Here There Be Spoilers
It was a little like Christmas morning, rambling into Borders today just after the store opened and joining the line of people waiting for their copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. But it was even better, in a way, because Christmas comes every year, but how often one get to read a brand, spanking-new J.K. Rowling book?
I spent my entire day reading, and just finished the next to the last Harry Potter book, ever. At first, it was bizarre--I've read each of the earlier titles in the series at least three times, and all of this new material felt impossible, as if I'd wake up at some point and find I'd just been dreaming of the book, which had never really existed in the first place. But my pillow is dented in from where I propped it up, and the world of Harry Potter as we knew it will never be the same.
And neither will ours: We've only got one more book to figure out what it all means, and one more giddy summer Saturday to shrug off real life and get buried in a good book, along with the forty people in front of us in line at the bookstore.
I've realized that it takes more than one reading to fully internalize a Harry Potter book, to ohhh and ahhh at all the slights of hand and their clever skeletons of plots that arch through many lives, many generations. But I liked Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, overall. It had some shortcomings--especially a beginning that felt oddly truncated and in denial of its past. The repercussions we expected from the previous book's end--Harry's mourning for Sirius, the recovery from the battle of the Ministry of Magic, etc.--are swept under the carpet, and The Half-Blood Prince begins with a clean slate. Harry is in relatively good spirits, and all is well. Which, as it turns out, is a bit annoying. Sirius's death has barely made a dent in Harry Potter's blythe, shiny Harry Potterness.
Also, there are some plot holes big enough to ride a hippogriff through. You have to move a lot of potion with a chalice? Sure thing. Get yourself a Big Gulp container and be done with it in one go. Put the container on the floor. Get back in the boat. Why drink the mysterious substance without first trying one single alternative method of removal? And then Harry's frozen, watching Dumbledore's life threatened but unable to move. Did I dream that chapter where Harry learned to cast nonverbal spells? He had his wand. Why not do something instead of listen to Draco and Dumbledore ramble on?
But, as always, all this can be easily forgiven for the sake of the overall story. There's the big, mysterious plot, the "what do you mean, he'll be teaching Potions?" moment, the creepy lake full of dead people bound to cause nightmares for all involved. But more important than the sound and the fury, this time around, is the business of growing up.
I could smell this coming in the last book, see the delicately laid foundations for a full-blown love-fest. And I could see the death coming, too, because it's all so perfectly logical. The books are about becoming an adult, and Harry's anger at Dumbledore in The Order of the Phoenix is a stage we all pass through with our own families. The next stage? Learning to live without them. So of course Dumbledore would die.
It wasn't a Where the Red Fern Grows death, the kind that leaves you curled on the floor in a puddle of soggy tissue, but it was sad nonetheless. Dumbledore's kindness, the daft charm that hid a formidable man, set the stage for the earlier books, giving Harry a safe set of perimeters in which to function. Now that Dumbledore's gone, I think Harry's big challenge will be to believe the one thing Dumbledore was always certain of: that love is what makes Harry better than Voldemort. It's a little Buffy like that--she outlived centuries worth of slayers, all because the scooby gang had her back. And Harry will conquer Voldemort because he is capable of loving the people around him, and working for a greater cause than his own survival.
Which brings me back to Dumbledore. And to Snape, whom I desperately want to be a good guy, to be redemption incarnate. In spite of what happened, I still hold out hope: Dumbledore was pleading when he died, but not for his life; he wanted Snape to be strong and fulfill the demands of his Unbreakable Vow. I think that the final showdown was planned to keep Snape in place among the Death Eaters, and Dumbledore knew it was coming all along. Dumbledore begging? To live? I don't believe it. My big hope for the next book is that Snape will sacrifice himself for Harry in some grandiose, archetypal "The Gift" scene of amazing power.
Another person I hope dies in the next book? Tonks. She's annoying with pink hair; she's annoying with mousy brown hair. She's just annoying, and doesn't deserve Lupin even one little bit. I'll be interested to see what their relationship means for the Sirius/Remus fangirls out there. All I know for sure is that they're my OTP always and forever, and that hooking up with Sirius's cousin doesn't necessarily preclude Remus's love for dearly departed Sirius himself.
I think one of the book's high points is its characterization of Draco--instead of a one-dimensional twerp, he's become someone who might just have a heart. Crying to Moaning Myrtle? Not wanting to kill Dumbledore? Draco could redeem himself yet. And in the meanwhile, I suspect I'll be reading fanfic about him doing so.
One of the fun things about reading these books is finding the back stories. If you dig around hard enough, you can find meaning behind every spell, every character name. Remus Lupin a werewolf? Of course. The only other Remus anyone's ever heard of was raised by a she wolf, to say nothing about the meaning of "Lupin." And one of the strongest threads that runs through the series is everyone's favorite, The Lord of the Rings. Giant Spiders? Check. Bodies of water filled with corpses? Check. Wormtongue/Wormtail? Check. It's like proof that Tolkien succeeded in his mission to create a mythology for England--his characters and stories live in the Harry Potter books alongside spinxes and dragons.
I'm not usually good at this sort of thing, but my one plot prediction for the future book is that R.A.B. will turn out to be Regulus Black. Maybe he took all of the Horcruxes and hid them in Grammauld Place before dying. Otherwise, I can't even begin to imagine how Harry could do what Dumbledore failed at: finding and destroying all the pieces of Voldemort's soul. The kid doesn't seem good for much, really. (Which is horrible to say. But true. How many times can someone's ass be saved in the space of six books, exactly?)
