Welcome...and initial guidelines...

This blog will be used in the spring of 2008 by 80+ students at Drexel University to investigate the effects of Iraq on culture and the reverse. Our goal will be to better understand why the US is in Iraq, and to question whether literature can help us on this journey.

Weekly plans and other materials will always be posted in Vista, not this blog. So go to Bb Vista to get the discussion prompts and other instructions.

I intend this blog to manage our discussions and track our collective investigation.

You should have received an email from me inviting you to become a contributor to this blog. The email was sent Monday afternoon to your official Drexel email address.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Fantasy vs. Reality

One of the box office’s best series in the last decade is Harry Potter. Harry Potter is just about a young wizard that has the power to save the world. Nothing that has occurred in the world can connect to the movie, but the movie can relate to the minds of many children. In a world with such chaos, people wish they can be like Harry Potter, the savior of the entire world. Because of all the problems and how hard reality actually is, Harry Potter gives people a fantasy world where everything is perfect.

The only way to relieve the pain of 9/11 and other terrorist acts is to live in a fake, pretend world. Harry Potter and many other fantasy movies and series, such as Lord of the Rings, also give the feeling that everything will be fine. The world will end up being peaceful and evil will be destroyed. The problems that plague us daily are forgotten due to the hype and the feelings that we feel after watching the movie. The two hours that we spend watching the movie provide us with weeks of thoughts and things to talk about that keep our minds off of the problems today.

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