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Is The Harry Potter Thing Over Now?
I couple of days ago I read a review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Harrows, on my old pal Girish Shahane's blog. Now, if I recall correctly, Deathly Harrows is the last of the Potter books! So that's it then is it? This is the last Harry Potter film of the last Harry Potter book? Is it all over now? If so I must say I'm relieved. I've never gotten on board the Harry Potter train myself whether at Kings Cross station nor anywhere else. The books bored me silly and the clips of the films I've seen on TV looked pretty dire: a bunch of obnoxious English boarding school kids pointing magic wands at each other...Hmmm. I'm glad children seem to enjoy these novels and I hope it's got a lot of them reading, but I've never understood the appeal they have for adults. Still I'm not complaining at the moment, I'm just glad that after ten long years it's finally finished. Unless Ms Rowling writes another one of course.
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On another topic entirely...Girish also has an interesting post about an incident from our college days here.
21 comments:
Sorry to report: The new HP movie is part one of the last book. There's one more movie to go.
Speedskater
Oh bugger. They've gone and done a Hobbit with it?
Bastards.
Have never read or seen any of the HP offerings and don't plan to. I just can't get into fantasy. I find HP and all the devoted minions extremely irritating, which I'm sure fuels my bias. Like you mentioned, it is good that kids are reading though.
I enjoyed the football story and if that was someone wanting to watch The Simpsons instead of the Superbowl, I don't think diplomacy would have come into play.
No worries Adrian, it will be over soon. I think the last part of the last book is supposed to come out early next year. Maybe March, since you like that month so much. I'm with you on the books. I forced myself through the first one just to see what the hoopla was about, my stubbornness however was lost very early in the second book. I have to admit however, I do enjoy the movies to a degree, mainly because my son does I think.
Last weekend I was at an event at a library and there was a panel of YA authors - now there are some people who can't wait for Harry Potter to be over. One of them the point that publishers are no longer interested in YA books without fantasy elements and I thought that was too bad.
From what I've seen, Harry Potter gets kids to read the same way candy gets them to eat - it's not really a stepping stone to eating their vegetables (and may, as my mother used to warn, "ruin" their appetites).
Girish's story mentioned the test for Britishness and that reminded me there's a good story in Roddy Doyle's collection, The Deportees called, "57% Irish" about a guy hired to come up with questions for the Irish version of that test. I wonder, is there really an Irish porn star named Shamrock Chambers?
Sean
I imagine you're right about the Superbowl.
I dont mind some fantasy. I quite like Ursula Le Guin, both her adult and her kids stuff.
Glenna
Ok so we dont have to wait a full year. Fine I can cope with that. I will say that both Harry Potter himself and the actress who plays the female lead seem like smart, funny, nice young people in the interviews I've seen of them so at least that's something.
John
I havent read that story but it sounds pretty darn good.
BTW when I did the US citizenship test I was quite annoyed at the crapness of the questions. Who is the current Chief Justice of the Supreme Court they asked. I knew the name of every Chief Justice back to 1804.
I used to do a book review slot on BBC Newcastle many years ago.
When the fourth HP book came out I gave it a terrible review because it was a terribly written book.
I actually received death threats.
When the fifth book came out, our sister bookshop had a signing with Rowling. We had 100 golden tickets stashed in random books that guarenteed a place. Being Newcastle upon Tyne, the morning was cold and very wet so when the other store called us up to say 'can you open early, all the golden tickets have gone so lets get these people out of the cold' we agreed. An announcement was made to the queue that all golden tickets have gone so you can go to the other shop.
The first customer: "where's my golden ticket?"
Me: "They've all gone. The lady just told you. That's why you've come over here"
Customer behind the 1st: "What? They told us we would definitely have a ticket if we came over here"
Third customer (a massive woman built like an office block):"You've ruined my child's life, you have"
Me: "Hands up if you actually listened to the lady over the road. (a few hands go up). What did she tell you?
1st customer: "We would be guaranteed a ticket"
4th customer: "no she didn't you deaf idiots now f**k off and make someone else's life a misery" at which a spontaneous round of applause broke out from the rest of the queue and the staff.
I was also physically attacked for daring to sell a book about a local child who killed some other children.
Dangerous stuff, being a book seller.
Rob
Dangerous being a bookseller in Geordie Land. Or anything in Geordie Land. My long, tragic, pointless weekend in Newcastle was pretty grim. I wont get into it all here, but after a bad couple of days it was capped on the Sunday by a woman who threw an unopened bottle of beer at someone else and it hit me on the back. It was like that bit in Get Carter when the fight breaks out in the nightclub. Jesus.
I had hitchhiked there but I got the train back.
Rob, this is the reason I never volunteered to work any of the midnight release parties, although admittedly, Santa Cruz is not Newcastle. The weeks and even months leading up to these events became increasingly insane.
That was a good story over on Girish's blog. I'm quite impressed that you all ran off to other venues rather than simply throttle the guy. Funny, too, that he actually showed up on the blog. Apparently he is unrepentant.
I know the north-east of England very well on account of my wife's family being from there, although due to her father being on the run from something she was born in Belfast. Yes, that's right, Belfast was safer than Gateshead. Anyway, the night before our wedding in Durham, one of our guests was glassed simply for ordering a beer in a broad Scouse accent. Beautiful country, the north-east, but it's a harsh beauty and that harshness seems to rub off on the locals.
Seana
Completely unrepentant.
He lives in Istanbul these days where he teaches about classical architecture I think.
David
And its freezing there too. It's that wind I think that blows all the way from the north pole.
I heard that the release parties were ringed by burly armed guards dressed as wizards who threatened to make anyone violating the midnight release embargo disappear.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Well, not quite, but as I think I've said here before, they did make one Borders employee down the street disappear for opening a box to show a reporter the cover before the great night. That's about when I began to lose sympathy with the whole phenomenon.
Did J.K. Rowling make any public statement against such excesses?
==========================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
You know, really, I doubt she knew. I'm sure like all celebrity, it's like living in the midst of a whirlwind.
I'm sure she did hear at some point. After all, I heard about some of the draconian security measures and confidentiality agreements. She also doubtless knew about the frenzy surrounding her books, and I recall no statement from her urgnig calm and restraint. Such statements might have helped.
======================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Hi Adrian, first of all, you are my favourite writer ever, I'm reading your books in english because thay are not translated in italian, but i cant stay without reading your masterpieces. Michael Forsythe is my hero, I think I love him. Talking about Harry potter, well, I'm 37, I'm a teacher, I'm a single mother, but I love this saga. It's like enter in a dream dimension, where you know that everything is possible, and you wait for something really special to come. I think the little wizard wakes up the baby that lives inside of us..it's only my opinion. Hi Adrian, have a great Christmas holiday, and sorry for my english. Angela from Italy
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