Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Harry Potter, Harry Potter

String that one out seven times, I guess. It appears that we’re never going to get to read Harry Potter and the Caves of Mystery, or Harry Potter and the Very Bad Day, and will have to believe that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (yeesh) is the real end of the story. But who knows? If Buffy the Vampire Slayer can come back in comic book form, why not a Season Eight for Harry?

Although I count myself a fan, I am not a fanatic, so I have never re-read the adventures of the boy wizard. When volume 7 arrived in the mail, though, I decided it would be a great opportunity to do so. Yesterday, I polished off the Philosopher’s Stone (on the bus, at lunch and during a Mariners game) and started on volume 2. The project looked pretty simple at first blush, because the first two books are relatively slim. I have no idea why Rowling super-sized Harry starting with volume 3, but now I’m looking at the stack of fatties that awaits me and wondering if I can choke down that much Hogwarts at once.

I didn’t remember the books as particularly jokey, but Rowling definitely gets in her little British humo(u)r in the Philosopher’s Stone, and not just at the expense of the Dursleys. I have a vague memory of people complaining that the books got progressively darker, and I wonder if she had such a plan when she started scribbling.

I find it interesting that the movie characters, for the most part, have not intruded in my imagination while reading the books. Most of the actors are fine for their parts, but their voices do not replace the characters. The exceptions are Alan Rickman (one of my all-time favorite actors, since I first saw Truly, Madly, Deeply) and Robbie Coltrane. Snape and Hagrid speak from the pages in the voices of those two actors.

We shall see whether I can persevere, but no Deathly Hallows for me until I do. I may need to take a break and read a good modern crime novel somewhere in the middle. Or maybe a post-modern graphic novel.

1 comment:

Frank Denton said...

I intend to read all seven again, but not right away. I left the sixth book until early July so as to read it just before the publication of the final book. Two in one month was quite enough for a spell. Maybe during the doldrums of Dec.-Jan. will be a good time.