Haste Ye Back

It’s entirely my own fault; realizing that fact doesn’t make it any better though. When you love travel and you have no money, you inevitably get super excited when you get to go on a trip…pretty much anywhere. When you travel to an unknown place, everything is so new and intriguing; it’s overwhelming and tiring, but usually rather lovely. In such cases, six or seven days are very much enough time. In such cases home is a welcome reprieve and a panacea to the travel bug – for a while at least. But, when you travel to a well known place you once lived in; a place your soul sings for, your eyes yearn for, your emotional and physical person craves…well then – 14, 15, even 20 days are never enough. Returning home feels a bit like being stuck in a box, sealed and posted to a place you don’t want to go to.

So it’s my own fault for taking most of June to wander through the UK and Ireland – stopping at all of my favorite places including Dublin, Giant’s Causeway, Belfast, Edinburgh, Skye, The Highlands, and of course, my London. Really, what was I thinking? June in London. With Wimbledon and the year before the Olympics – It’s like being on the highest high of your life and then crashing straight to your lowest low. Yes, apparently I’m equating traveling to meth – maybe it’s not quite that bad. The realities of my daily life are just encroaching in on me right now. Probably because I’m typing this while watching Wimbledon – when just a couple of days ago I was there; or the seven loads of laundry, paid bills & rent, grocery shopping and general house cleaning I’ve done today. Whichever, I’m in a melancholy mood that’s been hard to shake.

Don’t get me wrong, it was brilliant and I’d do it all again in a heartbeat; over and over and then over again. I was just hoping for a little respite from the travel bug. It really is a problem when you are a broke and unpublished writer. The month of June, as it goes out and is replaced by a sticky hot Minnesota July, was as perfectly golden as I thought it might be months ago when I realized I would get to go on said trip. A trip I took with some of my closest friends and favorite people; and also a number of blog followers I did not know before (Hi, Anna, Michelle and Brooke!). And those blog followers are amazing and exactly the sort of people I want following my blog. I journaled every day and therefore improved my capacity for writing well. There is something about a travel journal full of notes, ideas and thoughts; it’s very organic in its execution. I made an effort not to engage too much in the outside world: The cell phone was left at home, the net book as well. I grabbed pen, pencil, journal and half a manuscript – set mostly in Dublin and London – I needed some fact checking on.

And I really am happy to spend July – October in MN. Really, there’s a reason I live here. I’m not sure if there’s any place better during these months. Look, I’ve talked myself around. Yay, I’m home…OK, fine, I’m mostly home. Here’s where travelling becomes a pain. Because my heart and soul are often in two places; and although I’m in the one I chose to reside in, I just left that other place – which grows more enticing on each visit because I don’t have to deal with the mundane while I’m there. It’s all happy fun no work time; a place I spend money but don’t have to worry about earning it. Really, is there something wrong with me? I already miss the London black? And Scotland - all purple, brown and green while simultaneously shrouded in mist and rain with bursts of the most glorious sunshine in the world. See what I’m up against here.

I set out on a much needed vacation and ended up on a pilgrimage of sorts. The problem started with the manuscript – which on a re-read is a detailed description of how much the writer loves the places she’s talking about – oh, I manage to fit in a plot around these descriptions, but really I’m all about the beauty and deepness and warm people and I’m extolling again; make me stop that. The next problem, chaperoning a group of high school and college-aged students who’ve either never travelled before, or never thought about the journey they take each time they step outside their comfort zone. As a YA writer, just watching the travel-transformation is about six months worth of library research. I am constantly amazed and moved by their zest for life and child-like awe. It’s why I write dammit! Finally, there is the simple realization that living in the UK all of those years ago is one of those profound life moments that made me who I am. I’ve discussed this before, so it wasn’t a new realization, but it always manages to smack me right in between the eyes each and every time I go back. This time, I realized both my British husband and I live with one-foot in both worlds at all times. This is what makes us so compatible. I’m not sure either of us belongs to either country anymore – we’ve chosen the US as home but the UK has a strong pull. It means we constantly question the practices and policies of both countries and can find an equal amount of pros and cons for each: It’s a unique but nerve-racking place to be.

