A Monumental Moment

So it has come to an end. It seems hard to believe, even harder than laying hands on the book in the wee hours of the morning of the 21st of July, almost overwhelmed by excitement and happiness. The time has come to look ahead at a life in which we'll never again be enchanted by the magic of Potterverse; in other words, to look ahead at a depressingly unmagical life. How brilliant a writer would J K Rowling have to be to inspire such sadness amongst her fans just because she has ended a story, a ludicrously hard-to-believe, unrelatable fantasy? I took more than a day to read the book, withstanding numerous distractions, a truly awful digestive disorder and a splitting headache (all of which were entirely unrelated to the quality of the book), but never even for a moment during those 24 hours did I think I was being silly or childish in setting such great store by a mere book. It's almost immaterial whether the book is good or bad (for the record, I think it is the best book of the series); just the thought of never again experiencing the unadulterated joy of reading a new Harry Potter book is almost too dreadful to imagine. I know this may sound frightfully juvenile, but right now I'm very tempted to call J K Rowling the best writer ever. You can sneer all you want, but you'll find that much harder to do when half of the world's population backs me up on my statement.

So how satisfactory a conclusion to an epic journey is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows? I must confess that when I first heard that the book was going to be only as long as Half Blood Prince, I became extremely apprehensive, not to mention a little irritated at JKR for cowing down to the greedy demands of the publishers. How could she possibly explain everything in such few words? God knows we Potter fans had done enough research on the first 6 books to know that there were more than a few loose ends that demanded detailed and convincing explanations. It seemed ridiculous, almost impossible to believe that JKR could squeeze in clarifications about things like the mysterious Veil in the Department of Mysteries, the many interestingly weird delicate instruments in Dumbledore's office or why it was important that Lily Potter's wand was good for Charms when, in all fairness, it was incumbent for her to devote all space to Harry's epochal quest to destroy Voldemort's Horcruxes. After reading the book, however, I've realized that it doesn't matter in the slightest that Ms Rowling chose to leave a million things unexplained. What she gives us in place of tying up loose ends is so gripping, so fantastically enjoyable that you can only marvel at her incredible knack for not disappointing her fans in spite of their colossal expectations.

JKR had said before the release that many would loathe the bloodbath in the book, and at times it does seem like she killed off characters just because there were so few deaths in the previous books. We have people dying left, right and centre in this one, and almost all the characters are perpetually injured, but that is to be expected in the final instalment of a series. There are many fight sequences and a grand battle at the end, and though you do tend to think about how spectacular these will look in the movie, the less-than-satisfactory adaptations that have come up till now make you appreciate JKR's writing even more. Dumbledore is a dominating presence in the book in spite of being dead, and the bit about his questionable doings in his youth is one of many masterstrokes from JKR. He always was my favourite character, Dumbledore, but this book makes sure that he will be remembered as the most intriguing Potter character of all, usurping the position from Severus Snape, who's given a bit of a raw deal this time round after his stupendous role in Half Blood Prince. The book moves at a lightning pace throughout, and this is not surprising given the depth of material JKR had to cram in even without the insignificant explanations the lack of which so engaged Potter fans for the last two years. The book is, to use a very clichéd term, a thrill-a-minute page-turner, as were all the other Potter books, but this being the last one makes everything that much bigger and better. The climax is monumental and awe-inspiring, and the fact that JKR manages to explain every little blood-Horcrux-hallow complication so convincingly even with Harry and his companions in the heat of the battle, fighting for their lives, speaks volumes about her narrative skills, though it must be said that the re-opening of the Harry-Voldemort mind connection is a little too convenient and leaves a tiny plot hole. The epilogue, however, is a big let-down, filled with cheesy dialogue and cheesier circumstances, but I guess we can forgive Ms Rowling one minor blemish; heck, I could even forgive her a hundred blemishes, after all that she's given us.

