Dumbledore is Gay

My friend just informed me of this, and here’s a link to the New York Times article.

I’m sure Rowling realizes that this will give Southern states one more reason to ban her book, but I’m glad the truth is out. It all makes soooo much sense – after all, HP is all about love. Let’s not forget that Snape did so much over the years because he’d loved Lily, and Harry willingly marched toward death because he loved all the people he’d met at Hogwarts (okay, most of them anyway). And Voldemort became so disgusting because he’d never loved anyone. All kinds of love, for family, friends, lovers… It makes so much sense that Dumbledore would be gay. It means Rowling really DID think over her characters. To me, it just seemed that he was the typical old guy mentor – they never do have girlfriends, do they? But aha…Rowling thought of that, didn’t she? Genius and true. And I can’t believe how fanfiction was…sorta right again. Is it because fanfic writers are liberals, or their smuttiness happens to be open-minded? Hehehe…

Anyway, hurrah for Dumbledore!

 

Did Rowling Write the Epilogue?

Warning: Spoilers

So Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was amazing, brilliant, enjoyable…until it got to the epilogue… So many new characters were introduced that I stopped bothering keeping track of whose name was whose and counting those little kids. That terribly fake “All was well” didn’t ring true for a minute, especially since I think HP takes place in the 1990s and I don’t think ANYTHING will be well in ten years. Also, the way in which information was introduced seemed contrived – like when a villain monologues and gives out the info that should have been given in another way (in exposition, maybe? instead of dialogue). Here’s my question: Did Rowling actually write this?

I remember that a while ago, it was announced that the last word in Deathly Hallows would be “scar.” Now, of course, it’s obvious that that has changed. Why? Did Rowling want to end it with “scar” and her editor meddled? What pushed her to write this crappy chapter, that bears no resemblace – in my opinion – to any other chapter in any of the Harry Potter books? Every other story piece has been a carefully structured cog in the clockwork that is her plot – except for this epilogue.

This isn’t to say that other books don’t have similarly flatlining epilogues – I remember Garth Nix’s ending to Shade’s Children doing something similar – what with a marriage and kids named after fallen heroes. But Harry Potter seemed above that… (And to be honest, I think Nix’s concise epilogue was written better.)

How would I have ended Harry Potter? Well, as I mentioned in my semi-review, Rowling could have simply given us more hope during the main body of Deathly Hallows so we would know that Harry and Ginny would end up together – I don’t think we needed to know they’d be naming their kid Albus Severus. Also, I personally might have done an epilogue that takes place one year later – and given an update on the restoration of Hogwarts, what happened to the Dursleys, what happened to Hermione’s parents, what kind of job Harry would get in the future (he was going to be an Auror, but then he messed up on his exams, remember? which was why I thought he might die in DH since he had no life outside Voldemort, it seemed), and the HarryxGinny relationship. But, hey, Rowling might reconsider (I beg her to!) and rewrite the ending to this. I wouldn’t mind buying another copy with a better and more fitting epilogue to this amazing series.

What are your thoughts on the epilogue? Was it a hack rushed job? Do you think others meddled? Or was it just not edited enough? How would you have done it?

 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Warning: Spoilers

Okay, I’ve waited long enough!! Time to detail some of my thoughts on the conclusion to Harry Potter. So, first, a warning: SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS. DO NOT READ ON IF YOU HAVEN’T FINISHED THE BOOK!!! This is an excellent book and I would hate it if I spoiled it for you. So consider yourself warned. That said, it isn’t the point of this blog entry to spoil the ending – but I have to spoil some things in order to give my opinion.

Also, before I go on, I’d just like to point out that I am NOT familiar with all the details behind the making of Harry Potter since I purposely avoided them so I wouldn’t spoil the ending for myself in any way. Now that the books are over, of course, I may go back and read about the mythology that influenced aspects of HP and how Rowling came to write it. As of now, I only know what I’ve heard from my friends.

