Thursday, August 23, 2007

Final Thoughts on Potter

Well, I finished the final Harry Potter book. I liked it better than the 5th and 6th books, but it didn’t change many of my previously mentioned views. I’ve already written a lot on this topic, so I’ll only make two comments:

1. I think that the final Harry Potter book has several distinctly “Christian” elements. I won’t say much more than that because I don’t want to give anything away, but there are aspects of the book that make me think it is much more Christian than it is pagan.

2. I still don’t think HP will go down as great literature. One further reason why I think this is Rowling’s annoyingly incessant need to explain every-last-detail of the books and her manner of tying everything together into a neat little package. The earlier HP books each included one clever twist which was easily explained at the conclusion of each book, and Rowling’s style worked well for these books written for children. Her later books are geared for a more mature audience, but rather than developing depth and nuance, Rowling simply adds more twists. The final three books include so many twists that Rowling has to spend much of her final book unraveling and her convoluted tale so that every point of the story fits together. Rather than letting her readers to make their own judgments, she spells out all aspects of her story in laborious detail.

This isn’t to say that the books still don’t have their charms, but I think the books would have been better if the final books had been more like the originals.

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