Sunday, August 21, 2005

Harry Potter and Inuyasha Revisited

This is the second time it's happened-to not complete some book/show, pass judgement over it, and only to be proved dead wrong when you proceed to complete it-first with Harry Potter, and then again with Inuyasha. I first thought Harry Potter Bk 6 good, only to have its pace drop exponentially. It got good when they got to the story, but it was quite a stretch where it got a mite repetitive. Harry is trying to solve the mystery and fails, lather, rinse, repeat. Not desirable, but I suppose forgivable on the grounds that it didn't get too boring. Anyway, if any of you people are interested, the following 2 links(spoiler-ridden) have some pretty solid analysis and plot predictions.
-On Dumbledore
-Garland Graves-on Horcruxes and Such

And Inuyasha-well the same thing happened. They actually decided to remove the crap, and hence the story, which like I said was nice and solid, flowed on nicely. As an entertaining anime, I think that this definitely manages to hold it's own. Magnetic holding power that is spawned from these 2 works being good stories, hence keeping a viewer/reader interested is something both Harry Potter and Inuyasha seem to have. They also both have cheap filler that quite heavily obscures a good storyline. In terms of whether or not they should be called Art these 2 works stand on fairly equal ground. Do they deserve the title?

There have been times in which I have chanced upon some work, and after looking at it, have been so floored by its brilliance that I fell it undeniable that it should be considered Art, an example being The Great Gatsby. Though Harry Potter and Inuyasha are both made up of very good stories, for some reason or another, they failed in doing this. Why? An attempt to answer this question led me to this site, and I was just absolutely in awe of its brilliance. For some reason I knew that I had found a "good" work of Art. I thought then, that everything I have reviewed here, if judged by such standards, definitely do not qualify.

I had been wondering if Ihad been setting my standards a bit too low. But then again, to compare these against like Nobel Prize winners is a bit....harsh, isn't it? HP and Inuyasha were not intended to be for people who indulged themselves in that sort of "highbrow" stuff. Though they are not consciously "kiddy" or childish in that they do not rely solely on assorted bling-bling to garner viewers, they are still intended for kids. But then if you say that, then perhaps that is why childrens' programmes are not winning the Nobel Prize or being considered as being works of Art! Indeed, it is the presence of this "highbrow" stuff that differentiates HP and Inuyasha from those other things that just scream at me as being Art. So in that case, perhaps they are not Art.

It now strikes me what diffierentiates HP and Inuyasha from those other works of conscious Art. There seem to be 2 broad qualities present in stories that make me call them good. One is just simply being a good story-perhaps suspenseful, or simply just poignant and plain emotional appeal. The other is being to me conscoiusly "Art"-basically being highbrow and discussing incredibly deep philosophical Zen stuff. Conscious Art relies on the presence of the latter. Another thing I notice is that I have not yet come across a SINGLE work that manages to be both and be both WELL. Harry Potter 6 perhaps came the closest. It had a good story because it was suspenseful when no fillers were present. Discussions of the nature of death brought about by certain plotlines leave thinking readers with some food for thought, which is though not heavily emphasized, pervades the atmosphere of the end story. Inuyasha was a good story because they successfully managed to make viewers empathize with the sufferings of each ad every character. It was philosophical at times, but only perhaps to younger kids who've not seen as much of life and not to someone as old as me. Desperate housewives was also very suspenseful and hence a good storyline but only PASSABLY conscious Art. The Great Gatsby was powerfully Art because of it's lyrical similes and the delicate discussion of faded dreams and lost love, though I do wonder if I am alone in thinking it not suspenseful. In concentrating on either one of the 2 qualities that make a good story, I think it leaves little time left for the other quality. Perhaps this is a hallmark of how difficult it is to attain even one quality. And if it is really that difficult, I think fillers aside, perhaps having even one makes for praise. both Inuyasha and Harry Potter deserve the term of Art. It does seem that people would consider the fulfillment of being deep, or the second quality more important for something to be called Art, but I agree with Capek. If Art is to "abolish boredom, anxiety and the greyness of existance", these have done just that for million of people worldwide. No you won't be winning any Nobel Prizes anytime soon, but J.K. Rowling and Rumiko Takahashi, I won't complement you two for a fantastic job well done because YOU INCLUDED FILLERS DAMN YOU, but you did good enough. Congratulations for being the creators of 2 works of Art.

And on that note, I shall end for now this series on reviews on Art that has made me sound like some kind of ancient university professor minus the knowledge. It has been an enlightening experience that adds a little more colour to my boring school holidays. Perhaps I should congratulate myself, now for creating Art that abolishes MY boredom! Oho! I've created Art on this humble little blog of mine!

OK that's by far enough crap here. I end this entry here. Live well, dear readers!

BTW: Julian if you missed my tag, go to www.boxtorrents.com and you will find all 6 seasons available for download through the programme called Bittorrent. you may also want to search www.mininova.org for "Wind-Inuyasha Symphonic Theme Collection"-orchestral renditions for assorted tunes from the show. The music ROCKS-check it out!

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm one of those few guys out there who resists the whole Harry Potter phenomenon with every fibre of my being! Haha don't ask me why. I just probably didn't have the patience to sit through the entire book. Plus I thought not reading a HP book would add to my individualism and up my 'cool factor'! Hehehe.

I haven't dropped by for some time. I love the new layout man! Makes for much easier reading!

4:15 pm  
Blogger harry_kinomoto said...

Heh I'm not realy sure if people would think not reading Harry Potter "cool"-unless you're talking about some snobbish Literalist who keeps dissing Rowling on the grounds that she's creator of false, commercialised Art, or a Christian eiltist who insists on destroying everything to do with magic. I had Secondary school classmates who were like that, mind.

But a good book, ideally speaking, wouldn't make you feel bored at all as you read it. Perhaps since you find that it made you impatient proves that it didn't work on you. Simililarly, the part of me that felt it get boring keeps muttering that it shouldn't be termed Art in this sense. Though I tried and failed to identify places where this was so, it's bad enough that it makes us even think this way. Perhaps in this sense, perhaps it is at least a slightly "lower" form of Art.

And I'm pleased to hear that the new layout has served it's purpose!

6:17 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I would like to exchange links with your site www.blogger.com
Is this possible?

4:38 pm  

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