July 26, 2007 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Opinion

Escape Art

Let me begin with a qualification: I’ve never read so much as a single sentence in a single volume of J.K. Rowling’s seven-book-long chronicle of the boy wizard, Harry Potter.

This is not the result of overt snobbery. It’s a matter of pragmatism. There is far too much substance, too many great books in my queue (a couple untidy piles next to the bed), to afford for a diversion into the fantasy land of Hogwarts and Muggles (whatever those are).

What is fascinating to me, however, is the immense popularity of the series. More than 325 million copies of the books have been sold around the world (it has been translated into 65 languages). Potter has made Rowling the best-paid “novelist” in the history of the English language. What is it that’s made Potter so popular?

The critic Harold Bloom claimed in a Wall Street Journal editorial in 2000 that Rowling’s main appeal was escape. She “appeals to millions of reader non-readers because they sense her wistful sincerity, and want to join her world, imaginary or not,” Bloom wrote. “She feeds a vast hunger for unreality.”

Bloom claims that reading for the sake of reading, indulging in fantasy instead of superior books that challenge and enlighten, is a useless pursuit. “Can 35 million book buyers [of the first book], and their offspring, be wrong? Yes, they have been, and will continue to be for as long as they persevere with Potter,” Bloom concluded.

I don’t think mindless escape is necessarily a bad thing, particularly if it’s coupled with a diet for challenging material that broadens our views of the worlds and our culture. I do agree with Bloom that fantastic escape motivates the hordes to Harry Potter. There’s so much to escape from.

The most significant world events of the Potter era have been the emergence of radical terrorism, a savage war in Iraq and emerging nuclear threats from small powers like Iran and North Korea. The world news is not simply challenging; it’s rife with deadly (and far too likely) possibilities.

At the same time, old forms of escape offer none.

When movies and television are not composed of “reality programming,” they are often little more than a front for a gossip back-story of infidelity, petty crime and other human failings. Is there a young female star not in rehab?

Sports, too, have failed to offer solace to the diversion seeker. The greatest story in baseball, the pursuit of the hallowed homerun record, is one of substance abuse. And just when we thought it couldn’t be worse, news breaks of a referee who may be one of many in the National Basketball Association who helped influence the outcome of professional games to aid a gambling outfit with ties to organized crime. And this comes on the heels of a story that a popular NFL quarterback, Michael Vick, was accused of belonging to an underground dog-fighting ring.

Weighing the cultural landscape, it’s not hard to fathom the flight to the cliché-strewn world of wizards at a magical version of the old British prep school. Kids, especially, need a respite from reality every so often.

And more and more, so do we.           

Pete Mazzaccaro

Curious about Sciurus
by CHESTNUT TIM

Fair Readers,

In the spirit of transparency, disclosure, and open acknowledgements, I must tell you that I have placed several video surveillance cameras in trees surrounding my house.  I have made this move, not for myself, but to protect hard-working and law-abiding squirrels from greedy, lazy, no-account squirrels who are constantly trying to steal their nuts.  Most of the squirrels are on board with this move.  They feel some peace of mind knowing that their nuts are being protected.   Others worry that the video might be used improperly — as if there is a market for motion pictures of one squirrel grabbing another squirrel’s nuts.  They chatter about it endlessly.  I hear them up there.  

There is even one especially stout squirrel who waddles about, breaking into any nest on the block where a group of more than five squirrels are meeting.  He claims to be fighting for their Squivil Rights, but he is usually so out of breath by the time he gets to the top of the tree that all he can do is swear at them and call them racists.  (He’s color blind and doesn’t realize all of the squirrels are gray.)  For an extra giggle, the squirrels having the meeting will sometimes switch to a different tree at the last minute.  Then they watch him plop to the ground, take a hit on his inhaler, and try again.  There are a few who make book on how many trees it will take him to find the meeting.  Most of the time he’s just ignored.   He used to have a show on Animal Planet where he demonstrated how to make really nice, squirrel-size bureaus out of walnut shells and bark.  He’s been trying to fill an attention void ever since.

So anyway, I’ve installed the cameras.  I can’t tell you in which trees because, frankly, I don’t know.  I did it blindfolded.  I was afraid if I knew, I’d give it away by primping every time I walked under one.  Soon, by watching me, all the squirrels would know where the cameras were and the thieving ones might just move on to another block.  It’s also for this reason that I won’t be monitoring them 24/7 — well, this plus I have to go to work.  See, if I start watching the monitors, the angle and view will tell me where I put the cameras.  Pretty soon I’ll be primping and give them away.  It’s a slippery slope, a sticky wicket, a hard nut to crack. 

I should tell you — again full disclosure — I did pay a little extra for an experimental, advanced model.  It has a feature unrelated to squirrel protection, except in the broadest sense.  It’s called the “Turd-tector 2000.”  The device senses, at its first meeting with air, dog poop.  Immediately a siren goes off and a computerized voice, which sounds alarmingly like Dick Cheney, says, “Excuse me, citizen.  Your dog is presently depositing a load of excrement on the sidewalk.  You are under surveillance.  Failure to remove said load will result in criminal prosecution.”

I know there are some who are really troubled by this aspect of my system.  Even my wife says it’s a bit much.  There are, after all, many conscientious dog owners out there who always pick up.  Some are our neighbors and friends.  They should not be subjected to such an indignity.  She has a point, I know.  But it’s no different from the squirrels.  It’s my property.   If you are doing nothing wrong, you have no cause for concern.