In high school, before
the movies came out, I had many, many people tell me I looked exactly like
Harry Potter. Truth is, I don’t think
anybody on my bus knew my real name; they always called me Harry. I felt honored.
Because I’d read the
books so much, I had too many things memorized.
A friend of mine would often do a trivia game with me, and he tried for
months to trip me up. It was difficult,
because I was such a nerd with this series that I had Harry’s list of textbooks
and their respective authors memorized.
He only got me twice or thrice, and one of the questions was what kind
of images Dumbledore had on his pocket watch (the answer was planets. I had no clue and I was so mad about that.)
In anticipation of Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix, I read all the books from the start just so
that I could read the series in sequence, and that was pretty special.
And then something
weird happened: I stopped rereading
them. I only read the fourth and fifth
books two or three times total, as compared to the dozens that I’d read the first
three installments. To this day, I’ve
only read the last two books once. Now,
I was present for the midnight release of Half-Blood
Prince and read the whole thing overnight (dawn came when I finished, and I
couldn’t stop crying over Dumbledore’s death.
That sucked.) I nearly did the
same thing with Deathly Hallows.
Since the morning after
I finished Deathly Hallows, I’ve
never been back to the books. I just set
them aside and called life good. I kept
watching the movies because they were brilliant, especially once David Yates
took over as director. Order of the Phoenix isn’t just the best
Harry Potter movie, it just may be one of the best movies to have come out from
that decade, and I was very impressed with Deathly
Hallows: Part 1.
I was pretty satisfied
with how things were. Rowling was a
major influence in my teenage years and I’ll be forever grateful for how they
helped make me a better reader, writer, critic, and even a better person. This was just a wonderful, wonderful series,
but I set it aside and moved onto other interests, both in literature and other
pursuits.
Until this past
week. I got a beautiful set of Harry Potter novels for a very
reasonable deal a couple years back and I looked at them and said to myself,
Today’s the day. At the point of writing
this, I am already halfway through Prisoner
of Azkaban, and it is so difficult not to skip this post and just keep
reading. But I obligated myself, and
though I am majorly procrastinating on it, here are some of my impressions on
the first two Harry Potter novels:
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
This was a
delight. I felt like I was visiting an
old friend and had forgotten all their good stories. Of course I remembered the main story, but
there were things that I had completely forgotten: like how Vernon Dursley
worked for a company that sold drills, or that Ginny was present in this book
as in all the others, or even that Peeves was a character. Who made the decision to leave him out of the
movies? I know he doesn’t play any
significant role in the movies, but he is a delightful part of the atmosphere.
Around the time Goblet of Fire came out, many people
were going up in arms how Harry Potter
was too dark, and this took Rowling by surprise because she started the series
out with a double murder and brought a villain who drank blood somewhere in the
middle. Those were dark content, sure,
but it honestly never left as big an impression on me, even when I first read
them.
What did strike me as
extreme was the child abuse, and this seems to be more noticeable as an adult
than it was for me as a kid. When I
first read Harry, I hated the Dursleys, but injustice is such a common aspect
of childhood that the full significance of their torture washed over me. This
time I read it, I wanted to reach down and punch Petunia and Vernon before
setting Child Protective Services on their butts. It seems amazing to me that nobody in the
magical community did anything to observe that he at least had a bedroom. I know there is some explanation later in the
books on why it’s for Harry’s good to live with them, but the answer does not
feel satisfying after all the physical, verbal, and mental suffering he’s put
through all his life until now. It’s
kind of amazing how socially adept he is at school considering how little
practice he had in his formative years.
As plots go, the story
is better-than-average, but it’s not the strongest point. Sorcerer’s
Stone was a bit like visiting Narnia.
There is this whole world to explore, and even though it’s limited to
just the school (I include Diagon Alley as part of the school, because it’s
only function in this book is to pick up Harry’s supplies) there is incredible
depth, from the living portraits and moving staircases, to the trolls and
ghosts, teachers and their classes, and on to the Hogwarts Houses and the
Forbidden Forest.
The setting is great,
the characters pop out of the page and demand to be noticed, known, and loved
or hated as the case may be, but the plot… as technique goes, it’s very
well-crafted. Rowling has a gift for
telling the mystery novel. She knows how
to leave clues in plain sight and yet decorate them so that you don’t realize
their true significance. Having Nicolas
Flamel’s first introduction as part of a note in a trading card was nothing
short of genius, and the series of trials to get to the Sorcerer’s Stone were
just breathtaking and clever, from getting past Fluffy to riddle of the poisons
(something that I just had to figure out on my own before I read Hermione’s
answer, even this time around.)
It’s all brilliant, up
until Harry meets Voldemort at the Mirror of Erised, and there’s a thick irony
(I don’t want to say conceit, although it kind of is) about the whole story up
until now. Voldemort was stuck at the
mirror and couldn’t figure out how to get the Stone. Harry comes in and gets the Stone from the
Mirror. In the last chapter, we learn
the reason for that is because Dumbledore set things up so that the Mirror
would never give the Stone to anybody who wanted to use it, only to somebody
who wanted it for the sake of the Stone itself, or to preserve and protect it.
The Stone was safe from
Voldemort the entire time! He would have stared at the mirror until
whatever was left of his life was up and he still would have never gotten
it. It was only because Harry “rescued”
the Stone from the Mirror that made it possible for Voldemort to capture
it. In short, Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s
journey to save the Stone was really not their business, and in the long run,
had the potential to make things so much worse.
In the final chapter, Neville is the only one who earned his points
because he’s the only one of the four who did the right thing: he
tried to stop them. Harry, Ron, and
Hermione were brilliant and brave, but they were all heart and no brains in
their endeavor.
But what can you
expect? They’re 11.