So what’s that great moment of self-awareness? Why a pilgrimage? I’ve got nothing but Enya song lyrics for you:

Will you find the answer
In all you say and do?
Will you find the answer in you?
Each heart is a pilgrim,
Each one wants to know
The reason why the winds die
And where the stories go.
Pilgrim, in your journey
You may travel far,
For pilgrim it’s a long way
To find out who you are…
-Pilgrim

I’m one step further to finding out who I am. And sweet lord, I’m complicated! So, UK I will miss you, US I’m glad to be home and Scotland you are a magnificent wonderful place and I will heed your road signs which all say – “Haste Ye Back” on the back side.

Also, I’m getting over myself, spanking my inner moppet and moving on to A Month of Fun Days and Harry Potter next week! That is for reals and not for play, play (Fists of fury, Matt!).

HP Tuesday - The Eyes Have It

Last time I left you all in the midst of book 7, a rather large, dense novel. I could continue on with mothers because they appear more and more as time passes in the book, their importance becoming stronger and more fleshed out. But I have other things to discuss, so I’m moving on. Eyes. Yep, I’m going to focus on one body part today; an important part – the windows to the soul and all. Other eye imagery? I keep thinking of writers like Fitzgerald and Orwell – using eyes to watch and see; Big Brother/billboard-esque type imagery. Bespectacled eyes – like Harry’s, James’, and Dumbeledore’s – usually mean wisdom. They also mean God, but I don’t think Harry or James or even Dumbledore is supposed to represent God in this series. Harry is an everyman character, to the extent that we champion him BECAUSE of his lack of knowledge, pig-headedness and general teen-angsty self. Sure, he figures it out in the end; but because of his entire supporting cast (do I sound like Voldemort there?). His sacrifice is only his own, which is why he succeeds, but the figuring out comes from a lot of different people. I think the only God-because-of-his-disembodied-eyes character in the novel is Aberforth Dumbledore – what the heck does that mean? (PS – That link back there is one of my very favorite vlogbrothers – yes, them again – videos ever!) I haven’t figured out what it means. But Aberfoth’s piercing blue eyes – the same eyes as Dumbledore – look at Harry at the beginning of this last quest, they continue to look out of the mirror each time Harry needs egging on – forward motion. I love that this disembodied eye is in a mirror and always turns back into Harry’s own, green eye – the same eyes as Lily. There are so many eye-like parallels here.

Some Thoughts on Imagery
Thinking about imagery, I started thinking about Shakespeare. Truth be told, I think about Shakespeare a lot – rat bastard. It’s because of him I care so much about symbolism and imagery in the first place. Shakespeare finally made me stop asking, “Does every writer mean to add these things to their works or are we just critiquing to sound smart?” and start asking, “What is this author saying about the human condition when she adds symbolism and imagery?” So Shakespeare and eyes; he does it a lot but HP 7 makes me think of King Lear the most. King Lear could not see what was right in front of him and literally lost his eyes. (Side note: This also makes me think of season 7 of Buffy; add Joss Whedon to my growing list of rat bastards who make me think too much…and for making me use the phrase rat bastard come to think of it.) Who’s the sightless character in HP 7? It is Voldemort, who can not possibly win because he doesn’t see what is right in front of him; so many things that are right in front of him. And where are his human, Tom Riddle eyes – his windows to the soul? They’re literally a piece of his soul. One he cut off and discarded in an attempt to seek eternal life. His eyes are a bit of soul, shielded by a window in a locket that belonged to his greatest descendent; it’s become a horcrux. Voldemort gave up his sight and soul and replaced them with snake-like slit-pupil, red eyes. And in the end, the last thing we read of Voldemort are his scarlet pupils rolling upwards as he dies. In the next sentence, Rowling gives the lifeless body lying on the floor Tom Riddle’s name once again. Neither Tom nor Voldemort can cheat death.

