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From: (gu)stav <no@hushmail.rightnow>
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Subject: Re: And by way of comparison....
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Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2009 10:06:08 -0500
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Thanks for this link, Ronin. At first thought, I would never have
considered J.K. Rowling and Karl May in the same context. And this
side-by-side reading does feel a little bit forced to me.
The author does note (a few paragraphs down) that Rowling was drawing
upon a long British literary/mythic tradition including very old
elements like the Merlin character from the Arthurian saga. While May,
in contrast, was largely imagining a Native American tradition for
Winnetou. Still there's a good point there about the relationship
between the wise older mentor and the plucky young hero.
For some reason, I always like reading this kind of scholarly treatment
of popular literature. I like it when professors take something like
Harry Potter seriously.
On 2009-02-28 01:03:20 -0500, nesScitur@husShmail.com (Ronin) said:
> X-No-Archive: yes
>
> On Thu, 26 Feb 2009 08:09:00 -0500, (gu)stav <no@hushmail.rightnow> wrote:
>
>> This drawing was made in 1928 in the guest book of a youth hostel in
>> eastern Germany, near the city of Jena. The hostel was housed in an
>> old castle called the Leuchtenburg so the setting was authentically
>> medieval.
>
>> As a (possibly) interesting historical note ... this hostel served as a
>> "Nest" for a youth group called the Sozialistische Arbeiterjugend
>> (SAJ), or Socialist Worker Youth -- an anti-Nazi group sponsored by the
>> Social Democratic Party (SPD), which remains one of the major political
>> parties in Germany today.
>
>> At the bottom of the picture the boys wrote the name of their own group
>> (which, on another odd note, borrows the name of a fictional Native
>> American created by the German writer Karl May) and signed their names.
>> In all likelihood, in that era, the boys would have been wandering on
>> their own without adult guidance or supervision (apart from a "hostel
>> mother" at the castle).
>
>> All these elements of the "Boy Thing" -- the medieval thread, the
>> Native American thread, the sense of rugged, boys-only self-sufficiency
>> also accurately reflect the spirit of the authentic Youth Movement of
>> those times.
>
> Quite interesting, in fact. Having never read any of the stories Karl May
> built around the character 'Old Shatterhand', I deciphered the name written
> immediately above the signatures as "Winnston", which seemed unlikely, and
> was obliged to petition Google for enlightenment.
>
> Ah, so -- "Winnetou".
>
> But, in the same page of Google links, I happend to see an intriguing title
> -- 'Old Shatterhand, Winnetou, Harry Potter, Ron und Hermione' -- which had,
> of course, to be checked out; you might (possibly) find it interesting (ich
>
> http://www.karl-may-stiftung.de/foerderverein/rowling.html
>
> Bread upon the waters, indeed.
>
> Domo arigato!
>
>
> Ronin
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