"It's a perfectly reasonable thing, I'm very suave"
Just been watching Jonathan Ross, and was pleasantly surprised by Daniel Radcliffe (unless it's all a front). Firstly, he's not actually Harry Potter. Secondly, although both he and Harry are said to have become, as the Americans have it, "jocks" lately (by which I don't mean Scottish), he seemed a lot closer to the over-enthusiastic geek really. Oh and I saw a clip of the new film - long enough for me to say more than once "that wasn't in the book" - which is very exciting.
posted by Z31 at 11:33 pm
6 Comments:
Hehe. I saw J-Row too. Thought that, on reflection, Daniel Radcliffe wasn't a complete arse. I also mentioned that "that wasn't in the book," when the clip was playing, but am not at all pleased by its possible implications to the film... Will have to wait and see I guess.
Seemed to me like Radcliffe had drunk too much cola or something - he was almost hyperactive.
Given my opinions on the book, if they have actually re-written it so it's actually, you know, good, and has like no Quidditch in it, then I may enjoy it that bit more. Also Harry hasn't 'recently become a jock', he's always been a jock, certainly since he went to Hogwart's.
I'm inclined to disagree, perhaps partly on the basis that I feel the concept of a 'jock' has no more place in Britain than the concept of a 'date'. But yes, perhaps not all that recent. Daniel, according to the producer in an article I lately read, has apparently become jock-like more lately. But as I said, doesn't seem to be acting like it.
What article was that then, and where might I find it?
I'm sorry, 'jock' is the word that best describes what Harry is, if you can think of a word that describes the smugness, obsession with sport, being on the team, popularity/celebrity, and the thinking that for some reason this means the rules don't apply to him. Ok, it's an americanism, but most of english has been begged, borrowed or stolen from one country or another over the centuries, or perhaps you refuse to use words like fiancé or bungalow for the same reasons. As much as people talk about 'the rules of grammar', languages are living and evolving, and as much as it may be distasteful, Americans do speak english and we have to live with that.
Be that as it may, and I certainly don't consider myself hugely averse to non-management neologisms, I simply don't see much evidence for jocks in Britain. More specifically, there was no support amongst the people I spoke to today for your position that Harry is a jock, though personally I would agree that he might by the uncharitable be considered to conform very loosely to some of your criteria.
Andy: it was almost certainly on the BBC, or perhaps Mugglenet.
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