Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Thanks for all the magic, Jo

One person can’t feel all that at once, they’d explode.

Three days to go, my counter says, before we hold Deathly Hallows in our hands. My feelings are so chaotic, I become incoherent. The theories buzz feverishly in my head, there is mounting excitement, poignancy that this is the end of an intense seven-year stretch of fandom, and fear that the inevitable deaths will cast a cloud over what surely will be the final victory.

I am now wondering if I should permit myself to start on Half-Blood Prince, which I have been straining at the leash to do anytime these past weeks. The mother is on Azkaban and Shweta is trying to finish work so as to leave Saturday completely guilt-free. The father is bemused with all this preoccupation and has very graciously promised not to repeat a single HP spoiler or news and even consented not to switch on the TV the whole of July 21st.

There is of course no dearth of reading material on the internet. There are excellent essays everywhere, and the tension among fans is quite palpable. I particularly recommend this one called Harry Potter and the Nice Big Knot by Susan Faust. In fact, this entire list if you have time on your hands.

What does it take to bond so many people at once? I find the universality of it quite astounding. Are we that similar under the skin? JK Rowling’s Harry Potter story is a rather moral one. She doesn’t preach but the values she holds up are unimpeachable. If that should find resonance with so many millions, it makes me feel very hopeful, very un-cynical.

And she has quite as many fans as Harry. On the forums, someone called joshswenson posts in anticipation of Book Seven:
Jo, please remember, you tread hallowed ground
Our childhood laid bare, our heart strings unwound.
We’re scared silly, we admit it, but you have our trust.
Go now, be brave, and do what you must.

One last request, we ask: please be our Patronus
And most of all thanks for the magic you’ve shown us.
What will happen to the Harry Potter phenomenon after this? Will it die out once it is all known, fizzle out like a hex that needs unblinking eye contact? Will later generations even understand what it was like to grow with Harry Potter? What it was like to wait between books, to be told a story over ten years? Like Sheherzade’s Caliph. Perhaps not. Which makes being part of this big pan-world hoopla really special.

6 comments:

Shweta said...

I was just imagining a child from a future generation enjoying the quite, individual thrill of discovering these books.
All the same I wouldn't trade places. I am thoroughly enjoying this extraordinary phenomenon of kinship and euphoria, it is pretty special.

the mad momma said...

wow..ur right.. it has been ten years.. and we have grown with HP... i am afraid the euphoria will die.. but the legend will definitely live on...

Anonymous said...

Hallo ji:
Yes. I am so wound up its kind of weird. I feel like I am coutning days horus minutes... sigh. I did the books slightly off kilter, - started with the 3rd then did 1 and 2 then went on and did 4, 5. By the time the 6th one was out, I was on the bandwagon - I ordered the book ahead of time and went for the release party at midnight, somehting that I will be repeating this coming week. I have bansished all modes of communication, warned friends and foes alike that I will be unreachable for the weekend. I know I will finish before Saturday night but then Sunday I will be inconsolable - no matter how cheery the outcome, and knowing Ms. Rowling that is not the case, because it will all be done... I pity those fools who turn up their noses at me and my frenetic energy by saying that I am one of a million cottoning on to a trend. I dont care, I say. I say if it's good - truly, genuinely good, as this is, sign me up at 3 million 4 hundred and 68 thousand if need be, I will be a lemming if death be so sweet... Ah, little do they know how beautiful it is to be achild again at 26....

Space Bar said...

if you feel like killing me or the nyt, go read the michiko kakutani review (link from my blog). tons of spoilers. i now know what the triangle-cirlce-line is! yippee! (that said, i still can't wait to read it.)

The Marauder's Map said...

I didn't follow it from the beginning either -- don't know why I resisted it for the longest time ever. Followed in real time from Goblet of Fire onwards, I think, and feel terrible that it's the last time the familiar whispery feeling in the stomach will strike. Can any other book series ever match this? Naaah. Also, can't wait for my daughter to grow up and meet Harry dada (yes, she's heard about him already :D ).

MAHESH said...

God have mercy on my soul... But I guess I'll have to write about Harry Potter after all... and have all you people including Mru, gunning for me... watch out for my next post... With due apologies to all you potter fans... LOL!