I can go on and on about every little thing that was so wonderful about the book and the very few things that were not, but the bottom line remains that this is the end, the sad and surreal end. No more looking up fansites for new theories, no more arguing with friends whether Snape is good or evil, no more rapturous delight at every new revelation by JKR in one of her interviews. I'm sorry if I'm sounding too gloomy, but believe it or not, there are probably thousands of people around the world who are crying their eyes out right now because the series has ended. Most certainly, this is a monumental moment, a tragically monumental moment. One thing's for sure, however: no matter what subject JKR writes about in the future, or how trashy her writing becomes, every one of her future books will be an instant best-seller. And I, for one, will not be complaining; she's thoroughly earned every bit of her reputation. In the meantime, I suppose we'll have the Potter movies for another 3 years to keep our spirits up. Ouch.

The Much-Ignored Genius of J K Rowling

Some people are just so abominably stupid. Take my unfortunate friend, for instance. Now HE, in my humble opinion, has been cursed with the horrible wretchedness of a lifetime of mulish idiocy. Alright, I'll elaborate a little. Obsessive Harry Potter fan that I am, I tend to keep going around lending my Harry Potter books to the less fortunate of our brethren who haven't been introduced to Potterverse yet, and I make it a point to painstakingly convince them of the sheer brilliance of books 1 to 6. So you can imagine why I nearly passed out with rage when my friend, in response to my noble attempt to bring him to the light and help him enjoy J K Rowling's peerless classics, shrugged me off with a disdainful, "I don't read kiddo books". Seriously, if I was even half as impulsive as Sirius Black, my friend wouldn't be alive today.

Okay, I know I sometimes cross the most cringe-worthy limits of exaggeration when talking about Harry Potter, but certainly, I do believe that the Harry Potter books are more than just fun reads for the children. I agree that a lot of people love them as purely escapist enjoyment, but the discerning few who love to discern things will tell you that there's never been a more entertaining message of the importance of goodness, love and pluck. The thing about social messages is that they often get insufferably boring, and an insufferably boring message can never really be even remotely effective. What J K Rowling has managed, on the other hand, is to tell the simple story of a bunch of school kids who just happen to be forced to confront complex questions of morality and integrity in an increasingly torn world. And it doesn't take earth-shattering brilliance to realize that Ms Rowling's way is far more effective than any intricately crafted sermon can ever hope to be. If only the literary critics who like nothing better than to rip apart J K Rowling's work as 'crowd pleasing bilge' could recognize this.

I've always felt that there are just too many thought-provoking parallels between the happenings of Potterverse and our real world to ignore J K Rowling's intent. Racism is a much-discussed evil in the Potter books, as is the revolting nature of politics (the Ministry of Magic is one heck of a PR-crazy government, don't you think?). The lust for power, as embodied by Lord Voldemort's thoroughly vicious acts which seem perfectly justified in his own twisted mind, runs as the common theme of the books, and its portrayal, to me, serves as a terrific lesson in behavioral psychology and the causes of evil. Then again, Harry's fortuitous run down the memory lane of the mysterious Severus Snape tells us how little in this world is completely black or white: James was as much the brutal aggressor (as opposed to Harry previously believing him to be a saint) as was Snape a victim of barbarous bullying, something which he (Snape) learns to practise with great efficiency in his later life. Speaking of Snape, I hardly think there's ever been a more enigmatic character. His unhappy childhood, tortured school years, confused and contradicting adulthood and agony at being forced to kill the one person in the whole world who didn't flinch with distaste every time he looked at him (this is, of course, assuming that Dumbledore ordered Snape to kill him) can make for some heavy-duty intellectual talk.

Love and friendship have been given great importance in the books. When Horace Slughorn, the Potions teacher, declares to his disbelieving class that unnatural or forced love can be the most destructive power on earth, one can't help but appreciate how nicely this fits in with the story of Voldemort's mother and her unfortunate struggles that may have been crucial to Voldemort becoming such a monster in the first place. On the other hand, the friendship between James, Lupin, Sirius and Pettigrew, the unrestrained and at times wicked camaraderie that existed between them and the subsequent betrayal by Pettigrew serve as a heartbreaking reminder of the fallibilities of human nature.

