madelinekelly

The book came in the post for Matt yesterday, but he couldn't read it because of being Best Man at his younger (not youngest) brother's wedding. Ah yes, the wedding! Matt's been worrying about making his BM speech for the last 18 months -- but it went splendidly, and I was Mrs Proud for the rest of the evening. I solved the Brown Shoe Dilemma by wearing my knee-high fake suede tan-coloured lace-up boots. I felt very Victorian, because they showed off my ankles so well.

( They had a disco in the evening )

Anyway, about HBP. Matt started reading it in bed when we got home last night. I, taking advantage of his sleepy weakness, got his permission to read it in bed this morning. And I read it this afternoon too. :-D You can blame Matt. He keeps leaving it untended while he's playing The Sims or scratching his nose. And I can't help myself...

I've read the first...um...six chapters of HBP now. Enjoying it, of course -- she does provide good intriguing storylines, doesn't she?

( I'm spoiling! )

I'm full of questions for the rest of the book -- can't wait to read it.

I was thinking, at the allotment this afternoon, how Voldemort could be likened to Osama Bin Laden -- if you were in the habit of making comparisons like that. And I can see how easy it would be to think that if you just got rid of Voldemort/Bin Laden, then all the problems would go away. I hope that's not how the HP series is going to end -- with Harry killing Voldemort and everyone living happily ever after. You've got to tackle the causes. How can there be room for someone like Voldemort in the wizarding world? How can someone have developed that much hatred and amorality? If Bin Laden is killed, terrorism won't miraculously stop. Surely it will get worse, with a famous martyr to fight for? It's the causes of terrorism that have to be challenged, not the terrorists (or, at least, not just the terrorists).

It seems to me that, in the HP series, JKR has an opportunity to show that destroying one person doesn't solve everything, that people have to come together, that just because you disagree with someone's ideology doesn't mean you can't work with them. But if she does end it simply with Voldemort dying, then I hope she makes it clear that another Voldemort-like character will eventually appear -- because the conditions for him/her/it won't have changed. In other words, there will always be a gap in the wizarding world that will readily accommodate a Voldemort; the wizarding world will have to change if it doesn't want to fight a new Dark Lord in fifty years' time.