Three Way News: Harry Potter: Whatever the latest book is called...

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Harry Potter: Whatever the latest book is called...

I finished the latest Harry Potter book last night. The Half Blood Prince, right? Yes, I know it's more or less young adult fiction, which is somewhat inappropriate for a man on the precipice of the long downhill slide to 40, but I've read Joyce, Pynchon, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky, so y'all can just shut it.

I thought the first Potter book was excellent. I can't really tell you what happens, because the plots get all jumbled up in my memory. Rowling never truly succeeds in her plot work. But, she utterly succeeds is creating a rich, fascinating fantasy world in which to contain her characters. She creates a world fascinating enough to survive the relentless drudgery of Quidditch. In itself, this is a remarkable achievement.

The books have been, more or less, downhill from there. All have been readable, if overly long. While the characters have aged, they have not developed any more than the kids on the Simpsons. The romantic subplots, in particular, are gruesome enough to have me wishing for a quick Quidditch match to break up the snogging.

Books 2 through 5 are adventure mysteries in a fantasy world. While Rowling handles the adventure parts well, the mysteries are unsatisfying. In the latest book, one of the several mysteries is the identity of the Half Blood Prince. While the identity can be guessed it can't be deduced. Hermione reveals the secret to the Half Blood Prince's identity, which is based on new facts presented nowhere else in the books -- so far as I know.

The first 3/4 of book 6 were quite standard Potter fare. It's the usual blend of Potter's headstrong attempts to solve mysteries with Dumbledore's guidance and help from Ron and Hermione. What's Malfoy up to? Whose side is Snape on? How can Harry collect a memory? What's Voldemort's past? At around the 3/4 mark, though, the story changes quite dramatically. The change is much to the better. We leave the mystery behind and set out on an archetypal hero's quest. For those who don't recall their Comp Lit and Folklore classes, the book breaks down very easily into Star Wars characters:

Harry Potter = Luke Skywalker (even down to the dead parents)
Dumbledore = Ben Kenobi (or Yoda)
Hermione, Ron = C-3PO, R2D2
Snape = Han Solo

You can translate Hermione and Ron any number of ways, even Han and Leia in Empire and Return of the Jedi. Helpers are interchangeable. Neither translates to Solo in New Hope, because Potter #7 will be quite different from books 1 through 6. The action will largely removed from Hogwarts as Potter takes on a much more linear journey. For Potter to succeed, of course, he will have to receive help from an unexpected source at the most opportune time. That's when Snape will swoop in like the Millennium Falcon to clear the way at the end of Potter's Death Star run. Which is why Snape gets to be Han Solo.