Anna Lang

Dr. Powers

ENGL 281

2 April 2018

Monday in Pauxia

Like the flash of lightning, bars of blue light came down upon the door, blocking students from entering or exiting the dark, dungy classroom. Pauxia, Academy of Wizardry, is no stranger to lockdowns. When you’re an unfunded public school in the projects of Philadelphia, lockdowns and locker searches are just part of a typical week. From the sounds of the students’ gossip in Professor Kramel’s remedial potions class, it sounded like this lockdown was because someone managed to smuggle a wand silencer through security today. Impressive, if you think about it, since those security wizards went through intensive training at New York’s Wizarding College of Protection, kind of like the No-Maj police officers that are seen running around the neighborhoods of Philly.

Wand silencers were hard to come by on this side of Philly, especially since the recent crackdown from Philadelphia’s Safety Commissioner got re-elected for a tenth year in a row. Simply put, a wand silencer was a small, thin black rectangle that hooked onto the bottom of any wand, making them virtually untraceable and undetectable. The few that were still floating around the crumbling city belonged to gang members who only emerged under the cover of darkness.  

Birdie Benentt sat in the back of her potions class, arms crossed as she watched Professor Kramel pull out the binder from his desk in a swift motion. The orange binder held all the procedures that professors were suppose to follow if something happened; whether it be lockdowns, fights, or missing students. Karmel was only here for a few month, and in Birdie’s opinion, he only had a few more left before this school chewed him up and spat him back out. Although Professor Karmel was a nice enough teacher, his overly large nose, his naturally green hair, and boring class was often the butt of jokes in Pauxia. There had only been two lockdowns before -which was a record low at Pauxia- and poor Karmel was a stickler for rules and procedures, hench why he was now fumbling through the pages of the binder to look up what to do.

Students were suddenly excited and loud with the sudden appearance of the blue bars over the door. Pretty much all of them knew how these lockdowns worked, and in in the spirit of chaos, they wanted to make their own.

“Settle down guys!” Professor Karmel whined through his huge nose, hoping his class would quiet down long enough for him to think. Once he glanced down at the binder, he grabbed a silver basket under his desk. “You know the drill. First row, please come up and put your wands in the basket.” Grumbles ensued. The first row didn’t want to move from their seats, and some outright ignored the instructions and were busy gossiping with their friends around them. “If I don’t have wands in here in 10 seconds, you can all kiss the love potion lesson goodbye!” he shouted. That was enough to get the class moving.
Birdie slumped down in her seat, waiting for her row to be called on. She traced over the moving graffiti on her ancient wooden desk, watching a poorly drawn dragon fly around. Handing over her wand during lockdowns was always the worst; her wand was the only thing that gave her any sense of power in her drabby life. Between her deadbeat mom who was always high or drunk, a her father that was barely around because of work, and a cramped apartment with no privacy, there was enough stress for Birdie. At least at Pauxia, she was able to actually use her wand and be her own person. Who knew how long this lockdown would go on for.

“Row five, your turn,” Professor Karmel said. All six of the students, including Birdie, rose from their seats and walked over to the silver basket, dropping their chipped, secondhand wands into it. The basket had a special hex on it, simultaneously recording to make sure each wand actually belonged to each student, they didn’t have any silencers or illegal charms on them, and were sealed in the basket until security came around to each class to release them. But that could take hours. Returning back to her, Birdie slumped forward on her desk, flicking a piece of her curly, kinky hair out from her eyes. Her school’s tie- an ugly orange and light blue- coiled on the desk next to her head. On the back, she could read the tiny tag, which stated: PROPERTY OF PAUXIA, ACADEMY OF WIZARDRY.

“Settle DOWN class,” Professor Karmel snipped at the rowdy class of 25. Calypso, another girl with a reputation of running her mouth, whined back.

“How long is it gonna take Mister?” she said. “I’mma leavin early today, and I can’t be late for my hair appointment again.”

“I don’t know, Calypso,” Professor Karmel said. “But until we get the all clear from Principal Levvy, we are going to try to continue with our lesson.”

The class collectively moan in protest. Calypso started to talk back over the roar students, something about how they should watch a movie or something. Anything would be better than potions class right now. Birdie nestled her head in between her arms on her desk, and closed her eyes to try to ignore the class. She picked one of her hands up from the desk, and felt her right pocket to make sure her stack of tarot cards were still there. Reading tarot cards was something she loved doing, and according to the astrology Professor Gambi, she had a natural talent of reading the past, present, and future.

