Slate on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix:
Any fan of the books knows the story already, and I don’t want to ruin it for those that don’t, but briefly: In Harry and his pals’ fifth year at Hogwarts, the stalwart headmaster, Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon), is in the process of being overthrown by Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton), a Ministry-appointed prig who wants to whip the students into shape for their upcoming wizardry exams, the OWLs. Her blind allegiance to standardized testing, not to mention her relentless chipping away at civil liberties, recall a certain U.S. president, but the analogy is never overplayed.
You know, that’s just what I thought - British author J. K. Rowling, a former dole recipient who pulled herself so far up by her bootstraps that she’s now one of the wealthiest people in Britain, aimed her critique of bureaucratic perfidy at (wait for it) …an American President?
What won’t a leftist sneak a Bush critique into? I’m half-expecting to start seeing rants about our lame-duck administration in restaurant reviews. WTF!
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Her blind allegiance to standardized testing, not to mention her relentless chipping away at civil liberties, recall a certain U.S. president, but the analogy is never overplayed.
The people who made the _movie_ may have had that in mind. I doubt Rowling did. The book was published June, 2003. I seem to recall someone in the biz claiming that a novel was turned in a year before publication. I don’t know how long it takes the woman to crank out a novel but …. call it spring of 2002 when she started writing.
The woman is astounding - predicted all the hatred and bile from the so-called Progressive wing just a year after the election.
I kind of doubt it, but if the movie’s out already, I’ll find out this weekend… The thing (well, one of the things) I love about those books is the absolute hatchet-job they do on the government. There’s a zillion little kids out there who’re being taught that people who think they’re your betters are selfish and evil, and that you have to rely on yourself.
So, now that I’ve seen the movie, I have to say, it’d take someone suffering from severe BDS to see any resemblance. If you held a gun to my head and demanded I come up with some kind of POTUS connection, the best I could do would be to observe that she dresses a little like Nancy Reagan did.