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On Watching Harry Potter 7 by Myself

0 comments Posted by Patorres at 2:00 AM

As I type this my family is out watching the last Harry Potter Movie while I get left behind. It's really not as tragic as it seems since I had already watched it, in spite of my own admonitions, by myself earlier this week. I had been repeatedly telling students not to watch movies alone warning that such an activity fosters an unhealthy individualism that would inevitably corrode our already fragile democracy, political science buffs might recognize Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone hypothesis here. But I couldn't find somebody else to go with me as I've been quite busy to look. Still, the desperation to see the friggin' movie was so strong that during my really long MWF free period I headed straight to the Country Mall Cinema (yes, I said the Country Mall Cinema and why not? It's cheap and really near TC. Sure there was that freaky guy who seemed to whisper to himself four seats to my right but it wasn't so bad).


You could understand my desperation (Oh alright... I admit, I was really so desperate that I watched it at the Country Mall) when you realize that I am part of what you might call the Harry Potter generation. I saw the first movie while in elementary, begged my tita living in the US to buy me the fifth book when in high school and watched Part 1 of Deathly Hallows with the ticket I earned when I went overtime at my call center job. I practically grew up with that kid who survived You-Know-Who but almost gets himself killed every school year. And there I was sitting alone in the cinema for the long awaited ending.

However, I have to say that around the time when I started college I actually stopped watching the movies and reading the books. Partly because I got busy doing other things (if I wasn't busy reading Cruz' Political Law or Meyer's International Relations and the Third World I was immersed in Guerreros' Philippine Society and Revolution) and partly because Harry Potter started to look childish to me. It became something that I had to discard and relegate to my baul now that more serious, grown-up concerns preoccupied me. Later on though, I ran into my old friend Harry and found that he too, thanks to Rowling's talent for character development, had matured from a confused orphan from Sorcerer's Stone to the angsty teen in Order of the Phoenix into the Chosen One who accepted the role he had to play and gave up everything, even dropping out of Hogwarts, to put an end to the Dark Lord's comeback. So I picked up where I left off and stayed on till the end.

And what an ending it was. Jeezas! I never realized that Harry Potter could be as epic as Lord of the Rings! I mean, seriously, an army of Death Eaters, giants and werewolves laying siege to Hogwarts!! And the professors did that really cool chain spell thing that shielded the whole damn castle!! I was literally making weird geeking out noises while watching, and I know I can be excused seeing as McGonagall also seemed to be feeling the same when she summoned the Hogwarts statues to join in the defense.

But the epic awesomeness, like all good things, has to come to an end. After good old Longbottom saves them all and the dust of the kickass battle settles, we fast forward to the epilogue 19 years later where we see that our young heroes who took down a full-grown mountain troll in their first year and struggled to get a date for the Yule Ball (well, only for Harry and Ron that is) three years later are now proud parents sending off their children to their first year at Hogwarts. It was amusing how they tried to make everyone look older using makeup, false beards and appropriate wardrobe. But in one of the closing scenes where the entire dramatis personae are shown together for a parting shot I couldn't help feeling emotional. It really is the end.

We too have grown up, so it appears. The people I used to watch the movies with and engaged in many deep discussions on our detailed analysis of the latest books are now either working, married, abroad graduated, have kids of their own or a combination/variation of the above. As for me, I sat there alone because in my preoccupation with my job, my masters and my extra-curricular activities I barely had time for stuff that I used to take for granted. It seems inevitable that we follow this sequence expected by society. We graduate, we find work, we integrate ourselves into the corporate machinery and we live out the rest of our lives selling our labor power happily oblivious about what else is happening around us. But is this really growing up?

In the end, we say the Harry Potter series moved from children's literature to serious fiction when Quidditch matches and Potions class took a back seat to the ultimate conflict between good and evil. Harry himself matured as a character when understood the role he had to play to finally defeat his archnemesis and willingly accepted it. Everyone else in the wizarding world faced a similar choice, to roll over to Voldemort and his Death Eater minions or to stand up for what is right and just. Most would follow Aberforth's advice and just go home and live long lives. But some took the road less traveled and chose to stand by Harry and defied the Dark Lord even when he was brought to them seemingly dead. A lot of them didn't even live to see Voldemort's demise. But when they chose to give up their own personal concerns for something bigger than themselves, that made all the difference. And that marked them as having grown up.

So it is in the wizarding world, so it is also in the Muggle world.




