Tuesday, May 1, 2012
I tried...
One Does Not Simply Spock Into Mordor
But my young life has taken me through the vaults and valleys of the epic sagas of TLOTR and Harry Potter, and although I've only read 4 of the Harry Potter books and none of TLOTR books, I can already tell you I'm going to straddle the fence all my life when deciding which series is better. Because I will always ask, "Better to whom? Better at what?"
Harry Potter targets an audience so different from TLOTR that comparing the two, whether in the field of writing style or awesomeness of creatures, is almost like comparing Twilight to Dracula. Blaspheme, I know--to even hint at sticking Harry Potter in the same analogy as Twilight would surely bring a torch-bearing mob to my house if I weren't writing this blog late. And I would be in agreement with the mob; the epic adventure of Potter exists on an exponentially higher tier than the melodramatic smut of Twilight. But while comparing Potter to TLOTR, you should still consider that Potter targets youth while TLOTR young adults, and thus you should compare them on the same scales you would use to compare Twilight to Dracula. In that light, doesn't Potter come out looking much stronger? Of course Potter didn't win any Oscars--but I hear it won oodles of Kids' Choice Awards.
So yes Harry Potter's writing style lacks the eloquence, its battles lack the salivation-inducing violence, its good vs. bad story lacks some of the maturity of TLOTR's jaded theme of ubiquitous evil. But come on, man, for those very reasons most of our parents chose to start our literary adventures with Harry Potter instead of TLOTR. For what it's worth, Potter offers some outstanding, thought-provoking subject matter and so masterfully spins a story that even young Dylan, an avid anti-reader, couldn't resist turning those pages. I have a feeling TLOTR would have bored the same young Dylan. In the end, I recognize that Potter may not satisfy the literary taste buds of the mature reader, but anyone who tells me that the epic fantastical journey of a boy orphaned by the awesome power of a former student of the very school he must, as a wizard, now attend--anyone who tells me that's intellectual candy corn needs to get of their pedestal and stop listening to Radiohead.
In the end, I plan to read TLOTR in the future, but not Harry Potter. I've already passed my prime to read Potter, and in truth I would like much more to experience the first, the mother of all, and arguably the best contemporary fantasy series ever--The Lord of the Rings.
Monday, April 30, 2012
It's 5 o'clock somewhere
Let's Fix It
Taxing the "wealthy" even more is not a solution...they already pay 80% of our taxes. You can tax them 100% and it would only make ehh...about a 3% difference. Our special, elected officials continue to push across the idea that corporations should just get the tax hammer. When a corporation gets a tax increase, what do they do? They pass it along to the consumer in the form of higher prices. It's like a hidden tax on the middle class. So what do we do?
First off, we need a freaking budget. It is required by law to produce and pass a budget every fiscal year.....the administration and those in Congress have failed to do so (three years ago yesterday). We also need to become energy independent. Use all of the different types of resources that we have here (i.e. oil, natural gas, clean coal, and nuclear). This will reduce our need for foreign intervention, thus creating jobs and revenue along with reducing the cost of energy.
Secure the border.
Replace Obama's healthcare plan with a plan that will increase competition and reduce costs. Increase premiums for Medicare and promote health savings accounts.
All of the problems mentioned are some subjects of great debate between the two major parties, both of which don't seem to be getting things done. They just need to agree on something.
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HO SNAP. I forgot the blog again.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
My precious...