Some Thoughts on Symbolism
Thinking about symbolism, I started thinking about the symbol on the spine of my book (British edition) and also the name of this book, the deathly hallows symbol. When first mentioned, at the wedding, as worn by Xenophilius Lovegood, it is rather like a triangular eye. Actually, the exact sentences – just in case you didn’t get that eyes were important in this novel – read, “Slightly cross-eyed, with shoulder-length white hair the texture of candyfloss, he wore a cap whose tassel dangled in front of his nose and robes of an eye-watering shade of egg-yolk yellow. An odd symbol, rather like a triangular eye, glistened from a golden chain around his neck.” (Huh, apparently color is also important in this book – maybe we can discuss yellow, gold, red, green and blue next week?!) This symbol, much like the swastika – which once stood for life, sun, power and good luck – changes over centuries from something good to something inherently evil. The mark of the hallows is a clue that must be followed throughout its history, understood but not conquered; the hallows must not be wielded for power or for eternal life. In other words, the only way to truly understand and use the hallows is to know; wisdom and strength, but also a healthy dose of humility. Harry has the strength to break-up and scatter the hallows; only keeping the invisibility cloak passed down to him.

Lily’s Eyes
Throughout all seven books we’ve been bombarded constantly with the knowledge that Harry has his mother’s eyes. Her soul and his are intertwined. Not just because they are son and mother, but because she sacrificed herself for him; that great, mother-protecting magic coursing through the very soul of these novels. Whether we mean to read into this or not, every ounce of good Harry does seems to generate from this connection with his mum. Lily’s eyes, reappearing in her son’s visage, are what ultimately makes Snape turn toward the light and what keeps him from straying back into the dark. Even at his end, Snape asks Harry to look at him – not because he’s the boy who lived – but because dying is easier when looking into Lily’s eyes. Nineteen years later, who is the only child of Harry’s to inherit Lily’s eyes? Albus Severus Potter – eyes really are the windows to the soul.

HP Monday – Book 5 – Angst, Dementors, and yet more FIRE

First I would just like to give a shout out to Danny and his Jeopardy appearance today. I’m excited to have one of my blog followers on a game show. You are just SO knowledgeable! Wow, teachers, students, game show contestants, published authors and almost published authors – my blog is really pulling in the stellar readers. Color me impressed and extremely happy about all of this.

Enter your own transition to Harry Potter here…

Um, book 5 is really big. I mean it is David Copperfield and Hawaii big. One semester of my undergrad career, I had to purchase a ridiculously expensive, really old book of plays and the complete works of Ibsen. I wish I remembered exactly which classes these books belonged to. I don’t, but they weren’t for the same class and I DID have both classes on the same day – which meant lugging a folio-sized, hard cover thick and ancient book around with a mammoth paperback copy of all of Ibsen’s plays. I think I threw my back out 5 times that quarter. Book 5 is like carrying both of those massive things in a backpack for a day (three jobs, school and home and a few bus connections in between all lugging tomes equaling the weight of a second me). So that’s BIG and a little daunting. And yet, millions of children (I have no concept of numbers, so if millions isn’t accurate, please ignore the oversight. I mean A LOT of kids!) have read this book. I’ve only read book 5 once before and it’s the main reason I started HP Mondays on my blog. I’ve really wanted to reread 5, 6 & 7 but I’ve always had an excuse in the past. All of this leads up to the very momentous occasion of me actually picking this great big book up and (gasp) reading it again.

