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Mayhem, Murder, Madness
Jul. 14th, 2020 10:28 amAlthough it quite frankly saved me, when I first began reading it a few weeks ago--from, you know, the loneliness and desperation of my life's greatest loss--I've quickly grown sick of the endless murder and mayhem of the Harry Potter series.
I'm now about 3/4 of the way through Book 4, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and I don't know if I'll continue. There is, I suppose, that interesting and relevant strand of social commentary, which started in an earlier book, on the life of the house elves who are basically slaves within the privileged and wealthy households they serve.
It begins with Harry Potter's encounter with Dobby, maybe as early as Book 1, a rather matter-of-fact description of his physical appearance and emotional state. And it's reached a crescendo in Book 4 with Hermione Granger's decision to take up the elves' cause in a full-blown campaign for their civil rights.
This has become my justification for wading as deeply as I have into this very thick book. And enduring a parallel intensification of the endless violence that I've come to loathe in Rowling's series. (OMG, this is a Scholastic imprint? And my daughter let her daughters read it?)
Anyway, as I was exploring a very different matter on Amazon--related to the biking fixation which has also helped save me, I came across an old wish list of books based on Neil Simon's memories of Brighton Beach.
I'm seriously thinking about turning that into an order in the hope that it may draw me into another life, another culture, another means of coping with my own life and times.
Without the mayhem and murder and a madness nearly equal to the intensity of my own...
LPK
Dreamwidth
7.14.2020
I'm now about 3/4 of the way through Book 4, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and I don't know if I'll continue. There is, I suppose, that interesting and relevant strand of social commentary, which started in an earlier book, on the life of the house elves who are basically slaves within the privileged and wealthy households they serve.
It begins with Harry Potter's encounter with Dobby, maybe as early as Book 1, a rather matter-of-fact description of his physical appearance and emotional state. And it's reached a crescendo in Book 4 with Hermione Granger's decision to take up the elves' cause in a full-blown campaign for their civil rights.
This has become my justification for wading as deeply as I have into this very thick book. And enduring a parallel intensification of the endless violence that I've come to loathe in Rowling's series. (OMG, this is a Scholastic imprint? And my daughter let her daughters read it?)
Anyway, as I was exploring a very different matter on Amazon--related to the biking fixation which has also helped save me, I came across an old wish list of books based on Neil Simon's memories of Brighton Beach.
I'm seriously thinking about turning that into an order in the hope that it may draw me into another life, another culture, another means of coping with my own life and times.
Without the mayhem and murder and a madness nearly equal to the intensity of my own...
LPK
Dreamwidth
7.14.2020