Obviously, these two are widely debated by nerds everywhere. However, I must say that LOTR would totally kill Harry Potter. However, overall Harry Potter is more appealing. While there is such a thing as wandless magic, it's very rare, and still couldn't beat The One Ring. That baby can control the minds of mortals, turn mortals invisible, grant the user control over the other rings, and amplify power to an extent only Sauron has utilized. It also instills fear in creatures and can create Ringwraiths for minions. Just Sauron and all his power poured into that artifact could repel anything. Voldemort's mind would be in too much pain to be able to cast spells. However, I do agree with Cracked.com. This is a draw. Simply because of the protagonists. We have Harry, and unfailingly kind teen wizard that just wants to end Voldemort's reign of terror and live a normal life without having to see a guy with no nose and pale white skin in his dreams. Then we have Frodo Baggins, who may possibly be the wimpiest hobbit the Shire has ever see. Actually, it's hard to decide because of the influence of the One Ring, which if you think about it, is like Sauron's Horcrux. Virtually impossible to destroy and has a mind of its own, that most powerful item in Middle Earth would drive anyone to the brink of insanity. Both universes are pretty awesome. But in my opinion, because the Battle for Middle Earth happened long ago, it couldn't be real since we would see fell beasts and Ringwraiths. However, Harry Potter could totally exist. Im still waiting for my Hogwarts acceptance letter. Maybe one day.
The Lord of the Harry Potters and the Return of the Half-Blood Prince
The only way to figure this out is to be completely and absolutely objective! That’s why I’m going to go ahead and use statistical information to solve the age-old question:
Which is better? Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter?
Let’s start with how the books fared.
The whole Lord of the Rings has sold about 150 million copies. The whole Harry Potter series has sold approximately 450 million copies. Let’s give a point to Rowling on that one.
Critics give the Lord of the Rings a 10/10, while they give Harry Potter a 9.5/10. Tolkien gets this one.
They’re evenly matched here, so on to the movies.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King grossed $1,119,929,521, the Two Towers $926,047,111, and the Fellowship of the Ring $871,530,324. That’s a total of $2.918 billion in revenue. Harry Potter, however, grossed much more. I’m not going to list off all eight of them, so just trust me when I say that they grossed 7.706 billion. Harry Potter wins this round.
The Lord of the Rings received 17 of the 30 Academy Awards it was nominated for. Harry Potter was nominated for 12 awards, but won none. The Lord of the Rings blows this clearly out of the water.
And…
They’re tied again.
Alas, it looks like it’s impossible to objectively tell which one is better.
I guess it's up to you, [READER NAME
Potter vs. the Ring
Wow, seriously? not even one person does star wars vs star trek?
To preface this argument I would like to make a few observations for the sake of fairness. Anything made after Gene Roddenberry (Star Trek's creator)'s death does not count. That means Ep. 1-3 of Star-Wars, the new Trekkie film, and a few other spin-offs like Deep Space 9. This is because around this time, both series began to degrade substantially. Case in point, the Attack of the Clones sucked donkey balls. The Next Generation still counts because it was started in 1987 before the death of Roddenberry in 1991 (and regardless of your Kirk/Picard allegiance, it cannot be said that TNG was a bad series).
In my eyes, star trek has one thing going for it that Star wars does not -- a decent opening. The concise yet profound opening phrase followed by the star-ship Enterprise still gives even the most jaded of fans spine chills. Just saying "Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before." can make you sound like the billionaire-rockstar-astronaut-cowboy you always wanted to be. By comparison, reading the long and often confusing Star-Wars intro at the beginning of each movie is about as enjoyable as finishing those TPS reports you were supposed to turn in last week. However, beyond the introductions, Star Trek begins to lose its luster.
Visually, Star-Wars is quite stunning. With the razors edge of 1970's tech, we get huge space-ship battles and lighsabers and floating rocks and crazy space explosions and of course a wireframe rendering of a deadly corridor. Today, these effects are just okay, but back in the 70's, this was some hot stuff! Star-Wars had a wigged out trashcan and an expressionless but hysterical tin man who could speak 10000 languages; Star Trek had a boring greyish meat sack named Data. Star-Wars had giant slug things and sand people and ewoks and wookies; Star Trek had a bunch of dudes with wrinkled foreheads. Star-Wars was just more cinematic. And on that note, John Williams had some great music as well. Star Trek tunes weren't exactly phenomenal, but Vader's theme and the main theme and, well, pretty much all the themes in Star-Wars were memorable and musical.