“Birdie, please get your head off the desk, and pay attention,” Professor Karmel said all of the sudden. Gritting her teeth and biting her tongue before she said something stupid, she reluctantly sat up in her uncomfortable chair. Today, she thought, was going to be a long day.

Anna Lang

Dr. Powers

ENGL 281

8 April  2017

“Truth Is Stranger Than Magic: The Marketing of Harry Potter”

I found that this particular article was actually really insightful to how we as Americans love to market and profit from various pop culture. Whether it is the big, greedy corporation of Walt Disney, or Universal Studios building an entire Harry Potter World, one thing is for sure that corporations have noticed: there is money to be made in expanding a whole fictional universe.

Take this into consideration. According to an article from Forbes.com, the box office hit movie “Avatar” raked in $2.7 billion US dollars close to eight years ago. It is one of the most highest grossing films in American culture. It won several Oscars, thanks to the award winning director James Cameron. And yet, up until very recently, ‘Avatar” has left no pop culture footprint. Compared to the Harry Potter films, where there’s a theme park, fanfiction, games, clothes, “wizarding classes,” conferences, and more. But up until the last few months, the most impact that ‘Avatar’ had in our culture, was the knowledge that there were to be additional movies to come out in the future. Whether the cooperation (aka Disney), saw the financial benefit of creating a sequel for the film, or saw the additional benefit of building a theme park in Disney World (which will be opening in early May) isn’t known for sure at this point. But, based upon the facts and figures that Anne Galligan gave readers from her article about Harry Potter I think it is safe to say that ‘Avatar’ may be trying to get to the same level of popularity and marketing ability as the British book series, possibly trying to implement to same marketing tackets.

We can also take a look at the literary phenomena series The Hunger Games. This three book series created a dystopian universe where children are hunted and killed by other children to maintain order in society, as well as to provide entertainment for that society. Other than creating a three book into a four movie series, the Hunger Games franchise has been the launchpad for clothing, accessories, and now, a brand new museum in Louisville, Kentucky. Some scholars have tried to make parallels between Harry Potter and the Hunger Games, often claiming that the Hunger Games is the next Harry Potter, citing similarities between the remarkable, successful marketing of both franchises. Like Harry Potter, the Hunger Games was able to capture the attention of millions of children and teens, whether it be through reading the books, watching the movies, or (most importantly to the franchises) buy the merchandise. Anne Galligan raised interesting viewpoints of how Harry Potter was able to shape America’s culture, and arguably, the Hunger Games accomplished the same goals of having a lasting impact over our culture. I wonder if it is detrimental to arguably exploit these adolescent books to be mass marketed to the entire world. Does the book serie itself lose something when factors for the stories are marketed to to public, or does it add something special to an entire country, or multiple cultures, with its popularity?  

Anna Lang

Dr. Powers

ENGL 281

2 April 2018

Monday in Pauxia

Like the flash of lightning, bars of blue light came down upon the door, blocking students from entering or exiting the dark, dungy classroom. Pauxia, Academy of Wizardry, is no stranger to lockdowns. When you’re an unfunded public school in the projects of Philadelphia, lockdowns and locker searches are just part of a typical week. From the sounds of the students’ gossip in Professor Kramel’s remedial potions class, it sounded like this lockdown was because someone managed to smuggle a wand silencer through security today. Impressive, if you think about it, since those security wizards went through intensive training at New York’s Wizarding College of Protection, kind of like the No-Maj police officers that are seen running around the neighborhoods of Philly.

Wand silencers were hard to come by on this side of Philly, especially since the recent crackdown from Philadelphia’s Safety Commissioner got re-elected for a tenth year in a row. Simply put, a wand silencer was a small, thin black rectangle that hooked onto the bottom of any wand, making them virtually untraceable and undetectable. The few that were still floating around the crumbling city belonged to gang members who only emerged under the cover of darkness.  

Birdie Benentt sat in the back of her potions class, arms crossed as she watched Professor Kramel pull out the binder from his desk in a swift motion. The orange binder held all the procedures that professors were suppose to follow if something happened; whether it be lockdowns, fights, or missing students. Karmel was only here for a few month, and in Birdie’s opinion, he only had a few more left before this school chewed him up and spat him back out. Although Professor Karmel was a nice enough teacher, his overly large nose, his naturally green hair, and boring class was often the butt of jokes in Pauxia. There had only been two lockdowns before -which was a record low at Pauxia- and poor Karmel was a stickler for rules and procedures, hench why he was now fumbling through the pages of the binder to look up what to do.

Students were suddenly excited and loud with the sudden appearance of the blue bars over the door. Pretty much all of them knew how these lockdowns worked, and in in the spirit of chaos, they wanted to make their own.

