Friday, July 20, 2007

The Death of Harry Potter

By Darvell Hunt

The last Harry Potter book comes out tonight at midnight.

As a “Borders Rewards” member, I got an email yesterday from Borders Bookstore entitled “The Biggest Book Ever.” So, Harry Potter is “the biggest book ever.” Hmm. I hope it’s not too big, or all those kids in line tonight and tomorrow won’t be able to carry it home.

Anyway, the whole point I’m trying to make with today’s blog is to emphasize the power of a single writer, or the creator of Harry Potter. We all know who she is and if I put her name here, there will be just one more listing in the 5,060,000 already in Google for her name. (Yes, I tried it. Yes, that’s how many references to her name are listed in Google. Yikes. I wonder if she Googles herself?)

Will Harry Potter die in this book? Some think he might. Some think he might lose his wizard power when the source of his power dies. Some think that what appeared to happen to Dumbledore didn’t really happen how we think it did and that perhaps, just perhaps, Snape will save the day when it’s all over.

But that’s what it is now: it’s all over. Today is the beginning of the end. Regardless of whether Harry lives or not, he still suffers a permanent death. Miss J. K., er, uh, the creator of Harry Potter, says there will not be another Harry Potter book. Some people will know what happens to Harry by the time they read this blog, and millions of others will be soon to follow, and then that’ll be that. The whole Harry Potter craze will be over, except for the continuing debates about what the author did or did not do, or should have or should not have done, in the final book.

But…

The ending of this series will likely open the door for the next great series. Perhaps I will be the one to write it. Perhaps it will be you.

1 comment:

Cindy Beck, author said...

Darvell,
Wow, by refusing to use the name of you know who, you've turned her into "SHE who must not be named". Now that's poetic justice!:-)