Lotus Geek :: Of Wizards and Wonka Bars...

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This weekend has been punctuated by two distinctive fantasy pieces - the release of the next Harry Potter book in the series by JK Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and a classic movie from my childhood - Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. My kids decided to watch this movie again this weekend - probably reminded of it from the commercials touting the showing of the movie on the Disney Channel on Sunday night. We watched it last night, and we watched it again tonight (Sunday) - mainly because I hate watching movies on commercial TV, especially movies that I own. So, I turned on the DVD version of the movie at the same time that the commercialized version was showing on Disney (BTW, does anyone else do this, i.e. watch the DVD of a movie when it is on network or commercial cable TV?). Watching twice in two hours gave me time to think about this movie, both from my memories of it when I was a kid, and from seeing it again as an adult.

Wonka Bars
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory really does have a universal appeal. I can remember thinking as a kid what a great kid Charlie was to his family, and what jerks the other kids were. And Willy Wonka himself seemed both fantastic and frightening, all rolled into one. One moment he seemed like the greatest grown-up on the planet, and the next minute he scared me to death. But, like most kids, I remembered the Oompa Loompas most of all. I got the basic message of the movie, which in some ways relates to a karmic view of the world - if you do bad things, bad things happen to you. In fact, this is a saying my kids quote (i.e. if you do bad things...) all the time, because they hear if from me all the time. I got it, I understood it, and I believed it.

But as an adult I see the other message in the movie - a message that I hope makes some parents uncomfortable, as the message is targeted at them. Basically Willy Wonka and the Oompa Loompas are telling parents that if their kid is spoiled rotten, or gluttonous, or a TV (or nowadays, video game) addict, it is your fault. Not society's, not your parents', not the bad influence from other kids - yours and yours alone. Unfortunately many parents fail to take responsibility for their own handiwork. and that is a shame. If parents nowadays would take a bit more time to help guide and raise their children, then maybe we wouldn't see so many displaying the same rotten attitudes and vices displayed in this classic movie 32 years ago. As a parent of five, I realize my kids aren't perfect, but I also realize that I am responsible for their actions and how they conduct themselves - with me and without me around - and I try to guide them and raise them accordingly. I wish other parents would do the same.

Wizards
The other fantasy subject of this weekend was the release of the most talked about book in a LONG time, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I stand before you and admit it to the world - I am hooked on the Harry Potter series. It is a series that is a great, fun read, and is a joy to go through. I was talking to neighbors of mine at the pool today about the book (I was reading it while my kids were swimming), and we were talking about how easy it is to read - here's what I mean. Some books require some effort of the reader - some investment of themselves to understand its structure, or the story line, etc. Now this doesn't mean it is a bad book, as there are many books worth the effort - my favorite book of all time, Dune by Frank Herbert, comes to mind. You have to work a bit to get the most out of Dune, but in my opinion it is worth it. By comparison, JK Rowling's Harry Potter series doesn't require the same investment, but delivers enjoyment to the reader - in spades.

Unfortunately my kids are either too young to really read it for themselves yet (6, 5, and 4) or are not interested (my precocious 12 year old rising 8th grader). However my second daughter, Kelsey, (9.5 yrs old), is interested. She has read the first two, is on the third, and once she gets through the existing books she'll get Order of the Phoenix. But she is getting into them, just has she has gotten into the Lord of the Rings. It is great watching her get excited about Harry Potter, and it is fun discussing it with her.

I was talking to a friend of mine at our church, and he related a story to me that, once again, disturbs me about the parenting going on in America. He tells the story of two ladies talking, and one is telling the other about how her son made them wait to go to Six Flags until his copy of Order of the Phoenix had been delivered on Saturday. She was complaining - complaining that her son was excited to read, instead of being excited to go to a theme park (or a video game, or a TV show, or...). Now don't get me wrong, I love roller coasters (and TV, and video games, and so on) - but when it come to my kids I will take every opportunity I can to encourage them to expand their horizons through reading - and I will do nothing to squelch that excitement when it arises. Oh, and to add icing to the cake, the second lady started going on that she won't let her kids read it because of the "demonic overtones of witchcraft and wizardry" - that would have sent me over the top had I heard that conversation first-hand. Don't even get me started on that one...

