in this book she humanizes him the most and makes the
greatest point about choices and abilities.
At every point in the book most characters choose,
Harry chooses to trust Dumbledore finally while burying Kreacher
...Harry chooses to die......if that was the only way.
Voldemort chooses to kill who he believes served him most loyally.
Ron chooses....,
Draco chooses....even Narcissa Malfoy chooses ....
Xenophilius Lovegod chooses
Dudley chooses and so do most in some part or the other.
While i wont say it was the best of the seven books it surely was a befitting end
and Rowling simply was amazing.

The Dumbledore angle was brilliant and it shows how one becomes wise.Dumbledore was brilliant...but it is after his misery that he understood how much
power corrupts and as he says
"It is a curious thing, Harry, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrustupon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their ownsurprise that they wear it well."

On a side note i've always felt this about leaders and managers.

Snape's character was brilliantly etched. It shows how the most resourceful and brilliant
can be the most brave or the most evil depending on the choice .
It shows how not all brave people believe in showcasing themselves.
It shows why appearances can be deceptive, and why you first have to be strong
in the mind to be do anything great evil or good.
People who are weak within like Xenophilius may have good intentions
but will easily break.
People like Snape once they choose the right side will never break and is the
greatest cause he probably was the only one who overcame temptation most.

Even Dumbledore was never confident about himself having power so he never
took up a post at ministry but Snape was confident enough that he wont do
wrong again and hangs around with Voldemort's power.

There was nothing exceptional in Harry except that he earned the
love and trust his friends and fellowmen by his being brave and loving for them.
I've not yet seen the movies of this book though i've read all seven ,
now i may see them. But to really love this story you've got to read it,
get immersed in its world and then feel its familiarity...
a movie does not do that to you.
Some who did not read the book ,don't understand the movie they tell me
and some enjoy it nevertheless and you have to hand it Rowling , she made it
complex enough and its all linked up from book one ...clues clues and clues.

I've read the book in absolute anxiety(been waiting since i read the sixth and
wrote a post on it) and sure would 've missed so much and so there might be another post or some addition to this.It could've been made more thrilling , more duels more magic, but Rowling instead focuses on human nature, its temptations, its fears and fallacies .

Its definitely not literature but then once you read books which deal purely with
such literary stuff ,you kind of wont face up that you belong there even if you do in reality........but here in Rowling's world you do own up .
Ron faces upto his fears when he tries to destroy a Horcrux
Harry faces unto them when he realizes that others were becoming leaders too as he wavered off.
But the book surely leaves you longing for what you cant have....
what you leave behind or
rather can never leave behind ...memories.