And what exactly did I think of my second read of book 5 seven years (SERIOUSLY?!) after reading it for the first time? Well, first (and this one is silly) Scholastic didn’t change much – if anything – from the Bloomsbury version. I doubt American kids know what a budgie is or what exactly Ron means when he asks Luna if she is “taking the Mickey?” and yet both of these things go unchanged. I’m just fine with this as I never quite got over the ‘Philosopher’s Stone’ debacle. I think I’ve mentioned before that I grew up reading authors like CS Lewis, Mary Stewart, and Tolkein – and I was able to figure out all on my own that a ‘torch’ is a flashlight, ‘trousers’ are pants, and a ‘biscuit’ is a cookie (those British tots like their sugar just as much as we do). I did think the flashlights in England looked like Olympic torches for awhile, but I figured it out by my early twenties.

Impressions of the first few chapters (I’ve only read up to the Sorting Hat’s New Song – which is barely anything but also over 200 pages in) mostly include the crazy, angst-full Harry. I get it, I get it. I’d be pissed too (and in the American sense of the word, Harry hasn’t been driven to drink yet…although there is an awful lot of butter beer consumption in the first part of this book) if I’d witnessed a murder, been attacked, seen my dead parents and then was left to rot for the summer. But I still want to slap him. And slap him hard. Get over it dude: “Embrace the pain, spank your inner moppet, whatever, but get over it.” Did I say I wasn’t going to reference Buffy anymore? I lied.

My husband says the re-cap section gets longer and longer for each book, and at first I was incensed because no, it doesn’t. But then I calmed down and thought about what he was saying. Yes, the part of each book before Harry gets to Hogwarts does get longer in each book. And yes, some of that section is recapping what’s happened previously, but wow, does Rowling do a good job of this. It’s not all boring back story, all flashbacks and all telling; she intertwines feelings and showing, flashbacks and back story with new ideas, new places and new people. I mean we know so much more about Sirius and what happened the first time Voldemort was in power before we get to Hogwarts. We get back story on the Weasleys, the Blacks, The Ministry of Magic and the Order of the Phoenix, presented through things like a tapestry in an old house and a boggart in a desk. Nice.

Each book introduces a few more or different characters, how have we not met Tonks and Luna before?! Side note: Luna’s in Ravenclaw. Why did I always think she was in Gryffindor? And Umbridge; creepy, frog-faced Delores Umbridge – where’s she been hiding before now? Somewhere in the ministry, biding her time I guess. I just don’t know many book series where so many pertinent and intriguing characters are introduced so far along in the plot. Even though the beginning is longer in each book, I still feel like I’m already on a ride.

I like the juxtaposition of Number 12, Grimmauld Place with the Burrow. Both are wizarding houses (pure-blood wizarding houses if you want to go that far) yet one is more like a headquarters and the other is more like a home. Money and servants be damned, even Sirius doesn’t like his family home. Everyone would be much more comfortable at the Burrow, but it just isn’t as safe there right now. Writing Harry in his current snit at Grimmauld Place doesn’t tarnish the happy memories/times he’s had at the Burrow either. His dark mood matches his surroundings and neither one needs to over-compensate for the scene. Both houses – along with Number 4, Privet Drive – are potential abodes for Harry throughout the series. Remember, although we’ve never been to the Black home before – Harry’s wanted to move in since book 3 when Sirius offered and then there is book 7.

I don’t want to blow over the Ministry of Magic scene, the trial, the dementor attack, or Dumbledore’s apparent nonchalance towards Harry. Well that last part I think we can agree is mostly in Harry’s head – Dumbledore may not want to be in the same room as Harry for Dark Lord reasons, but he’s never exactly nonchalant when it comes to Mr. Potter. But I don’t want to just rehash the first 10 chapters of the book in my blog. So, basically the only important/unnerving thing I want to point out is Dumbledore’s speech about the dementors being under ministry control. I just love the way Rowling makes you wonder who’s really worse here – the government that lets the Dark Lord rise again without even acknowledging it or Voldemort himself? What’s right and wrong? Where’s that gray line we’ve discussed so much before. Harry’s world is topsy-turvy and I would guess it is hard for him to know who to trust at all.

