"There is no good and evil. There is only power, and those too weak to seek it."--Lord Voldemort

This clip is from "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," the first movie in the series. This scene occurs after Harry and his friends fought through seven quests in order to reach the Stone, which they believed was in danger of being stolen. The teacher they found attempting to steal the Stone was Professor Quirell, who the students originally thought was quiet, weak, and easily frightened. He wore a turban throughout the year, but just before this scene, he takes it off to reveal to Harry that the face of Lord Voldemort, a mass murderer who killed Harry's parents years earlier. Voldemort had attempted to kill Harry (who was a baby at the time) as well, but failed. The killing curse rebounded and hit him, fracturing his body and sending the remaining piece of his soul away. He eventually found a host in Quirell.

Voldemort was once Tom Riddle, a student not unlike Harry, who never knew either of his parents and was raised without love entirely. This drove him to seek power, even as a child as young as eleven; he would manipulate younger children, forcing them to obey him. There were several incidents during his time at school that weren't connected with him until later. His greatest fear was his own death; therefore, part of the power he sought was the inability to die. Earlier in this movie, he drank unicorn blood in an attempt at regaining a full body. The Stone is another attempt at this; the Stone is used to make the Elixir of Life, which grants the drinker immortality. When Harry pulls the Stone out of his pocket, Voldemort believes he means to hand it over to him. Harry is the embodiment of the thing Voldemort is most afraid of; his own mortality. 

Keats talked coined the term "negative capability," and suggested the world was divided between men of genius and men of power. Men of genius were the poets and writers, whereas men of power were dedicated to cultivating their egos. Whether it is influence over others, monetary wealth, or a command over nature and death, men like that will stop at nothing to achieve. Voldemort who asserts that the world consists of power and those too weak to seek it would qualify as a man of power.

This looks like a promising approach, Christina. Can you develop it? Perhaps you could integrate one or two brief statements from the two negative capability letters we looked at in class, and you might want to examine whether or not Harry demonstrates anywhere in this or other movies in the series the qualities of the negatively capable man of genius Keats has in mind. In the Ode to the West Wind, British Romantic poet Percy Shelley (Mary Shelley's husband) refers to the West Wind (a metaphor perhaps of poet and poetry) as an "enchanter" and in section four of the poem aspires to share in the Wind's wizardry.

P.V.

This isn't really related to Harry Potter, but Professor Vatalaro's comment about the West Wind made me think of Lord of the Rings. On their journey to destroy the One Ring and defeat the evil of Sauron, the elf Legolas is warned by Galadriel to beware the sea at all costs. Though Legolas interprets this as foretelling his death, it actually is referencing the "sea-longing" that elves experience to sail west to Valinor, "The Blessed Realm." Since elves in Tolkien's universe are immortal, to sail west is to essentially part with the mortal world of Middle Earth. Hearing the seagulls near the ocean, therefore, is seen as an enchanting sound, one that reminds Legolas that the time of the elves is ending, and that he will be one of the last of his kind to leave for the west. To include Shelley's concept, if the West Wind is a metaphor for poetry, then Tolkien could be implying that poetry in itself takes us from our bodies and the mortal world, even if just for a little while. While a lot of Keats poetry we've looked at has instead advocated more for physical sensation, it's an interesting idea to consider, and, like in Harry Potter, Tolkien's heroes were men of genius while his villains were men of power. Either way, I'm not sure if Tolkien was directly inspired by Percy Shelley's concept of the West Wind, but the similarities seem too numerous to be mere coincidence. 

K.D.

First of all, great connection! The quotation you used from Lord Voldemort about good and evil is a great link to Keats and his feelings on the different types of men in the world. There truly are men of genius, and then men of power. I think the main difference between the two is that one is driven by knowledge and curiosity, while the other is fueled by greed and desire. The man of genius is not working to benefit himself, but to influence the lives of others. The man of power is only looking to help himself for his own purposes, similar to Lord Voldemort. He seeks to gain immortality through whatever means necessary, and he also wishes to be considered the greatest wizard of all time. And, in his own way, he was; he went farther with magic than anyone else had dared go. He stretched the rules of magic and was powerful beyond anyone's expectations, but that is what led to his downfall in the end. 

-B.S.