The tragic life of Sirius Black, at the end of which there was a lot of profuse, anguished sobbing in all corners of the world (the real one, mind you), qualifies as a brilliant example of the injustices that the world can sometimes sentence its people to. Sirius was forced to suffer a lifetime of disgrace and imprisonment, all because of the wretched treason of one of his best friends, and yet when in his later life he rightfully grieves about Dumbledore's oddly stifling orders, we tend to dismiss him as nothing more than a pathetic whiner. So much for 12 years of unspeakable misery. Another thing of Rowling's that has always stood out for me is the way she has tried to make some measure of sense out of Time Travel. There have been a lot of books and movies that have mightily struggled to get this totally impossible idea across, but none has been as successful as Harry Potter in synchronizing the phenomena of Time and Destiny so beautifully: when Dumbledore explains to Harry that the only reason he was rescued from the Dementors by his own powerful Patronus Charm was that it was pre-ordained that he would travel back in time, it becomes almost impossible to pick any loopholes in the ludicrous episode. It's another matter that not many people understood this particular point, but Rowling certainly did try her best.

And in all of this jumble, I think I'm quite forgetting the immensely tortuous character of Harry himself. One of the main reasons why Harry Potter has been such a phenomenal success is, I think, the ease with which one can identify with the protagonist. Harry is so not a regular superhero; he's an ordinary, unfortunate, not-so-gifted person whose biggest strength is extraordinary courage. In other words, his greatest power can actually be possessed by every common person who reads the books: there's nothing divine or hereditary about courage. Fantasizing about being a superhero was never so easy. In the midst of all this, of course, there are numerous storytelling masterstrokes - the revelation that the Defence Against the Dark Arts job was actually jinxed, the development of Ginny Weasley's character and the whole saga about Snape's worst memory are clearly wonderful examples of genius at work.

All of this makes me wonder why Ms Rowling is so often pummeled by the intellectual sorts who consider it to be something of a fashion to trash all things Potter. Okay, the books may just be a tad over-dramatic or stereotypical at times, but hey, they are so obviously not meant to appeal to the sensibilities of forty-year-olds. People should learn to appreciate Harry Potter for what it is: a stirring tale of good versus evil told through the eyes of a teenager. It is not a Lord of the Rings-style epic, nor is it a frothy, candyfloss Enid Blyton fable. And if you're still not convinced by all of this, then I've only got a few words to say to you: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!

The Most Important Day of the Year

21st JULY! 21st JULY! WOOHOO!!!! No, I haven't lost my marbles just yet. 21st July is the date when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be released!!! And that, my friends, is big news. Gigantic news. Enormously colossal news. Heck, it might even be the be the most significant news of the last one year. And no, I'm not even remotely exaggerating. Consider this: for the next 168 days 55 minutes and 44 seconds (it wasn't me that calculated this - that credit goes to www.mugglenet.com), a sizable portion of the world's population will think about 21st July, 2006 with a fairly desperate sense of anticipation and feverishly wish the days to speed by faster than a Firebolt. Who cares about Hilary Clinton's presidential campaign? The world has Horcruxes and horrifying deaths (fictional, of course) and getting hold of the book not a nanosecond later than the precise moment the book is first made available to worry about.

I must confess that I was a little ashamed I didn't get to know the momentous news until almost a day after J K Rowling announced it on her website. I had decided to take a break from the Potter fansites for a few days and de-Potterize my mind a little (trust me, it does you no good to meditate on a particularly ridiculous Potter theory moments before going out to give a job interview). And look what I missed! An entire day of excited frenzy! I must have been crazy to have even thought of such a scandalous idea! OK, I think I'm going a little overboard now. But really, this IS great news for all Potter fans. I had been preparing myself for a September-to-December release date, considering the timings of Rowling's announcements at the time of The Half Blood Prince. That time, she had given the release date a full six months after she had declared the title, so I had suspected she would announce the release date somewhere around May. Also, I didn't think she would have risked cutting into the business of Movie 5, The Order of the Phoenix, by releasing the book anytime near the movie release date (which has been officially put as 13th July). But guess what, Rowling does have a humane side after all! I think the despair, despondency and depression of Potter fans was too much for her to bear. All the better for us!