Okay, and here we go:

I think it is interesting that so many online theories were right, yet none to my (limited) knowledge had quite grasped the scope of what the last Harry Potter book would be. The way love and friendship formed this book is incredible, as so many things seemed to come together because of those themes.

Harry was the last Horcrux indeed, but what implications did that have? Well, that resulted in one chapter that I cried my way through as he marched to his death – I wanted to hope that he would live, I wanted him to use the Hallows to conquer death, but I knew he shouldn’t – and love saved him…

As for the Horcruxes, let’s see… Dumbledore destroyed the ring. Ron destroyed the locket. Crabbe indirectly destroyed the diadem. Hermione destroyed the goblet. Neville killed Nagini. Harry got rid of the diary. And Voldemort obliterated the piece that was inside Harry. Theme: Teamwork! Even Voldemort lended a hand in his own destruction.

SNAPE. I knew it! I knew that if I just had faith in him, he would turn out to be all right. This, of course, returns to the theme of love as an all-conquering force. Without love, Snape might have ended up like Voldemort – a cruel, twisted being. The irony, though, is that fanfiction was right – Snape DID love Lily! How amazing is that? Also, I feel that Harry’s dad in the end did turn out to be rather arrogant. I’m still interested in learning what Lily saw in him (I know he was also an awesome Gryffindor guy), but I suppose it was like how Ron and Hermione ended up together. And Sirius, ah, Sirius…I wish they had picked a more compelling actor to play him in the movies…I always thought he was HOT and turns out he was cool even as a child…but back to Snape.

What a horrible way for Snape to die, although it did seem quick. I suppose he was on the verge of going off to find Harry in the battle and deliver Dumbledore’s message when Voldemort decided to kill him. I wonder how that would have turned out – if Snape had tried to help Harry in the midst of battle, Harry would probably not have listened… I was never a Snape-lover but I think he was one of the series’ most compelling characters – a traitor to Voldemort (which was awesome) yet misunderstood – on purpose, since he didn’t want others to know the “good” parts about him, as Dumbledore realized.

NEVILLE. Although this was not in my previously-posted prediction, my friends and I had agreed that Neville would be playing a larger part this time around, and he most certainly did! Heading Dumbledore’s Army as part of a mini triumvirate, and then slaying Nagini – Neville’s the man! The fact that his grandmother turned up was too good to be true; I’m really fond of her.

Okay, and the heartbreaking deaths. That Dobby died – that had me on the verge of tears, especially the sweet message Harry wrote on his “tombstone.” (Also, I nearly cried when Harry was reading the messages of encouragement on the sign outside his parents’ former house.) Hedwig died, which was sad, but…well, Hedwig is a bird. Mad-Eye Moody’s death didn’t bother me too much – he was a battle-hardened, badass kind of guy, and I figured he wouldn’t mind dying that way, though it made me sick that Umbridge had his eyeball placed in her office door. But Fred…ah, Fred! George wasn’t even mentioned in the epilogue – how did he cope with his twin dying? That had me in tears as well – it’s hard when happy people die – and once again, Fred died like Sirius and Cedric did – suddenly and irreversibly. Tonks and Lupin – that was a little hard to believe since we didn’t see them die, but it was also hard to swallow because they’d just had a son. If Harry had died, I imagined little Teddy growing up like Harry – without parents…and without even his godfather to protect him.

That said, the epilogue… Unnecessary, I’d say. I enjoyed the closure and having it confirmed that HarryXGinny and RonXHermione would work out, but I think that if some hints had been thrown into the main section of the book, the epilogue would have been unnecessary. And come on, “All was well”? As I said before – what happened to George – earless and without his best friend/twin brother? And what of Mrs. Weasley – having lost her son? At least Percy came back to the family before Fred died; I was very glad for that.