“Settle down guys!” Professor Karmel whined through his huge nose, hoping his class would quiet down long enough for him to think. Once he glanced down at the binder, he grabbed a silver basket under his desk. “You know the drill. First row, please come up and put your wands in the basket.” Grumbles ensued. The first row didn’t want to move from their seats, and some outright ignored the instructions and were busy gossiping with their friends around them. “If I don’t have wands in here in 10 seconds, you can all kiss the love potion lesson goodbye!” he shouted. That was enough to get the class moving.
Birdie slumped down in her seat, waiting for her row to be called on. She traced over the moving graffiti on her ancient wooden desk, watching a poorly drawn dragon fly around. Handing over her wand during lockdowns was always the worst; her wand was the only thing that gave her any sense of power in her drabby life. Between her deadbeat mom who was always high or drunk, a her father that was barely around because of work, and a cramped apartment with no privacy, there was enough stress for Birdie. At least at Pauxia, she was able to actually use her wand and be her own person. Who knew how long this lockdown would go on for.

“Row five, your turn,” Professor Karmel said. All six of the students, including Birdie, rose from their seats and walked over to the silver basket, dropping their chipped, secondhand wands into it. The basket had a special hex on it, simultaneously recording to make sure each wand actually belonged to each student, they didn’t have any silencers or illegal charms on them, and were sealed in the basket until security came around to each class to release them. But that could take hours. Returning back to her, Birdie slumped forward on her desk, flicking a piece of her curly, kinky hair out from her eyes. Her school’s tie- an ugly orange and light blue- coiled on the desk next to her head. On the back, she could read the tiny tag, which stated: PROPERTY OF PAUXIA, ACADEMY OF WIZARDRY.

“Settle DOWN class,” Professor Karmel snipped at the rowdy class of 25. Calypso, another girl with a reputation of running her mouth, whined back.

“How long is it gonna take Mister?” she said. “I’mma leavin early today, and I can’t be late for my hair appointment again.”

“I don’t know, Calypso,” Professor Karmel said. “But until we get the all clear from Principal Levvy, we are going to try to continue with our lesson.”

The class collectively moan in protest. Calypso started to talk back over the roar students, something about how they should watch a movie or something. Anything would be better than potions class right now. Birdie nestled her head in between her arms on her desk, and closed her eyes to try to ignore the class. She picked one of her hands up from the desk, and felt her right pocket to make sure her stack of tarot cards were still there. Reading tarot cards was something she loved doing, and according to the astrology Professor Gambi, she had a natural talent of reading the past, present, and future.

“Birdie, please get your head off the desk, and pay attention,” Professor Karmel said all of the sudden. Gritting her teeth and biting her tongue before she said something stupid, she reluctantly sat up in her uncomfortable chair. Today, she thought, was going to be a long day.

Anna Lang

Dr. Powers

ENGL 281

30 March 2017

“Truth Is Stranger Than Magic: The Marketing of Harry Potter”

I found that this particular article was actually really insightful to how we as Americans love to market and profit from various pop culture. Whether it is the big, greedy corporation of Walt Disney, or Universal Studios building an entire Harry Potter World, one thing is for sure that corporations have noticed: there is money to be made in expanding a whole fictional universe.

Take this into consideration. According to an article from Forbes.com, the box office hit movie “Avatar” raked in $2.7 billion US dollars close to eight years ago. It is one of the most highest grossing films in American culture. It won several Oscars, thanks to the award winning director James Cameron. And yet, up until very recently, ‘Avatar” has left no pop culture footprint. Compared to the Harry Potter films, where there’s a theme park, fanfiction, games, clothes, “wizarding classes,” conferences, and more. But up until the last few months, the most impact that ‘Avatar’ had in our culture, was the knowledge that there were to be additional movies to come out in the future. Whether the cooperation (aka Disney), saw the financial benefit of creating a sequel for the film, or saw the additional benefit of building a theme park in Disney World (which will be opening in early May) isn’t known for sure at this point. But, based upon the facts and figures that Anne Galligan gave readers from her article about Harry Potter I think it is safe to say that ‘Avatar’ may be trying to get to the same level of popularity and marketing ability as the British book series, possibly trying to implement to same marketing tackets.

I have a few ideas about what to do for my “re-mix” activity, and I’m not sure which one I want to do as of right now. If any of you guys have any ideas, let me know!

-I would write a quick flash fiction about Hermione while she was a little girl. I would focus on the weird and magical things that would happen to her (think of how Harry was able to talk to snakes and do other unexplainable things). Her parents, being Muggles, would probably struggle understanding what was happening to their daughter, so that would be another point I would focus on.

