The Requisite Harry Potter Post (Part 4)
Spoiler Warning: Don’t say I didn’t warn you, because you just read it.
I finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on Monday night, just under 36 hours after I obtained my copy.
I originally intended this final post in my little series to be kind of look back encompassing all seven volumes in the series. But around the time Harry was plunging into the Pensieve to observe Snape’s memories it became obvious that much consideration would be required on my part before I could do the series justice. That said, I’ve decided to make this post something more along the lines of a simple review, Hopefully at some point in the future I’ll have time to write the paper Harry so richly deserves.
Deathly Hallows was, of course, far off the beaten path of the preceding HP books, with Harry not returning to Hogwarts until the book’s – and series’ – climax was beginning. By sequestering Harry, Ron, and Hermione away by themselves, Rowling gave us several hundred pages of intense friendship study. That makes sense, because that’s really the last of it that we’re going to get.
Personally, I was disappointed with the first hundred pages or so. Everything up until the Bill and Fleur’s wedding just didn’t seem to fit. The best part of this section, obviously, was Harry’s escape from Number 4 Privet Drive, which amounted to the first magical high-speed chase that I’ve encountered.
Hallows may honestly be my favorite HP book, most likely because it is the most adult, which is really Rowling’s genius. In my opinion, these books should never be read, at least for the first time, all at once. Each book escalates in seriousness and maturity. Properly read, a teenager can follow along as Harry ages, so that he is sharing similar experiences at the same time. Obviously, because these are children’s books, Rowling came nowhere close to depicting the relationship situations accurately, because many 17 year olds do a heck of a lot more than kiss. She captures the tone and attitudes extremely well though, in my opinion.
The epilogue was melancholy, which is to be expected, but Rowling did something there that seemed very unusual. Epilogues are usually either important situations, or all-revealing. Rowling chose a suitably mundane situation for her epilogue that reveals everything we expected about the characters without telling us too much.
Finis
The Requisite Harry Potter Post (Part 3)
As I mentioned at the end of Part 2, this will most likely be a short post. However, I happy to inform that there will still be some vaguely interesting info here (in my opinion).
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is a scant five hours and twenty minutes away (this due to the fact that I am currently with my family in a rural town in western Wyoming. If I had stayed at home in the ATL I would have the book two hours sooner.) In any case, since Part 2 I have reserved my copy at the local bookstore, which apparently earned me a 20%. This is the most frustrating thing, because Barnes & Noble (which, this being a rural town in western Wyoming, is not present. Forgive the fragment. Likewise, Borders and other notable bookstores are conspicuously absent) is giving members a generous 40% that gets the book down to a mere $18 and something. I’ll be paying nearly $30. Still, it’s either that or wait, and, shallow, spoiled, impatient, and extravagant as it may seem, I am going to get that book tonight. The local store is, however, a convenient walk from our hotel and will be having a party. I have mixed emotions about this. I really have no interest in go to said party, especially when I have no one to go with and will be surrounded by children who will be up well past their bedtimes at that point. In the other corner (I am trying to find different ways of saying “On the other hand”) is the fact that I have yet to obtain my copy of a Harry Potter book at midnight when it is being released and this is my last chance. The party starts at 10, but I’ll probably show up at 11:15 or so. Whatever.
Anyway, on to the real subject of this post. For the longest time, I was sure that when the series ended, Harry would become the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts. It made sense. Hogwarts could never keep a DADA teacher and Harry was great at it. But now I’m not so sure. Ever since the fifth book, it became too obvious that Harry could become a teacher. It’s still a possibility, but I hate to think that Rowling would be so obvious. Other than that, I’m sure that Harry will survive, as will Ron and Hermione. The biggest question for me is how Harry can hunt down approximately 5 Horcruxes when he has essentially no idea where any of them are. J.K. practically dropped an entire new plotline on us at the very end of the series! I read one interesting theory online, however, that posited that we have already encountered I Hocrux in each book of the series. Another suggested that Harry himself might somehow, through his connection to Voldemort, be one of the Horcruxes himself. Of course, that would mean that Harry would have to die just to kill Voldemort, which I still don’t think will happen. This is a children’s series after all. I’m not sure the main protagonist is allowed to die in a children’s series.
