Unless you've been living under a rock for, oh, the last six or seven years or so, you know that today marked the world's collective step closer to the end of the greatest literary phenomenon this side of the one that started with "In the beginning":
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
That's right. Today, Joanne Rowling revealed (in a hangman game no less...ominous?), the name of the seventh and (so she says) final installment of the Harry Potter series. And from the moment the first hints of the story broke this morning on CNN.com, the internet was all a-flurry with the fervent speculation that has followed Harry and his merry band of magical misfits since the very first books were cracked and the lines were read almost a decade ago. Will Harry find his parents? What really happened that night...? Will Harry get the girl? Which girl would that be? Is Dumbledore really dead? Is Snape really evil? Will Harry return to Hogwarts (which, I, for one believe will happen. A) Ms. Rowling suggested in several interviews that she was, in fact writing about Harry's last year at Hogwarts and she's usually very careful about what she says and B) if the witchcraft, the evil, the warmongering, and the growing hints of sexual activity among teenagers that have crept into the books as they've progressed wasn't enough, the whole idea of turning Harry into a high school dropout would be just the magic- pun intended- ticket to send the last remaining parents/religious/ general conservative groups that haven't endorsed burning the whole bloody lot of books scurrying to the nearest match factory... Ms. Rowling truly dodged a bullet with those Weasley twins back in book 5). Will Harry defeat Voldemort? And, of course, the biggie...
Who. will. die?
Since Ms. Rowling has put us all on notice that at least two (possibly more) main characters are on the equivalent of literary death row (with no stay of execution in forseeable sight) of course those internet rumours are also running rampant, with the possibility of actual, monetary, betting just around the bend. If I do happen to run into a Vegas bookie willing to take cash from me for this, my money is squarely on:
1. Draco Malfoy
and
2. Ron or Hermione (but not both)
Yes, I know it's harsh to kill off some of the most beloved characters in the books, but Ms. Rowling's prepared us for a bloodbath (or the AK equivalent) almost since day one. These are not books for children, Ms Rowling has said over and over again and there's not always a sunshine-and-daisies, happy ending for Cinderella when Cinderella is being written for an adult audience. It would cheapen the experience at this point to give the truly loved characters a reprieve and off someone like, well, like Hagrid or Professor Flitwick. Fine, people do like them and they play an important role in Harry's universe, but come on. Even if these books hadn't been written in the wake of 9/11 and the War on Terror, these are dangerous times for Harry and his crew and the rest of the wizarding world and we all know that in times of war it is, most often, the young (often just of-age) individuals who make the ultimate sacrifice. Since this is the seventh book, Harry and co. are just now old enough to legally fight, and we've seen the progression of death (boy from school, father-figure, closest mentor...) creep ever closer to the innermost circle of characters. It's only a matter of time before it's going to hit him (and us) right where it hurts. Kleenex would be best served, now, to enter a corporate partnership with Scholastic Books and market a whole line of character-themed boxes. I have a feeling we're going to need them.
What people aren't talking about today is the death knell that also falls on the real world with the final flourish of Ms. Rowling's pen as she sends the whole damn lot of pages (all 700 or more!) to their final, forevermore, printing. By the end of the summer (if those other internet rumors are to believed), the long wait will be over. And so to goes the fun and magic (there's that word again) of the serial aspect of this whole phenomenon. Knowing from the outset that the entire story would be told over the course of seven books, the the world waited and counted down each edition in anticipation unprecedented for a book. While waiting, we speculated on websites. We gossiped. We went to www.JKRowling.com and clicked all over the place, hoping to unlock some hidden door and find the answer to the entire mystery. Some filled in the blanks with their own versions of what would happen next and some of those versions turned into novels themselves (and some of those aren't half bad). In this internet age, it took a book, an ink and paper book, to bring the world together and have it held its collective breath.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
That's right. Today, Joanne Rowling revealed (in a hangman game no less...ominous?), the name of the seventh and (so she says) final installment of the Harry Potter series. And from the moment the first hints of the story broke this morning on CNN.com, the internet was all a-flurry with the fervent speculation that has followed Harry and his merry band of magical misfits since the very first books were cracked and the lines were read almost a decade ago. Will Harry find his parents? What really happened that night...? Will Harry get the girl? Which girl would that be? Is Dumbledore really dead? Is Snape really evil? Will Harry return to Hogwarts (which, I, for one believe will happen. A) Ms. Rowling suggested in several interviews that she was, in fact writing about Harry's last year at Hogwarts and she's usually very careful about what she says and B) if the witchcraft, the evil, the warmongering, and the growing hints of sexual activity among teenagers that have crept into the books as they've progressed wasn't enough, the whole idea of turning Harry into a high school dropout would be just the magic- pun intended- ticket to send the last remaining parents/religious/ general conservative groups that haven't endorsed burning the whole bloody lot of books scurrying to the nearest match factory... Ms. Rowling truly dodged a bullet with those Weasley twins back in book 5). Will Harry defeat Voldemort? And, of course, the biggie...