Several times, I could sense the tide changing. I would reach a certain paragraph and be overcome by the certainty that something was going to change in the plot, and everything I had believed before would be framed differently. For example, when Snape’s past was revealed. And when it became clear that Harry had to die. I think that was the most excellently written part of the book – Harry’s “last moments.” I felt like Rowling was telling us to value life without being didactic. And boy, did I cry through that. Even though I’ve insisted for so long that Ron was my favorite, despite his temper tantrums, I realized that if Harry died, I wouldn’t be able to bear it (and neither would Rowling, I’m sure). And it isn’t just because he’s the “hero” – it’s because after seven books, Harry’s become like someone I know. We’ve been with Harry through so many hardships, it seemed a shame to have to say goodbye to him before Voldemort had died. The chapter following his “death” reminded me of Advent Children – after Cloud “dies” he finds himself in a white space, with Aerith and Kadaj speaking to him, and then he’s sent back to the world.

Some parts of this book also reminded me of other fantasy stories. For example, Garth Nix’s Sabriel. At the end of Sabriel, the battle goes to her school, where she loses classmates and teachers. Similarly, HP’s battle goes to Hogwarts. I don’t remember any teachers dying, but we do lose classmates, and the pain is even greater since we’ve seen these kids for longer – I mean, come on, Colin dies! In addition, the mention of Spaghetti bolognese in the early chapters reminded me of Uglies (SpagBol!) but I don’t think that was intentional. Eew…SpagBol… And when Hagrid carries the supposedly-dead Harry, I remembered Aragorn carrying Frodo in the LOTR books, thinking he had died.

Also, a note on Expelliarmus. I am so glad Harry used it again! Already he’d used Unforgivable Curses like Imperio and Crucio (which I think was used at EXACTLY the right moment), and I was worried that he’d do Avada Kedavra but he did not – Voldemort totally killed himself. That was quite brilliant, even though Harry had been warned not to make Expelliarmus his trademark. And hadn’t he used it in the cemetary after Cedric died?

There were a few things I didn’t quite believe. For example, although it was magic, I couldn’t quite understand how the Deluminator worked; it seemed to do far too many things for just one “lighter,” and I wished Ron had used that walkie-talkie-like function again so it would be easier to believe (and he couldn’t use it to escape the cellar at Malfoys’ and go to Hermione?). Also, the storming of Gringotts seemed much too simple. So much time was spent planning it, but it didn’t seem like they needed that much time to pull off such a short raid on the vault, especially since they never planned an escape. I did like the way the gold multiplied and burned, though – thieves are killed by their own greed! Though what good is a blind dragon for guarding your gold? I don’t think Smaug was blind, was he? Lastly, Hermione was tortured, but later she seemed fine. No mention was made of it later at all. Even Ollivander seemed all right, or at least getting there. I think, all in all, wizards’ idea of torture is a lot milder than the United States’. Even Avada Kedavra provides a nice, instant death.

Those are my thoughts for now. Feel free to comment. I will probably update this entry in the future as more things occur to me. After all, I loved this book!! (Snape forever! And Sirius! But most importantly, Harry Potter!!)

 

My HP Experience

Nah, I won’t spoil the ending. In due course I’ll be commenting on my Deathly Hallows thoughts, but for now I’ll leave it at my experience of reading the last Harry Potter.

First of all, the book’s price. Cover price is $34.99. Amazon has it for $17.99. I bought it for $18 and change at Costco. Barnes & Noble has it for $20.99 ($18.89 for members). Why is this book’s cover price so high? Half-Blood Prince was $29.99, and I dare compare Deathly Hallows to a similarly long fantasy book, and also the conclusion to a series – The Amber Spyglass, which costs around $22.99 in hardcover. If anyone has the answer to this question, I’d be most interested – why so costly when so many will want the discounts?