That’s all I can think of to say. I don’t have much in the way of predictions. Lots of thoughts on the series on the whole but those will have to wait until Part 4, after I’ve read the last book. I have a busy and slightly dirty weekend ahead, and since I don’t want to nasty up my copy of the book, I may have to put off reading it until the ride home, which will begin on Sunday night.
Oh look, only 5 hours and 9 minutes to go…
To Be Continued
The Requisite Harry Potter Post (Part 2)
I’m all but too late in posting this, because Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows comes at midnight tonight. I wanted to have a trio or perhaps a full quartet of posts on this topic, but events have conspired against me and I just haven’t had any time until now.
The subject of Part 1 was essentially a timeline of my reading of the books, which I admit is hardly an engaging read. Part 2, however, is about the Harry Potter movies and I hope that I can make it a little more interesting.
I actually didn’t see “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” when it was released in theaters, and was forced to rent it at a later date. I’ve seen all of the subsequent films on the big screen, however, and have been pleased, if not bowled over, each time. At the time of my last post I actually had not yet been able to see the fifth film, but that problem has now been happily remedied.
Most people who have read the books will tell you that they also love the movies. The thing they usually dislike is that the movies stray so far from the book. I can understand this, but I also have to tell these people: get over it. Film is a different artistic medium than the novel. Each has its strengths over the other. Books are excellent for explaining systems, such as the rules of how magic works in a particular fictional world. Explaining this is a film would be both tedious and confusing. Books are also better, most of the time, if the author wants to tell what a character is thinking. Movies, on the other hand, are excellent for depicting action sequences. They can show a complicated maneuver that would be boring when read. For example, a gymnastics routine or a sword fight is much more fun to watch than to read.
In short, movies are objective for the audience, while books are subjective. These simple facts effectively control the media and dictate what can be accomplished through them from an artistic viewpoint. There are, of course, other parameters. Readers are willing to invest hours upon hours in a book, something an audience will never do in the case of a movie. Movies also require massive amounts of money and coordination among individuals working on the whole. Money is usually not paid for a book until it is finished. If it doesn’t work out up to that point, only the author is affected. That’s really all there is to it.
What makes the Harry Potter films interesting, artistically, is that we actually see a group of child stars growing up from one film to the next. That has never happened before, at least as far as I know, on this scale. What’s sad about that is that the previous films look progressively more outdated. Not only are the kids older, but the special effects are better too. Why should we watch “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” with its scratchy CGI and poorly acting 11 year olds when “Order of the Phoenix” is new and improved with smooth graphics and fewer cracking voices? Another drawback with the films is that the various directors seem almost to operate on the assumption that their audience has already read the books, which is usually, but not universally, the case. This leads them to poorly explain things. Readers of the books may not even notice these skips because they were expecting the unexplained thing to happen anyway.
Spoiler Warning: Don’t say I didn’t tell you because you just read it.
That said, I’ll admit that “Order” didn’t quite agree with me. I thought too many liberties were taken with the story and too many events left unexplained. It was clunky for Cho to have betrayed to D.A under the influence of veritaserum and then Harry not forgive her for it. Also, Ron and Hermione didn’t become prefects, Ron wasn’t attacked by a brain, a Death Eater didn’t have his head turned to a baby’s, we never saw St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, and Helena Bonham Carter, who could have been an excellent, sinister Bellatrix Lestrange, just acted like a female Jack Sparrow, with her hair in a big wad on top of her head. Additionally, we saw extensive use of montages, which, while sometimes useful, is something I hate.
On the other hand (which is a phrase I use far too much) I particularly enjoyed the Patronus scene in the Room of Requirement and Evanna Lynch was a great choice for Luna Lovegood. She was amusing and sympathetic at the same time, which is difficult to pull off.
