Harry Potter and the Five Sisters

Hop on over to The Surly Librarian for my new post about the Harry Potter series and how I imagine J.K. Rowling could create a powerful adult novel from some crucial yet seldom seen characters.

Here is a taste of the post:

For my summer reading this year, I felt knackered enough from the challenges of work that I didn't want to "work at" reading. So....I decided to reread the whole Harry Potter series straight through. What a treat…!

Something struck me toward the end of the last book, The Deathly Hallows, a curiosity about five powerful women.  They are rarely seen in the novels, yet they play essential roles in the overall story.  I thought it might be intriguing for Rowling to write a novel for adults from the perspective of these "Five Sisters…."

What, I wonder, could we learn of the tragic and powerful family dynamics of the Blacks and the Evans? All five women pulled in extremely different directions. All five together determining the fate of the world. 

Now that would be a novel!

Blessèd Be
Bright Crow  

"Probably the bravest man I ever knew"

Manohla Dargis writes the following about Alan Rickman as Snape in the last of the Harry Potter movies:

Finally too there is Mr. Rickman, who as Snape, Harry’s longtime nemesis, lifts the movie to its expressive high point.

First seen standing in a window shaped like a coffin, Snape enters gravely, a picture of death. Pale and unsmiling, his black hair framing his white face like mourning crepe, he has always suggested Laurence Olivier’s Richard III, an ominous thought with children in the vicinity.

That Snape has proven worthy of that comparison is partly a tribute to Ms. Rowling, but that he has become such a brilliant screen character is due to Mr. Rickman, who helped elevate a child’s tale of good and evil into a story of human struggle.

So true.

Blessèd be.

Harry Potter withdrawal

Walhydra has often over the years experienced the phenomenon of "Now what do I read?!" separation anxiety.

It happens most especially once she has finished a very large volume, or a series of volumes, in which she has become intimately involved with the characters over weeks or months—or, in the case of J.K. Rowling's works, years.

So...no mystery that, after finishing The Deathly Hallows and seeing The Order of the Phoenix within a week of each other, she has been in major, major withdrawal since then.

Walhydra started several other books and put them down within pages.

"I don't want to get to know anyone new yet," she whined.

Finally, stumbling around in desparation in the sci-fi/fantasy section of the library where she works, she remembered that Caleb Carr had a relatively new book out: The Italian Secretary: A Further Adventure of Sherlock Holmes.

Carr's first two books, The Alienist and The Angel of Darkness—both in the sub-sub-sub-etc. genre of murder mysteries involving historical people as amateur detectives—had been greatly satisfying.

This one turned out to gratify Walhydra's Baker Street cravings...and she didn't have to "meet someone new."

Nonetheless...in slow hours at the Reference desk Walhydra still finds herself trolling Google for mention of Potterish stuff.

[No, she's not still looking for more nude pictures of Daniel Radcliffe! Well, not at work, anyway....]

Today she tripped over three oddly delightful sites, all proof of how universal the fascination with Harry Potter has become. Here are the three, with annotations:

On Neal of Arabia, "Harry Potter and the Red-faced Dad": How cool? A Dad in Riyadh, determined to rescue his kids.

On the Maylasian website, thestar.com, "You're too late, Harry Potter": "Malaysia was a magical place long before young Harry and his happy cohorts walked the halls of Hogwarts. Don’t think so? Read on and reconsider...."

And, best of all, on Like That Also Can Ah?!!!, "Top Ten Signs that Harry Potter & Hogwarts is in Malaysia": Self-explanatory—at least to Malaysians.

And, if you're wondering why so many links from Malaysia, well...

"Expecto Petronas!"