The Oxford Effect

In this episode, we discuss the Oxford Effect. Enjoy!

Topics/Summary:
·     00:00 Intro

·     2:13 Thank you listener for pointing out the easter egg that McGonagall used to play quidditch!

·      3:14 What is the Oxford Effect? It is the melding of the Harry Potter books and the world. This is a rather difficult thing to understand and explain because it is two mediums that don’t mix. Check out this video to get an idea of what I visualize (spoilers for Rings of Power). Watch the ball!

·     8:38 Why is this called the Oxford Effect? Not only is Oxford an old Harry Potter looking place, but it is also a filming location and is a living example of Harry Potter. The filmmakers used Oxford to create Harry Potter.

·     Lacock is another place where Harry Potter is present with the very old style of building and roads.

·     13:14 What does the Oxford do for the story? It makes Harry Potter so much more alive. We can read about the Hogwarts express, watch Ron’s hand against the window in the film, then go to the Hogwarts Express in the UK. 

·     16:12 Why should it be pointed out? It is the entire reason for the continuation of Harry Potter. Without it, the fandom would be stagnant and dead. The Oxford Effect is what gives meaning to the Harry Potter world in the real world.

·     20:11 This only grows over time. This is because the books and films don’t change while the fandom does. The original story isn’t racing to catch up. It rather acts as an anchor to hold and facilitate the growth for the Harry Potter universe. 

·     22:24 Why do I love the Oxford Effect so much? It has allowed for the Harry Potter universe we know today. Without it, there wouldn’t be any fan sites or spinoffs. There would be the books, and that’s it.   

Having anything you want to hear or say? Click here for a voice submission or here for text.
ThePotterDiscussion@gmail.com
@thepotterdiscussion on Instagram
Sign up for The Quill and Ink Newsletter
thepotterdiscussion.com

Transcript

VO:
Welcome to the Potter discussion.

