Laurabelle's Blog

Wow, some people take Harry Potter way too seriously. (On the other hand, I like the use of Harry Potter to illustrate problems related to trust, since it may help to put abstract concepts into terms more people can understand.)

Personally, it doesn’t surprise me that Rowling’s universe isn’t consistent. She uses magic as a gimmick and as a cheap plot device, without much regard for what it will do to the series as a whole. In contrast, magic is ever-present in Willow, but it is a parlor trick, not sorcery, that saves the day. Sometimes magic just isn’t the best tool for the job.

(Willow came to mind because Jeff and I just finished watching it, but there are many other examples of good literary/artistic uses of magic. A Wizard of Earthsea, to cite an even more pertinent example.)

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is going to be released this Friday night at midnight, and the whole world is going insane, not least KCLS.

KCLS ordered more than 500 copies of this book, and they arrived today. The books were processed and checked in to trigger holds... and they are spending tonight under lock and key in an Associate Director's office. They will be on the holdshelves on Saturday, but not before then.

Yesterday I flew into a tizzy because I thought there might be a problem with processing holds on this title, and with over 2,000 rabid patrons waiting for the book, that could be a catastrophe. Luckily there wasn't a problem (or only a very minor one, easily fixed), and all went smoothly.

It boggles me that one book (just one kid's book!) could cause such a stir. Yeah, it's popular, but so is Tom Clancy. It's ridiculous.

The general feeling among CMS staff was relief that the frenzy is almost over, for them at least, and that they will only have to do this one more time for the last Harry Potter.

The next Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, is not due out until June or July (I forget which). KCLS is buying more than 400 copies. There are already more than 1,300 holds. I am number 1,282.

Back in June I read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and hated it. I still hate it, in fact, but I'm a lot more positive about Harry now that I've read the third, fourth, and fifth books of the saga. Harry Potter just doesn't compare to Philip Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials, but I don't hate the series any more, and I have to admit that I'm quite curious to know what happens next.

I wish I'd remembered and found time to blog about this earlier, since I finished the last Harry Potter more than a month ago, because now the only thing I really remember is that the characters have become rounder since the third book. They're still not very complex, and the villains are all flat of course, but even old Snape has got some moral justification (and sympathy from me) now for his hatred of Harry. There's enough for me now to believe in Harry as a person with emotions and motivations rather than a stick-figure for Rowling to push around the pages.

I don't get why (seemingly) everyone loves Harry Potter.

A couple of years ago I read my mother's copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. I didn't enjoy it, for many reasons. One of the biggest was the abuse Harry's family inflict on him. Child abuse is not funny, even in a cartoon, and it's simply unrealistic that Harry could endure systematic physical and psychological abuse without serious psychological consequences. (And why do the wizards at Hogwarts (who should be looking after him!) allow him to stay there for eleven years and then send him back for vacations?) Just thinking about it gets me steamed up. I think I wouldn't mind the theme of child abuse if it weren't treated so trivially and idiotically, as if it weren't a serious real-word problem.