Who. will. die?
Since Ms. Rowling has put us all on notice that at least two (possibly more) main characters are on the equivalent of literary death row (with no stay of execution in forseeable sight) of course those internet rumours are also running rampant, with the possibility of actual, monetary, betting just around the bend. If I do happen to run into a Vegas bookie willing to take cash from me for this, my money is squarely on:
1. Draco Malfoy
and
2. Ron or Hermione (but not both)
Yes, I know it's harsh to kill off some of the most beloved characters in the books, but Ms. Rowling's prepared us for a bloodbath (or the AK equivalent) almost since day one. These are not books for children, Ms Rowling has said over and over again and there's not always a sunshine-and-daisies, happy ending for Cinderella when Cinderella is being written for an adult audience. It would cheapen the experience at this point to give the truly loved characters a reprieve and off someone like, well, like Hagrid or Professor Flitwick. Fine, people do like them and they play an important role in Harry's universe, but come on. Even if these books hadn't been written in the wake of 9/11 and the War on Terror, these are dangerous times for Harry and his crew and the rest of the wizarding world and we all know that in times of war it is, most often, the young (often just of-age) individuals who make the ultimate sacrifice. Since this is the seventh book, Harry and co. are just now old enough to legally fight, and we've seen the progression of death (boy from school, father-figure, closest mentor...) creep ever closer to the innermost circle of characters. It's only a matter of time before it's going to hit him (and us) right where it hurts. Kleenex would be best served, now, to enter a corporate partnership with Scholastic Books and market a whole line of character-themed boxes. I have a feeling we're going to need them.
What people aren't talking about today is the death knell that also falls on the real world with the final flourish of Ms. Rowling's pen as she sends the whole damn lot of pages (all 700 or more!) to their final, forevermore, printing. By the end of the summer (if those other internet rumors are to believed), the long wait will be over. And so to goes the fun and magic (there's that word again) of the serial aspect of this whole phenomenon. Knowing from the outset that the entire story would be told over the course of seven books, the the world waited and counted down each edition in anticipation unprecedented for a book. While waiting, we speculated on websites. We gossiped. We went to www.JKRowling.com and clicked all over the place, hoping to unlock some hidden door and find the answer to the entire mystery. Some filled in the blanks with their own versions of what would happen next and some of those versions turned into novels themselves (and some of those aren't half bad). In this internet age, it took a book, an ink and paper book, to bring the world together and have it held its collective breath.
And now, were just about to let it all out.
Future readers of the Harry Potter series won't "get" the whole concept of having to wait, year after year, for the Hogwarts Express to roll back into Platform 9 3/4 for another school term. They will have the luxury of pulling each book from the shelf or the boxed set at their own pace, and not the author's/ publisher's/ publicist's and the entire story from the Boy who Lived to the Man who... ? will be told to them over days, perhaps even hours, instead of the multitude of years those initial readers had to invest. And they'll know how it all ends before they even open the very first chapter of the very first book for the very first time, which, of course has to affect how the whole thing is viewed from here on out.
In an era of instant gratification, when we troll the internest to find spoilers on what will happen on our television programs next week, it is an absolute foreign concept to invest the time we invested in a series of books to which the ending hasn't been hinted at or revealed.
And the veil of secrecy and aura of mystery clearly added to the fun.
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