Last Journal

Advertising in Harry Potter

            For my last journal, I looked at Phillip Nel’s article “Is There a Text in This Advertising Campaign Literature.” I do believe and agree that advertising is key within our culture. Growing up, every movie or show that came out had at least some kind of toy or game that came out as well. Now that I think of it, it would be weird if merchandise like that was not around, as a culture we are so accustomed to mass production and mass marketing. We obsess over these series and manage to produce more and more of these marketing ploys. Our society is full of consumers and we keep getting further and further into this lifestyle. It is true that corporate influences have taken over things such as children’s literature and turned it into a multi-million-dollar business. Continue reading

Journal Draft- Gabby

 

The Harry Potter series showcases a world of magic and wonder for a young boy who never knew he had such powers. For some, the world of witches and wizards is a fun realm of fantasy meant as a harmless escape from reality. For others, the series is a dangerous and slippery slope that leads young children to actually make a pact with the devil and become witches and wizards themselves. Further, some of those people decide that the proper way to handle the evil they see in the book is to ban and/or burn the Harry Potter books. However, burning is less about preventing evil, and more about having and maintaining power. Continue reading

Johnna’s Re-Mix

The Re-Mix I am writing about Johnna’s flash-fiction story about Lily Evans Potter’s life. Lily Potter is also one of my favorite characters in the series so I really enjoyed that someone else was interested in her life, not just her death and that she was the mother of Harry Potter. It was creative and insightful, and I felt like she really captured the image of Lily very well. I enjoyed that she started when Lily was young and started noticing her powers and went up until Lily passed away. Even though it was a short story, as flash-fic’s are, I felt completely satisfied with what she wrote. Many of the students did amazing stories, so it was hard to choose which project to write about. However, seeing as Lily is the center of this particular re-mix, I had to say how good Johnna did with it!

Katherine’s Re-Mix

I really enjoyed the Howler project that Katherine did for her remix. I thought that the idea was really interesting. It was something that I had never considered but was a great idea. It would make sense that there would be howlers for more than just yelling at your kids especially since Petunia gets onein the Order of the Phoenix that is soft spoken unlike the one Ron gets in the Chamber of Secret. I really liked that Katherine went into more detail about what the other howlers that could exist would be like.

I think that her project was well thought out and looked amazing. She obviously put a lot of thought into what colors would mean what and also how they would sound and act upon completion. I loved that she decided to present it like she was a representative for the company who sells the howlers. It worked really well for what she was doing and was a creative way to go about it. It was really clever and is actually where I got the idea to present my final project like I was the president of SEA.

Those origami howlers were absolutely beautiful and looked like they took a lot of time and effort to make. It looked like they were hard to make and I was pretty impressed with them when I saw them up close because they were really detailed and expertly done.

In all, I thought they project was really well thought out and executed. It was extremely creative and turned out really well. She must have put a lot of thought and effort into it and it showed. The PowerPoint was very well organized and looked amazing. It looked like she had a lot of fun putting it together and if I could I would have bought a few howlers off of her.

Madisyn’s Re-Mix

Madisyn did a cook book for Harry and Ron from Mrs. Weasley. I found it hilarious that Madisyn does not like British food, since I think it is delicious. I looked through some of the cookbook items and loved that she wrote the recipes as if she was Mrs. Weasley. Madisyn used her imagination in this remix, and it added to the outcome of the project. She also brought in jam tarts for everyone to try. I ended up taking some tarts home. I had them in one sitting, with a cup tea and watching Doctor Who, no regrets. I liked that Madisyn did a cookbook, because it brought another character, Mrs. Weasley, into the remix presentation spotlight. Also who doesn’t like it when people bring in snacks.