And that’s what I have right now for you. Thoughts, comments, random ponderings? Oh, yeah. FIRE imagery. Hi. Order of the Phoenix – the firebird! OK, now I’m done.

HP Monday – Movie notes and other ponderings about goblets, glasses, and cauldrons

I’m a little sad no one disagreed with me on the happy, fun roller-coaster ride of book 4. I’m willing to fight for my point, which I do think is accurate, but I see the other side too. I mean this book begins and ends with death – one muggle at the beginning and one wizard at the end. That’s dark no matter how you look at it. And there are bad things and weird omens throughout. Ah, well. Maybe you all agree with me whole-heartedly and there is no need to argue the point.

Movie Notes
I sat through movie 4 twice in a matter of days and I still don’t know how I feel. I have to say, watching it after reading book 4 – also twice, once in October and then again in December - I think I don’t like the movie. But I still get caught up in it each time. I like the music, the imagery, most of the scenes they do show, and the Yule ball especially, but I can’t get over all the stuff that’s missing. Does that even make sense?

I get why the Dursley’s aren’t there, although I do miss them because I think they act as bookends of a sort to each school year. I get why the house elves and S.P.E.W. aren’t in it, and I may even understand why we don’t see Rita as an animagus; but that doesn’t mean I understand why all of the context and plot-braiding that these scenes contain just seems to go puff and makes the movie fall flat.

What do you think? Did you still enjoy it? Hogwarts doesn’t have the same feel as in book 3, but I’m glad this director kept that beautiful clock and the long bridge – I’m a sucker for bridges, they are liminal too. From a Weasley standpoint, I’m still sad Bill and Charlie aren’t in this one. I do like the darker shadings in this film – because things ARE becoming more menacing. Moody and Barty Crouch Jr. are both great – I do heart David Tennant, so I might be slightly biased, but the facial tick thing is brilliant – and both actors mastered when and how to look like each other. There’s no Ludo Bagman, no sub-plot with Fred and George, and Ron just isn’t as annoying as he is in the book – again lending some flatness I just don’t like. The tasks are all enjoyable and fun to watch – the dragon sequence may be a little long, but that’s what they poured their money into, so I can excuse it. I like Hermione a good deal in the movie. Emma Watson uses what they’ve given her to work with and makes the most of it. I’m sad the missing Rita Skeeter scenes are gone, because this is the scary, gray area, line walking Hermione, who makes you wonder what side she will ultimately end up on. Although, the movie Hermione is a kinder, stricter version and they’ve kept movie Hermione true to form by removing those scenes. Boo.

The movie just didn’t find the humor in book 4 – and the humor is what makes book 4 the fun roller-coaster ride it is. I am not amused when viewing movie 4. Luckily I remember being highly amused in movies 5 and 6 – so I’m keeping my hopes up for those two.

The thing I’m most surprised at – because it took me two viewings to realize it – is my perception of Durmstrang and Beauxbatons. The movie has completely skewed my original view of these two wizarding schools. I know full well that boys and girls attend both schools, there are a few references to this in the book, and I know full well the all boys and all girls version in the movie exists; what I didn’t realize until the second viewing of the movie is that even when I read the book, I think of Beauxbatons as an all girl school and Durmstrang as an all boys school. And even worse, I think of Ravenclaw full of mostly girls and Slytherin full of mostly boys now. REALLY! I mean I really have to think about it to get these stereotypes out of my head while reading book 5 now. I think that is a greatest disservice to both JK Rowling and her books, I blame this movie for creating it.

Book Wrap Up
Before moving onto book 5 next week, I have a few last minute musings over book 4; because gosh, a lot happened in this book. I could write about it for another month at least. However, I will stick to a few main themes we’ve already discussed, which popped up on my second read.

