I don’t really see how this adds to the tale, but Rowling shared it the other day and now I share it with you.
The Harry Potter News You Didn’t Read
If you haven’t read Deathly Hallows you might want to skip this. Now that the weight of protecting her creation has been lifted JK Rowling has been sharing more information about what happened.
Harry, Ron and Hermione
We know that Harry marries Ginny and has three kids, essentially, as Rowling explains, creating the family and the peace and calm he never had as a child.As for his occupation, Harry, along with Ron, is working at the Auror Department at the Ministry of Magic. After all these years, Harry is now the department head.
“Harry and Ron utterly revolutionized the Auror Department,†Rowling said. “They are now the experts. It doesn’t matter how old they are or what else they’ve done.â€
Meanwhile, Hermione, Ron’s wife, is “pretty high up†in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, despite laughing at the idea of becoming a lawyer in “Deathly Hallows.â€
“I would imagine that her brainpower and her knowledge of how the Dark Arts operate would really give her a sound grounding,†Rowling said.
Harry, Ron and Hermione don’t join the same Ministry of Magic they had been at odds with for years; they revolutionize it and the ministry evolves into a “really good place to be.â€
“They made a new world,†Rowling said.
This doesn’t work well for me. It is too pat, too simple, too easy.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- A Simple Review
****There are no spoilers in this review***
Now that I have completed the seventh and final book of the Harry Potter series I have a few thoughts to share. Nothing too sophisticated or profound, just a few thoughts that are percolating inside my skull.
I enjoyed this book. It was pleasurable and I am happy to have read it, but I feel a bit let down. I haven’t decided if that is because I devoured the book, if I am disappointed to see it end or what. I’ll give it a little more time to mull it over and digest what I have read.
This much I can say with certainty. Rowling didn’t catch me with any unusual twists. Nothing happened that surprised me and I was hopeful that something would. But then again some of the things that took place have been building for virtually the entire series so it is hard not to see them coming.
Still the story held my attention. At no time did I feel like I wanted to stop reading or flip ahead and that is worth a lot to me. I can also say that this is a book that I definitely want to read again.
After some more time has passed and more people finish the book I might write something more detailed than this, but for now this will suffice.
Harry Potter- Deathly Hallows Thoughts and More
Last night I finished re-reading Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince. It was a lot of fun. In some ways I enjoyed reading it more the second time around. This time there wasn’t any concern or worry about someone spoiling the ending for me.
Rowling did an excellent job of creating all sorts of excitement and anticipation about the coming book. It doesn’t hurt that there is an immense amount of hype surrounding the release of Deathly Hallows. If you are a fan of the series it is hard not to get caught up in it all. Not to mention that the media and Scholastic public relations department are working hard to generate more. That is part of why Rowling is asking the public to ‘Help preserve the secrecy’ of Potter.
“As launch night looms, let’s all, please, ignore the misinformation popping up on the web and in the press on the plot of ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,”‘ Rowling wrote in a message posted Wednesday on her Web site, http://www.jkrowling.com/.
“I’d like to ask everyone who calls themselves a Potter fan to help preserve the secrecy of the plot for all those who are looking forward to reading the book at the same time on publication day. In a very short time you will know EVERYTHING!”
Her last line about knowing everything touches upon something that bothers me. When I read Harry Potter or Tolkien I suspend disbelief. I don’t try to view the world as I know it to be. I try to see the world as the author has drawn it. A place in which magic and magical creatures exist. It is a fantasy world and I know it to be that.
The thing that makes me a little crazy is the intense analysis in which armchair pundits try to claim that the author used character XYZ as a metaphor for life or scenario PDQ is really political commentary. That doesn’t mean that sometimes these things aren’t happening, it is just my commentary. I don’t want to get caught up in whether the Ministry of Magic is supposed to be representative of a good or bad government. I just want to enjoy the freaking story.
And now on to my own suggestion of which two characters are going to die in the story. If you don’t want to hear this please stop reading now. I haven’t spent hours and hours thinking about this so consider this to be just the random mutterings of one more fan.
Death Watch: Hermione, Neville, Hagrid and Snape will all die. Stay tuned. It won’t be long until we find out for certain.
Come Play Quidditch With Me
I thought that this was interesting.
Dewey, a student at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, organizes the campus Quidditch club of about 40 Potter devotees imitating the aerial game of the book series.
Although Bucknell has not played its first official game — that is expected in September — Dewey’s club has received $150 from the college to buy supplies, including hula hoops and a volleyball that stands in for the fictional “quaffle.”
Also on the equipment list are the brooms on which J.K. Rowling’s Quidditch players fly around during games and which Bucknell players are required to hold between their legs.
Clearly there are a few things that make this game more challenging than in the book, such as the inability to fly.
Each team consists of 12 to 15 players, seven of whom are on the field at a time. They include a “keeper” to defend the hoops through which scores are made; “chasers” whose job it is to put the quaffle through the hoops; and “beaters” who throw balls called “bludgers” at their opponents.
There is also a “seeker” who chases the elusive “golden “snitch” around campus during the game. The capture of the snitch, usually after about 15 minutes, signals the end of the game.
Dewey described the sport as “mildly full-contact” and said it requires some athletic ability, particularly for seekers, who are typically cross-country runners. It appeals equally to men and women, he said.
Potter fans to Rowling: Save Harry
So I see that CNN is reporting that Harry Potter fans have started a petition to ask J.K. Rowling to keep writing about Harry Potter.
The “Save Harry!” petition calls on Rowling to reverse her decision to end the bestselling series with the seventh and final installment, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.”
“Millions, perhaps billions of us, love reading his adventures and we never want them to end,” says the online petition, launched on Monday at www.saveharrypotter.co.uk.
After spending 17 years writing the books, Rowling said she was both “euphoric” and “devastated” that it’s finally over.
But in a television interview, she left fans with the tantalizing, if remote, possibility that she may one day return to the magical world of Hogwarts.
“I think that Harry’s story comes to quite a clear end in book seven,” she told the BBC at the weekend. “But I have always said that I wouldn’t say never.
“I can’t say I will never write another book about that world, just because I think: ‘What do I know, in 10 years’ time I might want to return to it.’ But I think it is unlikely.”
Even if she does write another book, it is unclear whether some of the main characters, including Harry, would play a part. Rowling said some characters will die in the last book, but wouldn’t say if the boy wizard is among them: “It’s not a bloodbath, but it’s more than two,” she said.
Much as I like the books there is something satisfying about seeing an end to the series. It is not that I cannot conceive of new stories or that I do not have an interest in them, it is just a matter of closure. There is something fulfilling about that as well as concern that the series not be tarnished by stretching a little bit too far.
Perhaps I’ll write more about this later.