Thinking of this in terms of Keats with the potential duality in each person is a unique perspective. If you take the Mirror of Erised into consideration, the mirror captures people by manifesting their greatest desires before their eyes in the mirror. This could be related back to the knight-at-arms trapped in his own dreamworld, seduced by everything he ever wanted and finding it difficult to turn away from. The fact that Quirrell/ Voldemort saw the stone in the mirror but could not physically possess it trapped the two in its spell. Harry taking the stone out of his pocket when he sees it in the mirror is a result of the purity of his intentions. His only true desire was impossible because his parents were already dead and gone, so the mirror could provide him with nothing more. Because Voldemort wanted the stone so badly, the mirror would never surrender his true desires. The knight, too, knew the reality of his situation, that is, that he could never have what he desired even though the image remained fresh before him.

-B.K.

Though I couldn't find the specific clip, this is the original promo for the episode of The X-Files that we discussed in class. Agent Fox Mulder is on a mission to discover proof of an alien encounter and extraterrestrials subsequent cover-up by the U.S. government. This hunt is the primary focus of the show, even though Mulder and his partner, Dana Scully, encounter some other pretty odd paranormal activity during their time with the FBI. The "Cigarette Smoking Man" (seen about ten seconds into the video) has frequently made contact with Mulder in an attempt to dissuade him from his theories and searches. CSM is a part of a group called the Syndicate, who is in charge of cover-ups such as the one Mulder is threatening to expose.

Around the start of this episode, Mulder is seen acting erratically. He's unusually paranoid and violent, reacting to an encrypted document with uncharacteristic frustration, and even going so far as to punch Assistant Director Walter Skinner (eleven seconds into the video). He also becomes extremely suspicious of Scully. While she is at Mulder's apartment, Scully sees a white van outside the window and follows the man into the building. In doing so, she realizes that the water in Mulder's apartment has been contaminated, which led to his anger and outbursts.

This is stimulating posting, Christina. When you get a chance, add a paragraph to your summary of this episode-clip from the X Files that articulates some of the great points you and your classmates were able to make during our class discussion regarding chemical shaping of body and mind. (Incidentally, I don't think we raised this point in class; however, it's worth pointing out that in the series Scully is also licensed M.D. Keats held a different medical license, of course, but, nonetheless, he must have possessed a knowledge of the ways in which drugs affect the body that would have exceeded the knowledge of a layman--much as does Scully.

P.V.

The TV show Gotham depicts the city before Batman rises, following police officer Jim Gordon, newly orphaned Bruce Wayne, and a slew of classic villains before they take up their mantle. Gotham, even before definitive criminals like the Riddler, Two-Face, and Scarecrow truly emerge, is incredibly corrupt, so much so that, in many ways, Gordon’s good deeds initially cause more trouble than they solve, especially in the realm of criminal gangs. At the mid-point of season two, young Bruce confronts his parents' killer; though he at first fully intends to kill the man, after speaking with him, he instead elects to seek out long-time friend Selina Kyle, realizing that bad deeds can only be combated by good actions. The first place to learn about the evil of Gotham is on the streets, not Wayne Manor, and so, without the consent of his guardian and butler, Alfred, he decides to leave home for some time. While this choice is obviously a huge one for his character arc, his confrontation and discussion with murderer Matches Malone is ultimately unsatisfying. In this clip, Selina and Bruce take on Sonny Gilzean, nephew of the city's reigning mob boss, and, interestingly, the beating Bruce takes in defense of Selina and the physical pain that results appears to be incredibly centering, offering him a necessary closure.

Like with the narrator in Keats' "Ode to a Nightingale," suffering seems to be the only thing that brings Bruce back to himself and his humanity. The speaker tries various drugs and medicines to dull his pain, but it only dampens his perception of reality and forces him to live in a fantasy world, painless but ultimately alone. Bruce tries all sorts of methods to recover from the trauma of his parents' murders--in season one, he perhaps foolishly believes that boxing lessons and holding his breath will help him make a difference in Gotham. Selina, a self-proclaimed "survivor" and street kid, harshly tells him the folly of his plans multiple times, but it isn't until this point in the show that Bruce seems to truly understand the ways in which his life, both before and after their deaths, was a dream world. It is only by experiencing suffering and physical pain that he realizes the truth of Gotham and the truth of his place in it. Where he once tried to ignore bodily pain altogether, he now embraces it and the power it has in shaping him as a person. Essentially dedicating himself to the narrator's ideas on suffering in Keats' poem, it is in this clip that Gotham's Bruce Wayne first understands the value of pain, a decision that will truly prepare him for and shape him into the iconic Batman.

One issue to consider is whether or not the Gotham-world Wayne encounters matches up with Keats's--in the Ode to a Nightingale or in any of the other poems we have discussed. The world Pophyro enters is replete with passion, lust and violence, but also offers pleasure and, ostensibly, future satisfaction to those willing to risk entry. In the odes we have been examining, though, it might be observed that the conditions producing pain and suffering (physical and emotional) are cosmic rather than human in point of origin. Does it make a difference?