All that said about the most recent film, my favorite so far would probably be “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” which also diverted from the book, but in all the right ways. This would probably be followed a near three-way tie between “Chamber”, “Goblet”, and “Order”, with the first film being a definite last. I also don’t care for Gary Oldman as Sirius. When I read the books now, I still don’t see him as Sirius. He just doesn’t fit the illustrations or the descriptions. He’s too old. However, Maggie Smith is good as McGonagall and Fiennes is decent as Voldemort. Another plus for the first three films was John Williams’ music. It’s unfortunate that he couldn’t or wouldn’t continue for the entire series.
Alright, that is pretty much it for Part 2. Part 3 will hopefully appear later today and will cover my thoughts and predictions for Book 7, which will be here in a matter of hours.
To Be Continued…
The Requisite Harry Potter Post
Just about everyone, me included, is eagerly awaiting the release of the seventh and final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. With just under a week to go, I decided to post my thoughts on the series.
I love the Harry Potter books, which is the case with about 98% of the people who read them. Either that, or about two-thirds like them and the other 33.33% who don’t like them or don’t care have the sense to shut up. The problem with place Harry Potter at the top of the list of your favorite books is that it almost looks like you’re just jumping on the bandwagon, which may be exactly right. I finally discovered Facebook a few months ago, and I’m actually finding the statistics pages to be fairly interesting and useful. True, it’s hardly official, but it’s there for everyone to check. The point is, everyone puts Harry Potter on their favorite books list. It’s the most popular series on Facebook. This is like saying the “The Lord of the Rings” is your favorite series of movies or that vanilla is your favorite flavor of ice-cream or that…oh, I don’t know…“American Idol” is your favorite television show. Practically everyone likes all of these things. It doesn’t say anything about you when you say you like the Harry Potter books. People have never read a book, including the Harry Potter books, like the Harry Potter books. (For the record, “The Lord of the Rings” is my favorite series of movies, vanilla is my favorite ice-cream, and I have never once watched a single episode of “American Idol”.)
I know that there are mixe. d emotions about the final book coming out. I was in the sixth grade when I first read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and I was kind of behind the times at that; Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban had been out for some time and Goblet of Fire was just around the corner. I read the first two books and then got scared off on account of one of my teacher’s reading us an article about how the books were evil and full of witchcraft. Before you call names or get angry or guffaw, I’ll say this: I went to a Christian school for five years, fourth through eighth grades. I didn’t agree with everything they told us, but I understand where they were coming from and, for 98% of what they were saying, I agreed, which is quite a bit more than I agreed with what I learned in the eight years I attended public school (kindergarten through third grade and all four years of high school). I’m glad I attended a private Christian school.
But I digress. I got scared off of Harry Potter for about a year, until I reached the conclusion that it was okay to read them, provided I kept in mind that I was reading a fantasy book. I still believe that it is very dangerous to get involved in witchcraft of any kind. However, the Harry Potter series is hardly realistic in terms of witchcraft. (For goodness sake, I’m pretty sure real witches don’t cast “cheering charms” on people. Incidently, someone used a new Facebook application for casting spells form the books on people to cast exactly that spell on me. I don’t need artificial cheering up! Besides, a “cheering charm” just sounds druggy.)
Anyway, in a move that is unprecedented (for me) I actually read a series of books out of order. I bought Goblet of Fire the day it came out, not having read Prisoner of Azkaban. Consequentially, I had no idea who Sirius was, but I remedied that quickly enough.
to be continued…
Danger: High Voltage
I was in a Quiktrip gas station yesterday, and saw something that cheered me to no end. Livewire has returned. Now, it may have returned months ago, or it may be that it never went away, and it’s simply that none of the gas stations in the South (I’m traveling through Missouri at the moment) have it, but, either way, I’m happy.
Livewire is far and away my favorite of all the Mountain Dew subsidiary brands. I’ve honestly never tried Code Red, but I understand that it’s cherry flavored, so I don’t see a point in bothering to try it, because I hate cherry. I’m sorry, but I do. Everything that’s cherry-flavored just taste like medicine to me. The other flavor was either “Black” or “Black-light”, I’m not sure which, but it was grape-flavored. It was so-so, but nothing to rave about.