Mother-love¬
Always an important sub-plot in Harry Potter, mother-love made some interesting appearances in book 4. The first task with the dragons comes to mind. All of the dragons were nesting mothers protecting their eggs. This makes the task of retrieving the eggs more difficult but also poses some morality questions about the care and consideration of magical creatures. One of the mother dragons inadvertently smashes some of her eggs during this task – which is truly horrible when you think about it. Basically I’m saying this one scene hits on mother-love, morality issues, and death. At some point I’ll be able to construct a scene like this…right? Wow, again Rowling.

Many of the other mother-love scenes include Molly Weasley. She’s playing many sides of the mother role in this book – upset when her children do stupid things – Fred & George come to mind; disappointment – Bill her oldest is a success, he was head-boy and has a good job, if only he would cut his hair, put on a suit and get rid of that earring; nurturing – from cooking, to buying books and dress robes, to attending Harry’s last task when his own self-sacrificing mother can not; and even some remorse/foreboding when she feels she’s gone to far – when the entire gang gets back from the Quidditch World Cup and ensuing Dark Mark terrors, Molly only has eyes for Fred and George whom she last had mean words with.

Did anyone else get chills when Molly said, “I shouted at you before you left! It’s all I’ve been thinking about! What if You-Know-Who had got you, and the last thing I ever said to you was that you didn’t get enough O.W.L.s? Oh Fred…George…”?

In book 4 we see Lily – or a shade of Lily – helping Harry in his fight with Voldermort. We also know mother-love is a thing Volermort is trying to get around; by using Harry’s blood he feels he’s conquered the strong magic Lily imbued in Harry when she sacrificed herself. (Oh, and for those of you who have spent too many days in an English classroom and need to find the JC figure in every story because some English or Language Arts teacher told you there had to be one for certain forms of literary criticism…it’s Lily Potter. There. Now you can stop looking and just let the story unfold.) Finally, Barty Crouch Jr. had a mother who gave her life to help Barty escape from Azkaban. And Winky acts more like Barty’s mother than his house-elf.

As a side note, I think it is interesting that father-love appears all over these books too, but AGAIN just like in Buffy the Vampire Slayer father-love – or lack there of – seems to be corrupting and harmful. Father-love brings chips on the shoulder and very large, soul-torturing grudges. Why is that?

Friendship and Love
Ron, Hermione and Harry are put through their paces in book 4. There’s squabbling, flirtation, envy, jealousy, loyalty and true friendship involved with just these three. Add in Krum, Cedric, Seamus, Cho, Ginny, Neville, Fleur, Fred, George, and Bill and you’ve got a book at least half-devoted to the pursuit of friendship and the beginnings of romantic love. Task two finds Neville stealing from Snape to help Harry – friendly gesture but also – I think – dragging Neville FINALLY back into the game. He is a loyal friend who belongs in Gryffindor house with the rest of them. Uncovering his past and placing him in the classroom with Harry when the unforgivable curses are revealed and displayed, draws the parallel between these two characters just a little bit closer.

The Yule Ball – or The Unexpected Task as Rowling’s chapter title suggests – is a Petri dish of culturing love. Cedric and Cho, Harry and Cho, Hermione and Krum, Ron and Hermione, Ginny and Neville, Ginny and Harry, Hagrid and Madame Maxime, it’s a growing love-fest where almost everyone is miserable (accept maybe Neville and his happy feet) by the end of the evening because love makes you do the whacky. (Yeah, that’s from Buffy too – I promise to stop the parallels soon…really!) And Hermione is walking in the gray again – she lets Madam Pomfrey reduce her buck-teeth to a normal size (not in the movie, because again it doesn’t fit Hermione’s straight-laced movie persona). It gives her a beautiful moment at the ball, and although Krum’s not a looker, he could have gotten any girl – and maybe some boys – to go to the ball with him. But he genuinely likes Hermione, so there was no need for the buck-teeth reduction. Hermione does it because she is vain and she can.

