16 November 2008
So much to learn
18/11/08 21:17 Filed in: Harry Potter
I've gotten back into doing the work for my personal
Harry Potter Concordance. It's very challenging,
detail-oriented work in which I'm trying to note and
catalogue every character, every place, every race of
creature, every spell, every book, and every special
term or item mentioned in JK Rowling's books,
including the book and page number where each mention
is made.
Not the kind of thing one takes on casually.
So why am I doing it? Quite frankly, I'm not always sure. One reason is that I enjoy this kind of work: I like cataloguing and organising things, making things neat and orderly. I prefer computer games like Solitaire and Free Cell, where you organise a mess, to war games or character-driven vehicles like Super Mario Brothers, Zelda or whatever the more modern equivalents are. I enjoy the process of reading each page carefully, noting down the various bits of information that appear and organising them into a different form. Once I'm done, I'll have taken seven incredible narratives and converted them into an orderly collection of facts.
My goodness, am I really doing that? Sounds awful, actually. Those poor books. They deserve better.
Another reason I'm doing it is that it gives me a chance to understand the Potter books better, to get a stronger idea of how they are put together as narratives, how Rowling reveals and builds character, how she has constructed this amazing world. That kind of understanding can only help me as a writer. By knowing how a supremely talented writer works, I may get better myself.
I think a third reason is that the work gives me the chance to spend a lot more time within the Potter books and the world they inhabit, time to think about the myriad details of that world, to see connections and understand relationships.
I'm one of those people who enjoys familiar people and places, who will read the same book numerous times in his lifetime and watch the same films over and over again. Some people talk about eating comfort food — food that makes them feel good inside, happy and warm and safe. Well, for me I have comfort books and movies. They are places I like to be, worlds I like to inhabit. I enjoy being onboard the Enterprise in the 23rd century with Kirk and his crew. I find the people in most romantic comedies and some sitcoms attractive and likeable; their lives are light-hearted alternatives to the world I live in on a day-to-day basis. I find it comfortable and exciting to be at Hogwarts with Harry and his friends.
So I go back time and again.
Plus, my partner's friend, Debbi, and her two daughters, Thea and Marieke, count on me to be able to challenge them in Harry Potter trivia. And I can't let them down. Maybe someday I'll actually beat them!
Not the kind of thing one takes on casually.
So why am I doing it? Quite frankly, I'm not always sure. One reason is that I enjoy this kind of work: I like cataloguing and organising things, making things neat and orderly. I prefer computer games like Solitaire and Free Cell, where you organise a mess, to war games or character-driven vehicles like Super Mario Brothers, Zelda or whatever the more modern equivalents are. I enjoy the process of reading each page carefully, noting down the various bits of information that appear and organising them into a different form. Once I'm done, I'll have taken seven incredible narratives and converted them into an orderly collection of facts.
My goodness, am I really doing that? Sounds awful, actually. Those poor books. They deserve better.
Another reason I'm doing it is that it gives me a chance to understand the Potter books better, to get a stronger idea of how they are put together as narratives, how Rowling reveals and builds character, how she has constructed this amazing world. That kind of understanding can only help me as a writer. By knowing how a supremely talented writer works, I may get better myself.
I think a third reason is that the work gives me the chance to spend a lot more time within the Potter books and the world they inhabit, time to think about the myriad details of that world, to see connections and understand relationships.
I'm one of those people who enjoys familiar people and places, who will read the same book numerous times in his lifetime and watch the same films over and over again. Some people talk about eating comfort food — food that makes them feel good inside, happy and warm and safe. Well, for me I have comfort books and movies. They are places I like to be, worlds I like to inhabit. I enjoy being onboard the Enterprise in the 23rd century with Kirk and his crew. I find the people in most romantic comedies and some sitcoms attractive and likeable; their lives are light-hearted alternatives to the world I live in on a day-to-day basis. I find it comfortable and exciting to be at Hogwarts with Harry and his friends.
So I go back time and again.
Plus, my partner's friend, Debbi, and her two daughters, Thea and Marieke, count on me to be able to challenge them in Harry Potter trivia. And I can't let them down. Maybe someday I'll actually beat them!
Full Circle
17/11/08 15:55 Filed in: Harry Potter
Interesting reading this past weekend. As part of our
evening ritual, I have taken up reading Harry
Potter and the Philosopher's Stone to my partner
as she sits working on her first knitting project. I
even try to inject some of the voices into the
reading, mimicking as best I can the voices of the
characters from the movie versions. It's not easy,
let me tell you, and Hagrid just about kills me.
Still, we're having a lot of fun and Patti is a
fantastic audience. She laughs a lot at the first
book and reminds me what it was like when it was
still fairly new to me too.
It's a nice bit of reminiscing for me and some good together time for us. And it brings us back to the year we met — 1997, when JK had just released The Philosopher's Stone — because I started reading the book aloud to Patti then too. Of course, she was in England then so we didn't get all the way through it. Now, no doubt we will. And then on to The Chamber of Secrets!
Reading the first book, however, also sparked in me the inclination to read the seventh volume — Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — once again. I have to admit, I didn't read every word of it. I skipped over the bits about Harry coming to doubt Dumbledore and part of the section where they are on the run (from the day Ron leaves to the day he returns). That's not to say that those aren't important, well-written parts: I just didn't feel like subjecting myself again to the unhappiness Harry experiences in his own soul as his image of his old school master is tarnished and with Hermione as they flail about, without Ron, trying to trace Horcruxes on their own.
