One Week!!!

Only one more week until Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince movie release!!!

Do you know what this means?

No?!?

I'll tell you.

(You may want to skip this blog if you haven't read the books yet and are playing the, "I'll wait for the movies because I'm too lazy to actually read" game. Whatever, I care not for individuals such as yourselves. It is too late, you are condemned.)

Book 6 is the penultimate book in the HP series. It is a part transition, part theme exploration, and part character development novel. Unlike some of the other HP books, it entirely relies on the series to function as a novel. (In music, book 6 would be the V chord (that's a roman numeral for 5), filled with tension and tricky harmonies leading into the final resolution, the Big I or little i chord (Roman 1's). There are only a few new characters introduced, among them Rufus Scrimgeour and Horace Slughorn, leaving most of the novel's plot developments relating to already established information. Readers also meet, through the pensieve, a young and developing Tom Riddle.

One could argue that perhaps the most important suggestion made throughout book 6 is the concept of "goodness." Rowling sets her readers up to question just about every character's motive in regards to their actions concerning at least one other character at some point in the novel, even Harry Potter. This moment of hesitation that occurs in the reader's mind is important because it relates to the idea and the theme that a person is not inherently good or evil, but chooses to be so because of love, which has been set up from the very first book. Rowling explores that idea at length within book 6.

The best example I can think of would be the ongoing conflict between Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy. Their rivalry was literally established even before Harry and Draco were sorted into rival houses in their first year and has festered each year up until this point. As a reader, you want to feel immediately loyal to Harry (and therefore against Draco) as he is the protagonist of the series. Unfortunately, Rowling does not allow any such cut and dry emotions within her books. She perforates her readers' opinions of both Draco and Harry when she shows Draco's emotional struggle over his dark task and Harry's callous treatment and harsh judgement of Draco that Harry fails to see just how desperate a person Draco Malfoy has become. The resulting "what if" occurs when the reader is left to question if Harry, our hero, had treated Draco more humanely and less suspiciously, if Draco may have changed his mind and confided in someone instead of being spurned on to more and more insane and rash choices which eventually result in Dumbledore's death. (I warned you not to keep reading.)

Rowling's finger points in all directions by the end of book 6. It's a hard book to swallow sometimes. But perspective is everything, the light at the end of the tunnel is that book 7 happens. Just like in music, the beauty is created when the tension of that penultimate chord is released into the final resolution. Voldemort is eventually defeated, Harry and Ginny get hitched and make baby, and Nevil gets to make his Gran proud! Dumbledore even resurfaces in a dream sequence to help tie everything up in a neat little bow.

But that final exultant victory cannot make the individual losses we feel any less poignant. That's part of the point too though, we have to learn from the loses we feel in literature so that we can change the future of the muggle world, making it truly a magical place to be. Reading is important, kids!


On a side note, here are some fun HP Movie goodies, enjoy!

Warner Bros HP & HBP Website

Some clips from the film: