Now as we all know, in the movie "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", Dobby, a house-elf (whatever that is), is killed. If you were sitting near me during the movie, you would know that I sighed, after the many screams when Dobby dies. A few people came up to me after the movie to ask me why I enjoyed Dobby's death. One person actually had the nerve to go up to miss Robbin's and tell her that I was happy that Dobby died. Let me make this clear now: I was not happy when Dobby was killed, albeit I was not particularly sad either.
Another factor is the I have not read all of the books. I don't think that I have met one single person who says that they do not like Harry Potter, and nearly every single person who has read the seventh book claims that they cried when Dobby dies. Weather this is true or not, I am afraid that I shall never know, and I really don't care anyway. I don't think that the people that had not read the book had such a connection to Dobby as the book readers. I find that in a way, you cant experience a story in a movie the way that you can in a book. I have a feeling that if I read the books, I might have felt like screaming myself!
Basically, I did not wish for Dobby to die, rather I had few feelings for him at all. Dobby is a fictional character, and nothing more. I, and most people, find that reading a book is a totally different experience then seeing a movie. I hope that now you understand why I sighed at Dobby's death.
i cried at the theater when Dobby died and I've only read books 1-4
ReplyDeletebut has dobby appeared yet?
ReplyDeletehi ben great work on this post i love a good rant although it wasn't intentional you were very subtly poetic with your lines about what is fiction and what isn't love it. by the way dobby appears in the second book, chamber of secrets
ReplyDeletesometimes we dont want to let go of characters. we become too connected to them. we forget they are made up. and we hope to not lose them because we know they won't be mentioned any more. and people get connected to characters. i know i have been connected to many characters. good job. and because i have read some of the books and was amazed with the bravery of dobby i felt devestaded when he died. but now my friend loves harry potter. she has not even touch any harry potter book. and she wants a harry potter glasses. i just dont know where to buy them.
ReplyDeletewow ben as soon as i logged on to my blogger account i immediately saw your title and preview of your post. Then clicked on it and got totally sucked in! Great job i really liked it.
ReplyDeleteBen,
ReplyDeleteI totally get it, dobby is like a plain white wall, you don't care enough about it to cry or smile. I think that bringing up the difference between books and movies was a good idea. We have all read books that we love and that brought us to tears, and dissaproved of the film rendition because of it's lack of emotional feeling.
The good night moon connection is so obscure bit still makes so much sense. You have thoughtfully proved your point
-izzy
oh my god, i love this post almost as much as i love james franco!! i laughed so hard inside that my speen is shaking! SPEEN? SPLEEN! so funny, nebbii, i agree with you too, dobby is like a shriveled little girl with aging disease! ew! and he wears boxcar rider clothes! pillo! cas3! eyy!! EW!!! he is so smelly and i didnot cry when he was ddiisceased. HAHA!! GOOD POST! i have never seen a house elf eistheer.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, my only question is this: you say that you were not affected partially because he was a fictional character- not real, never will be. Do you mean to say that you have never been affected by a fictional character? That never, once, have you ever felt for or been connected with a character form a book or movie? A good writer makes you feel what their character is feeling- good fiction makes you hurt when the character is hurting or be joyful when the character is joyful or nervous when the character is nervous.
ReplyDeleteI understand that since you haven't read the books, Dobby's character did not mean much to you, but I find it strange that you've never felt one way or the other about a character that isn't real. You made your point very clear though, good job!
-Nora
i agree with you ben that it is much different reading a book than seeing a movie and it does effect you feelings in different ways in different circumstances.
ReplyDeletei like the ideas you have here but I agree with Susan; reading the books, fantasty or not, we become so connected to the characters that we forget they're not real. It's just this feeling inside that you get when you read about a character that makes you either like them or dislike them. But I really do agree with the fact that watching the movie of a book that's already been written isn't the same as reading the book itself because reading it, you take as long as you want to let everything just sink in whereas a movie is on average 2 hours or so (unless it's in slow motion)and I can't read Harry Potter 7 in 2 hours. Awesome job.
ReplyDelete-Jacky