More Harry Potter to Come? Perhaps…
I’m not entirely surprised to hear this.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Harry Potter Book 7 (with spoilers)
I am reposting this from my blog where I often muse about the whole genre of the fantastic
I made some predictions on [this] blog about how I thought the 7th Harry Potter book should go to wrap things up, and so here I am to discuss how close or far from the mark my predictions hit.
The one that I felt I hit spot on was Snape. I knew it had to go this way, but I have to give Rowling a whole lot of credit for keeping the suspense going as long as she could on this question. It was, in my estimation, the best handled of the 3 things I’d made predictions on. The whole ending to the Snape thread of the story was very, very well done. I had not thought of the use of the Patronus or the Pensieve, but they were both perfect touches. I liked the name of the 2nd son too. Nice.
I was a little off the mark with the does-Harry-die question, but also sort of on the mark too. I said he had to die (and he did), but also that I didn’t think and author would quite dare to depart from the Hollywood ending these days (and she didn’t). For me, this was a bit disappointing. I liked it all the way up to the 19 years later. I mean, for all that I liked the name of the 2nd son, I’d rather not have seen the whole tidy, suburban family ending. Though I suspect I know a couple of boys who are going to find great satisfaction in this ending when they are old enough to read the story themselves. I think I will let that be the thing that makes the ending satisfying for me. Otherwise, it was an anticlimax and, in that sense, disappointing.
Where Rowling never disappoints is that she makes you care about the characters. She just has a knack for that, and is an incredible story teller. You even have a bit of a soft spot for the Malfoys, at last, don’t you? I would still, though, liked to have seen my version of the ending. I thought that Draco might get to play a part in destroying the diadem, thus uniting the houses. I still think incorporating him in the saving the day would’ve helped to make for a less polarized world, which I thought was part of the goal all along. But this seemed to be overlooked in the writing altogether, and is probably the point that disappointed me most. I would’ve liked that to be a part of it.
But, when all is said and done, I have enjoyed the series immensely. Watching the unfolding of the story has been great fun. I don’t know when I have ever looked forward to a book’s release with quite the same sort of innocent anticipation as I have with this one. And, even though I’ve used the word “disappointed” above, I really wasn’t. It’s been a fun read.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
More than One Way to Read The Da Vinci Code
In an earlier post, I talked about ebooks and audiobooks as an alternative form of reading. This all ties in with an article I wrote more than a year ago at my other blog site, and am now posting here:
When I first “read�” The Da Vinci Code, I didn’t read it at all. I listened to it on audiobook (on my iPod, downloaded from Audible). I only later read the book when some of my students wanted to do an informal discussion group on it. It was an interesting thing to see how different the experiences with the text were.
A little background here. I was a reluctant user of Audiobooks in the first place. I have always loved the feel of book in hand, eyes moving across the page, and the silent spaces in which my mind could be captured by the story at hand. My dad started listening to audiobooks long before I did, and often said how great it was. I was still reluctant to try, feeling it would not be as engaging, and a sort of “cop-out�” as opposed to “real” reading.
The first time I tried listening to an audiobook was on a long roadtrip with my two best friends. We had all been following the Harry Potter series, and the fourth book was coming out just as we were beginning an 20-hour road trip. We listened to the book together, and were delighted by the experience. It was so much fun. You can listen to a book together in a way that you can’t possibly read together. The three of us still (about five years and two Harry Potter books later) often joke about the way Voldemort hisses “Nagiiiini….�” each time he calls to the massive snake.
So, I developed an appreciation for listening in at least one situation — on a long trip with friends. Oh, and only with the caveat that the book should be “fun,�” and something that would provide for plenty of material for chatting over stops for lunch, etc. And so I signed up for an account at Audible (where audiobooks can be quite affordable), and began listening to books I considered “lightweight.�”
Over time, I listened to heavier stuff too — The Iliad was one of my favorite listens. And I began to realize how valuable listening is for certain sorts of texts, especially poetry and plays. I have since listened to a great deal of Shakespeare’s plays, and a great number of poetry collections too.
But it was my experience with The Da Vinci Code that really surprised me. I didn’t expect to find listening to be in any way a more rigorous form of engaging a text than reading. I still considered it secondary, except perhaps for poetry and plays where the aural aspect of language is so important. But I was surprised. In listening to The Da Vinci Code, I didn’t have a choice. I couldn’t skim over Teabing’s lectures, and I couldn’t cheat and look ahead (or back even). It required a different sort of attention, I realized, to hear a book instead of to read it.
I was even more surprised by another discovery when I read the book. In reading, the breakdown I find in the narrative, when Teabing begins his lecture, was covered over. It was something I could skim over quickly, and move on to the more important parts of the narrative. But this was not true when listening. The text was fully exposed, and it moved at a pace not of my choosing. The listening experience is not controlled by the listener, but by the reader and the text. It seems obvious to me now, but I had to experience it to realize it. In this sense, I was a more careful and engaged listener than reader. And that has helped me reevaluate my opinion about the two means of engaging a text.
Friday, March 9, 2007
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: my predictions… how about yours?
I am really looking forward to the upcoming release of the 7th and final Harry Potter book. The series so far has been very well put together, especially from the perspective of genre expectations. I am very anxious to see how Rowling will pull it all together in the end.
One side of me tells me that Harry will die. He is the archetypal hero who dies for the good of the people, marked from birth, orphaned, separated for a time from the world he is destined to save… all of it. I think that would make for a satisfying story if he suffered a heroic, redemptive death, and it would put to rest the possibility of continuation of Harry’s story (though not the other wizards in his world). But I wonder if the author of such a popular series and character would be brave enough to do that these days. After all, Hollywood endings have shaped the reader’s expectations as much as anything, nowadays. It would be a bold step, though very in tune with the genre traditions. I just wonder whether it will be done. If it is, then Rowling really has my admiration.
I do suspect, one way or another, that we will see Snape redeemed. Either he isn’t really evil now, and has done all he has had to do in order to help Harry, and to achieve Dumbledore’s ends (I suspect this is true). Or, if he is really in league with Voldemort, and has been all along, then I think we will see some scene of redemption along the way. Redemption has been too important a theme for it to be left aside here at the end, and Snape’s story has been so perfectly woven to powerfully incorporate this theme.
I likewise expect to see Malfoy come into play, in a scene of he and Harry coming to some alliance, burying the past. This will mean the reunification of the 4 houses, and a new “magic” of unified power. I think that will become a key issue in the final book. With Slytherin back in the fold, so to speak, it will make the magical world less polarized, and thus more powerful. At least, so it should go.
It will be exciting to see what actually happens in the books. And it would be fun to hear other predictions. I’ll watch the comments section below to see them.
