Mood:
lazyNow Playing: Steel Pole Bath Tub - Scars From Falling Down / Husker Du - Candy Apple Grey
Topic: Stephen Says
Well, I finished it a week or so ago and have had some time to digest it. First of all, Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials is, as far as I'm concerned, the bar to which all cross-party-child/adult literature should be held up to so, granted, Harry Potter will fall quite far below the bar. Of course, the series isn't finished so I'm open to revise my opinion once it's all been said and done.
I'm also aware that His Dark Materials is principally for young/middle teenagers and Harry Potter is for children. And this is my main criticism of the 6th book - They're all 16 now and a year away from being (Wizarding) adults. The original fan-base is also rapidly approaching this age (If they're not aleady older), yet the style, while maturing (Since Mrs. Rowling is maturing as a writer), the content is not.
Is this really how 16 year olds actin Britain? Even if they're wizards and witches? Um, where are the thongs, the boob tubs, the experimenting with illegal drugs. And please, don't tell me that (Insert charater name) and (Insert other character name - you know who they are!) didn't have sex after all the stressing of how hot & heavy they were.
Harry Potter is stuck in this weird idyllic Enid Blyghton (Spelled wrong, I know) world yet, at the same time firmly placed in the present (Don't tell me that you didn't think you were reading about Tony Blair & Chimpy in those 1st three pages) (Also, don't tell me that you didn't see MASSIVE resembelances to U.S. style indefinate detentions and the random [and fictitious] headline grabing caused by the so-called war on terror [though, if my sources are correct, its name will be changing shortly. Stay tuned!]). As a result, there's something that just seems, erm, wrong about it. Remember what happened at the end of His Dark Materials? If Harry Potter doesn't have a heart-breaking, mind-blowing conclusion like that, where all the nerds (And lets face it, Harry Potter fans are nerds. The books are written to appeal to them and, I have no shame in saying it, they appeal to me) are left going "holy shit!!!," then, I fear, they will be a big ol' waste of time.
That said, I was planted for 3 days reading it. While I was aware of some of what happened in the final pages (Who wasn't), the Really Big Twist caught me by surprise and I think the last book, at last free of the structure set up by every single other book before it (Thank God), will be really quite good. Even thought it's obvious what's going to happen in it. Except for the final chapters, of course. Those are up in the air. My money's on Harry dying, though. Mind you, I've been wrong about everything in the past. So he'll probably live. After all, he was The Boy Who Lived.
Oh, and those last two chapters just dragged and dragged and dragged, trying a little too hard to squeeze a tear out of your eye.
But I enjoyed the book. I really did. I just suspect that, come book seven, much like The Matrix, everyone will be left wondering what the heck all the hype was about.
And if you're gonna comment, it had better be spoiler-free. I'm gonna have a certificate in first aid. I can fix you and I can break you, too.