Friday, November 19, 2010

My Weekend Crush

How I love a smart girl. As a child, I was never one for princesses. Well, I take that back, I was all for Princess Leia. But it wasn’t the Disney princesses with their flowing gowns and petite waists I daydreamed over. Caring about whether my prince would come was, obviously, not high on my list. But what was high on my list was smarts. So when other girls wanted to be Cinderella dancing at the ball, I wanted to be Anne Shirley acing her exams. The girl heroines I have always loved are far from the damsel in distress and always do their own rescuing – and then some.

So my inner little nerdy girl swells with pride each time I see Hermione Granger on the big screen. The smart girl, the plucky girl, the girl who does her own rescuing – and then some. Now there is someone amazing for girls, young and old, to aspire to be like. Intelligent, brave, loyal, a little bossy, a lot resourceful. She follows in a long line of great smart girl characters from literature (and subsequently film): Elizabeth Bennet, Jo March, Anne Shirley, Scout Finch. That’s mighty fine company and mighty important company, too. While it’s probably impossible to accurately measure their impact on generations of young women, they have given us a desperately needed alternative to the Barbieification of womanhood. Hermione makes girls, and women, everywhere want to be smart and strong and wield a wand like a fucking bad ass. Now that is what I call hearing us roar. Happy weekend, all.

p.s. HARRY POTTER SPOILER ALERT: When you go see “Deathly Hallows,” watch for when those sly Potter kids slip in a sneaky “Twilight” joke. Cheeky little monkeys.

p.p.s HARRY POTTER SPOILER ALERT II: OK, since you asked, here was the sly little joke.

In the movie when Harry, Ron and Hermione arrive at Mr. Lovegood’s house, he mentions “The Tale of the Three Brothers.” Hermione begins to read it from Dumbledore’s copy of “The Tales of the Beedle Bard” and the story begins: “There were once three brothers who were traveling along a lonely, winding road at twilight.” Ron stops her and says “Midnight, mum always said midnight.”

Now, that’s all in the book, but then in the book Ron says, “Sorry, I just think it’s a bit spookier if it’s midnight!” and Harry retorts “Yeah, because we really need a bit more fear in our lives.”

But in the movie Hermione shoots him a glare and then Ron sheepishly says, “Twilight is fine, better actually.”

That cannot be a coincidence. And that is also very cheeky. Nicely done, Potter kids.

21 comments:

Norma Desmond said...

I loved the Disney princesses, not because I wanted to be them (I've always wanted to be Peter Pan), but, even then, for very grown up reasons...

Emily said...

Best. Weekend. Crush. Ever.

SO EXCITED for HP tonight! Of course I'm the only person in the world who didn't go at midnight... I cannot wait to see Emma Watson on the big screen again!

Noctuary said...

Does it not trouble anyone that she's essentially a child?

Anonymous said...

Seriously, Noc? Did you even read the blog before you typed that?

And I wondered if you noticed, Hermione is a fictional character? The actress herself, Emma Watson, is 20.

J9 said...

Went at midnight - LOVED it! I've loved Hermione since the first - having been a smart girl with frizzy hair and a penchant for letting people know exactly how smart I am, I couldn't help it!

Anonymous said...

Noctuary: No, neither the character nor the actress is a child at this point. It's year seven so Hermione would be 18. This is thae age of majority in the UK; the age of consent over here is 16.

- scorpio54

G Funk said...

Ahhh! I didn't catch what they said about "Twilight". Someone tell me!

tlsintx said...

3 cheers for this post!

and a LOL for you Norma Desmond!! :)

Anonymous said...

o, have a great weekend DS!

by the way it's really annoying to find
things on cd files, it's like takes time
forever, I mean I remember but just
don't remember which cd, so it takes like
3 hours, and finally i found funny picture
instead of the file.

hahahaha!

that's great to look up old files cus
you know memories, memories..
but this is not what I want now!

thanks for the posting,
she's so cool!

Anonymous said...

I just found the file,
love you!!

Anonymous said...

I didn't catch the Twilight joke either. Please share!

nomimalone said...

didnt catch any either. but the way they looked during the vision reminded me of stupid sparkly vampires.

Anonymous said...

Yes! I've loved Harry Potter since I was a child, so seeing this up here was awesome! Emma (as did the rest of the cast) did an amazing job. I'm already bouncing in my seat for Part II (and the chance to see Part I again). So happy she's your weekend crush!

P.S. - I didn't catch the jab at Twilight. Can you tell us what it was?

Emily said...

Maybe the supposed "jab" at Twilight was when Ron said "My mom always said 'midnight'" when Hermoine was reading the Tale of the Three Brothers and said "twilight"? If so, that's not really a jab. I believe he said that in the book. The point of it was to annoy Hermoine b/c he was interrupting, not to jab at Twilight.

Mia said...

The twilight thing is word for word from the book, which think came out before Twilight :-/ just a funny coincidence I think :)

Anonymous said...

It's word for word from the book. I agree that it's just a coincidence. :)

Anonymous said...

umm yea, thats from the book...

Anonymous said...

well, ron was trying to get back in hermione's good graces at that point in the film, so that's probably why they left that in. plus they needed a little comic relief since the film was so heavy.

Anonymous said...

Hello, long time listener, first time caller.

I'd be fine with the idea that they made fun of Twilight, except that as it stands, the conversation makes it sound like Hermione's a fan? And there's just. no. way. So. I also vote coinkidink.

Anonymous said...

I was so impressed with Emma Watson this film. Her acting improved ten-fold and I felt like she really became Hermione. She totally brought it; when she cried, I cried. Every. Time.

jetgirl said...

I think the Twilight thing is more of a nod than a jab. Anyway, when Hermione begins to read that line again, they show a feather falling into a pond or pool of water and it lands right when she says 'Twilight'. I could be wrong but doesn't one of the Twilight books have a feather?