Harry Potter and the Excrucius MacGuffins

I finished the final Harry Potter book on Thursday. (C’mon, you don’t really need a link, do you?)

(I promise you, this entry contains no Deathly Hallows spoilers.)

It’s a big deal for me, as I struggle with reading. I started off well in this one… was having an easier time reading and retaining, but it got rough for me during the middle. My friend Albert has been my Potter co-conspirator since pretty much the beginning… I don’t remember exactly when I joined the bandwagon, (I am pretty sure it was before the third book was released), but my reading them was Al’s idea.

And he reads faster than me, and although he deliberately drags it out for himself in order to better absorb and relish, (I believe he typically reads each chapter twice before moving on) (whereas I am racing to see what happens!), he is still always ahead of me and our discussions are careful until I am finished.

This year, because of school and work responsibilities, he needed to get it all finished last weekend. Pretty much read straight through, finishing up Sunday evening. And then keep his mouth shut and wait for me.

As we remember, I am like… out of work. Lots of time to read. But I walk away from what I’m reading. A lot. So it took me longer, even with all this time to devote, than it needed to.

I really thought I’d finish Wednesday, and then I didn’t, and it was at this point that Albert began acting a bit anxiously about it. So Thursday, I started sending him text message updates, but I was too absorbed now to want to take the time to actually write anything, so I was sending him pictures of my progress.

Things got really tense for awhile (where the hell are Ron and Hermione!?)

And then, oh then, the tears (I’m a cryer)

(that’s a tissue)

And I finally finished. (I’m better!)

This is a great boob shot. Has nothing to do with anything in here, I just thought I’d post it.

Look, I do have some criticism. (Albert will no doubt join in on this conversation via comment, so please check back all week, and of course, join in if you feel compelled.) But I want to say first that she (Rowling) absolutely satisfied. She came through. She pulled it all together, and gave me everything I wanted. It was a ride I am glad I took.

But it was a bit arduous. The ride.

Albert will probably say this better than I can, but I think she bit off more than she could chew. This was quite an ambitious undertaking, with a whole lot more pressure than she could have possible ever imagined.

I just think she gets a couple of things wrong in her writing on the whole. She made me (the reader) work too hard. I was supposed to remember way too many things, and she counted on those things to mean as much to me as they did to her.

Or, in fairness, to her typical reader.

My nephew, Arthur, exemplifies her typical reader. Arthur is 17 years old, the same age as Harry. And he resembles him… more than the kid in the movies does, in my opinion.

(Electronically I only have a recent example of this–it was much more startling when he was younger. Kids would stop him all the time, commenting on the resemblance. )

(Okay, the little neph, Benjamin, has nothing to do with this blog, but he’s so damn cute, why edit him out? And the two of them together… just LOVE.)

Point is, Arth has been on top of it from the beginning. He’s also got some obsessive-compulsive tendencies, so again I say… this kid is the perfect Harry Potter reader. Student. Memorizer of all detail.

And I am not.

I am a tv fan, as many know. I ‘get’ tv; I get its plot devices. When I was very young, maybe 12, I figured out, all by myself, that All My Children, the soap I was devoted to at that time (and for many years before and after) had the job of both satisfying its fan base and yet being accessible… downright enticing… to a new viewer who was unfamiliar with the storylines. And I got that this was one of the basic foundations of television writing.

I am also a person who gets satisfaction out of emotional resolutions more than intellectual ones.

Rowling does not seem to understand the MacGuffin principle.

‘ A device or plot element that catches the viewer’s attention or drives the plot. It is generally something that every character is concerned with.’

The McGuffin is essentially something that the entire story is built around and yet has no real relevance.

Hitchcock understood that there are things that everyone in the movie cares about that you, the viewer, does not care nearly as much about.

J.K., and many of her young and/or detail obsessed readers, cared way to much about a gazillion things and what each one meant and how it impacted everything else. So when the whatchamacallit from chapter 20something of the fifth or so book turned out to be the key, if only properly prepared, to looping their way under the whoseywhats so that you wouldn’t be seen or maybe it’s mortally wounded when you entered into the whereverthefuck,

not only is that supposed to satisfy your Sherlock Holmeslike mind, but there should be a kind of SIGH of relief when it happens. Every. single time it happens. Which is like, constantly.

For me, some of that was kind of cool, but most of it, most of these sort of mini-climaxes were just dulling to me.

I don’t mean to imply that I think that book 7 of this worldwide record breaking series should cater to the new reader. I can’t imagine why any single person in the whole of this universe would ever choose to start with Deathly Hallows, and I’m sure J.K. and her people are with me on this.

However, she expected me to remember a whole lot more details than I did. And these could have been corrected in a few well-placed words.

Like I said, I think she made me work too hard. It has been two full years (you were right, Brad) since the 6th in the series was in my hands. I didn’t know I was supposed to study.

A few examples… (these examples include elements that are reintroduced in book 7. I personally do not consider them spoilers, but step away if you insist on living in a vacuum.)

• I didn’t remember what a thestral was. All I remembered was that it was some kind of cool creature that helped them escape from something or travel somewhere in one of the books. There were a lot of those, from book to book.
• There were all these words of wisdom, from so many sources, in so many books. Mottos, if you will; words to live by. Some lesson learned, or not learned but stored away. Some of those came back, and there were new ones (I open at the close?). It was confusing; so many!
• I couldn’t remember if Bellatrix was a sister or cousin to Sirius, and then I couldn’t remember how Tonks was related. Eventually I got it, but again, I don’t feel like it would have been too pandering if she’d just mentioned.
• The horcruxes. I know I will get shit for this, but I couldn’t quite wrap my head around them. And she never, ever said what they did; not in this book. I remembered there were a bunch of them, and that they were linked to Voldemort personally, and that Harry needed to find them, but I didn’t quite have it right, and she never said it. Not once. In a well over 700 page book, you could say, one time, exactly what it does. It made me feel stupid. And I’m not stupid. I just have loose glue.
• There were a lot more smaller details that I can’t list without researching. ‘Cause, see? Who can keep track of them?

Also, there are a few moments where I think she could have gone a touch deeper (again, my thing) emotionally.

Okay, this one’s a minor spoiler; just not anything pivotal.

There’s a scene where Ron and Harry, together, see and feel Ron’s greatest fears, about always feeling ‘less than’. (For the Buffy fans, he’s Xander…) no special powers, no calling.

It was basically great. I just wanted it to go on a bit longer… I would have liked for him to be told, whether by Harry or someone else, that going through all of the same heroics that Harry does, as the one who does NOT have a destiny, means that in some ways you are even more heroic. Maybe have him hear it from his father, or one of his brothers, or like, in a note from Dumbledore.

I also think she misses an interesting opportunity with the Dementors. When they are around, Harry is described as feeling despair and hopelessness, and it weighs him down, but he continues forward with I must get to __________ (Ron Hermione a horcrux or whatever he must get to next). I think it would have been a lot more interesting if she got inside his despairing and hopeless head… Why are we even doing this? I shouldn’t bother rescuing them/this, that or the other thing because we’re all going to die anyway.

I want to add also that she is not afraid to hurt or kill people. This is a war, she has set it up that way for a long, long time, and people get hurt and get dead. There is an terrible injury early on that shows you this is serious business. (Again I was reminded of Xander… 7 seasons of Buffy, and there in the 7th season, Xander loses an eye. For like, ever. No more eye.)

She also did many lovely things. Brought closure to relationships where you don’t expect it. There were incredibly emotional moments, and as I said, she ultimately brought it all home in a way that was intensely satisfying to me.

Oh, the good times.