Geek vs Life

This is not a review of Harry Potter, and nor will it have specific spoilers. I waited with S, Jon, and Joe for the end of a series at a bookstore. After arriving home at two am, I started to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I was going to linger with this book. I was going to drift with it. Somewhere from lounging with the book…it became an imperative, a glass of water in the desert. I couldn’t stop. At five in the morning, I made my body and mind stop. I tried to sleeping for half an hour. It didn’t work. At median of five, I gave up. I went back to the book. I think around one thirty I finished the bildungsroman.

I even hate to give my emotion reactions while reading and or finishing the book. It may be considered spoilers! I will state these feelings. I cried. I laughed. I wanted the book, and Potter never to be finished. I couldn’t wait for the finish. My favorite parts where the quiet ones. As I can’t tell which parts, without spoiling it I will say this. I believe we should create two forums for Harry Potter: One with spoilers, One without spoilers. These quiet moments where pockets of joy, and gave my favorite stuff in any narrative, charative.

Is the book perfect? Yes and no. No, J.K. Rowling still overuses adverbs. She will duplicate phrases. Admittedly these may not be as apparent unless if you read it one sitting. Look for the phrase, “in the rent.” Count it. There isn’t as much laughter or quirks. There isn’t other familiar things. Yet, it is perfect. Harry Potter is believable, both as a character and a world. Harry does the same mistakes over and over again. I mean you find out why “snitches” have the name of “snitches.” Yet this is not a review.

How can you review this book? This is the omega. It is not likely that someone who has read the first six books, will not read the seventh, nor is it likely for the converse to happen. Now if someone is waiting for the series to be over, and wondering if the over twenty five hundred word opus is worth it? Yes. Read it. Love it. Feel it. You will be relieved that Rowling landed this epic. The ending is comprehensive, fervent, and complete. Landing the epic is hard. Go read Stephen King’s Dark Tower series to see how logical the ending is, but emotionally it is not a great. It is not a series half heartedly created to make money, nor does it have too many parts compressed together to try to make it whole. It is clean.

I felt empty finishing the book. I will never get to read this book for the first time again. I am envious of all future first time readers of the Potter world. Yes, there will be future Potter readers. All those children, who grew up with children will present these stories to their children. (Hell it could be argued Rowling’s saved the novel. Again look at all those young people, reading, a book. It is a very long book.) In the future, I will re-read to see the connections. I may wonder what were happy accidents, and others future foreshadowing. I will dissect. I will recommend this book to any children I know and/or have. I am sure it will still be emotional, but it will be more akin to reliving memories, then creating memories.

The emptiness did not last. I felt joy, glad to be alive. This should not be construed as evidence of the ending. All great art, no matter the subject matter should make one feel glad to be alive. Either to reach the sublime the art presents, or to be alive to change the slime the art presents. I chatted to an old friend, imbued with a sense of closure. Good narrative grant closure.

Closure is a great lie that we don’t get in life. We don’t have containments. A sense of getting a moral at the end of something or a theme. At the end of something all we get is death. Death may be our only theme as humans. It is the theme of the ultimate book of Harry Potter. It is right there in the title: “Harry Potter and the DEATHly Hallows.” You will see lots of death in this book. That is not a spoiler. Rowling has admitted as much. (A sidenote: In finishing and revealing the end to her husband, Rowling revealed one character received a reprieve, at the expense of three others. It is fascinating to speculate who that one character is.) One disliked character’s sacrifice, still moved me to tears. And for a “children’s” series, which theme is death amazes me. Especially in a culture that ignores it, or fights it in superficial ways, but never deals with it. (See anti aging creme, or grisly murder television shows) It is our sense of how we accord with death that get to have that fantasy of closure. Closure is our therapy, humanity, and ironically our vitality.

Again, J.K. Rowling has landed the epic. She birthed a world, and resolved it, well. I cannot give her a better compliment. So this is not a review but a eulogy. A thank you note.

But remember these two things. Not all tears weeped are of grief, some tears weeped are of joy. The other is a quote by G. K. Chesterton, “Fable is more historical than fact, because fact tells us about one man and fable tells us about a million men.”