Oscar:
Welcome back to the Potter Discussion, discussing Harry Potter fantastic beast in the wizarding world fandom. I'm your host, Oster, and this it's episode 153. Thank you all for joining me on this lovely day for yet another episode of the Potter discussion. I am very pleased that you could join me for this episode because it is a good one. This is an episode that I've had the back of my mind for a really long time. And it was before I went to the Harry Potter studio tour and Oxford and La Lacock. It was before all of that, and when I eventually did go to the UK, that's when I could really put a name to this and really understand what it was, because it was kind of just an idea, almost like festering the back of my mind. I wasn't really thinking about it, but I was at the same time I had to kind of make sense. But today I'm going to be exploring that idea and really explaining what it is and what it does for the fandom. So I want it to be super scientific here. So I'm calling it The Oxford Effect, which is what this episode is all about. And pretty much in a nutshell, what this is, is the melding of Harry Potter in book form and in the real world. And there are almost like points on Earth that do this very well. Oxford is one of them. Hence the name. Harry Potter Studio is a major one and also filling locations like Lake Hawk and other places like that. But of course, the Harry Potter Studio Tour London Effect does not have the same ring to it. So the Oxford Effect is what we are sticking with for today. But this is like the most scientific thing I could ever come up with. That's the extent of my scientific ability. So giving effects, cool names. So that and of course I will explain what this all means in this episode. So make sure you stick around because there is some good stuff coming your way. Before we get into the episode, I will give a quick shout out to a listener who emailed me just this past week, who was pointing out a very interesting Easter egg in Harry Potter and the philosopher Snow in the film. In the Quidditch Case of Awards, when Hermione shows Harry, that quidditch is in his blood, there is a plaque for James Potter and right behind it is Minerva McGonigal. M McGonagle. So McGonagle is a quiz player, which I think is maybe why she has a soft spot for Harry when he blatantly breaks the rules and why she recognizes his talent, not his mouthfeasons. So thank you very much, a dear listener, for submitting that awesome nugget. I will be looking out for it next time I rewatch The Philosopher Stone. And if you want your little nugget set on the show, make sure you send me an email? My email is departerscusion@digital.com. That is departerscusion@gmail.com. All right, let's get into today's episode. We should probably understand what the Oxford effect is before we really get into the meat of this episode. So that is what we are going to start this episode off with. What is the Oxford effect? Now, I did pioneer this name, so you can laugh all you want, but I love it because it sounds so like I said before, it sounds so official and scientific. I can see a book in the future named The Oxford Affect because I heard this episode and said, you know what? I'm going to write a book about that. So that's why I titled it The Oxford Effect. But what is this? What is this mysterious effect? Well, it is essentially what I have previously said in the intro to this episode. It is the melding of the Harry Potter world in the books and in the real world. So this is a very confusing topic and when I had to think through before really writing this down and flushing out the idea. So I'm definitely going to try to take this slow because it doesn't really make sense because it's two mediums that don't mix. So I mean, like the real world Harry Potter, of course the story is set in the real world, but the world is a complete fantasy at the same time. So it makes it difficult to really understand how things are. Like, there's like a Venn diagram that has 14 different bubbles and they don't overlap, that kind of thing. So this effect is really examining those bubbles and understanding how we can make them overlap. So that's kind of what we're going to be talking about today. That is essentially what this effect is, but kind of a good example because I know exactly what I'm trying to say, but it's hard to get it across. Okay, I'm going to use a Rings of Power example here. So if you haven't seen Rings of Power, the new Lord of the Rings show on Amazon, I highly recommend. Of course, it is lovely. But also, there is a very good representation of the Oxford Effect on Rings of Power. I'll try to link to it in the show notes. So if you haven't watched that, make sure you click that link because it's very important to understand really what I'm saying here. In the Lord of the Rings universe, there are these, like, seeing balls, like Polencia or pelinsar, something like that. And there are these balls that are full of magic and you can touch them and wave your hand mysteriously over them and you can kind of see the world around you, see futures, have visions, talk, like across miles and miles, very magical, mysterious things. And in The Rings of Power, there is a scene in which the queen and Galadrial character are around one of these magical objects. And the queen activates that, I guess you could say. And basically. So the ball is like nearly beside like a basketball or something. And what happens is the energy collects and then it kind of breaks out. Which is like if you have like a jar of gas that is colored and you can see that versus the air. Versus that gas. And you break the jar and the gas kind of seeps out and it kind of tins the air. That's kind of what the scene is. The energy flows out of the ball and kind of like cracks and flows into the atmosphere around it. That is why I'm trying to get out here. And that is the basics of this, the idea that energy and story and character and all these different things seep out of Harry Potter and almost