What is art? How is Potter?

I love art. I really do. But sometimes, some of them leave me baffled. I am standing there, scratching my head, and trying vainly to figure out what it is that I am suppose to see. What it is that is suppose to be speaking to me. And although I try my darnest, I still could not figure out the meaning behind the piece. I am starting to seriously wonder if I am missing out on something.

Anyway, moving on to a topic more suited for my intellectual level - I had finally seen Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Read that book ages ago and I nearly forgot everything but thanks to my friend (you know who you are if you are reading this), I could remember bits and pieces. The movie was just okay, there were a lot of things missing but I guess it is hard to condense a book that size into a movie that lasted around 2 hours 30 minutes. Although Harry's character is well developed - the movie is about Harry after all - the others were left in the shade. Ron and Hermione were sidelined and the camaraderie between the three in the earlier movies is missing. I love Luna Lovegood though; they had chosen the perfect person to play her. And forget about that kiss - it was over in a blink of an eye.

I am waiting to read Book 7! It is arriving tomorrow.


*UPDATED*

*Spoiler alert*










*Spoiler alert*









Hmmm.....Book 7 is much better than Book 6, but definitely not her best in the series. That book is still Book 3 for me. This is not to say that JK Rowling is not a good writer; her first three books were very good but ever since the fourth book, she just went downhill and Book 7 is no exception. Some people might say that being an armchair reader and critising the book is easy compared to actually writing it. I whole heartedly agree. BUT...this is not her first book, and she had actually showed that she could write well. And she herself had a hand in fanning the obsession of her book series and dropping hints etc to ensure that the readers would stay loyal. I stayed loyal; I bought all the books. I am a fan. Is it wrong for me to expect her to write well after all that? What happened to the author of the first three books?

I would have to say that there are some major flaws in book 7 and some parts of the plot were just way too convenient for me. Some questions were never really answered and left hanging. And I expected more people to die in the book considering it was an epic battle between good and evil, Dumbledore's army against the Death Eaters. Rather mind boggling that most of the wand-wielding "high-schoolers" could survived against hardened evil do-ers of Voldermort's army. And whatever happened to outside help? Where were the French wizards/witches? Or the Bulgarians? Sitting at home, sipping tea when the "terror" of the wizarding world is running rampant, killing people? The answer as to why Harry did not die was way to convenient for me and relied too much on co-incidences and luck. And what's up with the whole secrecy about the mission Harry and pals got to do? I frankly don't see the point of it being all hushed up; it is not as if Harry was the only one that can destroy the horcruxes since both Ron and Hermione and at the end, Neville had a go at them themselves, and earlier, in book 6, Dumbledore himself destroyed the ring. I think that more lives would have been saved if they had opened up in the first place or that the mission would have finished sooner instead of them camping around.

And I would also like to comment about the whole uproar about the New York Times publishing the review of the book early (two days early). Firstly, I read the review and it did not give away major spoilers. In fact, when you publish a book, as a courtesy to the would be buyer, you should write a brief description or outline of the book. So what the New York Times did was just precisely that, a brief outline of the book (hey, we were all flying blind here since everyone was so tight-lip about the plot). And (this is a major point here), it is a review - published in the book review section with the headlines stating that it is the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book review. What on earth did they expect the review to contain if not the "review" of the book? If you don't want to be spoiled, don't read it. Simple as that. Why blame the NYT when you yourself, made the choice to read the review ahead of time? Blame yourself. Please, it is only a book for god's sake. Books, magazines, movies are all reviewed ahead of time - why should this book be any different? And which children actually read NYT?

When a writer is good, she engages the reader with her prose, her style and her creativity. Regardless of whether or not the plot was given away or that the ending was spoilt, a good author would still manage to satisfy the reader with her way with words. That is the whole point of reading. All this uproar about spoilers makes this book just about who died and who didn't when it should be much more than that.

The Harry Potter series had come to an end. It was a bumpy ride, but we finally reach the end of the tunnel. I just hope that she does not succumb to pressure and write Book 8.