I spent my entire day reading, and just finished the next to the last Harry Potter book, ever. At first, it was bizarre--I've read each of the earlier titles in the series at least three times, and all of this new material felt impossible, as if I'd wake up at some point and find I'd just been dreaming of the book, which had never really existed in the first place. But my pillow is dented in from where I propped it up, and the world of Harry Potter as we knew it will never be the same.
And neither will ours: We've only got one more book to figure out what it all means, and one more giddy summer Saturday to shrug off real life and get buried in a good book, along with the forty people in front of us in line at the bookstore.
I've realized that it takes more than one reading to fully internalize a Harry Potter book, to ohhh and ahhh at all the slights of hand and their clever skeletons of plots that arch through many lives, many generations. But I liked Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, overall. It had some shortcomings--especially a beginning that felt oddly truncated and in denial of its past. The repercussions we expected from the previous book's end--Harry's mourning for Sirius, the recovery from the battle of the Ministry of Magic, etc.--are swept under the carpet, and The Half-Blood Prince begins with a clean slate. Harry is in relatively good spirits, and all is well. Which, as it turns out, is a bit annoying. Sirius's death has barely made a dent in Harry Potter's blythe, shiny Harry Potterness.
Also, there are some plot holes big enough to ride a hippogriff through. You have to move a lot of potion with a chalice? Sure thing. Get yourself a Big Gulp container and be done with it in one go. Put the container on the floor. Get back in the boat. Why drink the mysterious substance without first trying one single alternative method of removal? And then Harry's frozen, watching Dumbledore's life threatened but unable to move. Did I dream that chapter where Harry learned to cast nonverbal spells? He had his wand. Why not do something instead of listen to Draco and Dumbledore ramble on?
But, as always, all this can be easily forgiven for the sake of the overall story. There's the big, mysterious plot, the "what do you mean, he'll be teaching Potions?" moment, the creepy lake full of dead people bound to cause nightmares for all involved. But more important than the sound and the fury, this time around, is the business of growing up.
I could smell this coming in the last book, see the delicately laid foundations for a full-blown love-fest. And I could see the death coming, too, because it's all so perfectly logical. The books are about becoming an adult, and Harry's anger at Dumbledore in The Order of the Phoenix is a stage we all pass through with our own families. The next stage? Learning to live without them. So of course Dumbledore would die.
It wasn't a Where the Red Fern Grows death, the kind that leaves you curled on the floor in a puddle of soggy tissue, but it was sad nonetheless. Dumbledore's kindness, the daft charm that hid a formidable man, set the stage for the earlier books, giving Harry a safe set of perimeters in which to function. Now that Dumbledore's gone, I think Harry's big challenge will be to believe the one thing Dumbledore was always certain of: that love is what makes Harry better than Voldemort. It's a little Buffy like that--she outlived centuries worth of slayers, all because the scooby gang had her back. And Harry will conquer Voldemort because he is capable of loving the people around him, and working for a greater cause than his own survival.
Which brings me back to Dumbledore. And to Snape, whom I desperately want to be a good guy, to be redemption incarnate. In spite of what happened, I still hold out hope: Dumbledore was pleading when he died, but not for his life; he wanted Snape to be strong and fulfill the demands of his Unbreakable Vow. I think that the final showdown was planned to keep Snape in place among the Death Eaters, and Dumbledore knew it was coming all along. Dumbledore begging? To live? I don't believe it. My big hope for the next book is that Snape will sacrifice himself for Harry in some grandiose, archetypal "The Gift" scene of amazing power.
Another person I hope dies in the next book? Tonks. She's annoying with pink hair; she's annoying with mousy brown hair. She's just annoying, and doesn't deserve Lupin even one little bit. I'll be interested to see what their relationship means for the Sirius/Remus fangirls out there. All I know for sure is that they're my OTP always and forever, and that hooking up with Sirius's cousin doesn't necessarily preclude Remus's love for dearly departed Sirius himself.
I think one of the book's high points is its characterization of Draco--instead of a one-dimensional twerp, he's become someone who might just have a heart. Crying to Moaning Myrtle? Not wanting to kill Dumbledore? Draco could redeem himself yet. And in the meanwhile, I suspect I'll be reading fanfic about him doing so.
One of the fun things about reading these books is finding the back stories. If you dig around hard enough, you can find meaning behind every spell, every character name. Remus Lupin a werewolf? Of course. The only other Remus anyone's ever heard of was raised by a she wolf, to say nothing about the meaning of "Lupin." And one of the strongest threads that runs through the series is everyone's favorite, The Lord of the Rings. Giant Spiders? Check. Bodies of water filled with corpses? Check. Wormtongue/Wormtail? Check. It's like proof that Tolkien succeeded in his mission to create a mythology for England--his characters and stories live in the Harry Potter books alongside spinxes and dragons.
I'm not usually good at this sort of thing, but my one plot prediction for the future book is that R.A.B. will turn out to be Regulus Black. Maybe he took all of the Horcruxes and hid them in Grammauld Place before dying. Otherwise, I can't even begin to imagine how Harry could do what Dumbledore failed at: finding and destroying all the pieces of Voldemort's soul. The kid doesn't seem good for much, really. (Which is horrible to say. But true. How many times can someone's ass be saved in the space of six books, exactly?)