Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
(no spoilers here!)
I finished the final book in the Harry Potter series 7 minutes before midnight on the day is was released (we got it at 12:14am on Saturday, and I finished it at 11:53pm)! I did manage to get around 7 hours of sleep and 3 meals in there at some point. :)
It was harder for me to read, and I think I realized part of the reason why. By "harder to read" I mean that my eyes actually glassed over, threatening to flood, several - several - times. The weird part is that is wasn't about a sad plot turn or things of that sort (at least, not usually). So, here's my theory on why the final Harry Potter book was emotionally difficult for me to read.
Characters in books are not exactly the same as people in real life. I know, we learned in elementary school what "fiction" means - not real, made up. The thing that's stuck me today (over and over), is that characters are created by an author to fulfill a purpose within a story. With characters you've grown especially attached to, you get to watch them come closer and then (finally!) fulfill the roles they were created for. You may be thinking that this is also true of real people. Since books (usually) provide their reader with greater insight into many characters (I guess I'm getting at an omniscient viewpoint? I'm bad with vocabulary), and also because they (again, usually) have a defined beginning and end, you get to witness and experience these fulfillments much more often than in real life. And in real life it's harder to see or know when these experiences occur. Not impossible, just harder.
I'm feeling rather sleep-deprived and probably ceased to make sense within the first paragraph. Hopefully it won't be much longer before Joe finishes the book and I can get to bed!
I finished the final book in the Harry Potter series 7 minutes before midnight on the day is was released (we got it at 12:14am on Saturday, and I finished it at 11:53pm)! I did manage to get around 7 hours of sleep and 3 meals in there at some point. :)
It was harder for me to read, and I think I realized part of the reason why. By "harder to read" I mean that my eyes actually glassed over, threatening to flood, several - several - times. The weird part is that is wasn't about a sad plot turn or things of that sort (at least, not usually). So, here's my theory on why the final Harry Potter book was emotionally difficult for me to read.
Characters in books are not exactly the same as people in real life. I know, we learned in elementary school what "fiction" means - not real, made up. The thing that's stuck me today (over and over), is that characters are created by an author to fulfill a purpose within a story. With characters you've grown especially attached to, you get to watch them come closer and then (finally!) fulfill the roles they were created for. You may be thinking that this is also true of real people. Since books (usually) provide their reader with greater insight into many characters (I guess I'm getting at an omniscient viewpoint? I'm bad with vocabulary), and also because they (again, usually) have a defined beginning and end, you get to witness and experience these fulfillments much more often than in real life. And in real life it's harder to see or know when these experiences occur. Not impossible, just harder.
I'm feeling rather sleep-deprived and probably ceased to make sense within the first paragraph. Hopefully it won't be much longer before Joe finishes the book and I can get to bed!
Labels: What's Happened
posted by kathryn at 2:29 AM
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