P.V.

In this clip from The Dark Knight Rises, Bruce Wayne attempts to escape prison and return to save Gotham from destruction. Villain Bane had engaged Batman months earlier, delivering a blow that nearly broke his back. In order to fulfill his plan to nuke the city, Bane leaves a crippled Wayne in this underground, foreign jail where escape means making a possibly fatal jump across the mouth of the pit. Though Wayne spends weeks recovering and training, driven by both a terrible rage and a desire to protect his people, he fails to successfully make the jump. It is only when he attempts the leap with no support and the fear of death that he is able to land on the other side and escape.

This scene focuses on the power of physical pain, as every failed jump is agonizing and Wayne pushes his body to the limit, but its real message lies in mental pain. As characters, both Bruce Wayne and Batman celebrate pain to a certain extent, maintaining the Keatsian idea that pain roots them to the physical world and their own humanity. For a masked vigilante who is often seen as a god to his people, this kind of link is, for obvious reasons, a valuable one. As the speaker in Keats’s “Ode to a Nightingale” and "Ode to Melancholy," Wayne sees the medication, or solution, to his physical symptoms to be physical as well. What he is missing is the understanding of the influence the mind has over the body. The narrator in both these Keats poems similarly respects a deep connection with the physical, advocating for a better union between these two intrinsic parts of humanity. While this incantation of mental suffering is quite different than the physical pain depicted in Gotham, both versions of Bruce Wayne employ torment as a molding tool, one that ultimately makes them more devoted to their cause, a concept Keats championed through his poetry.

Fascinating: a really fine application you might expand in order to explore the efficacy of fear and of mortality--the lesson Wayne learns in this scene from the film. The human body, no matter how well-conditioned and youthful, never exceeds its own mortal limitations. Understanding this, the movie clip seems to suggest, remains the true secret to strength and self-mastery. To what extent do you see Keats undergoing a similar process in the two odes? In what ways do fear and knowledge of mortality make him powerful, and what form of expression does that power assume in these poems? 

P.V.

The Star Trek Original Series episode “The Menagerie” Parts I and II follow, through a convoluted explanation of events, former Captain Pike’s attempts to reach a planet he once visited in his travels, and regain the physical body of his youth. The episode begins with the crew of the Enterprise visiting Pike in the hospital, who is recovering from a terrible burn that leaves him disfigured, confined to a wheelchair, and unable to communicate beyond answering simple “yes/no” questions. Upon speaking with his old commanding officer, Spock overwhelms Pike’s guards and brings him on board the Enterprise, tricking the crew into setting a new course towards the planet Talos IV. Spock then turns himself in, and at his court martial, explains the events that occurred the last time Pike visited this planet: he and his crew were kidnapped by a group of telepathic aliens who held them captive. They experience several different visions that these aliens, the Talosians, create in an attempt to manipulate one of the men into staying, and becoming a bride for their young female charge. Later, however, Pike realizes that the girl’s beautiful appearance was entirely a fabrication of the Talosians; in reality, she is an old, crippled woman. Pike, now confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak, wants to return to Talos IV, so they can manipulate his appearance and body as well, deciding to live in a dream world for the rest of his days.

While Keats similarly experienced a collapse or decay of the body, his ideas on an ideal life are very different from that of Pike. In both “Ode to a Nightingale” and “Ode on Melancholy,” he advises against numbing bodily pain, insisting that doing so will make you lose your sense of humanity and connection with your body. To Keats, living in a fantasy world is not a way to spend your time or live your life. To Pike, however, this is the only world he wants to live in, to the extent that he will jeopardize the careers of two Starfleet commanding officers to achieve it. Considering the type of physical suffering Pike endures, where he is essentially trapped inside his own mind, it is possible to look at his desire to live with the Talosians as an attempt to re-establish that connection with the body that he now does not have. Either way, Star Trek's "The Menagerie" illustrates clearly bodily suffering and the mental dream worlds that result from it, things that Keats experienced first hand.

In some ways Captain Pike resembles the knight in "La Belle Dame Sans Merci," except that Pike, evidently, was not done in by a woman, (though, now that I think of it, early on in The Menagerie the girl (I can't recall her name) lures him to the underground cage the Talosians have prepared for him. The now disabled Pike lives apparently with no purpose--confined to a motorized chair, "alone and palely loitering." And I think you are right, Kiera. His body and spirit--that is, the man still trapped inside--remain disconnected--hence the radical option of reentering the fantasy world that will rejuvenate him.

P.V.