Aside from pure superficiality though, Star-Wars was just a better story. Whereas star wars plot devices include a legitimately surprising father-son dynamic, a coming of age story, the most deadly weapon to ever exist in movie history, and the force, Star Trek had borgs, who basically just wanted to be your friend, a black chick (yes this was a plot device back in the 60's), and the occasional death of an extra "red shirt," a jaded plot device eerily reminiscent of Bonanza's female ranch hands. Star-Wars has a grand story arc that star trek just cant match. Star-Wars also has a cast of characters that feel real and act real while many Star Trek Characters, looking at you Scottie, often just fall flat on their faces in the development department. In the end Star-Wars is literally an epic tale, and Star Trek is just a pretty okay TV show.
Edit: alright, I stand corrected, Ned Katz actually had a good argument going.
HP VS LOR
LORD OF THE RINGS
Impartial Judgment??? (Nope.)
But hey, if I have to answer this question, I'll just go with Harry Potter because it's a great series and magic is awesome.
Harry Potter vs. Lord of the Rings
I like both!
Harry Potter v Lord of the Rings
HARRY POTTER.
Can't Answer This One
Star Wars and LotR
On the Space side:
Star Trek, despite covering much more space in it's galaxy due to it's adventurous nature, is a smaller story. It focuses on the exploits and travels of one ship (please note, I am discussing the original series here) and it's crew members. There is little to no cohesive narrative, and very few looks at the workings of the entire galaxy, just the adventures of the Enterprise and it's crew. There is nothing wrong with episodism, but when performed without any over-arching narrative it falls flat. This can be attributed to it's age, yet many shows from the late 60's and early 70's were able to achieve continuous storylines with an episodic structure, so Star Trek cannot use it's age as a crutch.
Now I could go on about Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, but after all I wrote about Star Wars and Star Trek, i'm just going to say one thing. Dumbledore was a mortal, and died. Gandalf is literally an immortal demi-god. He wins. That compounded with the far more advanced literary quality (Lord of the Rings really is good literature, it is written very well, whereas Harry Potter relies on strong characters, the quality of writing is not superb), and the vast superiority of it's film adaptations, Lord of the Rings is extremely better.
Lord of the Potters: An Epic Saga of Love and Loss
At first, it was clear which one is superior. Yet the more I thought about the two, the more I realize that they're not all that different. Sure, one is located in the magical school of Hogwarts, and the other in a galaxy far, far away. But when it comes down to it, there is a rather simple formula for a multimillion blockbuster.
Checklist
- Parent-less boy who grew up living with his uncle, actually boy of Prophecy (Harry, Luke)
- Trusty sidekick (Ron, Han)
- Female sidekick, later totally digs trusty sidekick (Hermione, Lela)
- Hairy sidekick (Hagrid, Chewbacca)
- Evil villain with deformed face (Voldemort, Vader)
- Wise old Sensei who was also the teacher of evil villain with deformed face (Dumbledore, Obi-wan)
- Magic (magic, the force)
- Token black guy (Dean Thomas, Lando)
With this valuable information, I will no doubt create my own sensational hit about Barry Otter, the child who survived. I think I shall call it...
Harry Potter over Lord of the Rings
in a fight to the death between Harry Potter and Lord of The Rings, Harry Potter wins every single time. This is because there are magicians in both of them and being a magician in the realm of Middle Earth is infinitely better than being a lowly archer. Gandalf and Saruman are far and away the most elite fighters in middle earth. on the other hand, everybody in Harry Potter is a magician. by this reasoning alone Harry Potter wins the battle. But wait, some might argue that the fantastical creatures in Lord of The Rings give an advantage to middle earth. Harry potter has mystical creatures too. Buckbeak the hippogriff, all the different kinds of dragons, dementors, and other creatures too. in a fight between just the creatures in both lands Harry Potter wins again. in both of these categories Harry Potter trumps Middle Earth, and that is why i believe that in a fight between the two worlds of Harry Potter and Lord of The Rings, Harry Potter wins.
Also i just enjoyed the Harry Potter books more, they feel like they have more sway on my childhood than did JRR Tolkein.