OKAY, I must speak my piece or forever be silent over this one. But I can't be quiet anymore. The planets are in alignment; my mind won't stop racing and my fingers are itching.
Blame it on this Potter kid. The world knows him as Harry Potter. Apparently, by this time tomorrow, thousands of people, kids mainly, will be happily digesting J.K. Rowling's final Potter tome.
Something called Deathly Hallows. All this hype over Harry Potter has finally got my goat. I didn't want to say anything for years because I thought it was just a passing fancy among the younger generation but the phenomenon persisted for years.
Well, the straw that broke the camel's back has finally been placed on the earlier tonne of hay strapped to the Ship of the Desert. Honestly though, the blame for this unusual human response towards a book title, not even deemed as literature material, is rather disquieting.
I don't imagine William Shakespeare had encountered this kind of reaction even at the height of his fame. I placed the blame squarely on the media. Seven years into the 21st century, we have begun to witness the enormous influence exerted by the media for other parties' percuniary ends.
For months now, the media, with the fullest co-operation of film producers, book publishers and probably the tacit compliance of the writer herself, have been harping on the final chapter of the Harry Potter saga.
From Europe to Asia, book stores, book publishers, and other agents of the printed word have been knocking on the doors of all media avenues possible to broadcast the message that Potter will cast his final spell.
And what does the world do? It joined in the biggest media game ever played. I have just received word from someone who has just seen the movie. Verdict: nothing really earth-shattering, either here on this planet or in any other dimension.
As a person who have occasional encounters with all things media, I fully understand the implications and ramifications of this kind of literary phenomenon. Kudos to Rowling for having achieved such stupendous success with her Harry Potter series.
For a woman who used to survive on burgers while writing on then an obscure teenager called Harry Potter in a Hogwarts school of magic, Rowling has indeed journeyed a long way.
But this frenzy of activity on a global scale over Potter does indicate to sociologists and behavariousl scientists that something is amiss with modern society. Why are we not equally worked up over global warming, Polar caps meltdown, famine in Darful, starvation in North Korea and endless conflagrations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan?
Are those issues not of worldwide importance? Whither human society as far as crucial matters are concerned? Let it not be said a hundred years from now that inhabitants of this planet in the year 2007 were moronically preoccupied with issues of little consequence while Earth teeter on a precipice of biblical proportions.
I am not shocked by this inexplicable reaction by so many Potter fans but actually saddened by the masses who are not Potter fans, who are in fact equally nonchalant about other issues that would affect their grandchildren and descendants in the generations to come.
Here we are, standing on the threshold of some of the most phenomenal technological achievements in the history of science and yet we go ga-ga over a fictional character called Harry.
What does this say about us? What will the people of the future think about us? It will be a sad day indeed if our response right now is: "who cares? we won't be around a century from now anyway!"
Tomorrow's world is built on the foundation of today's concerns. The Now phenomenon is just as vital as the targets of till-then era, even if the aims are slightly blurry just now.
I lament the state of right-thinking humans, not all of them but many of them. Surely, we have not become numbed to things that matter most. Entertainment is fine. Escapism is negligible if its effects are fleeting but obsession with a product of someone's imagination does not bode well for modern thinking.
When I see public reaction over the latest Harry Potter book and little reaction from the same people over global hunger, disease, massive corruption and killings, sadness grips my heart. My mind is ill at ease.
Will not these same people show some compassion too to the hungry in their midst? Are they not also concerned by the negative influences faced by their growing children in college, at work and elsewhere?
Sometimes, I figure that the world has gone over the deep end to become indifferent to a suffering society and on a global scale, uncaring about the millions who may not survive in the next five years.
A hundred years from now, books on Harry Potter would most probably be still available but humankind may no longer be concerned about Harry then, as they would be about finding their next meal or seeking a safer clime for their families.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Ode to all blockheads, oops, I mean blog heads!
A well meaning colleague slithered up to me the other day and muttered softly in my ear. Do you not want to earn a bit on the side with your blog?
I gave him a bemused look and added: "Meaning....?" Those little bits of advertisements that bloggers transplanted on their pages, my friend, said my colleague.
I gave it a 7-second thought and added: "But I didn't start off by wanting to earn money on the side." Anyway, I didn't want to sound too saintly by rejecting my kinds of material wealth, so I perked up my ears and said: "Details, please?"
For the next 45 minutes, I was an enraptured audience of one, listening to what could be an El Dorado situation for me. Frankly, I know there are more than a handful of very successful bloggers out there in the blue yonder who are happily raking in every bit of gold dust that floats onto their laps.
But I don't count myself as one of them. I don't mean I am not interested in getting rich but I actually give much weightage to my own personal satisfaction, and it is not founded on the soil of organised prosperity.
I don't know a better way of explaining this other than I prefer to just write whatever that strikes my fancy. Sometimes I actually become rather envious of those who seem to enjoy some kind of virtual world fame and benefit enormously from it all.
"How do they do it?" I ask all the time. Apparently, it begins with an enormous amount of Internet traffic that comes a blogger's way and the method he employs to cull the hits and bounce the signals off the financial wall.
If all these sounds too complicated, it's because I am a complete idiot in explaining a simple situation. For the life of me, I am really in the dark about the Get-Rich-Intelligently 101 procedure.
