Yay Done!(no spoilers)
Not a total yay though, since like many I regret that the Harry Potter series is over. I have some problems with Rowling’s writing sure- always too many info dumps at the end of the books and a lot of the mechanics of the plot could be streamlined more to avoid unnecessary convolution. But she certainly knows how to get the reader all wound up and engrossed in her world, and that’s no mean feat. I go on endlessly about how stories should be about how things happen rather than what happens, but sometimes it really is okay to be about the events. Lately I’ve had my head up my ass with my own work and me, me, me, and it was great to get sucked back in the Potterverse and spend my spare thinking time wondering things like how is Harry going to find all the horcruxes?
With every installment of the series to come out there’s been the usual grousing from the literary corners, which is to be expected. Writer X over here has broken ground and done exceptional work, and Writer Y back here even wrote about young wizards in training years before, and neither of them ended up owning most of Scotland. But I think that’s the difference between creating good prose and creating good myth, which is what Rowling seems to have done. A prime example of that split is that wacky couple of the Romantic era, Percy and Mary Shelley. There’s no argument that Percy was the better writer, but good luck finding anyone off campus who can name one of his works, while many infants’ first word is FRANKENSTEIN. And not to be too critical of her craft, she was only nineteen when she wrote it. But tapping into something with mythic resonance isn’t something that can be calculated and executed with that purpose, as all of Hollywood finds out on a regular basis (though they never learn). As far as I can tell, it’s about purely following instincts and then I guess being part of a zeitgeist helps.
Several elements contribute. The name “Harry Potter” has a good ring to it, and it sticks where much more clever names may not. And Rowling made some unconvential choices there that worked- giving Hermione her name that few readers knew how to pronounce, and giving the other heroic figure a last name like Weasley. Had someone tried to begin this story in the realm of screenplays, neither of those would have survived the first cut. Lest you think names aren’t a big deal and are easy, I promise you that finding the right name for something is often all the difference. I’ve written whole stories faster than I’ve arrived at the character’s names, often having to use a placeholder name. Not that her naming skills are the Big Decider, but it’s one of many unquantifiable factors.
The world was also apparently ready again for Boarding School Fiction, which as Neil Gaiman mentioned recently is always more pleasant than the actual experience. And the books create a place readers wish they could have gone to school (especially in America, as public school in the United States is also not a pleasant experience), often focusing on details that other books neglect, like the food. Rowling makes us eat a lot in these books, and I have to believe that gets us into her world in a primal way. And we want a big giant friend and invisible cloak. The repetition of it makes it familiar and comforting. It’s escapism that’s very consistent.
I know the greatest factor is the characters, but everyone talks about that, so I won’t. On the whole the series is rewarding, with each book being a bit better than the last. Except for one a few back that I thought dragged for a while- was it number five? Anyway, I had fun reading them as an adult and I think my kids will as well in a few years. They won’t have to wait between books, which is I actually do think is a loss in this case, again due to the event nature of the series. Time will tell.
Okay, if anyone wants to talk about the details of Deathly Hallows, I hereby label the Comments section SPOILERIFIC, stay out if you haven’t read it yet!
Posted August 8th, 2007 in Books
Comments:5
Comments
Comment from Parker
Time: August 8, 2007, 1:43 pm
I think Shelley saw that coming when he wrote the Ozymandias piece- again, smart guy!
Yes on less Horcruxes, and triple-yes on the tent-time. They didn’t need to be out for weeks at a time just to make it coincide with the school year. Once he asked Harry to be Godfather, he might as well have shot himself on the spot, because that’s where that’s going. Dylan Meconis tells me that in an interview Rowling didn’t want to kill them but felt more adults had to die, and that Mr. Weasley would have been too much. I see that, you just couldn’t have a nice Ron moment at the end with his folks dead. The twins should have known they had it coming, there’s one to spare. If they were meta-aware, Fred would have been high-fiving everyone after losing the ear. Killing Percy would have been too obvious, since no one likes him anyway.
I really thought Draco was going to do something noble, and that Dudley’s change of heart at the beginning was foreshadowing that. Psyche on me!
Colleen Coover here agrees with me that Sirius was supposed to come back but Rowling ran out of room. Again, we could have pushed some things back to book five where it dragged for so long! Or was that six? Dang, I just realized the horcruxes were based on the number of books…
Comment from Eric
Time: August 8, 2007, 5:04 pm
See, I thought about Percy (Weasley, not Bysshe Shelley) what you thought about Draco; after having been a shit to his family for the past, what, three, four books, he’d realize that by your family is the place to be when sides are being chosen. And he’d make some sort of noble sacrifice to save them in the end. As it was, his story seemed more angular than circular.
If Mr. or Mrs. Weasley had died, I probably would’ve stopped reading and thrown the book away.
The thing that bothered my wife that I didn’t notice at first, was how unfair it was that Harry got to name his kids after everyone he’s ever known that died, but Ginny doesn’t get to pay tribute to her dead brother George? Unfair!
Comment from Brett
Time: August 8, 2007, 6:48 pm
My big gripe was the plot twisting to make the book last the whole school year, even though we aren’t at school for any of it really. I thought it was the best book of the last three by far, book five was waaaay to long, book six was starting to fall into wizard mumbo jumbo land and waaaaay to long. This was a decent read, just a bit convoluted do to the school year mold it had to follow.
I was suprised by the mildness of the deaths really. I never really warmed to Remus and Tonks much, I knew they had to lose at least one Weasley and I had suspected we would lose at least one character of the Hagrid level and was suprised we didn’t. Overall losing 50 wizards is a pretty small price to pay to lose the wizard world’s Stalin/Hitler combo.
I did laugh at the take over of the ministry. If it was that easy why didn’t they do that in book three or so. Hey, lets just take one of the staff over and use them to take over other key members of staff. Done in no time. Some of the wizard world nuances were just lost on me I guess.
Still good books and good fun. I do wonder how people will feel about them in twenty years or so.
Comment from Parker
Time: August 8, 2007, 9:04 pm
Eric, I thought that too about naming a kid George, and then realized it was more likely that Fred would have done that with one of his kids. Once he found a woman who dug his one ear style.
Brett- I ditto those thoughts on the school year and this being the best o’ the last three.
Comment from Eric
Time: August 8, 2007, 1:17 pm
Percy Shelley? I think I saw his name on a half-destroyed pedestal in the desert somewhere. No idea what his works were, though, if they were mighty, or if I should despair….
(Ironic that you’d cite P. Shelley as one whom time has forgotten, considering).
My very critical knee-jerk response was originally:
Cut the number of Horcruxes they had to find. Skip all that sitting around in tents being moody. Skip all the “what a wonderful coincidence” things like the light-grabber being a teleporter. Have them get to Hogwarts earlier to witness firsthand the rule of Snape. Don’t kill both Tonks and Lupin, which struck me as a way of making another orphan for a second series of Rowling-penned books. Kill Percy instead of Fred, which would seem a more complete tale for the Weasleys. Drop the “Nineteen Years Later” chapter. Too much schmaltz. Albus Severus Potter? Poor kid.
In hindsight, I think when I wrote that, I was more subconsciously disappointed that this would be the last outing for Harry and the gang, and I wanted it to end on a more perfect note than it did.
I really, really, really want to try my hand at writing juvenile fiction now though….