So, I guess (after reading what I just typed stream-of-consciousness) that my role as a parent, and our roles as parents in society, has been on my mind this weekend. As a parent I am constantly questioning whether I am doing the "right thing" with my kids - but at least I know I am not doing many of the wrong things I see so many other parents do. I just hope I can be as successful as my friends Joe Litton with his son, Ben, and Henry Newberry with his daughter, Rachel. Two great kids, raised the right way, by two great parents.

Rock
**All men make mistakes, but married men find out about them sooner.~Red Skelton

Comments

1 - RSS makes keeping up with blogs EZ

Posted by Bruce Elgort At 10:14:33 AM On 10/31/2003 | - Website - |

2 - Rock, you need to get TiVo - then you wouldn't care WHEN the networks scheduled the shows. And since TiVo's running Linux, you can hack away at it (well, you ARE a self-proclaimed geek, right?). Plenty of people have set up web servers on their TiVOs - maybe you could get a Domino instance running on yours and match Daniel's XBox. Heh...

When I was a kid, I loved the Willy Wonka book (my teacher read it to us, which was a neat thing for a teacher to do), but found the movie positively creepy. Now, I like the movie quite a bit. And the Potter books rock (no pun intended)!

Posted by Rob McDonagh At 10:14:34 AM On 10/31/2003 | - Website - |

3 - Yeah, without question the movie oversimplifies the statement it is making, or at least the way it is making it - but this is usually true of most movies, especially ones for kids. I was talking about the general thoughts it triggered in me, and the overarching message of the movie - parents are responsible, overall, for the children they raise and what the become of themselves.

And I have no doubt that your kids are great kids, because I know the kind of person you are - one who is responsible, takes ownership of your actions, and is very conscientious in what you do.

And thanks for reading my late Sunday night rant

Rock

Posted by Rock At 10:14:33 AM On 10/31/2003 | - Website - |

4 - Hey Rock,

A lot what you say about raising kids resonates w/ me. I can tell you, Ben and I have a similar bent in this regard.

As for Wonka, I just kinda watched it again with my daughter (2 yrs old = unable to sit still

). I came into it with high expectations, remembering it as one I really loved when I was a kid. So watching it again after, what, 25 - 30 years was a study in reminiscence about who I was then and how I've changed (obviously, a lot

). Whatever

. My takeaway was that I found the movie did not live up to expectations. Like Ben, I found it fairly facile, though certainly fine for youngsters. The other thing I didn't cotton to was Wonka himself. A highly manipulative, even scary, personality, you gotta agree.

Ah well, so much for indulging in childhood reminiscence. Another movie that held a similar place in my heart was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. This one pretty much did live up to the delight I had attached to it, probably because I contains a lot of cool adult (even techie) elements in it that I'm sure I missed completely when I was under 10. That and the musical sequences are a riot. Dick Van Dyke does a bang up job, and the kids are waay cute. Turns out this is the first DVD I actually bought. My daughter and I are working on memorizing the Hushabye Mountain song.

Anyhow, you may want to give this one a look with the kids.

Cheers,
- Paul -

Posted by Paul Ryan At 10:14:30 AM On 10/31/2003 | - Website - |

5 - I just finished the fifth book, and it was great. I am lucky to have a reading obsessed family, so everybody is vying for one of the two copies, except my wife, who has the saintly patience to wait until we have all finished.

As for what you say about parental responsibilyt, I couldn't agree more. As my kids have gotten older, I have watched them do many things I am proud of, and a few I am not, but I can usually see the roots of either in the way we are raising them. I've also learned that some things aren't clear right away, which is my only objection to the Willy Wonka movie, which I have seen many times. It is a bit too black and white for me, with a "good" kid and several "bad" kids. Still a great movie, but if everything came down to just "good" and "bad", I might not have watched some events which looked very bad becomes somewhat good due to the strong sense of values my wife and I have somehow instilled in the kids.

Posted by Ben Langhinrichs At 10:14:33 AM On 10/31/2003 | - Website - |