Moving on – or back – to task 2, I find it interesting that everyone trapped under the water with the mer-people are friends and loved-ones of Harry except Gabrielle, the girl he ends up saving along with Ron. I mean, Krum is only going to care about Hermione, Fleur is only going to care about Gabrielle, and although it may give Cedric a couple more seconds of pause, he’s really only going to care about Cho. But Harry?! Harry’s two best friends and his first love interest are down there – the cards are stacked against him. Would he care if it was Ron and three people he’d never seen before? I honestly don’t know – and that alone makes the friendship/love theme important in book 4.

Finally, forging friendships may actually be the main theme of this book. Between schools, between muggles and wizards, between magical creatures and wizards, between old enemies; friends are the things Voldermort does not have and therefore must eventually lead to his undoing.

Moody vs. Crouch
Raise your hand if you think learning from a dark wizard was actually beneficial to the fourth years? I do. I mean everything underhanded Barty Jr. does in this book is fun to read. And a lot of it was really quite helpful to the students taking his Defense Against the Dark Arts class. On the re-read, many of the things are a little iffy. Turning Malfoy into a ferret may not be something a teacher should actually do, but aren’t you glad he did?! It’s almost as good as Hermione going off and hitting Malfoy. And the unforgivable curses, too. Not just showing what they can do, but trying to get students to block them. Pure dead brilliant. What would the class have been like if the real Moody was teaching? Was Crouch trying to be so much like Moody in disguise, that there really wasn’t a big difference? Does Defense Against the Dark Arts need to be taught by a dark wizard to truly be effective? Morality comes into question again. Mainly when asking the question: Is there really that big a difference between these two characters? What makes one good and the other bad?

And I’m stopping there before I bore you all to death. We will start book 5 next week and I will try to keep it to a month – I’m not sure that’s possible with the longest book in the series, but we will see what happens.

In the meantime, post your final thoughts on book 4 and movie 4. What a ride!
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HP Monday – In which I combine my geeky passions into one blog post and loose all readership potential

As I’ve mentioned before, I hang out at my local Barnes & Noble a lot. I know. Friends and readers who are small publishing and book store owners or employees; I know it is the Death Star. And yet, I use it like my own personal library – grabbing books for reference or lunch time reading and carrying my mini Eee PC (best Christmas present EVER) with me to type and type and type. They have free wi fi, I’m sorry!

Right now I’m in the café, typing away with my grande English Breakfast hot tea – it comes in a coffee cup with a lid so I have issues calling this a cuppa – it’s like the coffee house, Americanized version. There are two things that amuse me about the B&N café: One – no matter what day or time I’m here, there are always a group of real housewives of Edina playing a game of gin while discussing their rough lives in these tough economical times; and two – there is one outlet in the café which in the past has always been a hot spot for people with lap tops and plugs. Then one day they moved a giant trash bin in front of it – which is on wheels and therefore fairly easy to shove to one side and still get at the outlet. A few weeks after the bin shoving began I walked into the café, sat down at the empty table near the outlet, pulled out my plug and computer and realized the entire outlet had been covered in duct tape. Apparently the B&N people would like their cozy, office-type-work-all-day-and-don’t-buy-anything feel to go away. Well, I’ve one up-ed you Death Star: With my trusty Eee PC I have 9 hours of battery life without a plug! Yeah, if you can’t keep up with technology you might as well get out of the fight.

I thought my B&N story had a point, but I’m not sure what it was anymore. Let’s just go with…Wherever you choose to write – make sure there’s some distracting atmosphere to kick start those creative juices but not too much distraction.

