Welcome to the House of AWESOME

Well, yesterday I had my presentation. It didn't go as well as I'd wanted it to (I had grand delusions that I'd be a confident Lockhart and I ended up more of a stuttering Quirrell), but all in all I wasn't bad. It was kind of fun, actually. And I kind of want to do it again.

Anyway, I had the question come up about Wrock. I knew it would; it's hard to explain it without music, but I knew I'd be tight on time even without adding in a video. I stuttered through an explanation about how it's basically fan music--filking, really--about the series, from the points of views of the characters, or playing off the emotions from particular scenes, and that there are ... a lot of bands. According to the Wizard Rockumentary site, there are more than 300 Wrock groups. As an aside, I've seen that film, and it's brilliant. And the Wizrocklopedia ... they've spent a lot more time researching the start of Wrock than I have, so I suggest checking them out if you're interested.

But it really is hard to explain what Wrock is without videos. So here's some videos of Wrockers in action.

What's in a name? That which we call a Harry, by any other name would ... be as noble?

Okay, so my title sort of fell apart in the long run, but whatever.

This is sort of in conjunction with my last post. Jo is very good with names. She's a master wordsmith in general, but that's not the point of this post.

Jo says she makes up about a third of the names in the series, but I don't think that's quite true. She's a very smart woman, and we know she has reasons for everything she does, and those of us who've read all the books know this for a fact--remember Prisoner of Azkaban and how we were all floored with the revelation that Lupin was a --gasp!--werewolf?

That's because we all sort of took for granted that when Jo names someone, she has a reason for it. If we'd thought about it, come on, Lupin? That's Latin right there for you! We all felt a little silly, I think.

But that's not the only name that's got deeper meaning than something that sounds cool. Harry, for example, means "army ruler" or "leader." Given that he ends up being the poster child for the side of Good, it's a fitting name, as unwilling as he was to take that role.

Conversely, Bellatrix means "female warrior." Rather apt for someone who fights at Voldemort's side--and the only female we see there, too!

In that same vein, let's look at Voldemort--if you break it up, we get the French "Vole de Mort." Flight from Death. Well, that's what all those Horcruxes were for, right?

How about Colin Creevey? You know, annoying little bloke with a camera attached to his face? Colin means "young" or "childlike." He does have a rather childlike view of the world, doesn't he?

And then there's all the deeper meanings and secondary definitions to her names. Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic in the beginning of the series, makes a mess of things. He's incompetent--and that's another meaning of the word "fudge," beyond being a tasty snack.

Dudley Dursley--he's a bit of a "dud," don't you agree? But his last name ... Jo chose it because it sounded "dull and forbidding."

Jo also makes use of constellations when naming characters--Sirius Orion, Regulus Arcturus, Bellatrix, Draco ... are you going crazy yet? Well, I'm not done yet!

Fleur Delacour--French for "flower of the court."She also happens to be part Veela, a creature that men can't help but be drawn to for their beauty. We can take that a step further, too: Veela comes from the Slavonic word "Vila." A Vila is a female spirit of wind and storm, and can appear in human form as a beautiful woman, eternally young.

And it's not just characters Jo plays with. There's the Knight Bus, which I'd never realised was something of a real thing until reading that. It's not something you hear here in the States! Likewise with Ernie Prang--I'd never realised "prang" could mean "crash"--something the Knight Bus comes close to doing quite often.

I bet now you're going to look at the books with a new respect for how Jo came up with her names, aren't you?

If the Sorting Hat put you in "Poufsouffle," what would YOU do?

Did you guys know Harry Potter's been translated officially into 69 languages? Including some I've never heard of--Faroese, Gujarati, and Malayalam, for starters. I know, Wiki's a crappy source, but these all have links to other pages about it, and I'm far too lazy today to do that legwork myself.

But anyway, that's a lot of translating! Can you imagine being the person charged with translating some of JK's unique spells and words into a non-English language and keeping the same meanings? Insane!

On a slightly related note, Muggle is in the OED. I think that's awesome. I'd swear Quidditch and Squib were, too, but I haven't got proof of that on hand. But that proves Harry's beyond just a book, doesn't it? The words are so common that the definitive dictionary even agrees!

Yep, Muggle's right up there with yepsen and mankini. I can't believe mankini is in the OED. Isn't that the first sign of the apocalypse?

It's like my first day at Hogwarts, only not as awesome!

I always feel awkward when I write the first entry for anything.

But, considering I want to keep track of everything for my project, I think this might be helpful as a place I can post relevant information and keep track of ... well, everything.

For example, where else can I yet again post the link to my survey?

Or post link to things like this or this*?

So hopefully I'll keep up with this blog and keep myself on track for Anthro Expo as well as keeping people who are interested informed.

 And if anyone reading this has any suggestions for things I should talk about or mention or show pictures of--because really, me speaking for a full hour? Can we say "Merlin's beard?"--please let me know. I'll need all the help I can get. Even with my advisor of awesome playing the Snape to my Draco.

*Note: I love the title of this one, though it seems like the whole point of the article is "nope."