So, I skipped out on the BN party and bought Deathly Hallows early on Saturday morning at Costco. I waited in a line outside the building until 9:30 am or so, then darted in a grabbed my copy from the books section. I was out of there in twenty minutes (and I bought other things too). I’m not a huge Harry Potter fan in the sense that I don’t read HP fanfiction, I never checked out the HP websites or much of the theories (although I couldn’t help overhearing them), and I did not re-read any of the books in preparation for this one (but I ended up having to reread Dumbledore’s death in Half-Blood Prince and then Wikipedia its summary because I’d forgotten a lot of the minor character’s names – like Scrimgeour). But while I clutched Deathly Hallows, I couldn’t help feeling supremely happy – I nearly started reading it as I walked around, unable to get a hold of the idea that after so many years – I HAD THE ENDING TO HARRY POTTER IN MY HANDS!!

I think I got almost halfway through the book on Saturday, my efforts stalled by an acrylics workshop I went to (incredibly interesting) and the fact that I’d only slept five hours or so the night before (I had a doctor’s appointment at 7 am that morning…ridiculous, huh?). On Sunday, I agreed to help my brother move to a college dorm for the week, which took longer than I expected, and then went to the mall, where I nagged and scowled until I got to go home and…READ…

I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to live somewhere else more than I did then. How ridiculous is it for me to be reading for hours and have my dad jumping into my room to steal the book from me, nagging me from behind closed doors, telling me to give my eyes a rest and take a break? He acting like I was committing some sort of crime – and I was just reading!! But…I’ll be fair. Back when I was in elementary school, I got two Young Jedi Knights books for Christmas and read them in two days. For days after I could barely see right. So I guess it was for my health…but I’d risk it for Harry Potter! Within reason… (Slytherin brewing here)

Anyway, as I said before, I don’t want to spoil the ending. Other sources have already done that. And why, I wonder. The New York Times basically laid out the gist of it. And I guess it’s “news” but I think there are more important things newspapers should cover than the secrets of Harry Potter’s ending, and wouldn’t J.K. Rowling agree – that there is enough suffering in the real world for us to worry about and try to end and for the newspapers to cover?

So, the book was a rollercoaster. I agree with the Times, though – a bit clunky at times. I honestly felt that Rowling’s descriptions of romance (the kissing, come on) didn’t quite ring true in the books, felt a bit rushed, as did the deaths, but whatever. The point is – I laughed (even in some sad parts – I love Ron to no end), and I cried (and I usually don’t cry – even at the end of Specials I was only on the verge…not there yet – the last time I can really remember crying during a book was…Bridge to Terabithia? Over 10 years ago. Usually there’s just shock). I ended up with tear speckles all over my glasses. So read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and laugh and cry away.

And when you’re done, read my prediction for what would happen. Granted, it was very vague, and I based it solely on Rowling’s grasp of the spiral-like nature of plot – and my confidence that she’d be resolving loose threads and sticking to her themes. Well, now you can see whether or not my prediction was accurate.

In the meantime, read this book!

 

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Unfortunately, this is starting to feel routine for me, but I know I have to say something about the new Harry Potter movie. The HP movies go through directors almost as fast as Hogwarts goes through Defense Against the Dark Arts professors. This time, David Yates is the director, and I think it’s obvious that we’re getting a markedly different movie than last time.

One of the biggest changes I noticed as a fangirl is the shorn hair. Why? Why oh why? Well, I guess because long hair seems to be falling out of style…or because Harry is growing up and is too busy to care for those black locks.

Now for the real business. Order of the Phoenix is further from the original than any of the other Harry Potter movies. Whereas Sorceror’s Stone was a slave to Rowling’s vision, Order of the Phoenix seems to break as far as possible with it. Some of the good things that come of this are the freshness even for someone like me, who has read the book, and the way the movie doesn’t get hung up on every twist and turn in its super-long book counterpart. Yet some important things are left out, scenes that no doubt were foreshadowing things for the final showdown, but also scenes that would have made the movie more coherent. Here’s the breakdown (albeit not thorough since I only read this HP book once):

Changes I Liked:
1. Umbridge. I don’t quite remember how she was in the book except cruel (that feather pen) and gross, but in the movie she was the perfect picture of sugar laced with cyanide. Imelda Staunton gets props for pulling this off – cruel yet sweet – perfectly tyrannical and scary.

