Harry Couple of Weeks

There are people out there who have no clue about what's going on in the world. I doubt those people read blogs, but just in case they do (and happen to be reading mine), this post is about the phenomenon that is Harry Potter.

This past month saw not just one, but two (count with me: 1, 2!) major Harry Potter events:

1. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the 5th movie in the series, was released on July 11 (I think that's right — it seems so long ago now)
2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last Harry Potter book ever, was released on July 21

If you've ever been to my house you know that it is populated with Potterheads. No, we don't have a snitch inlaid in the foyer tile, though that's not a bad idea! But you are likely to see a wand or two lying about. Maybe a Hogwarts robe. Probably a book or DVD.

So July was a very exciting month. Both kids wanted to go to the first showing of the movie, but I refused to go to a midnight showing of anything besides the Rocky Horror Picture Show. But we did go on opening weekend. In fact, we went to a 9:30 a.m. showing (because that was the cheapest ticket).

I liked the movie. The kids loved it. I'm sure we'll be adding the DVD to our set. I think there were two things that prevented me from liking the movie more: first was that there were so many things that just couldn't be made to fit in the time limits of a movie that I would really liked to have seen. I mean, my internal movie projector has imagined them, but it would be interesting to see them on the big screen. And second, there were several things that just seemed to be missing the energy they should have had, or were just plain done wrong.

Case in point: the very first scene. Privet Drive is in the middle of suburbia. English suburbia, yes, but suburbia nonetheless. So why is Harry walking through a wheat field? Maybe they were trying to highlight Harry's loneliness or feeling of isolation. But come on! What is more lonely and depressing and oppressive than mile after mile of tract housing? That's how I picture Privet Drive. Faux upscale tract housing; each house predictably different from the ones on either side but with a repeating pattern more obvious than wallpaper.

And then there's Mrs. Figg. She sure didn't seem all that fussed about the dementors in the movie, but why not? I fear that in trying to cut down all the stuff in the book they are tempted to keep only the exciting bits, and then they discover that having only high tension and excitement becomes numbing long before you reach the end. So they have to take emotion out of high tension or high excitement scenes. But then it just feels wrong. I think it would have been far better to settle us back down and set us up for the next jolt by using calmer passages from the book.

But overall it was a decent movie, and those who only watch the movies and don't read the books may not understand my feelings on this.

And then there was the book. Don't worry, I won't spoil it for anyone. We were one of those million who pre-ordered from Amazon with the promise that it would arrive on the release date. And it did. But once again I refused to go to the midnight sale at the local Barnes and Noble or Borders. Noon delivery from the post office was good enough for me — I don't care if Evelyn Wood had already finished reading her copy and sold it to Half Price Books.

As it turns out, my kids were at their grandparents' house on the 21st, so we didn't get to start reading until that evening. But we stayed up late to read a few chapters out loud.

One promise I made to my kids was that I wouldn't read ahead and I wouldn't let anyone else read ahead. That last bit was required to keep 2 of 2 happy because 1 of 2 would've hogged the book while I was at work during the week and would undoubtedly have let one or two facts slip out accidentally on purpose, spoiling some excitement.

To that end, I didn't open the package when the book arrived. I waited until I picked them up that evening, opening it in the car and reading aloud while 6/10ths drove. And each night I hid the book until the next evening when I returned home.

By the following Saturday morning we were only about halfway done. But 2 of 2 had an ear infection and 6/10ths was feeling lousy and coughing her head off and I was feeling kind of down and had a headache that just wouldn't go away. So we spent practically the entire weekend reading off and on. We finished the book early Sunday afternoon.

I read the entire thing aloud. Did voices for all the dialog. Hagrid in any state (calm or angry) is the hardest on my voice. Yelling is also hard after awhile, and there is a lot of yelling in this book. The kids were particularly amused by my impression of Phlegm.

I don't know if this book just invited it, or if my kids are just developing, but there were a lot of breaks where we each offered our predictions about what would happen next, or what would happen to some character, or how some turn of events might affect things later on.

And we kept saying, "she can't kill Harry yet, there're too many pages left!"

But boy did he (and just about everyone else) find themselves in mortal danger at every turn. And strangely, I don't recall any mention of Mrs. Weasley's clock! I guess mentioning it would've been a forhead slapping, DOH!

I liked this book a lot. I liked the lot of them a lot, but I think this one might be my favorite.

I wonder if Ms. Rowling will allow someone to do a spin-off based on Luna Lovegood? They could probably make a pretty good sitcom around that character. And by "they" I mean the BBC. Us Merkins would screw it up.