The Harry Potter

As I briefly mentioned last week, I finished the Harry Potter series. In about 10 weeks I charged through almost 4200 pages. I couldn't have been more pleased with the way the whole thing turned out. Rowling does an amazing job of linking stories together, keeping it all very cohesive, while also keeping the reader in suspense the entire time. When I finally got to the seventh book, it didn't just feel like I had been building to those final moments from the beginning of the Deathly Hallows, but from the beginning of the series. Instead of the build up just from a couple of hundred pages of story development, it has the momentum of six additional long books that give the final 300 pages of the last book some incredible steam that just locked me in until I got to the final period.

Several years ago Orson Scott Card spoke at a symposium at BYU. From what I can remember, his topic focused mainly on the importance of fiction and how it shapes societal trends and values. He brought up an example from the TV show Friends when Ross's ex-wife gets married to her lesbian partner. The ceremony is performed, and sanctioned by a religious minister, and one of the father's of one of the bride's attends in his military uniform. Symbolically then, the show portrays the acceptance of same-sex marriage by both religious and government leaders. This was not by accident.

Card's point in this example is that fiction often presents the breeding ground where ideas and principles are placed. How we embrace the stories put forth often leads to the adoption of the associated ethics and morals that are on display in the piece of fiction, and conversely, our rejection of the story necessarily leads to the denial of those same values. I've made this point on here before, so I'll spare you the same argument again other than to simply say, it's not ever just a story/book/movie/tv show. Our patronage of these products facilitates their growth and acceptance, not of just the final product but what values they promote.

My point (as well as Card's) in bringing all of this up is that Harry Potter is the kind of story that we should want to embrace. It is the type that as parents we should be reading to our children. Not only is the story itself very compelling and entertaining, but Harry is truly a heroic character in spite of the flaws that Rowling clearly portrays him having. He constantly sacrifices, conquers in the face of heartbreaking tragedy, and triumphs over evil. His friends perfectly characterize loyalty and devotion. The story deftly illustrates good and evil and the type of dedication that is required to overcome. Rowling draws from her own loss of her mother to describe Harry's struggles with loss. In the form of the dementors she personifies the suffocating effects of clinical depression. It really is amazing how much real life is captured in her fictional books. I love love love these stories.