2. The fight in the Ministry of Magic had its changes, which I think smoothed out the flow of the movie. For example, we never see the Time-Turners break, but that might have been way too much for that moment.

3. Luna Lovegood. The actress playing her was not what I expected, but she was brilliant. Props to Evanna Lynch.

Things that were left out that shouldn’t have been. And by this I mean that audience members who hadn’t read the book were left wondering (although each was explained in the book):
1. Who sent the Dementors after Potter.

2. If Hermione and Ron couldn’t see the thestrals, how did they fly them to the Ministry?

3. What Voldemort wanted with the prophecy.

Things that should have been cleared up:
1. Potter goes home at the end of the movie, but earlier his family was basically leaving him and Dudley was a pale mess.

2. What happened when Potter gave Snape that secret message.

Things that weren’t exactly necessary but that I really missed:
1. Sirius! In the book, the sympathy built up for him since he was always stuck at home and had to sneak outside the house as Padfoot in order to be able to do anything. In the movie, I barely got a sense of that loneliness and helplessness and futility.

2. The blame on Harry. To me, at least, Order of the Phoenix is basically Harry’s Big Mistake. Harry makes so many mistakes in the book, not the least of which includes falling for Voldemort’s trap. He also forgets that Snape is a member of the Order and doesn’t pay enough attention during his Occlumency lessons. Of course, as much as I’d like to blame Harry for Sirius’s death, it’s really ultimately Voldemort’s fault, isn’t it?

Also, I thought the movie emphasized for me one of the themes that should be present in the last book, Deathly Hallows, due out…THIS SATURDAY!! That is: Love.

In fact, while I’m at it, allow me to formulate my prediction for what will happen in Deathly Hallows. At least, not quite full prediction, but based on Order of the Phoenix, this is loosely what I think will go down:
1. The prophecy will have a different interpretation than the one we’ve been assuming all along. As Dumbledore says in the movie (and book, I presume, though I can’t remember exactly), either Voldemore or Harry must die, but Rowling has a way of taking what we know and turning it on its ear.

2. Love will be HUGE. In Order of the Phoenix the movie, Harry wins Voldemort’s mental battle because he has love and friendship. In Half-Blood Prince, we see several relationships materialize: HarryxGinny, RonxHermione, FleurxBill… And of course, part of the reason Harry isn’t Slytherin has to do with his friendship with Hermione and Ron and with having Ron’s family as his own pseudo-family. Also, Harry’s mother’s love protected him from Voldemort for so long, and Dumbledore himself was a proponent for love as a powerful magic.

3. Snape. We have to have him cleared up. I personally think that he was under Dumbledore’s orders to obey Voldemort, and this included killing Dumbledore…

4. Harry shall return to Hogwarts, but I predict that much less of the book will have to do with his school… Or, come to think of it, maybe the whole crux of the book will be Hogwarts. After all, it’s Voldemort’s alma mater, Dumbledore – Voldemort’s nemesis – was headmaster there, Snape taught there…all the shit has gone down there. Well, not all, but I doubt we’ll have another battle at the Ministry or at the cemetary where Cedric died (which was reached via Portkey from Hogwarts).

5. Harry will be on his own. For real this time. He’s lost the last father figure he had (Sirius, then Dumbledore). I wouldn’t be surprised, though, if Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia played a larger role this time, since Petunia’s, in particular, role has been increasing, in my humble opinion. I imagine something similar to Sorceror’s Stone, a reprise, since in that one Harry left both Ron and Hermione behind as he went to the last room and got his first glimpse of Voldemort.

6. Someone will die. Someone major has died in each book since Goblet of Fire, after all. And it’s been a good guy each time, too.

