Smells Like Teen Romance?

City of Glass (Mortal Instruments)
 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I'm supposed to be explaining my critical model right now, but I'm going to save that for next time.  I've just been reading the genre page from the critical model packet for the course, and the example it gives made me think about what I've been hearing about The Mortal Instruments movie.  It's being savaged in the blogosphere for being either a Harry Potter or a Twilight ripoff, which, given the source material (the book by Cassandra Clare) seems unfair to me -- the book is soooooo much better than any of the Twilight series, having solid, interesting characters and a lot of humor, particularly in the dialogue.  Now, I haven't seen the film, but the posters and trailer have me worried -- they're pretty grim, and I'd hate to think that the filmmakers decided to cut all the bantering out.  If they did, then I could see where you might compare it to the death march that is the Twilight saga.
The example in the packet is this: 
"As an example of a potential basis for an essay, consider this question:  although there are vampires in the film Twilight, does it fit the horror subgenre of vampire films in a significant way?  I’d say no, and I’d even go so far as to say that it doesn’t belong to what might be called the sub-subgenre of vampire romance either.  As far as I’m concerned, it’s a teenage relationship drama that just happens to have vampires in it, and that would be my thesis." (7)
The Mortal Instruments books, if not the movie, have more in common with The Avengers than they do with Twilight.  Although there are romantic relationships, these books are mainly hero quests (with multiple heroes, like The Avengers), which is actually something they have in common with Harry Potter.  In any event, I can't afford the time or the money to see the film; I'll have to wait for the DVD, as usual. 
Back to Percy Jackson . . .

Related articles

• Why Isn't 'Mortal Instruments' A 'Twilight' Copy? (contactmusic.com)
• Why Mortal Instruments Could Take On Twilight (refinery29.com)
• The Mortal Instruments - City of Bones: Movie Review (blazingminds.co.uk)
• A beginner's guide to Cassandra Clare and her "Mortal Instruments" (dailydot.com)
• Review Roundup: The Mortal Instruments (sublimezoo.com)

Politics, Power . . . and Harry Potter?

Harry Potter and the
Goblet of Fire
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My draft has hit a bad spot, so I thought I'd get a jump on this week's postings, especially since there's a checkpoint this Friday.  We're reading "literary analyses" this week, and I picked an essay by Philip Nel, called "Fantasy, Mystery, and Ambiguity."  Don't be put off by the title -- it's actually about Harry Potter, or at least the first four books. 

Nel makes a point that reminded me of a whole bunch of things at once.  He writes, "As the series develops, it grows increasingly interested in questions of power:  who has it, who has the right to exercise it over another, who has the moral authority to wield it, and how it should be exercised" (750).  He goes on to talk about the political aspects of the books, and that made me think of my project.  I'm not looking at politics in The Hunger Games, but it's a HUGE part of the book, if not the film.  All the characters are living in a fascist dictatorship, where the people in the Capitol are wealthy and privileged, while the majority of the population (the Districts) lives on the brink of starvation and is forced to abide by the ideology of their distant rulers because the Districts have been made the scapegoats for a civil war that happened over seventy years earlier.  Sounds kind of like Nazi Germany, doesn't it?  And Harry Potter's world is headed in that direction in the first four books, too, what with Voldemort's supporters attacking Muggle-born wizards (I was really amazed when I realized that there are a lot of points in common between the last Harry Potter book, The Hunger Games, and the Nazis).

Since the tv was on while I was reading, I heard probably four or five political commercials before I finished the article, and I saw a connection there, too.  Which was scary.

Related articles

• J.K. Rowling: More Harry Potter Possible (entertainment.time.com)
• 5 of Our Favorite Beauty Features From the Ladies of Harry Potter (bellasugar.com)
• The Return of . . . Harry Potter Character or Nail Polish Shade? (bellasugar.com)
• JK Rowling: 'The Casual Vacancy' is just like Harry Potter (telegraph.co.uk)