So instead of ranting about how Alfonso Cuaron f-ed up the dementors (which he DID, by the way), or giving David Yates and Steve Kloves a long, virtual talking-to about putting in scenes that were DEFINITELY not in the books (why, boys, why?!), or gushing about Chris Columbus's incredible casting and Stuart Craig's breathtaking production design, I'm going to do something a little more special.
I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone when I was nine years old, after receiving a Hermione action figure for my birthday and reading an article about Emma Watson inAmerican Girl magazine. I'd heard things about this "Hermione Granger," and I wanted to know more. She was cited as a strong female character, and I was constantly on the lookout for those.
We read the books as a family, with a strict "no reading ahead" rule (which my dad and I constantly broke, especially on Goblet of Fire), and each book release was a celebration. I remember 4th of July, 2003, just after the fifth book, Order of the Phoenix, had come out--we read until it got dark, almost finishing the book (we got to chapter thirty, when Grawp is first introduced), and then went out and lit sparklers and Roman candles, cheering the entire time and shouting "Dumbledore's Army" and other such silly Pottermaniac phrases.
The first time I ever went to a book release party was in 2007, when Deathly Hallows was release. I will confess I didn't exactly have the best time--the best part was when we read the first chapter at midnight, and even that felt slightly wrong because I was reading it before my dad had the chance. Still, it was an experience and I was happy about it, because it had something to do with Harry Potter. I still have the "wand" I made that night, and that was four years ago.
It almost seems fitting, in a way, that the last film in the series comes out the year that I graduate high school. I grew up with these books. They were the perfect gateway for me. Yes, I know that some of my close friends (yes, my dearest friend Miss Dean Moriarty, I AM LOOKING AT YOU) were probably reading books much darker than Harry Potter when they were the age that I was when I started reading Harry Potter (nine, for the record). But I was a sheltered little scaredy-cat (yes, I was!), and these books came to my attention at the perfect time to ease me into the adult world.
When first began reading the books, I found the Harry Potter series so good because it was so exciting. The early books--Sorcerer's Stone to Azkaban--plunge the reader into a world of colorful characters and intoxicatingly magical settings (come on, who WOULDN'T want a teacher who shot chewing gum up a poltergeist's nose, or to eat in a dining hall with a ceiling enchanted to mimic the sky?). The mid-way books, Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix, start lacing the books with danger and adventures that don't resemble Scooby Doo mysteries. (Not that there's anything wrong with Scooby Doo mysteries, it's just that you can only use the man-in-a-mask or bait-and-switch so many times before it gets old.) And then by the final books you're ready--you understand that some heavy stuff is going to go down and you'd better brace yourself. But the magic is still there. The magical inventions get more and more dangerous--an object that houses a piece of your soul? Jeez!--but they're still as inventive and interesting as they were in the earlier books. The new characters are wild, the old characters equally compelling. They get darker as they go--but somehow never any less enjoyable.
I was born at exactly the right time to enjoy the Harry Potter series. I am a proud member of the Potter Generation (no joke, that actually is what some Potter fans my age call themselves). Sometimes, it felt as if the books were written just for me (which is, I think, one of the marks of a book written by a truly talented author). I started reading them just after Goblet of Fire was released, and every time a new book came out it brought a new experience, including that silly release party.
Until I read Harry Potter I did not understand that it was perfectly okay to kill off main characters in your books. (This was why I threw a minor tantrum at the end of A Separate Peace, if anyone knows what I'm talking about.) Characters in books always felt real to me--but when I read Harry Potter, that was just multiplied tenfold. I cried hysterically when Dumbledore died--hated Snape for awhile after that--but fell in love with Snape (a longtime favorite character of mine) all over again at the climax of Deathly Hallows--called Bellatrix my "favorite death eater" until she killed Dobby--shouted at the book in frustration when Harry fell in love with Ginny instead of Luna Lovegood--groaned and shook my head every time Ron said something stupid, as if he could hear me.
Here is the final nail in the coffin, if you will, the last and greatest notification of just how powerful these books are, just how incredibly attached to these characters I had become: At the end of the seventh book, there is a moment when it is revealed that Harry will have to die to truly defeat Voldemort. I read this sentence, burst into tears, ran to my room, and slammed the door. My thoughts were not along the lines of "Oh God, J.K.'s done it, she's really done it, well I guess she's happy, she'll never have to write another Potter book again, but that means I'll never get to READ a new Potter book again!"
No. Not even close.
