Harry Potter and the Hindsight Bias

I will proudly declare my love of the Harry Potter novels. I got into them well before the first movie came out, back when there were only 4 books. What began as a lark, wondering just what everyone saw in these British imports, quickly turned into a literary addiction by the end of the first chapter of the first book. I was hooked, and those years between novel releases were long. (Of course, Harry Potter readers have nothing on fans of the Dark Tower or Song of Ice and Fire sagas.)

As a writer myself, I am hugely envious of what J.K. Rowling was able to accomplish. She crafted an amazing seven volume series, which is already becoming a classic staple of English literature. Generations of children will tear into the world of Harry Potter much the same way previous generations enjoyed the Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings, and the Chronicles of Prydain. Not only are these books good, they inspired a love of reading into a generation of children. It's hard to argue with that kind of success.

Except now, seven years after the publication of the final Harry Potter volume, Rowling regrets one of the biggest plot points of the series. (I should warn you that some spoilers will follow. If you haven't read the books and want to remain unspoiled, I suggest you log off the internet entirely, lock yourself in a secure bunker, and read all seven books. Because otherwise you will be spoiled.)

This Open Letter to Moral Crusaders

Dear Moral Crusaders,

I know you're busy, let's cut to the chase. We need each other. You need a villain to star in your next fund-raising newsletter, and I need the publicity. As they say in the business world, we could create some real synergy and shift our paradigms. (Most of my business expertise comes from Dilbert.)

I'm a struggling author trying to make it big, but not a lot of people are paying attention. Perhaps that's my fault, as I could be doing more to increase my brand. I could be doing a lot more internet-savvy things to generate attention, but marketing is a lot of work. I'm a writer. The entire point of being a writer is to do as little work as possible.

Advantage: Print Books

I fully recognize that e-books are the wave of the future. In fact, I'm doing my best to embrace this wave. However, just because I'm not fighting the inevitable doesn't mean that I'll always love print books. For me, there's nothing better than holding a book in my hand and knowing one thing for certain.

I have no problem killing a spider with this thing.

All right, print books are useful for more than spider killing, but I consider that a pretty good perk. When you hold a Nook or a Kindle, the last thing you will do is use your expensive new toy to send that spider back to Hell. No, you will carefully put it down and then go look for something to kill that spider. By then, your eight-legged tormenter won't be where you left her and you'll spend your night hunting that walking nightmare down.

Movie Third Acts That Worked

It is with scared trepidation that I await The Dark Knight Rises. It's the third movie in a thus-far fantastic franchise. The first, Batman Begins, was a mind-blowing reboot of the Batman story.  The Dark Knight was that rare sequel that was even better than the original. Naturally, we should have nothing to worry about with this third and final movie. Right?

I know you know the answer to that question. We've been down this road twice before with both the Spider-Man and X-men movie series. The first was good, the second even better, the third ruined the franchise so badly that both have since been rebooted. (And those reboots are so far pretty good.)

Even the earlier Batman movies were not immune to this phenomenon, though that time it took four films to take down Batman before Nolan had to reboot it. The question that hangs over the Caped Crusader's cowl like the Sword of Damocles is this: will history repeat itself, or will The Dark Knight Rises be one of those rare third acts that are actually good? We'll all see soon enough.

The good news is that there are some third acts that did manage to work. Sometimes they were just as good as the rest of the series, and on rare occasions they were the best ones of all. Because I prefer hope to despair, optimism to pessimism, I want to talk about the movies that worked. (And if we can all just toss the ones that didn't down the memory hole, that would be great.)

The Gospel According to Harry Potter

I began reading the Harry Potter books because Christians told me not to. It's a fantastic marketing gimmick, one I fall for time and time again. It's also why I play Dungeons and Dragons, listen to Rock and Roll, and watch Disney movies. However, what started out simply as a "let's see what's got my brothers and sisters in Christ so hot and bothered" turned into a genuine love for the series.

One of the first things I noticed, after the utter charm of the inhabitants of Hogwarts, was the fact that reading it was in no way going to turn me into a wizard. I bought a wand just in case, but I still have to locate my car keys manually rather that flick my wand and shout "accio keys!"

The third thing I noticed was a very strong Christian ethic in this series running right to the core of the story. Like the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Chronicles of Narnia, this series of books by a British author is bursting with Christian allegory, and that's what I want to talk about.

There's going to be spoilers galore, here, so stop reading if you haven't read any of the books or seen the movies. Otherwise you might find out that Dumbledore was played by two different actors in the movies, and I'd hate to ruin that for you.

Geeks and Bible Geeks

Any self respecting geek knows a lot of trivia. It's one of the hallmarks of our people. At a moment's notice, we'll regale you with the fact that Zac Efron got his start playing a young Simon Tam on Firefly, whether you want to know it or not.

How is this any different than someone who can quote any obscure verse from Habakkuk? Or someone who knows how many times the number 40 appears in Scripture (86) and the only one of Christ's miracles to appear in all four Gospels. (feeding the five-thousand)

Potterwatch

Want to see my impression of Harry Potter? Want to see it again?

The joke is that I look like Harry Potter. Given that I've got the full regalia for Halloween, this is not something I'm unhappy about. There are worse worldwide sensations to resemble.

I fell in love with the Harry Potter series in graduate school. This was 11 years ago, back when this was purely a novel phenomenon. (That was a pun. I'll give you a moment. You got it? Good.) At the time, there were no movies and only four books, and people were going nuts over them. Literally. As in, some people went a little crazy about how the Harry Potter books were teaching witchcraft. Naturally, this made me want to read them.

I remember quite clearly grabbing Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I was waiting around for an incredibly dull academic conference. (Being a grad student they assumed it would be good for me to attend - they were wrong, but that's a story not worth telling.) While waiting, I saw the Harry Potter paperback displayed prominently in the campus bookstore. Since I was a student, I got an extra discount, so I picked up the book for a few bucks. I was curious about what was making people go nuts over this book, and I had some time to kill. I read the first chapter and it changed my life forever.