Sleepless in Boston

Well, I just got back to Boston last night. And after a long day of wanting to sleep and trying to doze off in cars, airport sofas, and airplanes, I finally have a bed and I can't sleep. My mind is full of songs, scenes from my favorite shows, and other miscellaneous thoughts. So be warned that the rest of this entry may feel a bit like a stream of consciousness, like it's been lifted out of some first-person narrative.

What have I tried so far? Counting sheep? Nah, that never really worked for me (not even electric sheep). I did try to sing myself a lullaby, but no dice. Maybe it's just jet lag and I still think it's Pacific Time? (it is after all, only around 10:30 back in the Bay) But, hrm, I did stay awake for most of the previous night to catch my flight. And while I did catch some Zs in aforementioned airport and airplane, shouldn't I be more drowsy around now?

So now I'm trying to write. Maybe if I just put some of my thoughts on paper, it'll clear my mind. That makes sense, right? You know, maybe it'll work like a Pensieve and allow me to siphon my thoughts into paper? I'm thinking of this quote by Dumbledore:

"I sometimes find, and I am sure you know the feeling, that I simply have too many thoughts and memories crammed into my mind... At these times... I use the Pensieve. One simply siphons the excess thoughts from one's mind, pours them into the basin, and examines them at one's leisure."

Ah, yes, I know the feeling only too well. I could certainly do with a Pensieve.

You know what? I think the effort required to write coherent sentences is starting to have a soporific effect. I may not even have to write down all my thoughts. That probably saves you from tons of Buffy/Angel spoilers as that's my show of the moment.

What was I thinking about again? Smurfs come to mind. Yes, there's a particularly funny moment in Bones when Brennan wants a Smurfette doll, but Booth gives her a Brainy Smurf doll instead. I don't really know what made me think of that. Sometimes scenes from some of my favorite TV shows, books, or movies, just pop into my head and make me smile for a few seconds.

Weren't there some songs in the mix too? Oh yeah, I was listening to XM radio 20on20 on the flight. And you know what I realized? My life would suck without Kelly Clarkson. And I can apparently find God on the corner of channels 2 and 3 on the inflight radio. Also, I finally found out the name of this song that I can't get out of my head. And wow, Coldplay covered it? Well, here we are now, entertain us.

Ok, perhaps I ought to give this sleep thing another try. I think I've already filled this post to the brim with enough cultural references. How many did you find?

--Arkajit

Half-Blood Prince Movie

I just saw the new Harry Potter movie last night. I had not planned to go on opening night, but I wound up with a free ticket and went on a whim. While it was pretty good, it wasn't quite what I expected. In the interest of full disclosure, I'll admit that my expectations were sky-high given the early Tomatometer ratings in the astronomic range of 98%.

Additionally, book 6 was probably my favorite of the series (a close call with book 3, Prisoner of Azkaban). Unlike the previous two books which were high on the action and thrills, book 6 slowed down and spent more time on character development. Also, it helped that book 6 also had a very poignant cliff-hanger of an ending. I'd thought the death at the end of Order of the Phoenix had been sad, but it hardly compared to how I felt about the death at the end of Half-Blood Prince (in contrast, I wasn't really as deeply impacted by any of the deaths in the last book).

That said, the ending of the movie wasn't able to evoke quite the same feeling for me; indeed it was over quite quickly and the effect didn't linger. Though, perhaps, it wasn't realistic for me to expect the same reaction given that the end was now longer a surprise or such a shock. There's also the knowledge of what happens in the last book which probably factors into the experience too. Maybe the death would have hit me just as hard in the movie if I were watching it before reading the last book.

The ending aside, the movie had tons of excellent scenes. The opening attack on the Muggle world was a good touch. Jim Broadbent as Professor Slughorn was quite good and the memories of Lord Voldemort were chilling. Even the romance wasn't overly sappy; I particularly liked the scene where Harry and Hermione comfort each other after she's saddened to see Ron snogging Lavender. I must note, however, that the Harry/Ginny kiss was quite weak and didn't have any of the spontaneity or passion that was evoked in the book; it was especially disappointing given how much they kept hinting at the relationship.

But my biggest gripe was that the film often appeared to be a string of scenes rather than a cohesive story. This was probably a casualty of the fact that there was no single large plot thread, but several subtle ones. While it worked fine in the book, it may have been less appetizing for movie audiences.

Nonetheless, I can't complain too much about a free show. And I'll still probably go see it again when it finally comes out on IMAX.

--Arkajit

Harry Potter Politics

So that was a looong hiatus, and I'm going to try to start blogging more regularly again. For most of the past year, most of my writing has been in the form of hard news stories for The Tech or the occasional essay for a HASS class. While I did have a lot of fun with that, I also feel the need for some more free-form writing as well, if for no other reason than for my own sanity.