Anyway, it was quite interesting to read the first and last of the books at the same time. Certain things stood out, like the impressive consistency of Ms. Rowling's vision and of her presentation of the world of magical characters. Or the incredible amount of detail that she included in book one that still resonates in book seven. The seeds she plants in The Philosopher's Stone are still growing, with amazing results, in The Deathly Hallows.
Not surprisingly, a few inconsistencies did come to light. For example, Dumbledore's light-stealing device is called a "Put-Outer" in the first book and a "Deluminator" in the seventh (sorry if there are spelling errors there — I've got a dog sleeping on my feet and I don't want to disturb her to go check). It's also interesting that Hagrid tells Harry that he had flown to the rock in the middle of the sea to deliver Harry's Hogwarts letter early in the first book and yet, when they leave, the narrator makes no mention of the presence of a broomstick, a Thestral, a Hippogriff or any of the other methods of flying that develop in later books. In the final volume, however, it is commented on several times that Voldemort has developed the ability to fly without such aids, something that is, apparently, unusual even in the world of wizards and witches. So how did Hagrid get to the rock?
Perhaps the most interesting issue I've noticed (or been reminded of) through this little exercise in reading is the impressive change in the level and sophistication of JK's writing from the first book to the last. As Patti has helped me to remember, The Philosopher's Stone is a delightful, witty children's book with all kinds of charming turns of phrase and silly incidents. By contrast, The Deathly Hallows is clearly an intelligent, intense novel suitable for adults, with a much more complicated plot, a great deal more violence and much more mature themes.
It's a credit to Ms. Rowling that both are, in my opinion at least, excellent examples of their genres. They are consistent with each other and yet very different in their style and sophistication.
The exercise has also got me considering taking on two new projects: first, preparing my own Harry Potter Concordance (I've actually already started one), not so much for public consumption but simple to give myself a reason to continue to dwell in that magical world and to enjoy and learn from Ms. Rowling's skills as a writer; and second, writing a sequel of my own, using secondary characters from the original books, to tell the story of what I think would have happened next. Once again, it wouldn't be for any reason other than my own enjoyment but it could be a lot of fun!
And either or both could find their way onto this website.
It's a nice bit of reminiscing for me and some good together time for us. And it brings us back to the year we met — 1997, when JK had just released The Philosopher's Stone — because I started reading the book aloud to Patti then too. Of course, she was in England then so we didn't get all the way through it. Now, no doubt we will. And then on to The Chamber of Secrets!
Reading the first book, however, also sparked in me the inclination to read the seventh volume — Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — once again. I have to admit, I didn't read every word of it. I skipped over the bits about Harry coming to doubt Dumbledore and part of the section where they are on the run (from the day Ron leaves to the day he returns). That's not to say that those aren't important, well-written parts: I just didn't feel like subjecting myself again to the unhappiness Harry experiences in his own soul as his image of his old school master is tarnished and with Hermione as they flail about, without Ron, trying to trace Horcruxes on their own.
Anyway, it was quite interesting to read the first and last of the books at the same time. Certain things stood out, like the impressive consistency of Ms. Rowling's vision and of her presentation of the world of magical characters. Or the incredible amount of detail that she included in book one that still resonates in book seven. The seeds she plants in The Philosopher's Stone are still growing, with amazing results, in The Deathly Hallows.
Not surprisingly, a few inconsistencies did come to light. For example, Dumbledore's light-stealing device is called a "Put-Outer" in the first book and a "Deluminator" in the seventh (sorry if there are spelling errors there — I've got a dog sleeping on my feet and I don't want to disturb her to go check). It's also interesting that Hagrid tells Harry that he had flown to the rock in the middle of the sea to deliver Harry's Hogwarts letter early in the first book and yet, when they leave, the narrator makes no mention of the presence of a broomstick, a Thestral, a Hippogriff or any of the other methods of flying that develop in later books. In the final volume, however, it is commented on several times that Voldemort has developed the ability to fly without such aids, something that is, apparently, unusual even in the world of wizards and witches. So how did Hagrid get to the rock?
Perhaps the most interesting issue I've noticed (or been reminded of) through this little exercise in reading is the impressive change in the level and sophistication of JK's writing from the first book to the last. As Patti has helped me to remember, The Philosopher's Stone is a delightful, witty children's book with all kinds of charming turns of phrase and silly incidents. By contrast, The Deathly Hallows is clearly an intelligent, intense novel suitable for adults, with a much more complicated plot, a great deal more violence and much more mature themes.
It's a credit to Ms. Rowling that both are, in my opinion at least, excellent examples of their genres. They are consistent with each other and yet very different in their style and sophistication.
The exercise has also got me considering taking on two new projects: first, preparing my own Harry Potter Concordance (I've actually already started one), not so much for public consumption but simple to give myself a reason to continue to dwell in that magical world and to enjoy and learn from Ms. Rowling's skills as a writer; and second, writing a sequel of my own, using secondary characters from the original books, to tell the story of what I think would have happened next. Once again, it wouldn't be for any reason other than my own enjoyment but it could be a lot of fun!
And either or both could find their way onto this website.