Seriously though, I don't really think it was the wisest of moves to have the book and the movie releasing so close to each other. The movie's first week collections will of course be fantastic, but once the book releases I doubt many fans will want to return to the scene of Sirius's death or Snape's worst memory, particularly since there might be much more pressing matters to contemplate, like the possibility of Dumbledore making a smashing comeback or dare I say it, the devastating death of Harry. It just makes no business sense, if you ask me. Unless, of course, Rowling manages to convince Warner Bros. to delay the movie release by a bit, or even more cleverly, creates an intermingling connection between the events of book 5 and book 7, making it imperative to read or watch Phoenix again. Now wouldn't that be a masterstroke! And judging by the happenings in the first 6 books, there has been something of an inter-relationship between alternate books of the series - books 1, 3 and 5 follow vaguely similar paths, and the same can be said for 2, 4 and 6. So basically, that's just my cue to start reading books 1, 3 and 5 yet again.

I have been so caught up in the brouhaha of all of this that I have almost forgotten the Harry Potter-related news of two days ago that was nearly as significant as the release date news and certainly a lot more shocking. Daniel Radcliffe's very questionable decision to act in the controversial play Equus where he will shed his innocent schoolboy image in favour of a decidedly adult one has left me a little disturbed. Now don't get me wrong, Radcliffe is fully entitled to act in whichever play or movie he wishes to, but I just thought it would've been a bit more prudent for him to wait until the series was completed before venturing into such audacious projects. Why? Because however much we would like to shout out to the world that Rowling's creation transcends the boundaries of age and appeals to everyone aged from 5 to 60, children still form the most devoted fan base of Potterverse. And Equus is definitely not good news for children. Just something for Mr. Radcliffe to think about.

The Many Woes Of A Potter Fan

The Devil Wears Prada wasn't a bad movie. It was fairly enjoyable, and made its point about the whole 'family comes first' theory, that seems to be getting very popular with Hollywood filmmakers these days, quite efficiently. But there was one sequence in the movie that was so jarringly unrealistic that it tarnished an otherwise quite proficient screenplay. I could readily agree with the movie's stand equating obtaining the manuscript of the latest unreleased Harry Potter book with the 'impossible' that Meryl Streep's Devil wishes to assign to the poor Anne Hathaway. But wonder of wonders, Hathaway actually manages to get hold of the manuscript! Now that was a fatal error that could most definitely been avoided. I mean, which self-respecting Harry Potter fan could possibly forgive such a monstrous lapse by the makers of the movie? Getting hold of an unreleased Potter manuscript is the most frighteningly impossible thing ever, and everyone knows that, right? If there existed even a slight possibility of obtaining such a priceless treasure, wouldn't every Potter lunatic (and there are quite a few of those) be straining every sinew to devise an awfully brilliant plan and grab it? Wouldn't they?

So the talented Ms Rowling has not considered it appropriate enough to give her despairing fans anything to cling their hopes to, like a release date for book 7 or something. It's alright, we can live with that for a few days more. In the meantime, what better way to kill the months than by going through the millions of theories that are simply waiting to be analyzed by the most hard-nosed of Potter followers? Other than the more obvious (and a little frustrating) 'Harry is a Horcrux' and the perennially unanswered 'Snape is evil' (or 'Snape is good', whichever way you wish to look at it) theories, I've been quite interested in speculations about the 'deathly hallows'. The common consensus is that the hallows refer to the places where Voldemort has hidden his Horcruxes, which I personally don't find convincing enough. But there have been some other versions too - one theory is that the 'hallows' are the souls of people who have died, hence the adjective 'deathly', and that these 'hallows' will in some way communicate with Harry, through avenues which could be anything from the Veil in the Department of Mysteries to the two-way mirror that Sirius gave Harry. Supposedly, the communication will be for the benefit of Harry in his quest to defeat Voldykins. J K Rowling has mentioned in one of her interviews that the two-way mirror will have an important role in book 7, and while I have always assumed this would be on account of Sirius's comeback in some form to help Harry, it could well be a means of communicating with any dead person, including Harry's parents, or perhaps more realistically, Dumbledore. Rowling has also said, of course, that Sirius had to die, that is, his death was very important for the story, so that's another intriguing little point that I have found no conclusive theories for yet. Perhaps the two-way mirror is far more significant than any of us have ever thought.

