Fly from Death? Steal from Death?

I am still brooding over the question of how to pronounce the Dark Lord's chosen name: Voldemort.


I will accept as a basic assumption J.K. Rowling's assertion that the name should be pronounced as a French word with no "t" sound at the end.


That makes sense to me. I can't say I was smart enough to catch it when I first read the books -- I have called him "Vole-de-morte" in my head from the beginning -- but it makes sense to me now.


But, as I asked several posts ago, now that we have the pronunciation of the last syllable of the name correct, how do we pronounce the first syllable?


I pointed out that there seem to be two options for that first syllable (and that each option has been used in the films by different characters): "Vole", with a long "o" sound, and "Vol", with an "a" sound to rhyme with "ball" or "tall" or "call".


I prefer the former, personally, but which is correct?


Jo says it's a French word and should be pronounced as a French person would.


So I spoke to a colleague of mine who is both a native French speaker (born and raised in France) and a big Harry Potter fan.


Interesting conversation.


First, she said that, because she is French, she pronounces the name "Vole-de-more".


Perfect. Question answered. Proper pronunciation established.


Then she said she had never noticed that, in the movies, the name's last syllable was always pronounced "morte" and its first syllable was sometimes pronounced "Vall" and sometimes "Vole". She simply heard it pronounced the way she would say it herself.


Interesting.


We then talked about what the name means in French. If you break it down into its three syllables, you will find that it is made up of three French words:


"vol", which can mean either to "steal" or to "fly";
"de", which means "from" or "of"; and
"mort", which means to "die" or "death".


Wow. My friend had never thought that through. "She's brilliant, isn't she?" she said with a smile, thinking of how carefully J.K. had developed the name.


I would have to agree. The Dark Lord's chosen name means either "fly from death" or "steal from death".


And that's exactly what he has attempted to do throughout his entire life: to escape death, to cheat death, to steal from death.


And that's exactly what the Deathly Hallows are about, aren't they:


The Cloak is meant to allow its bearer to escape Death;
The Stone is meant to allow its bearer to steal from Death (by bringing people back); and
The Wand is meant to allow its bearer to defeat/cheat Death.


Cool cool cool. So cool, it's almost scary.

Harry Potter and the Costco Cashier

In line at Costco. Making sure the cashier notices that I have a case of ginger ale in the bottom of my cart, hidden by the massive Costco bags I bring with me every week.


"Thanks for pointing that out," she says, scanning the code from the ginger ale. "You wouldn't believe the stuff people try to sneak out of here without paying."


Me, surprised. "Oh, does it happen that often?"


She nods, laughing. "It happens all the time but what is even more amazing is how often they're successful... with really really big items."


"Like what? Air conditioners and things like that?"


She nods again. "Air conditioners. TVs. It's really crazy. I don't know how they get these things past all the security."


And then she makes the comment that endears her to me forever.


"It's like they have an Invisibility Cloak or something!"


Awesome. Harry Potter and the Costco Cashier.


And, of course, I am immediately reminded of the fact that, when Hermione used the Invisibility Cloak to grab food from a grocery store in The Deathly Hallows, she took great care to deposit the money to pay for the items she was taking into an open cash drawer before she left.


If only we would all be as honest as the good Ms. Granger.

Harry Potter and my day-to-day life

I know, I know, I know. It's been a very long time since I wrote a new entry for this blog. I apologize. I have been so caught up in other projects that I haven't had the chance to read, or write, about Harry and his friends in quite some time.

That doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about J.K.'s magical world. No, that world never drifts far from my mind. It just means I haven't been actively reading the books, watching the films or writing this blog of late.

And Harry Potter keeps popping up in my day-to-day life. It's in some ways amazing how these books and films that are now several years in the past continue to have life, continue to influence the world in which we live.

Three examples:

1. Did you see the articles on the various new websites about how scientists are working on developing an Invisibility Cloak, similar to that "seen in Harry Potter"? Awesome. I have gotten used to seeing articles of this kind that talk about scientific developments that bring to life technology that was first seen in Star Trek but this is the first article that referred to Harry Potter. What's next, the development of flying brooms? a flue network? a deluminator?

2. I watched the Jim Carrey film Yes Man on Netflix the other day and was pleased to see Harry Potter play a significant role. Now, this is not a great movie. It starts well and seems to be promising some interesting stuff but, unfortunately, it starts to fall apart about half way through and degenerates into silliness by the end. Be that as it may, it was a lot of fun to see Jim Carrey (dressed as Harry) and Zooey Deschanel (dressed as Hermione) attend a Harry Potter party, complete with an awesome Dobby in attendance.