Game of Thrones and Hogwarts Houses

Kylie’s take:

Since we’re supposed to use this journal as more of a jumping off point and less of a critique/praise kind of thing, I thought I would sort some of the characters from one of my current fandoms into Hogwarts houses. I’m not sure how familiar you are with the television show Game of Thrones, but I watched it over winter break and absolutely fell in love with it. I’m currently re-watching it with my boyfriend and I’m enjoying it almost as much as I did seeing it the first time. There are so many characters that I won’t be able to do all of them, but I’ll do a couple of main characters and give you my reasoning for why I put them there. Like Magdalena, I give the disclaimer that these are my opinions and so if you love GoT and disagree with me, I’m sorry! (Spoiler alert if you haven’t watched the tv show!)

Cersei Lannister: She’s obviously a Slytherin. She’s very cunning and ambitious, always trying to secure power for herself and for her family. Shewas able to take control of a situation where she had very few allies and get rid of all her enemies at once. She’s a Slytherin, through and through

Tyrion Lannister: I would put Tyrion in Ravenclaw. He is very intelligent and, more importantly, he values intelligence. He knows that he needs to be smarter than his opponents because they often are stronger than him and have more power. He’s also one of the funniest characters on the show, because of his wit.

Arya Stark: I had to think about this one a little, but I think that Arya would be a Gryffindor. She’s incredibly brave and has a strong sense of justice, which is evident by her wish to avenge her family member’s deaths. She also has a temper, which is a negative trait that is commonly associated with Gryffindor.

Daenerys Targaryen: Like Arya, this was a hard one for me, but I settled on Slytherin. Daenerys is incredibly ambitious and perseverant; she doesn’t let any obstacles stand in her way. She’s obsessed with success and taking back the Iron Throne, which bleeds into every other aspect of her life. I think she’s the perfect example of what Slytherins can be at their best.

Ned Stark: I would put Ned Stark in Hufflepuff (most people would probably put him in Gryffindor, but hear me out). The two things that define Ned to me are his loyalty and his refusal to play “the game” in King’s Landing. He believes in being loyal to Robert and doing the right thing all the time. He is brave, of course, but I think that his belief in loyalty and fair play outweighs that and puts him firmly in Hufflepuff.

Jaimie Lannister: I think that Jaimie would be in Slytherin. I don’t think Jaimie is ambitious as his sister, but he values his own life and acts in self-preservation a lot. He’s very resourceful and is good at getting himself out of sticky situations; he can think quickly on his feet and is a good fighter.

Jon Snow: He’s a Gryffindor. Jon Snow is all about being brave and chivalrous. He has a very strong moral compass and he won’t stray from it to the point of self-detriment. He can also be a little reckless and take unnecessary risks, which is a Gryffindor trait.

Sansa Stark: Sansa would be a Hufflepuff. She’s very conflict averse and loyal to her family. She cares about others and values friendship very highly. She is also very trusting, which can sometimes get her in trouble.

Stannis Baratheon: I think that he’s a Ravenclaw. The whole reason that people dislike Stannis is that he isn’t a very good people-person, which is (in my opinion) a very Ravenclaw trait. He’s also an excellent strategist, which requires a lot of intelligence.

Petyr Baelish: I had a hard time picking between Slytherin and Ravenclaw, but I ended up going with Slytherin. Baelish has said that he bases all of his choices off of whether or not the results will bring him closer to the Iron Throne or not, which is something a Slytherin would do. He’s very cunning and ruthless in his actions to get what he wants.

Krista’s Re-Mix

I am really biased toward cats. I think they are the best creatures. I love what Krista did for her re-mix project. I honestly don’t remember reading that Mrs.Figg had so many cats. I only really remembered that she was sent to watch Harry in the Order of the Phoenix. I thought that Krista’s idea was unique and a great way to bring real world interests to the Harry Potter world.

It was cute that she used pictures of her fellow Ravenclaw member’s cats. Overall I thought that that gave the entire project a more person feel. I thought it was well thought out that she detailed personalities for the cats. I loved that the one was a Mothman enthusiast, as I am as well.

Overall I thought her re-mix was a cute idea to begin with and was supported with an interesting level of detail. I would have like to see a bit more detail on the cat’s lives. I went back to read that section and saw that Mrs. Figg tripped over one of her cats and broke her leg. I would have liked to see maybe more stories about the cats and how their day to day living with her was.