 

On 2011 and Cebu's Love of Dancing

1 comments Posted by Patorres at 5:17 AM

The New Year is already two weeks old and it took me this long to say something about it. This says something about my New Year's resolution to discipline myself. I'm even guilty of spending an extra hour or two conquering the Star Wars galaxy on my PC when I'm supposed to be sleeping early. To combat this addiction and to help me in my discipline, I shall strive to post regularly again (hopefully) especially now that I don't have the excuse of not having time.

Speaking of the New Year, the month of January is also pretty big here in Cebu because of the Sinulog and my good friend here is reminding everyone to be extra careful. Once again it's time for the City to dance to one beat in celebration of the Holy Child Jesus. Personally, I'm not much of a Sinulog person. The crowds and the traffic drives me away, but the same can't be said about millions of other people out there.

Now, I practically grew up here in Cebu (though not in the city but in a little island across the Mactan Channel) but it still amazes me every time I see the Sugbuanons near fanatical devotion to Sto. Niño. Of course, they have been known to be very religious but still that doesn't seem to explain it. Come on, I don't think the majority of these people think of going to church when they hear "Pit Senyor!"

Although I do have a theory. It seems to me Cebuanos just love to dance. We have dancing inmates (proudly displayed on YouTube), dancing tax collectors (a fact proudly displayed on a concrete island in Barrio Luz not far from BIR) even a dancing Governor (proudly displayed on whatever propaganda material the Provincial Government gets its hands on).

What is it with Cebu and Dancing?!

I asked this question out loud one day. I really can't remember the answer I got exactly but it went something like "We just like to!" Well, I guess that would be enough of a reason. Let's just hope the rain doesn't mess things up tomorrow.

PIT SEÑOR!!

 

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On Why I did not Proceed to Law this Year

3 comments Posted by Patorres at 11:14 PM

Every time I run into somebody from college or with somebody who knew i took up Political Science, the conversation inevitably revolves around why I didn't go to law school this year. It comes in a delectable group of flavors like the surprised("Wa diay ka mag-law?"), assuming (Musta man ang law? Ha? Wa diay ka nag-law?) and, my personal favorite, the interrogative (Naganung wa man kuno ka nag-law beh?). Frankly, I don't understand the fuss of it all especially since I already resolved not to proceed to law even before I started my last year in university. Don't get me wrong, I do plan on studying law, I just don't want to do it yet and I have, not just one, but a series of compelling reasons why.

First, I don't have the money. This is quite superficial I'm sure and it's the one I would give when asked, but probably because I sound like I was joking, people just don't believe me (*sigh*). But it's true. It's a fact that Law school is expensive whatever school you pick and I'm not just talking about the tuition, which goes up every year by the way... (EDUCATION NOT FOR SALE!! NO TO TFI!!) but was thinking about the thick hardbound original books, the mountains of photocopied cases and the semi-formal clothes that I have to procure. With my sister starting college this year I'd rather be earning my keep than adding to the family expenses.

Second, it's so darn tiresome. The day I decided not to proceed to law the year after graduation was the day of the midterms for my Obligations and Contracts class. I was staring at the nth article of the Civil Code that I had to jam into my overflowing brain when it dawned on me that in law school I will be doing this everyday for every subject on a brutal difficulty setting. The great Arsenio Tan (may his name be forever revered) said that to become a lawyer you don't really have to be intelligent but you must be diligent. I had used up all my diligence for the law by that midterm day.

Third, I just don't want to proceed this year, that's all. Imagine, spending half of your life in a classroom, eagerly anticipating the day when you get your college diploma and enter the so-called "real world" only to go back to another classroom, classier and heavily airconditioned but nonetheless a classroom. Now that I graduated there's so much to do and so much to see. Law school can wait. On a more serious note, there are around 40,000 lawyers in the Philippines but we don't have justice. Law school can teach you about the Constitution, the Bill of Rights or the Civil Code but not about justice, equity or freedom. You learn that not by reading cases or law books but by going out into society and immersing yourself in the everyday struggles of the common tao. Before I want to learn about the law, I want to learn about justice first.

Let me end this post with a parting shoutout to the all the Polsci majors out there. We are NOT predestined to proceed to law. Just because we took up this major, doesn't mean we are absolutely compelled to start a career in law. We really don't have to if we don't want to. Going to law school is a big investment, you're putting in at the very least four precious years of your life. In that span of you could have gotten married, become a world-famous writer, started a business or whatever. So think things through before taking the plunge. I did, but I'll just be putting it off for a few years.

 

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