The mysterious R. A. B. continues to dominate most discussion forums, and yet we are no closer to knowing his (or her?) true identity than we are to knowing whether Harry is the heir of Gryffindor (another hotly debated topic). For my part, I'm almost convinced that the snivelling Mr. Borgin, co-owner of Borgin and Burke's (I hope I've got the name right - I'm not that crazy a fan), whose first name has been very suspiciously concealed by Rowling so far, fits the bill perfectly. He's a coward, he knows a lot about the Dark Arts, he looks at Death Eaters with something close to distaste - he really does have the right credentials. Though, of course, Severus Snape is a strong candidate too (his name seems to figure in nearly every theory; clearly, his character is a masterpiece - we salute you, J K Rowling!), as I just realized after reading an editorial at www.mugglenet. com. Interestingly, the argument with this is that Snape isn't actually R.A.B. - he is only impersonating, or framing, the real R. A. B., whoever he is. And considering Snape's general temperament and nature, this little point sounds very convincing. I'm still rooting for the inconspicuous Mr. Borgin though, and I'm sure I'll be very pleased with myself if I turn out to be right.

Lily Potter remains a fascinatingly cloaked character, and Rowling's declarations about the importance of her wand being good for Charms and Harry having her eyes, her green eyes, has only added to her 'charm'. Some say that the eyes thing was explained by the Slughorn incident in book 6 - when Slughorn looked at Harry's eyes, he was reminded of his favorite student Lily, and so could be persuaded to divulge the missing memory that Harry and Dumbledore wanted. But I'm not convinced about that one. I do believe that there will be a much more strong and interesting reason for Harry having his mother's eyes, or else Rowling would never have bothered to talk about it at all.

The possibility of Nagini, Voldemort's beloved pet snake, being the sixth Horcrux, as assumed by Dumbledore, has been dismissed by many theorists, on the belief that this assumption was one of Dumbledore's 'errors of judgement'. Well, if these theorists are right, and Nagini is not the sixth Horcrux, then we've got another huge problem, haven't we? I mean, we've hardly come anywhere close to cracking the identity of the fifth Horcrux, which Rowling had once said would be easy to find for a true Potter fan from book 6, then how on earth are we going to discover the SIXTH one? Clearly, we need to be even more maniacal than we now are to beat Rowling at her game. Another subject that has been discussed fervently is Trelawney's Prophecy, and just to show how stubborn and outrageously crazy Potter fans can get, some are even suggesting that it's Neville Longbottom, and not Harry, who is 'the One' referred to in the Prophecy, in spite of the fact that Rowling has unequivocally stated that Harry is most definitely 'the Chosen one'. Their argument? The Prophecy talks about 'the ONE', and not 'the CHOSEN one', and apparently there's a big difference between the two expressions. Think this is irritatingly outlandish? You haven't got a taste of the whole big, mad world of Pottermania.

Moving away from Harry Potter, England crashed to yet another dismal defeat against New Zealand today. Though this is not even mildly surprising any more, members of the British media have once again outdone themselves in heaping their scorn on the hapless team. I'll leave you with one passage written by Andrew Miller, the UK editor of Cricinfo, that had me laughing hysterically for no less than two whole minutes:
"And when the cameras panned in on the dressing-room, Fletcher's hangdoggy-in-the-window expression was, to the average long-suffering England fan, every bit as slappable as Ricky Ponting had found it to be at Trent Bridge in 2005. Quite how the shunned Chris Read, sitting in fulminating silence beside him, resisted the temptation, no-one will ever know."
Well done, Mr. Miller!