Well, that’s my prediction, and I’d rather not think on it too long since who knows – one of those theories out there might be right, and who wants to spoil the book for themselves? Incidentally, if you’re planning on not having the ending spoiled, don’t go online this Saturday. Do not turn on the TV (or any news channel anyway – Fox will be all over this, I suspect ) – do not read the newspaper or listen to the radio. The ending for HP will be ALL OVER the place, I’m sure, because I promise you there are some people who are going to skip to the last page just so they can spoil it for the rest of us. I bet they’re already planning the spread – will it say “HARRY DIES” OR “POTTER LIVES”? And it always comes down to Harry, doesn’t it? When the real issue should be whether Voldemort dies, huh? I guess our values as Americans are present here – heroes aren’t supposed to die, and we’ll believe in that fairy tale for as long as we can.

Update: Wow, and I never thought I’d have to say this, but if you’re not gonna say something decent, then don’t bother. If you’re going to troll, I’m moderating the comments. So if you’re gonna bash Potter or anything else (and for God’s sake, do not call it “gay” – “gay” is NOT an insult), do it somewhere else.

 

HP and Reading

The New York Times published an article today entitled Potter Has Limited Effect on Reading Habits. The article challenges the notion that HP has made lifelong readers out of kids who would normally not have read. Apparently, rates of reading are still as low as they were before HP.

There are several kinds of HP readers, which the article points out. There are those who pick up HP and continue to read other books for pleasure outside of HP. Then there are those who pick up HP for a bit, then quit it and don’t bother reading anything else.

I think the article largely ignores those who don’t read HP but watch the movies. Let me put it this way:

Until Harry Potter, “I don’t think kids were reading proudly,” said Connie Williams, the school librarian at Kenilworth Junior High School in Petaluma, Calif. “Now it’s more normalized. It’s like, ‘Gosh we can read now, it’s O.K.’ ”

I’d like to argue that the HP books did of course make reading okay, but more importantly, for some people, they made liking Harry Potter okay. That is, some people look at the HP craze and see the HP craze, not the HP books craze. So there are those who bought into the HP craze without ever picking up a book. Two of my friends, for example, are great HP admirers but staunchly refuse to ever read the books, claiming they’re boring (any HP reader would claim otherwise, I’m sure). And what an amazing thing – kids who don’t like to read don’t have to, because the HP movies fill them in well enough on the book series! So now the NY Times article mentions a kid who used to read HP but quit – but will he be watching the movies to keep up with the series? That I’d like to know. Because, after all, it only takes $10 and a couple of hours to get through a movie, and around $20 and a couple of days to get through a book. My hypothesis is that the movies are working against the would-be lifelong readers who began with HP. Especially if none of their friends read either, they might just quit reading HP and go to the movies instead. Especially now that the movies seem to be up to mustard.

The New York Times also brings up another interesting idea:

Some reading experts say that urging kids to read fiction in general might be a misplaced goal. “If you look at what most people need to read for their occupation, it’s zero narrative,” said Michael L. Kamil, a professor of education at Stanford University. “I don’t want to deny that you should be reading stories and literature. But we’ve overemphasized it,” he said. Instead, children need to learn to read for information, Mr. Kamil said, something they can practice while reading on the Internet, for example.

Interesting, eh? I think that maybe adults should be reading for information, but not kids. After all, if a kid grows up reading the newspaper, learning facts and facts from the Internet, where will he get his sense of wonder and idealism? What kind of childhood lacks fantasy and adventure? Professor Kamil’s idea reminds me of the kids whose parents start putting them through the hoops to prepare for college starting in preschool. Why should reading be just a functional thing – a practical thing – for your job? Reminds me of the difference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. You should be intrinsically motivated to read, that way you’ll read for pleasure and information. But if you’re extrinsically motivated to read, i.e. if you have to read or else you won’t know enough for your occupation, then you might not read for pleasure and not read anything outside your field. I personally think being intrinsically motivated is better, as it may make you more well-rounded and open-minded. But, hey, I’d love your opinion, too.