I
grew up a child in the 50's and 60's. It was the time of the
cold war, "commies" hiding under every rock, Cuban Missile
Crisis and the threat of nuclear war. "Duck and cover"
was practiced in school while the local Air Force Base flew fighter
planes over Brooklyn, breaking the sound barrier. The sonic
booms could be heard as we practiced our abc's and 123's.
Yes,
I grew up in a paranoid society, afraid that tomorrow someone,
probably the "commies", could "drop the big one"
and we would all end up embroiled in WWIII, with the whole thing
ending in a big mushroom cloud.
But
come the weekend, we would all escape to the movies. Everyone
has their preference. Romance was popular, but I was hooked on
a particular flavor of movie - The Science Fiction B Film. Yes,
I would run out to see the latest cheap black and white
"monster" film. And they were monsters - The
Blob, Cape Canaveral Monster, The Amazing Colossal Man.
Radiation Theater. Giant Ants. Giant Tomatoes. I
could go on and on. All threatening our safety as a nation and
a planet, and all met with the same solution - shoot first, ask
questions later. And we triumphed over all kinds of
threats. This was the answer to our paranoia. While we
tackled the "commies" in real life, and never seemed to
make headway, we always were victorious over the monsters in the
Science Fiction "B" Films. America walked away the champions each
and every time.
Once
the Berlin Wall fell, and we realized we had overcome the enemy, not
with guns and tanks and armies, but with capitalism. Actually,
we never did defeat the "commies" - they kinda defeated
themselves. And our view of the world started to change.
Enter Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The spaceman was no
longer a threat. He actually was holding his hand out in
friendship. And we were returning the handshake.
But the real change came in one movie, ET. We met the enemy,
and he was cute, hung out with our kids and changed our entire
outlook. He was the change in our perspective on the entire
world. We were no longer shooting the monster, we were greeting
the "Aliens". They were not the threat we had
envisioned. Well, to a few leftover paranoid refugees from the
50's and 60's, yes, he still was. But to our generation, the
monsters were gone. All that was left was a new idea, to
embrace those things we feared only to find out we had created the
monsters, the real aliens were a vast unknown to be explored.
As
my tastes changed, my love for movies remained much the same.
Enter Hammer House Studios and their beloved "monster"
films. Most of them started Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee
as the vampire and the vampire hunter. But there were these
movies with witches and witch hunters. Oh, Hammer Studios knew
how to scare a fledgling witch. Burn them at the stake, run
around with a cross and drive wooden dowels through the vampire's
heart. We had something new to be afraid of. Threats
against our immortal soul. I got into these kinds of films
about the same time I was discovering alternative religions.
Interesting how again, we strike out against what we do not know,
rather than looking at what it may be and examining it further.
For all we knew, we were looking at ET again, only this time he was
an Elemental, and we just drove a stake through his heart.
But,
being the kind of person I am, I have a sense of humor, and I rather
enjoyed some of the attempts at portraying witches. The Witches
of Eastwick, which I found hilarious, and Jack Nicolson as the devil
was a scream. Also - Hocus Pocus, an all time classic witch
film. But my favorite has to be one of the earliest movies with
witches. Kim Novak and Jimmy Stewart in Bell, Book and
Candle. While the witch changes at the end of the move, and I
was sorry to see that, it was the closest portrayal of what real
witches might be of the time. Normal people, for the most part,
if you realize that beatniks were popular at the time and the movie
portrayed the times. I loved her brother portrayed by Jack Lemmon.
Witch
movies have come to a crossroad. We are now presented with
something that the Religious Right has every reason to fear.
While Practical Magic was not all that accurate a portrayal, it was
very close to the American Witch. We are pretty, we are real
people, we are quirky, and we practice magic. Not too much
emphasis on the Goddess, but enough to make us almost likable.
Blair Witch was a terrible spook story, the first one at least.
And there was no witch in that one. The second movie, however,
had a Wiccan Witch. I wonder how many people saw that one, much
less understood it. If you did, write me and let me know.
