Adblock
Well, we're just about a week away from the final Harry Potter book and I'm sure every fan of the series is in a state of frantic anticipation. Here are a few things to hopefully tie you over until the 21st. Let's start with some tantalyzing quotes from Jo Rowling herself.
ROWLING ON THE OCCULT AND CERTAIN CHRISTIANS
First, to dispel the wild idea coming from various Christian and Wiccan corners that suggests these books are seriously intended to encourage and/or will greatly entice children to practice real witchcraft:
"I don’t believe in witchcraft, though I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been told I’m a practicing witch. Ninety – let’s say ninety five percent at least, of the magic in the books in entirely invented by me. And I’ve used things from folklore and I’ve used bits of what people used to believe worked magically just to add a certain flavor, but I’ve always twisted them to suit my own ends. I mean, I’ve taken liberties with folklore, um, to suit my plot.And one more Jo quote from 2000:
"Witches and wizards are a huge part of children’s literature. It’ll never go away, I don’t think it will ever, ever, ever go away, 100 years, 200 years time there’ll be another kind of wizard’s story...
"Not once has a child come up to me and said, ‘Due to you, I’ve decided to devote my life to the occult.’ People underestimate children so hugely – they know it’s fiction.
"When people are arguing from that kind of standpoint I don’t think reason works tremendously well. But I would be surprised if some of them had read the books at all."
"Harry Potter and Me," A&E Biography, 13 November 2002.
"I don't believe these things and I'm certainly not encouraging any child to take an interest in the occult... In America, I've had practising witches coming up to me and saying thank you. I tell them not to. I don't consider them evil but I don't believe in what they do."ADDRESSING CATHOLIC & THE SO-CALLED PAPAL CONDEMNATION
Anne Johnstone, "The hype surrounding the fourth Harry Potter book belies the fact that Joanne Rowling had some of her blackest moments writing it - and that the pressure was self-imposed; a kind of magic," The Herald (Glasgow), 8 July 2000.
And for those Catholic that think Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict) actually came out against Harry Potter, I strongly recommend reading the following John Granger article for the full story on those unfortunate and silly events that ensued a couple of summers ago: “Pope Opposes Harry Potter”? Hardly.
Now, on to the fun stuff...
REAL PROOF FROM THE AUTHOR HERSELF THAT ALCHEMY IS KEY TO UNDERSTANDING THE STRUCTURE AND SYMBOLISM OF THE BOOK SERIES:
"I’ve never wanted to be a witch, but an alchemist, now that’s a different matter. To invent this wizard world, I’ve learned a ridiculous amount about alchemy. Perhaps much of it I’ll never use in the books, but I have to know in detail what magic can and cannot do in order to set the parameters and establish the stories’ internal logic."So, just where is this alchemy? Well, the best introduction I've come across to this topic has to be the 2-part essay, "Alchemy and Harry Potter" (click here for part II) by Arianhrod, located over in the Leaky Cauldron's Scribbulus essay archives.
Anne Simpson, "Face to Face with J K Rowling: Casting a spell over young minds," The Herald, 7 December 1998.
After that, you may want to check out another Granger article, "Alchemy: Jung, Burckhart, or McLean?", as well as anything else found within the "literary alchemy" category on his blog, hogwartsprofessor.com (though not positive, I'm pretty sure Granger was the first to key in on the alchemic influences).
LAST BUT NOT LEAST, VIDEOS GALORE TO KEEP YOU ENTERTAINED
“Hidden Secrets of Harry Potter” A&E show:
The 1st part (of 5, all available on YouTube) from a recent documentary speculating on what will happen in the 7th book:
This second video clip is part 1 (of 2, again, both on YouTube) from a fun British interview of Jo regarding the new book and movie:
"J.K. Rowling" A&E Biography (the title says it all):
Click on here for parts 2, 3, 4, and 5 of this special (all about 9 1/2 minutes long). There are some neat sketchings of her own visions of what certain characters look like at the beginning of the second clip, so you know.
The Simpsons "Wiz Kids" Potter Parody:
And if you liked that one, be sure to also check out these other two Simpsons clips:
"Flanders Reads Harry Potter"
"J.K. Rowling Appears on the Simpsons"
PREDICTIONS ANYBODY?
Let me just close this post with two predictions: (1) sadly, Hagrid will die; (2) trust Snape (he's not as bad as he so often seems to be).
Feel free to share your own speculations and findings.
5 comments:
Great idea Chris, I am beyond excited about the book coming out next weekend. This will be a good distraction. I agree with you comment on Snape. He may have a dark side but I feel that in the end he will be good. I also believe that it may be either Ron or Hagrid to die. It just seems that it is something that would really affect a lot of people. I personally will have a tissue box near by while I read the book :) I do in my hopeful optimist view hope that Voldemort is considered a main character and he is the one that is killed off, but we know that it's not likely.
Well, I think I can assure you that Ron probably won't die. I just can't imagine her killing off any of the 3 main children. Hagrid's death, however, fits the alchemic structure of the books perfectly.
Alchemy as you may know, was an early form of chemistry found in ancient and medieval times. However, as even Wikipedia will tell you, this wasn't necessarily the sole or most central focus of alchemy. Discovering the Philosopher's Stone and changing metals to gold was typically more of a symbolic practice of the most important transformation of the alchemists -- the purification of themselves (spiritually/intellectually) into the light of truth. Interestingly, there is also a tradition in English literature of using alchemic symbolism.
Traditionally then, there are 7 stages to the alchemic process, and it seems pretty clear that Rowling is using each book to represent a stage. I can't go into all the details (the links I provide in the post are much more helpful though), but I will say that the last 3 stages are the most important and are signified by three colors: black for the 5th, white for the 6th, and red for the 7th. Recall that book 5 was probably the darkest book in the series with all of the imagery, and we also saw the death of Sirius Black. Book 6 on the other hand, though certainly dark, contained a great deal of white, mysty scenes, and included the death of Albus Dumbledore (albedo is Latin for white). Then at the end of the 6th book, we saw Rubeus Hagrid everywhere, though for most of the book he was entirely absent. Was this a foreshadowing of the red stage that is to come in the 7th book (note that rubedo is Latin for red)? I think so.
Additionally, as sad as it will be to see Hagrid go, this will be a fitting progression for Harry's trials. After all, who have been his most close adult friends? Sirius, Dumbledore, and Hagrid. Unfortunately, it looks as though they all will sacrifice themselves for Harry and all that is good.
I highly recommend the alchemy links I gave back in the post. The speculation they give on book 7 is not only well-reasoned, but also incredibly fun and exciting.
As for Voldemort's death, I don't know if it has to happen or not (or in what way it has to happen), based on what the Prophecy said (death is still very mysterious in these books). Is Voldemort too seeped in evil to ever receive redemption if Harry were to extend love to him too? Given how the books have been going, I tend to think Voldemort won't change his ways (thus, he will die and Harry will live), but whatever happens, I think his evil schemes must come to an end in the final book.
Additionally, I had the impression that there are more than 2 main characters that will die. Rowling recently only said that there were two characters that she was going to kill that she hadn't previously intended to, not that they were the only ones who would die.
I've read official spoilers, and I can tell you that what Rowling said about the end does not hold water...
Good!! I want to be thrown off!
Or maybe the spoilers aren't the real deal.
We'll see for sure shortly...
Post a Comment