Onto Harry Potter and his goblet of fire we go. I’m looking at a paperback Scholastic copy I took off the YA shelf at B&N before I sat down in the café (See what I mean by library – why would I lug my copy around if there’s plenty of copies waiting for me here?). I really like book 4. In fact if not for book 3, book 4 may be my favorite. This realization makes me think of an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is one of – if not my actual – favorite TV series. It’s probably hard to pinpoint my favorite episode of the series – there’s seven seasons to choose from – but I can definitely tell you season 3 is my favorite season (Are we seeing the parallels yet everyone); although, many of my favorite episodes are in season 4…hmmm. It’s a really good season with a lot of change and growing – first year of college change and growing – not everything is as perfect (a little irony here since the high school actually blew up, the principal was eaten by the commencement speech giver who’d turned into an apocalyptic snake, and Buffy’s first love walked away from her at the end of season 3) as it was in high school. But things aren’t full-on horrible either. In hindsight year 4 (in both Buffy and Harry’s chronicles –um, can we take a moment to check out the double-letter-then-y ending of both our MC’s names. Wow I’m a geek!) might be the best year after all. If anyone out there likes book 4 the best please comment and tell us why. For those of you who don’t – a lot of us still think 3 is our favorite – then think about why not number four?

I’ve thought about that question off and on all week, and I think the answer comes somewhere in the ending. Don’t get me wrong, the ending is great – not so much for the wizarding world, but for the reader – it doesn’t get much better than the bad guy coming back and the adventure really starting to go somewhere (spoiler alert – I like the ending of six the best…which is why I might have some unresolved issues with the movie ending of six. And no, I don’t know why that is either – in a couple of months I hope to figure it out though). There is always a reason to kill off a decent character, and if you are invested in the character or the impact of his death than the reader can be affected more than the characters in the story. Please remind me to go back to this concept when we discuss the last book because I have some questions.

But here in book 4 we reach the end of the tasks, we’ve been hearing that they are life and death tasks, but we don’t (at least I didn’t – at all) really think it would go that far. I mean Cedric is dead at the end. His life has been cut short and thrown away for no good reason (well except the whole furthering the plot thing). If we as the reader at anytime thought these books were all happy-go-lucky, the bad guys been vanquished now everything is just peachy keen and hunky dory, the end of book 4 slaps us in the face. Hard. And who likes to be blind-sided like that?

Here’s my other parallel to Buffy. Yep, I’ve got another one. There’s an episode in season 6 called “Tabula Rasa”. The episode is hysterical. Everyone looses their memory and ends up using circumstantial evidence to try and decipher who they are and how they relate to each other. The episode highlights the best & worst qualities of each character working totally outside the context box. Oh, and there’s an actual loan shark (like literally) and kittens are used as currency (stupid currency, but still).

I firmly believe there is a Buffy episode for everyone. And this episode was made for my friend Beth; so I made her sit down and watch it. At the time she was earning her psychology doctorate – a degree she now has – I knew she’d get a kick out of each character’s inner mind workings. While we were watching the episode – because really the most fun part of picking episodes for people is watching them watch said episode – she turned to me with this huge smile on her face and said, “This is great and funny. I’ll have to watch this every time I need a pick me up.”

And I said, “Well maybe you want to wait until the end. There’s a great big DOWN to every UP on this show.”

If you’ve seen the episode you know exactly what I mean. Hello, roller coaster of emotions. It’s not so nice to see you again. Yeah everything really sucks at the end of this episode. All of the relationships are broken – some beyond repair. And because you’ve been happily tooling along, watching some really great, light-hearted fun stuff, the downward drop is fantastically, shockingly heinous.

And that is why I think book 4 can never be my favorite. You’ve tricked me into a false sense of security JK Rowling and then the Dark Lord rises again, the death eaters return to full strength and a young wizard dies because he’s in the wrong place at the wrong time. And even though our hero did the right thing in the maze – these things still happen. In fact doing the right thing caused these things to happen. And that too is fantastically, shockingly heinous.

I’m holding off the movie discussion until next week. Then we will wrap up book 4 and move onto book 5 - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Because I just wouldn’t be me if I didn’t mention it, Phoenix is SO fire imagery!

Comment. Discuss. Write already! Also, remind me to talk about Mad Eye Moody next week too…both of him.