Then there is Drawing Down the Moon. Realistic - well, sorta
kinda, but not out in the public enough. Just never caught on.
Now
- Harry Potter. The books have brought kids who normally would
not read into the book generation with a delightful fantasy series
that entertains, delights and gives kids a chance to use their
imagination. Who doesn't have a very definite picture of what a
Quidditch game is all about? What do Harry and his friends look
like to you? And who is not in love with this series of books
the likes of which we haven't seen since the Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew?
The
movie is out, and we all have the opportunity to see how close
Hollywood has come to making our fantasy heroes come alive against
the images we have fixed in our minds. We have all run out to
see the movie or our kids have dragged us to see it. And we all
love it. Not just our witchy types, but everyone. Harry
Potter is a household word. Our grandkids and kids are reading,
yes reading, and enjoying it. The TV was turned off while they
ran to their rooms to read the next chapter, or we got them to bed
and they sat with attentive eyes and ears as we have read these books
to them.
But
wait. Something is going on in the background. The
paranoid Religious Right is getting very nervous. Seems they
are afraid of what is going on. People are changing, and the
Religious Right is up in arms. The one thing the Religious
Right detests is change, especially when it comes to words like
"witch". The enemy they have been beating back for
centuries is at the door. In true ET manner, people are
looking, questioning and coming to realize that, even though Harry
Potter is pure fantasy and has nothing to do with real witches, he is
a likable person. Our kids love him and the parents like that
their kids are happy with a book that they are actually - GASP
- reading. And maybe, just maybe, the stigma associated
with the word "witch" is being examined, and possibly even
- GASP - overlooked. People are not firing their
guns and shooting first. They are, instead, offering their hand
in friendship to Harry Potter, welcoming him into their homes for -
GASP - their children to be introduced to. After all, as
parents, whatever gets them to read.
But,
there is something deeper here. Something that everyone is
overlooking. Harry Potter is fiction. It is fantasy.
It is magic. After years of paranoia, after centuries of
denying that magic exists, we are finding that Harry Potter is a
spell we can all live with. It is something that we want in our
lives. We loved those stories when we were kids where the Fairy
Godmother granted Cinderella her wish and she went to the Ball and
found her prince. The magic of Beauty and the Beast -
look how successful that play has been. Practical Magic has
been extremely popular. It's the magic.
People
want some kind of magic in their mundane (muggle) lives. We
can not live on "fire and brimstone" anymore. The
world is not a dark, dank place with some guy yelling at us telling
us we are going to burn for eternity. We need positive
affirmations in our lives. We need to know that there is more
than be good and you will go to heaven, muck up and you will be
damned. We want to see we can exist on earth and enjoy our time
here. And we need to see that we can make this a better place
for everyone, if only we have a touch of magic to help us
through. Life is for living and enjoying, within the boundaries
of common sense. We can have a good time, enjoy ourselves, and
still find spiritual happiness, without being threatened or paranoid
about who we are or what we do. And God (or Goddess) is a kind
and loving God (or Goddess). After all, He gave someone the
idea to write Harry Potter to entertain and delight both the reader
and the audience.
We
are going to experience those people who find anything that is
enjoyable must be bad for you. They have every right to
fear. Their world is changing. We are going to start
enjoying ourselves, having a good time, and not worrying about how we
feel about it. Feeling good is good. Enjoying a movie is
good. Getting our kids to enjoy reading is good. And none
of that is going to threaten our immortal souls. Maybe even
Harry Potter, the witch, is a good thing, and it is not going to cost
our immortal souls to say so.
Is
Harry Potter the ET of the witch movies? I could only hope
so. I am tired of everyone fearing what they don't
understand. Is this going to change everyone overnight?
No, I don't think so. But Harry Potter has opened the box of
change. He has come out of the broom closet and shown the world
that fantasy is nothing to be afraid of. And maybe, just maybe,
he will show that being a witch is nothing to be afraid of
either. We are just a little bit different. We believe in
that magic that everyone is looking for. And maybe, just maybe,
we will be able to spread that magic around and everyone will find it
in their hearts, where it has been all along.