3. I was chatting with my boss the other day about my holiday plans. My partner, you see, is preparing a big trip for us to celebrate my upcoming birthday and she has kept our destination a secret from me. This makes the whole thing very fun, exciting and mysterious. It also leads to a lot of questions, both from me and from other people in my life. My boss asked where I thought I might end up going. I said I can think of a variety of possibilities, all of them fantastic: England, France, Italy, Prague, the Netherlands, California, Victoria BC, even Florida so that we can go to Harry Potter World. When I mentioned the last option, my boss, the last person in the world I would have thought to have read Harry Potter not to mention to have gone to Harry Potter World, smiled, nodded and said: "We waited in line for three hours to get a wand!"

Awesome.

I wonder where I'm going to go.

The mysterious disappearance of the wizarding robes

Where are their robes?

It's just occurred to me. The filmmakers have virtually done away with the wearing of robes, so prevalent in the novels, in Part 2 of The Deathly Hallows.

Why?

We see the Hogwarts students in their school robes first as they march into the castle under Headmaster Snape's watchful eye early in the film and then again in the school assembly scene where Harry finally confronts Snape. But, other than those two scenes, the wearing of robes seems to have disappeared completely.

Harry, Hermione and Ron remain in Muggle clothes throughout the entire film, except for Harry's decision to don (someone's) robes to slip into the school assembly scene. The members of the Order, the Death Eaters, everyone else seems content to wear anything other than the traditional garb of witches and wizards as so clearly established in the books.

Now, let's think about this for a moment. J.K. presents to us a wizarding world where the wearing of robes is as natural to the magical people as wearing jeans and tops is to many of us Muggles. Wizards and witches would feel comfortable, normal in robes and would find wearing anything else strange.

Yet, by the eighth film, suddenly they're all taking the first opportunity to dump their robes and put on slacks and sweaters. It doesn't make sense.

Rowling describes very carefully how Harry makes sure to tuck his Invisibility Cloak and his wand away in his robes when he goes into the Forbidden Forest to die at Voldemort's hand in the seventh book. In the movie version of this scene, Harry's in Muggle clothing.

Why? Well, I know why. It's cheaper, it's easier and it helps viewers identify with the good guys in the final battle. They're just like us. The Death Eaters, while not in robes per se, wear strange dark outfits that set them apart. The good guys dress like we, the audience members do.

I get that. But I don't like it. It's a cop out. And it's not right.

One last question: where do all the robes go between the school assembly scene (where all the Hogwarts students are in their robes) and the battle scenes that follow? There's no temporal break between McGonagall's duel with Snape and the Death Eaters' attack on Hogwarts and yet somehow all of the robes disappear.

That must be some closet they've got there in the Great Hall to hold all those robes.

J.K., meet Ann Killion and Randy Moss

There’s nothing I like better (well, except actually settling in to read a Harry Potter novel) than stumbling across a reference to J.K.’s magical world in places where I least expect it. These kinds of surprising discoveries remind me forcefully just how much of an impact Ms. Rowling’s works have had on the world and how many people are out there who, like you and me, see the world through a Harry Potter lens.

Today, my happy surprise came in the form of a column on the National Football League (NFL) written by Ann Killion, one of my fave sports/football writers, for Sports Illustrated’s website (SI.com). Ms. Killion writes of the return of one of the NFL’s all-time great (and most diva-like) wide receivers, Randy Moss, to the league after a brief retirement.

Ms. K. begins her “Inside the NFL” column today with this:

Randy Moss arrived in the Bay Area in 2005 with sirens blaring and a police escort.

Seven years later he's come back with an invisibility cloak.

“Did she just say ‘an invisibility cloak’?” I wonder to myself. “Could that possibly be a RowlingRef” (as I call all references to Harry Potter and his world)? “No,” I decide. “Not possible. Not in a football column. Must be a reference to the more general idea of a cloak that makes a person unseeable.”

So I read on. After a well-written para or two explaining what Randy Moss is up to now, Killion then writes this:

The 49ers -- whose lack of standout wide receivers may have been the difference between a good season and a trip to the Super Bowl -- signed Moss to a non-risky one-year deal and have been raving about him ever since.

San Francisco coach Jim Harbaugh has made him sound like a cross between Hermione Granger and Vince Lombardi.

By this time, I’m howling with glee. And moving Ms. K. up even higher in my pantheon of great sports writers. I mean, she’s smart, she’s eloquent and she apparently has at least some level of Harry Potter knowledge.

Cool. Cool cool cool cool.

Randy Moss as Hermione Granger. Perfect. And perfectly funny. Not that Hermione ever displayed even the least interest in sports. I mean, her antipathy for Quidditch is the stuff of legend. But she does pack a mean punch. And Mr. Moss could no doubt learn a thing or two from her about how to manipulate and control the media.

To read Ms. Killion’s column in full, head here: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/ann_killion/05/23/randy-moss-niners/index.html?eref=sihp&sct=hp_t11_a0