Harry Potter Rampage
2007-02-17 / 9:53 a.m.
So what does one do when one works in a bookstore and the release of the biggest book ever is in just five short months?
One goes, of course, on a Harry Potter reading/movie watching rampage. I have read and watched one per day and am on #4, The Goblet of Fire, which is 700+ pages long and had to be split up over two days. I probably won't get to watch the movie until Monday or Tuesday, since we purposely didn't borrow it from the boy's parents in case we got tempted to skip ahead.
I have come to the following conclusions:
1. Reading the book just before the movie has a weird effect (since liberties are taken with major plot lines in order to fit them in the feature film time frame). But it is also very effective for being able to discern those liberties and therefore is highly recommended.
2. The books are way funnier, and, in a way, much sadder too than the films can ever be. Rowling fills them with numerous back-to-back puns and silliness, and an equal counterpart of moving, tear-jerking tragedy, and is a great way to get kids (and yes, adults too) to love language, humor, and the catharsis of a good cry, all at the same time.
3. There are a few adult jokes in #s 3 & 4, but which parents can be fairly confident that their 12-and-unders won't get yet, so I don't think they should worry unnecessarily.
4. For that matter, on the whole Harry Potter = AntiChrist scenario that the Christian right likes to put forth, it is completely unfounded and if someone would just read through the second book, THAT IS THE WHOLE POINT. That you are not born to be a good person (and therefore are a good person just because you were born into the right family or religion or whatever), although blood and nature may help. It is your choices that make you who you are, and each person as guided by belief still has free will to be as good or bad as they wish. Honestly, do they give out money or crack with the anti-HP literature? because I can't think of anything that would make that camp attractive to me.
5. I like the Ron/Hermione pairing in the movies. This is totally absent from the books, but I think is an improvement over them, actually. They look sweet together, and is a pairing I often see in real life (the bossy, demanding, super-smart girl with the cheerful, occasionally dunderheaded but still intelligent, well-meaning boy)
6. I *like* Ginny Weasley. I get the whole "crush" thing with Cho Chang but I'm really hoping he ends up with Ginny.
7. Trust Snape. Granted I am only halfway through #4 so my opinion may change. But I'm leaning that way.
8. Gary Oldman is the best. I mean, I can't recognize the man in anything, because for me, every time I see him, he is a total different person in every role, so different that he is practically a different actor. I always have to go to IMDb and look up who played (insert name of admired character here) and almost always come up with "Gary Oldman" and sit there for a bit to digest the news that I have again failed to spot him even though I have seen him in numerous films.
Well, that's it for now. I'm only halfway through, for Pete's sake.