Orange-flavored Livewire, on the other hand, is excellent. I prefer it over the original Mountain Dew. Unfortunately, Livewire only seems to spark during the summer, and not even every year at that. I honestly thought it was gone for good, so I am happily proved wrong in this case. Maybe if I’m lucky, the shock won’t wear off.
Grave Matters
Where do you want to be buried? Do you even want to be buried? Obviously, cremation is cheaper, and can probably be considered more environmentally friendly, if you’re really concerned with that kind of thing.
For some reason, I’ve heard this topic come up several times amongst members of my extended family. My dad’s parents come from rural North Carolina and there are quite a few family graveyards up there. One problem is that these tend to fill up. Another is that, following their liberation, women no longer attach themselves to their husband’s families the way the once did. Many parents set aside spaces for their children to be buried with them.
In my opinion, husbands and wives should be buried together. Grown, married children should not come into the equation. Much as I love my parents, when I get married, I’ll have a family of my own. The same thing will be the case with my children. I would like to be buried with my parents, but it is hardly important. Divorces and having children out of wedlock complicate things further. The Bible says that a husband should cleave to his wife. If the pattern of long, ancestral burial plots can be maintained, that is all well and good. But the only real burial tradition should be for man and wife to be buried together in a location of their choosing.
I recently talked to a man who had gone to Japan. One of his business associates took him to the graveyard where the ashes of his ancestors going back a thousand years were buried in a compartment in volcanic rock. This may be feasible in Japan, but it is impossible in the United States. The country is too big and individuals move around too much. That is one advantage of cremation. Harsh as it may sound, people can carry their ancestor’s ashes with them wherever they may move.
Ultimately, the disposal of ones remains is unimportant. If you believe in life after death, as I do, then the location or fate of one’s remains is of no consequence. Whether my soul goes to heaven or hell will be determined by my faith in Christ, not by what is done with my body. And if you are not concerned about your soul, there is still no reason to worry about your body. Within a few generations, you’ll be nothing more than a name in some old family album or something anyway.
Justice League of Scientific Fallacies
Justice League of America #8 has been out for over a month. But I have to bring up this butchery of science.
Normally, comic books seem well-researched when it comes to basic real-life science. They have to be in order to give creedance to the comic book science, i.e. resurrections, telekinesis, etc., they typically employ. For example, Detective Comics #823, in which Poison Ivy appeared, contained mention of some plant biology that I didn’t learn until AP Biology my senior year. That isn’t knowledge one commonly comes across.
Brad Meltzer, writer for the JLA issue in question, is usually quite trustworthy as well. I’ve read The Book of Fate and, while hardly the best thing I’ve ever read, it kept me entertained. More importantly, it seemed to be quiet well researched in terms of Secret Service security, if the acknowledgements are to be believed. Likewise, his other JLA writing, along with ”Identity Crises”, was excellent.
If you’ll open your copies of Justice League of America to pages 12-14 (the exact middle of the book) you’ll see an incident involving Red Arrow, Red Tornado, Hawkgirl, and Geo-Force (if you don’t normally read comic books and you think the names are stupid, shut up and leave). Red Arrow is hurled toward a tree by Red Tornado at 60 m.p.h. at an angle that would break his neck. Hawkgirl flies in to block the collision, risking her own life. When he strikes, however, she says Red Arrow is “weightless” and she doesn’t feel like she’s been hit at all. The explanation is that Geo-Force nullified the force of gravity to make Red Arrow weightless. The problem, which I hope you all noticed right away, is that Red Arrow’s mass and the horizontal velocity of 60 m.p.h. are maintained. The voiding of the gravitational force would have absolutely no effect on the force of Red Arrow’s horizontal impact against Hawkgirl.
This is disgusting. Why didn’t some editor notice this? This is basic, basic high school Physics, or even middle school Physical Science.
The only explantion is that some supervillain, Lex Luther perhaps, has tampered with the laws of physics in his most recent scheme to take over the world or something. Although the repercussions of such a plan would doubtlessly destory the earth. Or the universe. Or, in D.C.’s case, the “multiverse”. So the “taking over” point would be kinda moot.