join with the real world. So that is what we are going to be talking about today in a very small nutshell. That is almost impossible to really describe what this effect is really how I see it. Because there's so much here. There's so much to unpack. Because there is so much story that it is almost impossible to really understand how the entire thing can be joined with us. With Earth. With the world. And in story form. Nonetheless. So it is an amazing feat by the story. And it is one that I think is why it is still around and still so popular and still affecting so many lives, because it has really joined, it has been welded in place in the world of literature and in the world of humans, of the world, like I've been saying. So it is crossing many lines and expanding many places. And this is just an exploration of how the story is breaking out of the jar, is the energy is cracking into the real world and how filming locations and behind the scenes and recreations of offices and artwork and everything, how that just helps the fandom the story and us. So that is what we're going to talk about this episode. So let's get our hands dirty here and really talk about this effect further. All right, so now that I at least hope you have a basic understanding of what we're getting at here, we can really talk about this as a whole. So let's start off with why is it called The Oxford Effect? Well, I'm calling it this because, like I said, the Harry Potter Studio Tour, London Leviston does not have the best ring to it. So Oxford is the next place on the list that I could think of to put as the title of this. And I'm calling it that because Oxford is a filming location and there are many different places around the campus that Harry Potter use to film scenes there's, scenes from almost every film. There's, of course, on the many colleges. To do with Oxford is great. How? Because the campus is very large, very old, and very Harry Potteresque and the architecture and the everything is very much what Islamic we're going for. And they took a look at Oxford, designing everything else. They weren't just basing the architecture in the story. That was not in filling in Oxford on Oxford because they had to make it consistent. They did it the other way around. They based their architecture on Oxford because they thought it was similar to what they wanted to do in the tour that I took. The tour guide was telling us about how they used many of the different places and architecture and style of build to develop the Harry Potter world, which is why it seeps so heavily crossborders from Harry Potter and Oxford. So that's why it's called the Oxford Effect because this is really where the heart of it lies. Where the filmmakers were designing Hogwarts, were designing the Great Hall and everything, where we're really thinking about what things they wanted to put in and really understanding more about the characters and where the story was going so they could make a set and an environment that is one of the best that we've ever seen. So that's why it's called the Oscar de facto. But there are several other places where this happens and it is mainly the three that I was talking about. The Harry Potter studio tour is definitely the most because it is designed for this. It is designed to blur the borders between story and real life. So that doesn't really surprise me. Oxford is the second one for sure. That is a huge one. And of course Lake Hawk is the third. And not only because it is a filming location, but because that is like what I imagine Hogs need to be. Take away the cars, take away the shops well, make the shops old timing. Take away the paved roads and you have Hogs me. I mean, if you ever have the pleasure to go there, absolutely just close your eyes for a second and forget your own asshole. And there's a car next to you and then there's a stand of newspapers. Just look at the houses and the old wood and the farm houses and the stalls and the old buildings. Just really feel Hogs me there because, I mean, the spirit was alive. It's not Halloween yet, but I can definitely feel the spirit of Hogsmeade there. So that is another place that I would put on that list. And of course there are far too many to list. All the family locations are so Harry Potteresque. There's an unimaginable number. And it extends even farther than that because there are places that look like the family locations. I mean, it doesn't have to be that exact lock in Scotland. It doesn't have to be that exact mountain in, I don't know, China or Japan or Russia or Argentina, whatever. I don't know why those are the first questions that came to mind. But there is so much to Harry Potter that it's like putting a paper towel over water. It immediately just, you know, one, it starts by like a little pin prick and then it just goes. It just goes and you can't stop it. You have to get either a ton of paper towels or just leave it because that is exactly what we have done as people of the Phantom. So that is what kind of a list of other places where this occurs. But now we should get into the larger view of this and really understand what it does for the story. What does the Oxford effect do for the story? That is the next point to this discussion. What does this whole thing have to do with Harry Potter and what does it do for the story? That is generally what we are talking about in this point. I think the overarching theme is that it makes it so much better and so much richer and more vibrant and so much more alive. That is a good word. This makes the story so much more alive. And I think that's for several reasons. One, we can see the story on screen. We can read about it in the books and we can go to the places, for example, the Hogwarts Express. We can read about how the dementors enter the carriage and then the lights go out and it is, I mean, a fascinating scene to read. Then we watch the film and we see Ron's hand presence the glass and the bottle of water freezing on the table. And then we go to the