To start things off, here's my first (of hopefully more) non-news piece for The Tech: Potter Politics.

--Arkajit

The Potter Era

So, this post has been a long time coming.

On a late night jaunt along the Charles River (yeah, so I may have forgot to mention that I'm at MIT now =P), I couldn't help but thinking that if I had Harry's Firebolt and I went flying over the Charles it would look exactly like the scene from the Order of the Phoenix movie where the Advance Guard is flying Harry across the Thames River. Of course that naturally led me to think of the logical counterpart of the much more difficult escape from Privet Drive in Book 7. Well now I was clearly in a Harry Potter mood (then again I always do have a few brain cycles committed to charting future HP possibilities) and I just had to write this entry with my thoughts on Deathly Hallows and the entire Potter Era. So from the very beginning...

When I woke up on a dull, gray Tuesday, our story starts. I was not yet 11 and I was at Stanford for CTY. As I walked through the campus, I saw people dressed in the strangest robes of the most shocking colors conversing in hushed voices: "You-Know-What is here at last!". Owls were flying in broad daylight. As a mere Muggle, I could not understand the clamor over the release of a new book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. But that night I returned to my dorm to find an unflinching tabby cat with square green markings around its eyes and a copy of Goblet of Fire waiting for me in a bundle by my doorstep.

I picked up the first three books to start reading them in order and I instantly fell in love with the black-haired, bespectacled boy (say that ten times fast, Fred) with the lightning bolt scar on his forehead. His story became my story. His joys my joys. His sorrows my sorrows. I most definitely grew up and learned many of my life lessons with Harry (and Ron and Hermione). Just to name a few...

1. How to choose your friends: carefully, especially beware blonde-haired sons of Death Eaters.
2. What to do when you're in a new place: try new things, like Quidditch!
3. Best way to make new friends: save them from a mountain troll.
4. How to deal with other people when they hate you, for example when you are widely suspected to be the Heir of Slytherin, or of cheating to enter the Triwizard Tournament illegally, or of lying about the return of a certain Dark Lord, etc...
5. How to cope with a troubled family life like say if your parents were murdered by the most evil sorcerer of all time, your godfather was wrongly imprisoned for 12 years, and your aunt and uncle force you to live in a cupboard under the stairs for 10 years of your life.
6. How to take an insane courseload: borrow a Time Turner! (Thanks Hermione.)
7. How to get a detention: Tell your hooked-nose, greasy-haired potions master -- "There's no need to call me, sir, Professor." Or better yet, call him a coward and he might even throw in a Levicorpus for free.
   
8. How to get lost: Follow Neville and/or keep walking up the 142 staircases that keep moving and changing.
9. How to get unlost: Borrow the Marauder's Map. (Thanks Moony, Padfoot and Prongs. No thanks to Wormtail.)
10. How to get whatever you need: Concentrating hard on what you need, walk three times back and forth past the blank stretch of wall opposite the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy on the seventh floor.
11. How to figure out girls: err, scratch that, they're mental (Seriously, Hermione, listen to Ron for once. You should write that book on how they think =P)

So, I guess I didn't get to do a Deathly Hallows analysis. That'll have to wait for another post so I can do it full justice.

-- Arkajit

Harry Potter Magic Meets Science

First, Invisibility Cloaks, now Wingardium Leviosa, what next? :) Check out this article:

Levitation has been elevated from being pure science fiction to science fact, according to a study reported today by physicists.

	In theory the discovery could be used to levitate a person

In earlier work the same team of theoretical physicists showed that invisibility cloaks are feasible.

Now, in another report that sounds like it comes out of the pages of a Harry Potter book, the University of St Andrews team has created an 'incredible levitation effects' by engineering the force of nature which normally causes objects to stick together.

Analysis of Deathly Hallows Cover

You know, I knew I was forgetting something. I have been remiss. How could I have forgotten to mark such a momentous milestone event as the release of the cover for Deathly Hallows? (All these images are from Mugglenet and the Leaky Cauldron).



Here is the full version with the back-cover where you can even see Voldemort. In a word, ominous!


And here is the UK children's cover.


And for sake of completeness, here is the UK Adult's cover.


So time for speculations and a comparative analysis.

US Edition: (The best one of the lot in my opinion)

First impression is that this is the FINAL confrontation between Harry and Voldemort. Just hope it doesn't end like The Final Problem with Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls.