The reason why Sorcerer’s Stone still works for me and
goes from good to great is actually also the Mirror of Erised. I had forgotten a lot over the years about
what was in this book, but the one part of the story that’s never left me is
the chapter when Harry first found the Mirror.
I went back one time just for that chapter alone, without reading
anything before or after.
There’s an inscription
on the mirror that seems like a foreign language, but if you read it backwards,
it says, “I show not your face but your heart’s desire.” I’ve thought often about Harry and Ron’s
desires. Harry sees a family he’s never
had. Ron (who is no side character; he
is as much the hero of this story as Harry is) who feels overshadowed sees
himself as being the greatest of all his family. Neither one has a bad desire, and it’s so
interesting to me that in both cases their desires are tied to their
families. In each case, what’s missing
in their lives is that they don’t feel loved.
Harry bemoans how he’s never had a chance at that kind of love. Ron feels outcast and unappreciated in his
own family, and he sees himself as being the best because that’s the only way
he sees that he could meet that need.
Harry shows tremendous
growth at the end of the book, when his greatest desire is no longer for his
family. He’s sacrificed that dream for a
nobler purpose, to keep an evil from harming all the other innocent families in
the world.
When I think of the
Mirror of Erised, I’ve asked myself many times, What would I see? What is the thing I desire more than anything
in the world?
I’m not going to share
my answer now, but I will say that it’s not all that far from the desires of
Harry or Ron, because in the end, family does tend to reach the core of whom we
are.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
This is the stronger
book. There is some sequel-itis going on
here and it’s kind of annoying, especially in the first couple chapters, where
Rowling felt she had to explain everything
from the first book. It was a bit like
reading a book report on Sorcerer’s Stone
when I wanted to see some magic happen. But these are minor annoyances, because the
rest was amazing.
Chamber of Secrets
was actually my favorite book for several years. The plot is much stronger this time around, and
this time, instead of Harry, Ron, and Hermione seeking out trouble, there is a
very real danger attacking them that forces them to take action. And their actions are pretty smart… well,
no. I should not go that far. They’re still 12. The Polyjuice Potion is a perfect example of
how they put so much time and effort on a dangerous task all on a misguided
hunch—okay, prejudice—that Draco Malfoy is behind it all. Boy, do they look stupid after that.
But the mystery is once
again brilliant. Rowling is a master of
hiding clues in plain sight, such as:
Harry’s being a Parselmouth, Moaning Myrtle, Ginny’s melancholy, the
dead roosters, and all the way down to Dobby.
Oh, Dobby. Poor Dobby.
They totally ruined you in the movies.
Chris Columbus made some incredible casting decisions, but blew it in
giving us this cartoony, shrill, miniature-sized Jar-Jar Binks.
It was so needless,
too. Dobby is an honestly pitiable
character. In a way, he is a marvelous
foil for Harry. Both come from an
abusive home (and in this book, it is especially bad for Harry. Considering his starvation and confinement
with the Dursleys, I am frankly amazed that he could joke about seeing them
next year. I would be fighting with my
school to let me stay over the summer after that nightmare.) They both face danger constantly and are no
strangers to pain. But the difference
between them is that Harry will fight for freedom even if it puts his life at
risk, and Dobby will believes the keeping your life intact is worth sacrificing
your freedom. This theme, this battle
between their two philosophies, underlies everything that happens in the story,
and it was completely missed by the filmmakers when they adapted this
story. Such a pity.
One last note I have to
make is on the Weasleys and the Malfoys.
This is the book where the Weasleys are secured as major players for the
rest of the series. In fact, I like the
Weasleys more than I like Harry. I
forgot how much personality Percy had in the stories. He’s very pompous and selfish, but I also see
how hard he works and he does strive to be the best he can possibly be.
And Ginny, with the
limited space that she has, she is just adorable. She sticks up for Harry in unexpected
moments, e.g. when Lockhart first appears and forces Harry to stand in a
picture with him (and on that note, she’s the only girl I know who wasn’t
swooning over Lockhart.) I felt really
bad for her when her Valentine for Harry went very badly and Malfoy mocked her
for it. But her overall part in the Chamber of Secrets gives you a taste for
how strong a player she ends up being throughout the rest of the series.
And as for Ron: it’s not as easy to say whether Hermione
liked him at this point, but it is so
obvious that Ron has a crush on her.
But I digress. I started this off by wanting to compare the
Weasleys to the Malfoys. There’s a lot
of play about setting Harry and Draco up as archenemies for the books, but the
truth is that the Malfoys and Weasleys are perfect foils for each other. On the one hand, there is the Malfoys. They’re rich, well-connected, and Draco is an
only child. Their obligations don’t
stretch far beyond that and they’re able to give him anything he wants, even
and especially when he doesn’t deserve them.
This makes Draco pretty arrogant, but it also makes to be quite shallow
and a real coward when it comes down to it.
The Weasleys, on the
other hand, are always barely scraping by, they have connections but tend to
keep to themselves, and they have a lot more children than it seems they can
afford. When I read this, I get the
impression that the Weasleys could have been as well-off, if not richer than,
the Malfoys, if they had had fewer children.
Molly is a very smart, determined, and strong woman, and Arthur actually
has a pretty good job. It doesn’t get
him as many accolades, but he is very competent and enthusiastic in his work,
and despite some pretty heavy setbacks in this story, he has a surprising
amount of influence in the Ministry. If
he didn’t have so many mouths to feed and backs to clothe, his salary could
actually carry them a long way.
And yet, wealth was not
the most important thing to the Weasleys.
What mattered most was their children, as large and crazy though they
may be. And unlike Draco, all of the
Weasleys have earned great distinction in school and in their professional
careers.
It was very fun for me
to see how these relationships played out.
I can’t wait to see
what else I notice as I continue these wonderful books.
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