Ok, I’ll be nice and just write SPOILER ALERT in really big letters here. If you haven’t finished Harry Potter yet you should probably skip this post. Actually, if you’ve had the book for a week and a half and haven’t finished it there is probably something wrong with you. This isn’t something you purchased just to have it on the bookshelf. If you think it is sad that a 33 year old guy is about to propose a master’s thesis on a children’s book I suggest that you just scroll to the end of the post, check out the five random CDs for the week and then come back later in the week when I post my top 20 Simpsons episodes of all time as well as another in a series of in-depth analysis of Generation X. Not sure if either of those are more interesting or relevant than Harry Potter but at least it’s something different.
It’s rather difficult to put any sort of critical measurement next to the Harry Potter series. It was never meant to be literature so arguing that it is not great art misses the point. It is meant to be more of a children’s book so most of the framework that I have in order to call something a good book or not just doesn’t apply here. I’m the wrong age group and the fact that I’ve followed the series might speak more to the quality of the books (and to a lesser extent, the marketing campaign) than anything.
To that extent I can’t call Deathly Hallows a bad book. It is not the best book of the series as that is Azkaban, which was the best marriage of Hogwarts and character advancement along with the introduction of the best character that Rowling ever created in Sirius Black. I wasn’t disappointed in the latest book as most of its flaws are due to the fact that it is the last entry in an epic series and that means that much of the book is spent tying up loose ends. You have to get every character on stage, hold the big battle and explain everything that has ever happened and that tends to make for an unwieldy book. Rowling does a pretty good job at keeping everything moving.
Not to say that there are no flaws. About 150 pages in the middle of the book consist entirely of Harry, Ron and Hermione hanging out in a tent in a forest with nothing happening. A few people are brought up and then disappear. Am I the only one who wonders what happened to Luna’s dad? We never hear him mentioned again, even by Luna. In fact, none of the characters bring up the fact that a) Luna’s dad tried to sell them out and b) they blew up their friend’s house in the escape. You’d think this would be a point of discussion, especially when they meet up with her. There is also Rowling’s unnerving tendency to have the plot revealed by having characters read newspapers aloud. It’s a rather lazy way of writing, much in the same way as you have to wonder why Voldemort would call a cease fire in the battle for the seemingly sole purpose of having Harry run off by himself and look into the pensieve while no one noticed that the Chosen One has disappeared in the middle of a battle.
Of course, that scene does lead into one of the best scenes that Rowling ever wrote, which is Harry walking to his death joined by the ghosts of his parents and Sirius and Lupin, who was apparently killed off to add a fourth to the party. (It was apparently going to be either him or Mr. Weasley.) Now that is a great moment, Harry entering the forest knowing that he is going to die with his parents appearing to tell him how proud they are. And when Harry walked into the camp unarmed I thought that he was really going to die.
Which he kind of did, or didn’t, depending on how you read the next chapter. My view is this, Harry and Voldermort are both killed and their souls go this sort of eternal waiting room where Dumbeldore nicely tries to explain everything. It still is unclear as to why Harry lives, something about his blood running through Voldemort’s veins which doesn’t make sense as to why he can then kill Voldemort later on. Or why we had to stop everything once again to have a metaphysical discussion but that’s the only way to get to the last duel and the happy ending.
There’s bloodshed along the way, of course. You can’t have a huge battle without deaths. I believe that Fred Weasley was killed simply due to the fact that given the sheer number of Weasleys one of them had to die so it was pick a twin. It was sad to have Lupin and Tonks die but it did create symmetry as their newborn son Teddy would now be an orphan with Harry as the godfather. I’m happy that Hagrid didn’t die though it was mainly to have him carry Harry’s lifeless body to Hogwarts. And I am stunned and overjoyed that Neville both survived and got to be a hero. He was probably my favorite minor character.
(But seriously, pulling a sword out of a hat? Even I don’t write anything that bad.)
Would I have killed Harry? That’s a real question. From my point of view, it would have been better from a literary point of view for him to make the ultimate sacrifice to prevent evil from taking over the world. But that is looking at it from an adult’s world view where noble sacrifice ends in death. At the end of the day, this is a children’s book and the hero has to live to see the end.
And the end might be the one part I question. The epilogue is written simply to show that everyone has lived happily ever after. Ron and Hermione are married with kids (and I assume that Ron spends most of his nights at the pub with Hagrid trying to avoid Hermione’s incessant nagging. Imagine that for the rest of your life.) Harry and Ginny get married and have their little kids. All of them go off to Hogwarts and are happy. It’s nice to know that everyone lived happily ever after but it does kill any sense of drama or progress. You know nothing other than they have turned into these thirtysomething couples who are now battling lower back pain. I’m not sure if it made the story any better. But it’s a fairy tale and you need to have “All was well” as the last words.
In the end, Rowling has done something that places her in the same realm as C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein. First of all, no one can remember her first name, only her initials. But more importantly, she has created her own mythology that struck a chord in the public and it is more than just a fad. There is a real power to the work and it can vary between being touching and funny and invigorating. Not bad for a children’s book.
(Still, if you need to read more about wizards I cannot recommend enough Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. Several times I came back from England with several copies of his books because they just weren’t printed in the states yet. Just a great series of books.)
The five random CDs for the week:
1) Iris DeMent “Lifeline”
2) The Handsome Family “In The Air”
3) The Iguanas “Plastic Silver 9 Volt Heart”
4) Peter, Bjorn and John “Writer’s Block”
5) Bruce Robison, Charlie Robison and Jack Ingram “Unleashed Live”
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