Week 7, Spirit Novels

Remy Tost, October 3

Just to get this out of the way, I am an ENORMOUS fan of the Harry Potter book series. Also I have not read the Cursed Child…. partly because a good friend of mine and just as big of a fan read it and warned me not to in my best interest. Plus J.K. didn’t write the whole thing…. feels fishy.

One of my fondest memories as a child was listening to the audiobook for Harry Potter with my family. I remember like it was yesterday a night when my three brothers, mom, dad and myself where all on my parents bed listening to Jim Dale describe the shrieking shack and the drama that occurred during Remus and Sirius’s years at Hogwarts with fond memories as it played on our big cassette player. And after more than 10 years I STILL listen to Jim Dale recite the Harry Potter series. He always amazes me with his impressive and magical array of voices and the different range of emotion he brings to them.

 As a matter of fact on my last birthday I got some money from my parents and I decided to buy something I thought I’d really enjoy: the audiobook for the Night Circus read by none other than Jim Dale. Now I’m not gonna lie, when my childhood buddy Jim said “Fuck” in the first scene of the Night Circus I almost had a heart attack. After all this man used to tell me about Harry’s adventures while I sat in the back of my mom’s white suburban eating McDonalds on the way home from elementary school. But after getting over the “fuck” bit I listened to more of the story until about the fifth chapter, but again I had to stop. Not because Jim said another bad word but because the story didn’t keep me going. It wasn’t getting to a point where I seemed emotionally attached to any of the characters. It lacked personality from the characters and the plot, although slightly suspenseful and mysterious it was overall weak. Especially if we’re comparing Erin Morgenstern‘s plot to J.K.’s.

I think my favorite elements in the Harry Potter series have to be the colorful range of characters, the plot and just how far she planned for it. I remember listing to I think the second book near the end when Voldemart is discussing contents that would later be brought up again with more significance in the fourth and fifth book. And those characters….I firmly believe her characters have been goals for writers since she released the first book. And just how much they have evolved. Especially Harry. His development was so believable to me and looking back as an adult now I can remember how I myself was like Harry in the second book, slightly scarred about another new year but prepared enough to continue along side his friends. That was me my sophomore year at high school. And his rebellion and negative stage during the Order of the Phoenix…so much angst (not that I blame him). I went through that too, especially my senior an freshman year of high school. But like Harry I grew up. I grew up with him.

So I re-watched Time Bandits, which I remember seeing once when I was a kid and I liked it until the ending but had forgotten why. Then I watched it again and remembered why: that god-awful ending. Kind of like the ending in Cirque du Freak, it’s as if Kevin never went on the journey at all or learned ANYTHING after going through different time periods with his dwarf companions. I felt like I got slapped in the face and punished for watching a good adventure movie. Reminds me also of the ending in The Adventure of Baron Munchausen. And the rest of the movie. A great movie, plot, and all-star cast. But that ending made me sick. I mean yeah, not all endings are happy ones. But comparing Kevin’s adventure to Harry’s it just seemed so wrong and incomplete. And I don’t mean it would have better if had 6 sequels; it just felt like what Kevin did was for nothing. And after listing Jim reciting the scene when Harry says goodbye to Hagrid before gets on the Hogwarts express you feel as if Harry kicked ass, saved the day and is now eating the fruits of his labor. Of course he had help, but a lot of it was him. Still an enjoyable movie though.