Hogwarts Express in the UK. And we see it right there. We see the handprint, we see the frozen water. We see the dimmed lights and then we see the candy and the original costumes and scabbards and the wands and we see it all and it just is an element that is almost irreplaceable for anything else because there are very, very few places in the world where this is also the case. There are very few series and stories that have a similar effect to this. I mean, I'm sure there's, I don't know, like Stephen King Land and some kind of Dan Brown universe, I don't know, random offers that I just thought of. I'm sure there's some kind of exhibition or exhibit about them somewhere in the world. But nothing, I can almost guarantee nothing to do with nothing as large as this. That is another major contributing factor to this whole thing. That there is so much to do with the Harry Potter world and yet so much to do with the story and the real world at the same time. That it all melds and it all becomes this huge, one big bubble of just Harry Potter and that covers the real world and the story and the films and everything in between is just enveloped by this atmosphere of Harry Potter which is really what this is all about. So that is really what it does for the story. It makes it richer, more alive, more vibrant, and it gives us an insight into what it means to like Harry Potter. So let's move on. So we've discussed why it is important for the story and really what this whole thing is. But now let's discuss why to be pointed out, because this is another interesting part of this whole thing. So I think the general answer to this question of why should we understand this and why should it be highlighted, is that it is the whole reason for the continuation of Harry Potter and it is pretty much why the story is still alive and everchanging today. That is it. I mean, that is essentially why this is still alive, due to this whole effect, because people are still chasing Harry Potter after all these years, always. We still want more. I also couldn't really put a name to I guess you could call it the sensation, kind of the irritation to seeing Harry Potter filming locations in real life. And I think that more and more applies to me. But I think I should also be pointed out for people out there who are listening to this. Who are also having some thoughts along the same line of how seeing Harry Potter locations in the real world is such like it's so jarring because you're so used to seeing it in book or I mean. I guess reading it in book form or seeing it in film form. That when it slaps you in the face when you're standing right in front of Hogwarts or like the Hogwarts Express. Like when you go to Universal Studios and there's like it's just like it's like Hogwarts. Right? It's like you just see it like it's so bizarre. And walking down the halls that they did and being in the same places, even as the actors, is just such a bizarre but amazing thing. Which is why I make this which is why I do this podcast, of course, but also this episode, because I want to explain that. I want to put a name to that feeling, to this site, to everything to do with this blending of the lines and really understand further what it means. So that is, I think, why it should be pointed out to the world and why individuals who understand kind of what I'm trying to say can relate and know what they are looking at when they go to filming locations in the future and understand what they are what they are seeing, which I think is very important because it's like art, almost. You have a painting that's like four colors and it's very simple and it is impossible to know what is going on. It's simple. It just means nothing to you. But then you see the artist and the title of it and what it means, and then it's like someone turns like the course focus not on a microscope and it just snaps into focus and the micro whenever things align and it's perfect. You can see exactly what it is. You're in the moment, you can see it, you can feel it. That is what I'm talking about here. Because looking at Hogwarts or the Hogwarts Express or costumes or wands or original products, whatever, you see that and you go, OK, that's a shirt and that's a wig and that is a sock. I don't care. But then you understand that that is the sock that you saw with David. That is a wand Harry ripped out of Drake's hand and then used in the final battle. This kind of thing is exactly why we need to understand what we're seeing. So that is why it should be shown to the world, why everyone should have a foot in the same door and why it should be remembered forever. I now want to point on something that is a wonderful thing to do with this, and that is that this only grows as time goes on. This only increases, it only gets bigger and wider and the balloon only expands. And that's because the books and the films don't change, but the fandom does. So the books are not racing to keep up with the ever expanding fandom. It is acting as an anchor point for the explosion of fan add ons, for spin off franchises, for games and merchandise and all these things. So it is only getting bigger, kind of like the ever expanding universe. This is an ever expanding concept and that is a wonderful thing about this because this will only increase in size, it will only reach more people and it can really only get bigger from here, which is awesome. So I am absolutely thrilled that this is something that is not temporary or in any way going away anytime soon. This is absolutely here to stay and it is going to be it is cemented and it's going to be continued to be pushed deeper and deeper into the world and really act as an anchor point and just a nugget of gold for every person to do with Harry Potter. And the barrier to entry to become part of the fandom is very low. The only thing you need to do to become a Harry Potter fan is to read the books, which is not a difficult feat at all, even if you have $0 to your name, go to a library, simple as that, or