Friday, June 29, 2007

So it is no secret that I don't exactly update this site very often. I am always surprised when someone leaves a comment. It is especially a laugh when someone reads one of my outdated articles and comments how stupid I must be to not have seen in one of the later books how my ideas were clearly contradicted. Um, it would help if the commenter paid attention to when the essay was written. I'm also awed when someone uses my work for reference or just stops by to read. It is sad that I have lost most comments due to not being able to access my haloscan account.

I do actually love this site, which is why I haven't taken it down yet. Some of my ideas may be antiquated, but many of them are still holding true. A part of me knows that when I delete this site, I will deleting a chunk of my life in a way. The part of me that used to write essays on literature. Somewhere along the way math took over English and here I am.

Harry Potter. I still can't believe the final book is almost here. So much has happened to me since I first picked up The Philosopher's Stone. I've finished school, on no less than three occasions! I've gotten married. I've been pregnant then miscarried. I've lived more than I ever could have expected. There's still more ahead of me, and much behind, but finishing this last book...it feels so strange. Like me, Harry has grown so much. He went from being a miserable child that was lost in a dark world, to a young man that, though in a different sort of dark world, found his purpose. He has loved just as he has hated. He has laughed and he has cried. He has grown with me, and I fear our time to say goodbye is here.

In most epics, I read the story knowing the main character will die. I may grow with them, but they usually lead a full life before I have to turn away. Would Rowling dare kill Harry at such a youthful age? I don't think so, if only for the reason that he is our friend and companion, we need to have hope in his future. However, I fear that she might kill others. Is Ron safe with his willow wand and unicorn hair? What of Neville or Hagrid? Part of me dreads picking up this last episode in Harry's life, because I am bound to say goodbye to someone. Just as in life, I have had to say goodbye to many.

As the seventh book draws closer, I thank all of you who ever read one of my essays or gave me input, you made the Harry experience that much more entertaining. I hope that the last and final book ends on a solemn chord of hope, begging us to return to the many volumes again and again, as though visiting an old friend. For Harry, Rodney, Hermione et. all, they are my friends in my heart, no further away than my own imagination.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

I'm rereading book five of the Harry Potter series and I'm realizing what a terrible way to end the books it would be if she killed Harry. From a literary sense, actually it would fit in well with the whole sacrificial love idea, but from a reader's point of view...I don't know. It almost would feel like cheating. She introduced us to a kid who had nothing and found himself a world where he was special, and while Harry has had to live through quite the ordeals over the last few years, I want to see him succeed. I want him to be an auror or a professor or among the next greats. I want to be able to imagine him eventually getting married, having kids, and continuing the cycle of love that was started with his family. If he dies, I'll be robbed of this unless I decide to let my imagination run AU. I think Rowling knows this so I'm thinking she won't kill him. It's her books to do as she wants, but I can hope.

In a similar light, I really want Snape to be good. I know, I know, it could go either way and it really is up to her, but I always saw these books as having a tone of redemption in them. In earlier books, I read Snape as a figure that had gone as dark as dark could get then realized that even power wasn't worth it. Was he still evil in his own way? Probably. But he had chosen a better way at some point and it spoke to his character. I don't know if this is the route she will actually go, however, and if she is basing a lot of this on Machiavelli's The Prince as it seems, well, I wouldn't be surprised if Snape was working for no one but himself. But I need him to have some good inside of him. I need her to show that as Sirius said, the world isn't divided into just deatheaters and good guys.

I guess that's enough rambling for now.