Harry Potter And A Little Bit Of Magic

'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'. I must confess that when I first heard the title, my reaction was more along the lines of 'huh?' rather than the 'Wow!' that should be expected of a proud Potter fan. I didn't even know what 'hallows' meant, for crying out loud. For the kind information of those of you who have been living in some kind of woeful netherland and have no idea what I am talking about, J K Rowling has just declared the title of the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series, which is, you guessed it right (I'm trying very hard not to roll my eyes right now) - 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'. So 'deathly' and 'hallows', right? It's an odd pair of words to put together in a phrase, if you ask me. And 'hallow', as I found out after a thorough attack on the dictionary, is used most often as a verb and not as a noun; I presume the 'hallows' in the title is a noun. Moreover, the word 'hallow' is almost never used in its plural form. I was left quite a bit confused by all of these mysterious nuances, and I desperately needed to clear the air around the whole thing, so I turned to the best source for Harry Potter explanations on the planet - the Potter fansites.

The best theory about the title that I could find (and I must confess that I didn't go through all of the theories that were on show - past experience has told me that once you decide to check out all the theories in the discussion forum of even a single site, you remain glued to your computer for a minimum of twenty-three hours and eventually emerge thoroughly confused about every little harmless detail in the books) is that the hallows refer to the places where Voldemort has hidden his Horcruxes. They're hallowed, at least to Voldemort, because they hold his very life within them, and they're obviously deathly, as was the case with the cave and the Gaunt house. Plausible? You bet. Likely? I don't quite think so, because Rowling has made it rather a habit of surprising her readers with the unexpected and the unpredictable. So all we can really do until the release of the book (and when oh when is that going to be?) is passionately comb through the discussion threads of every fansite and hope to stumble upon the right theory somewhere.

I've always been very amused and also a little impressed with the imaginative flair of the fans who give posts in the discussion forums. Some of the theories that are put up are so amazingly ingenious that I sometimes wonder whether Rowling doesn't orchestrate the forums herself. One of my all-time favourite theories was the one about the possiblity of Ron really being Dumbledore, who presumably turns back time somewhere in the future to come and protect Harry as a friend. It was well-explained, mind you; it didn't sound nearly as batty as it does now when I read it for the first time. The debate about Lily Potter being a Seer has raged on for ages, at least on the site www.hpana.com, which I personally feel is the best among the hordes of fansites if you want to dig up some really interesting theories. Kreacher, Trelawney and even Stubby Boardman have all been given very creative destinies by the inspired fans, much to my delighted interest.

Of course, most threads deal with the more basic points. Snape's loyalty or otherwise has often dominated forums, and this is one debate in which there are always very convincing points in favour of both the sides. Dumbledore's death was another hotly debated topic. Heck, there was an entire site started, 'www.dumbledoreisnotdead.com' in dedication of the solemn subject. Rowling, of course, had the good sense to put the matter to an end by announcing some time back that Dumbledore really IS dead and that she actually is cruel enough to kill off the most beloved character of the series. Sirius's death in book 5 was also very fervently talked about. For three years people insisted that Sirius isn't really dead and that he'd make a heroic comeback to help Harry in his Herculean quest to defeat Voldemort, because, after all, a very elaborate death scene involving a mysterious veil and a hundred little suspicious things had to be fake. Thankfully, Half Blood Prince shot down that bit of silliness, and emphatically at that.

I suppose I could go on and on about the magical world of Harry Potter and painstakingly describe every pointless aspect of every little insignigicant detail of the books. And yet, I don't think I'd be able to cover half of how much I really want to say about Potterverse. In the process, of course, I'd also be ignoring my dear sister's stern advice to keep my posts 'SHORT!' So no, I won't go on discussing forever, in my opinion, the best set of books ever written. Instead, I'll end with a refrain that I think is an appropriate tribute to the astounding genius of the creator of the world that has brought so much joy to our unimaginative little lives - 'Long live J K Rowling!'