I hadn’t planned to read the latest and final excursion into the world of Harry Potter so soon after buying the book (my mom usually reads it first), but after having seen the fifth movie this weekend, I figured, why not? It took me longer than it might have, but I also didn’t go crazy and read at any chance I got. Still, it would have been hard to read it any slower, as I always find this series to be a total page-turner.
The following spoiler-filled rant is much longer than I would have liked, but I don’t feel like cutting anything now…
[spoiler]I guess what I’m most surprised about are the responses in this thread. I never noticed there was an HP discussion here at the forum, though of course I should have. Still, to read through it now makes me feel rather blue. It seems as though most people who have actually followed the entire story (and who remember bits and pieces better than me, who has only ever read each book once) don’t care for it all that much, needlessly compare it to other fairy tales, haphazardly wish for a multitude of fine characters to die unnecessarily, and say that it barely makes a good story. Why the hell do you read it, then?
Grr. I’m not naive for enjoying Harry Potter or thinking it a brilliant tale with many facets of human experience and suffering. It is not just a children’s series and it should not be deemed so. And the plot is good. How else does JK manage to keep so many people enthralled (the book sold over 8.3 million copies in the US on its first day alone)? It’s not just because people are eager to delve into fantasy. This is particularly good fantasy, and it unites many different age groups in a great purpose: reading.
I was appalled to see the many mentions and wishes for certain main characters to parish. Yeah, who cares if Ron or Hermione bite the big one? Bring it on! I hope Harry dies. If he doesn’t, I’ll be so pissed. Oh, no, not Snape! I mean, he was only a total creep throughout the entire series (complex though he was)…
Okay, that may or may not be fair. I considered that either Ron or Hermione, or at least Harry would go. JK has been so cryptic in those few hints she chose to hand out to eager readers. I also did like Snape, and had a deep feeling he was good after all (my mom is going to be so happy when she gets to that part). But I just don’t understand why nobody here seems to like the characters more. It’s like you wanted more people to die, just because it was the end of a series.
I agree that Harry was lucky a great deal of the time, but he was also quite skilled. Not just as a wizard, but as a human being. He was sharp and driven, and he had a good heart. He sacrificed himself in the end, and though scared, he knew it was the only way.
So, in a way, it is like he really died. He was sort of hovering in purgatory with a clear and definite choice. Anyway, I’m getting side-tracked…
She did kill people, though none of them were all that important. I suspected part of the Weasly clan might go, and while it was sad to lose Fred (just think how his twin soul George will carry on without him?), I think it was needed. It seems an author writing this sort of tale has to kill a few semi-important people, or else it will look too implausible.
And I guess that may be one of the reasons that the people here wanted more of the main group to go. Because after all they’d been through, all those close calls, it wasn’t right that they still lived in such a cruel world. Eh. I don’t care that much for realism. I’m not your classic-loving, stories-with heart-but-all-these-horrible-things-happen-and-you-feel-like-crap-at-the-en d sort of person. Forgive me.
But getting back to the deaths, I was a little confused about Lupin and Tonks myself, as I had to read over that description a couple of times: “Harry had a clear view of the bodies lying next to Fred: Remus and Tonks, pale and still and peaceful-looking, apparently asleep beneath the dark, enchanted ceiling…”
If it were me, I would have wrote it “seemingly asleep”, as “apparently” has quite a different meaning, and may be the reason people were confused. Maybe they were just tired after all that battling? chuckles
Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed it. There were some slow parts, but it always astounds me how much JK can pack into one of her novels. I agree that the movie will pale in comparison, but when you’re forced to condense a complicated, 750-page-odd book into a two-and-a-half-hour film, you have to cut like crazy. It’s sad but true.
Oh, and I actually liked the epilogue. It did seem just a wee bit hokey, but I wanted that. I wanted our heroes to have a good end: To live a normal life full of happy moments and family. Naming your children after your dead parents and two dead headmasters is a little weird (though I’ve never been into naming after greatness), but I forgive JK for that. After Harry’s crappy life (he and his friends were 17 and look at what they put up with!) there was normalcy at last. Isn’t that what we strive for? Wouldn’t it have been cheaper (and less considerate to those devoted fans) to end on an epic note with blood everywhere?
I don’t think JK ever lost her touch, or ran out of ways in which to use her rich imagination. And I certainly don’t believe the tale of Harry Potter will vanish in a mere ten years’ time. God, if books like Of Mice and Men can hover around with the status “classic”, this wonderful series better as well. Something that actually makes you “feel good” for once. That’d be a nice change. [/spoiler]
Rant over. I let your guys’ posts get to me.