read excerpts online. Go on, Harry Potter wiki. Go on the Phantom. Go on anything. Just explore. Just get out there. That is really what this is all about. So that is a wonderful thing to do with this. The fact that it is never slowing down, it is always going up, it is always going out, it is always expanding and it will likely stay that way. We've got one final thing to discuss before we close out this episode. And that is why do I love this so much? Why does this Oxford effect so special to me? And why do I continue to point it out and interact with it? Well, it's for a very simple reason. And that is that without this, the fandom is almost dead. You know, there is nothing else to be had about Harry Potter. Once you finish the books and the films. Without this, there is maybe a Harry Potter fan site and then maybe that's it. But with this, with the continuation of everything to do with this, with the spinoff, with the continuation of the story written by fans, with all this stuff like came about by the end of the but brought about by the expansion of the fandom, this has continued to grow and it would kind of turn into a Latin situation where it is stagnant. No one really does anything to do with it anymore and it is just kind of there. If you want to study it and learn more about English, it doesn't really make any sense to learn it. So you can converse with other people in Latin unless you're trying to talk like secret code. So it doesn't make sense to read Harry Potter if it's a Dead series. But when you transform that into a very much alive language, like when I'm speaking in right now, you can really understand that there's so much more than just the words on the page, than the characters on the screen, than the filming locations, that it's all one thing and that it is all working together to achieve the goal of amazingness. To show just how amazing the characters are. The story is the writing, how it is all part of this cloud of interest and love and fear and cowardice, but bravery at the same time. All this stuff just wrapped up into a huge bubble that is ever expanding, that is growing, that is being fed by every single person who gets the books, who watch the films, who are listening to this podcast right now. I mean, you are contributing to the Phantom just by listening to this, which is amazing. So I hope that I've really gotten my point across here because this is something that I think is important to keep in mind as it is what keeps defend them alive. This concept of how the world and the story are becoming one is fascinating, but also almost impossible to comprehend. Is like I said at the very beginning of this episode, the real world and fantasy worlds don't mix. I mean, it's like trying to mix water and oil. They might be together, but they're never part of the same compound. I mean, it's impossible. So extrapolating the story out of the real world is something that we have to work to do. But taking it out, but also leaving it in place, understanding where it is, recognizing how to understand the story and continue to read the books and watch the films and go along with the characters, but leave it in place because we don't want to rip it out. We don't want to remove Harry Potter from the real world. That defeats the entire point of literally everything. So, I mean, the thing you can do right now, if you want to take action and you want to do this, of course, continue listening to this podcast, because that's an amazing way for me and for you to continue interacting with the fandom, but also observe what we have already done. Observe the fan websites and fan fiction and all of these different things. Just do it. Just dive in, look around. Because if you haven't in a while or you've never ever seen more than just the books or the films, then you're in for Treat, because there is so much more than the story to do with this amazing series. So that's it. That is this episode. I hope you enjoyed this, as I decided, because this is a topic that I love talking about, and I'm thrilled that I can talk about it with you. Thank you for joining me on this episode. I'm glad I could record because I had a bit of a computer fiasco. I wiped the computer, which was not a very good move because I was trying to move an account that I don't use anymore, but it wiped everything. So I had to reset every single thing. And I thought I lost like hundreds of dollars of worth of things that I used just for recording this podcast. So I was stretching out for a couple of hours. It's only a couple of days ago. So yesterday and the day before, even just like an hour ago, I was rebuilding this computer because that's what I had to do. I had to redo all my shortcuts and all my apps, and I had to redownload everything and all the plugins and literally everything I had to get again. So I'm glad I could be recording it all today. And even then, I had to start hours after I do. It's almost lunchtime. So that's crazy. But I mean, that was very unimportant. But I hope you are glad that you are listening to this today. There we go. That is it. That's my computer story. That's the episode I hope you've enjoyed. If you have anything to say to me or to the world, make sure you send an email. My email is the Potter discussion@gmail.com. That is the DePotter discussion@gmail.com. You can send me a DM. My Instagram is at the Potter discussion, and my Twitter is at Potter underscore discuss. That is at Potter underscore discuss. You can also use the Contact section on thepotterdiscusion.com Contact, or just select Contact from thepottardiscusion.com there also a lot of fun sections on there for you guys to look over, which is another good way to increase the vendor. So go ahead and check that out. If you want a little dose of Harry Potter for the day, that is that. Thank you for joining me. And as always, remember that happiness can be found even in the darkest of times if one only remembers to turn on. I will see you later.

VO:
This was The Potter Discussion.