This is what I was thinking as I cried in my closet (I was a strange fourteen-year-old):
Holy crap, that is so unfair! Unfair doesn't even begin to cover it! Oh God, he's going to die at seventeen...he's only three years older than I am! He's only seventeen, God, please don't do this to him, please don't let him die...what will Ron and Hermione do without him? What will Ginny do without him? I take it back, God, I take it all back, everything I said about how she's not his type and he'd be so much better off with Luna, if it's what makes him happy, he can have her, but please, let him have her, let him live, he needs to live...if he dies, if he lets this bastard kill him, he'll never get to have a family, he's always wanted a family...he won't have a child or get married or become an Auror or do anything...please, God, it's so unfair.
It was only after I had hidden in the closet for about twenty minutes, crying and praying for someone who didn't technically exist, that my father came upstairs to remind me that the book wasn't over yet, and that there may just be a surprise or two around the corner. Looking back I think he might've read ahead a bit, and seen that all hope was not yet lost--I don't know. I never asked him; I should do that. After all, it wouldn't have been the first time; he did the very same thing when we read Goblet of Fire, so he could ascertain there was nothing that would keep me up at night in the coming chapters.
But I'm digressing, again. Point is, the character of Harry Potter had become so real to me that when I found out he would have to die at the hands of Voldemort, I felt as if I were about to lose a best friend.
That, my friends, is powerful writing.
Now please understand me, this is not my typical reaction to a book. Yes, I know that from what you all know of me, it's not that improbable that when I read Twilight for the first time I cried at Edward's sappy declarations of love and Bella's willingness to sacrifice her life for her mother's, but trust me, I didn't. This is because, as Stephen King so perfectly phrased it, Stephanie Meyer can't write worth a darn, and anyone who has read Twilight knows it. J.K. Rowling, on the other hand, can. And that is why I fell in love with this series, to the point where I mourned a character who hadn't even died yet, to the point where I still read the series obsessively nine years after I first picked up Sorcerer's Stone.
I've said it before, and I will say it again: Story is everything. And on the surface, Harry Potter is a simple, told-to-death story of Good vs. Evil Wherein the World in the Hands of a Plucky Orphan. And broken down to the bare bones story spine, it might be just that. But the magic is in the way Rowling tells this simple story--with great narrative, subtle humor, compelling characters, and solid, classic themes. That is the real way to tell a perfect story. That is the secret to truly powerful writing. That is why I look up to Jo Rowling.
I'm heading off to college this fall. (This is where Gustavo is allowed to smack me and/or say "Duh, Beatnik Belle!") When I leave, I hope to take with me all of the lessons--good, bad, and just plain funny--that Rowling has taught me, via Harry Potter, over the years.
WHAT I LEARNED FROM THE HARRY POTTER BOOKS...
1. Story truly is everything. A lot of my fellow filmmakers seem to have forgotten this.
2. Beverly Cleary is not the only admirable author in the world.
3. It is possible for an platonic relationship to develop between a straight girl and a straight guy.
4. On the flip side, it is also entirely possible to fall in love with your best friend.
5. There is more to everyone--yes, even Dudley Dursley--than meets the eye.
6. Adding onto the list of Things It's Okay To Do, it is absolutely okay to develop a crush on a fictional, greasy-haired, black-clad, sharp-tongued, anti-hero who teaches how to make magic potions...especially if that anti-hero is physically represented by Alan Rickman.
7. There is a Badass inside every Neville Longbottom--you just need to know how to let it out.
8. We all have our Luna Lovegood moments. Some of us are just better at admitting it than others.
9. There is always another side to the story.
10. Good things happen on trains.
11. Robert Pattinson is actually a fairly decent actor.
12. Right from the pages of the book: "Voldemort created his own worst enemy, as tyrants everywhere do!" (Half-Blood Prince, chapter 23)
13. People feel threatened by success. This is how people can justify calling a brilliant author a Satanist just because her book happens to be set in a fantasy world that, yes, involves magic.
14. There is a little bit of lovability inside every fictional character, even the evil ones. (Didn't I tell you Bellatrix was my "favorite Death Eater"?)
15. "Kill or be killed" is never black and white.
16. Going off #15, it is never, ever okay to betray your friends. Ever. Even if it involves spitting in the face of a known murdurer.
17. Even the best of us can royally screw the pooch--the Dumbledores and Mad-Eye Moodys of the world are not infallible.
18. Love is infinite. You can make as much as you want. You can use as much as you want. It just keeps regenerating itself, even when you think it's impossible.
19. House-elves don't exist in the "Muggle" world, but they should, because they are amazing.
20. There is no excuse for giving up hope, giving up on your friends, or giving up on yourself.
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