-I would write another flash fiction piece, but I would create an American wizarding school in a poor urban area, like in Philadelphia or Detroit. My focus would be on the mostly African American and Latino student population, facing similar problems many Muggle urban public schools are facing today (underfunded, struggles with hiring quality teachers, etc.).

 
-Ever since I was a little kid, I have been obsessed with Greek gods and goddesses, and I know many of the myths and individual gods in Greek mythology. I would like to write a flash fiction piece, possibly taking place in ancient Greece, and put a wizarding “twist” to the 12 gods that live on Mt. Olympus.

In our house of Hufflepuff, we decided to create a presentation about Squibs, while also offering a view as to how Squibs can be attracted to Voldemort’s message. Our group notice that there were some people who sided with Voldemort (Dolores Umbridge, for example) that treated the Squibs far better than Mudbloods in the magical world. In fact, it seems like Mudbloods are the furthest down on the food chain, which is surprising since Squibs possess no magic at all. We are framing our presentation partly as informational about Squibs, but also as Voldemort propaganda for Squibs.

I am specifically helping organize the group’s Powerpoint, and making sure that the information flows from one slide to the next. As the “creative coordinator” I am also making sure that the presentation is pleasing to the eye. This includes me looking for images that relate to the topic and organizing information other members researched. Finally, I read through the Powerpoint to look for grammatical or structural mistakes, something that can often happen or be overlooked.

Anna Lang

Werewolves have almost always had a place in folklore and mythology. Whether it is accusations among a small farm community in Austria in the twelfth century or steaming hot boy in the Twilight movies from 2008, werewolves pop up across our culture. In “Hairy Snout, Human Heart” written by Eveline Brugger, we take a closer look at how werewolves not only influenced our culture through the ages, but how werewolves were represented in the Harry Potter books as well. In ancient times when towns and villages relied on crops and livestock to thrive, there was a constant fear they would be destroyed by various wild predators. According to the chapter, “of all European predators, the wolf probably has the most ambiguous reputation” (294). So in that sense, it is understandable that wolves would be the creature often associated with humans turning into animals. In Greek and Roman mythology, there are several ancient stories that have been told involving men and women turning into wolves, whether they do it consciously or not.

As someone who personally loves Greek mythology, there is a story of a Greek king named Lycaon who tried to outsmart Zeus, the king of the god. Lycaon was an early king of Arcadia, Greece, and wanted to test to see if Zeus was an omniscient God. To test this, Lycaon invited the god to a feast in his hall. In the food he served, Lycaon mixed body parts of his youngest son Nyctimus, which he killed specifically for this test. Zeus was outraged by this and overturning the table, transformed the king into a wolf, and brought Nyctimus back to life. Though there are several versions of the story that have been passed down from generation to generation, it is never clear if Lycaon lost his ability to think like a human, like a wizard becoming an Animagus. Although, “turning oneself into an animal while keeping one’s human mind is difficult and dangerous,” in the Wizarding world (293). Or, if Nyctimus fully submitted to the mind of a wolf, thereby losing his self of being human. Regardless, it is one of the earliest myths involving a human being transformed into a wolf, and I am surprised that Brugger never mentioned it in the chapter.

As it is stated in the chapter, people like Remus Lupin and Fenrir Greyback become werewolves by being bitten by another werewolf and becoming “infected with lycanthropy” (293). After reading this chapter and realizing that the infectious bite is called lycanthropy, I was even further surprised that Brugger never included or found the ancient werewolf Greek myth. If we look at the word lycanthropy, we can see that is is similar to the name Lycaon, the name of the punished king. Furthermore, the phrase “werewolf” actually originated from the ancient Greek language; the original, untranslated word being lycanthrope.

Surprisingly, there is yet another connection that Brugger missed in the chapter that is connected to this ancient Greek tale. The infamous trial of Peter Stump, who was a wealthy farmer, admitted that the devil gave, “him a magical belt that allowed him to turn into a wolf” (298). Stump apparently enjoyed killing and eating specifically children and pregnant woman, although it was not clear from the reading if he was actually a cannibal in real life, or simply hallucinated he killed and ate people. Regardless, the link from King Lycaon has an eerie link with Stump. Both men supposedly killed children (in Lycaon’s case, his own) and some form of cannibalism was followed thereafter, whether by serving the flesh to a Greek god, or eating human flesh themselves. Though that specific link may be weak, it still saddens me that Brugger didn’t include the Greek myth in her chapter; this story could have brought this section up a notch.