For one thing, I am happy that there are those who are financially secure due to their worldly wise ways. I guess not everybody is born to ride on that gravy train. To be honest though, I wish I am sitting in the coach section of that wagon right now but life apparently likes to play jokes on characters like me.
So right now, I am quite contented writing a bit of gibberish on the side and enjoying what I am writing even if nobody in this world of 6.5 billion people is interested in what I have to say.
I believe my situation has been described aptly as "spitting in the wind". Of course, everybody likes to wake up early in the morning, with nothing better to do than to logon and count the dollars pouring into some obscure bank account overseas.
I wish I could say "hey, that's me!" But I can't so I just humbly mutter (under my breath), "oh darn, back to shoveling coal down in the mine again!"
To all those who have succeed, please do not send me your secret formulas. I have enough of those, and they call come with a price tag. In case, nobody notices, block heads like me are actually not rich. Not even well off.
What we are, has been described by social behavourial scientists as drifting in the meandering tide of mediocrity. Right now, there must be about 150 million bloggers. An editor from England expounded some statistics that propounded that at last count (July 2006), there were about 50 million bloggers.
And this number doubles every six months! When I first learnt about this, I uttered: "Oh God! That's a whole lot of non-famous people." It was a very humbling revelation. At least, it was for me.
So for now, whenever I think and write I keep in mind that there are more than one hundred million bloggers out there who say and think practically the same things that crawl, slither, or slip through my mind.
Perhaps they don't say the same thing in the same way but generally the thoughts are all there. There's hardly any originality left. If anybody has any originality of thought, he would have been a millionaire yesterday.
But do not lose heart, dear chaps, we blockheads or bloggers (whichever strikes your fancy) have our own sanctuary that provides more than fresh air or money. We have the temerity to an indifferent world what we think of myriad situations. Most of the time, not based on facts or sound arguments but simply on impulse and gut feeling that we might be right during a fleeting minute in a single that of 24 hours.
There, I have said it all. Go and write and let your heart be contented.
I gave him a bemused look and added: "Meaning....?" Those little bits of advertisements that bloggers transplanted on their pages, my friend, said my colleague.
I gave it a 7-second thought and added: "But I didn't start off by wanting to earn money on the side." Anyway, I didn't want to sound too saintly by rejecting my kinds of material wealth, so I perked up my ears and said: "Details, please?"
For the next 45 minutes, I was an enraptured audience of one, listening to what could be an El Dorado situation for me. Frankly, I know there are more than a handful of very successful bloggers out there in the blue yonder who are happily raking in every bit of gold dust that floats onto their laps.
But I don't count myself as one of them. I don't mean I am not interested in getting rich but I actually give much weightage to my own personal satisfaction, and it is not founded on the soil of organised prosperity.
I don't know a better way of explaining this other than I prefer to just write whatever that strikes my fancy. Sometimes I actually become rather envious of those who seem to enjoy some kind of virtual world fame and benefit enormously from it all.
"How do they do it?" I ask all the time. Apparently, it begins with an enormous amount of Internet traffic that comes a blogger's way and the method he employs to cull the hits and bounce the signals off the financial wall.
If all these sounds too complicated, it's because I am a complete idiot in explaining a simple situation. For the life of me, I am really in the dark about the Get-Rich-Intelligently 101 procedure.
For one thing, I am happy that there are those who are financially secure due to their worldly wise ways. I guess not everybody is born to ride on that gravy train. To be honest though, I wish I am sitting in the coach section of that wagon right now but life apparently likes to play jokes on characters like me.
So right now, I am quite contented writing a bit of gibberish on the side and enjoying what I am writing even if nobody in this world of 6.5 billion people is interested in what I have to say.
I believe my situation has been described aptly as "spitting in the wind". Of course, everybody likes to wake up early in the morning, with nothing better to do than to logon and count the dollars pouring into some obscure bank account overseas.
I wish I could say "hey, that's me!" But I can't so I just humbly mutter (under my breath), "oh darn, back to shoveling coal down in the mine again!"
To all those who have succeed, please do not send me your secret formulas. I have enough of those, and they call come with a price tag. In case, nobody notices, block heads like me are actually not rich. Not even well off.
What we are, has been described by social behavourial scientists as drifting in the meandering tide of mediocrity. Right now, there must be about 150 million bloggers. An editor from England expounded some statistics that propounded that at last count (July 2006), there were about 50 million bloggers.
And this number doubles every six months! When I first learnt about this, I uttered: "Oh God! That's a whole lot of non-famous people." It was a very humbling revelation. At least, it was for me.
So for now, whenever I think and write I keep in mind that there are more than one hundred million bloggers out there who say and think practically the same things that crawl, slither, or slip through my mind.
Perhaps they don't say the same thing in the same way but generally the thoughts are all there. There's hardly any originality left. If anybody has any originality of thought, he would have been a millionaire yesterday.
But do not lose heart, dear chaps, we blockheads or bloggers (whichever strikes your fancy) have our own sanctuary that provides more than fresh air or money. We have the temerity to an indifferent world what we think of myriad situations. Most of the time, not based on facts or sound arguments but simply on impulse and gut feeling that we might be right during a fleeting minute in a single that of 24 hours.
There, I have said it all. Go and write and let your heart be contented.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