Following up on my theory that the Deathly Hallows is the name of a place, the background coliseum like arena seems to be it. In the full view of the cover we can see what look like stage curtains so this leads me to believe that it is an amphitheater of sorts. And Harry and Voldemort are merely players on a stage, perhaps on the hallowed battlegrounds of magical battles fought long ago, perhaps even as far back as the Hogwarts' Founders era. Further, Harry is raising his hand up in the air as if he is about to call a superior power to his aid.

*Begin parenthetical Star Wars references*
(Go Harry! Voldemort is just a big ugly walking carpet with scales instead of fur! No offense, Chewie - you're far more likeable than Voldemort.).

Noticeably absent in this picture is any other source of help:

No Ron (Han is frozen in carbonite!),
No Hermione (Leia has been captured by Jabba the Hutt!),
No Ginny (Luke, find a romantic interest you must! On this the analogy depends.)

Luke - I mean Harry - you must face Darth Vader - I mean Voldemort - alone. (No, Harry. I am your father! Don't listen to him Harry! Vader - ahem Voldemort - murdered your father!)
*End parenthetical Star Wars references*

And notice what seem like wooden ruins in the foreground. And are those shadows in the background? - perhaps shadows of hooded Death Eaters waiting silently on Voldemort's orders. Or are they the silhouettes of grave-markers, magical heroes who've died waging the eternal battle between good and evil on this hallowed ground? And aren't Harry and Voldemort gazing off to an external point not visible to us? Voldemort's outstretched hand seems like an attempt to stop whatever Harry is attempting to do. As a final note, Harry doesn't appear to have aged that much, so it looks like the plot-line will stay within the timeframe of a year or so.

UK Children's Edition:

What on earth is this travesty? Sorry, when did the target demographic become 8 year olds? About the only potential clues are what the other horcruxes might be. Most of it seems like buried treasure. Not nearly as emotionally captivating as the US edition cover. The only sad part is that it only shows the trio on the horcrux hunt. That probably means no Ginny ::sobs:: (Harry, you dunderhead! Have you forgotten that "the power the dark lord knows not" is love?!)

UK Adult's Edition:

Pretty straightforward and banal, yes? It's Slytherin's locket, the next horcrux Harry will probably destroy. Where is the emotion, where is the drama? ::yawn::

Verdict: Mary GrandPre has made a completely awesome cover once again! Poor UK children :(

And, though I'm now "deathly" scared for Harry, I really hope he survives. Or if he doesn't, we'll have to take comfort in what a wise man (Dumbledore) once said: "To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure". On second thoughts, Harry's mind definitely does not qualify!

Ok, all my thoughts on the cover for now.

-- Arkajit

P.S. A peeve (No not Peeves the Poltergeist!): You have failed me for the last time, Admiral Digg! A mere 368 Diggs for the cover art release? What?!

Top 1000 Books

There was recently compiled list of the top 1000 books in library's worldwide as of 2005.

My Favorite Fun Facts:

* The Lord of the Rings: #8, yes!!!! (what were the AP English test-makers saying about not being of sufficient "literary merit"?)

* Sherlock Holmes: top mystery novel at #192

* If all the Harry Potter books were counted together, they'd be #5 on the list :) But here's the individual break-down:
#220: Philosopher's Stone (a.k.a. Sorcerer's Stone)
#263: Chamber of Secrets
#304: Prisoner of Azkaban
#350: Goblet of Fire
#529: Order of the Phoenix

This was the updated list through 2005, so that probably explains the absence of Half-Blood Prince which came out in the second half of 2005. The 2006 data is not yet available.

* Shakespeare: 37 works in the top 1000, but not counting sonnets, he only wrote about 38 plays! So he's got almost a 100% conversion if it's all plays.

* Austen's Pride and Prejudice is #32 (beat out Tolstoy's Anna Karenina at #67, ha ha :P)

* Gardner's Art Through the Ages made it at #287 - That makes me feel better about having to carry that huge book for Art History :). But it's been great so far (through Baroque Art).


One unfortunate bias is that about 3/4 of all the books were written in English, so many great translated works missed the cut.

List is sorted by tags at del.ic.ious. And more fun facts are also here - go forth and find them.

-- Arkajit

784!

Page count for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is .... (dramatic silence) ... 784! Yay! It's slightly longer than Goblet of Fire and shorter than Order of the Phoenix. But it could have been longer... nonetheless, can't wait.

-- Arkajit

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Yes!!! The moment we've all been waiting for... the title for Harry Potter 7. While there's no known release date yet, speculation over at Mugglenet is that a 2007 release date is likely.

Well, after 17 months of speculation (since HBP came out in July 2005) over Book 7, we finally have a title to further fuel the theories.

An interesting note, googling "The Deathly Hallows" at around 9 p.m. PST tonight still yields no Harry Potter related hits at all! (Only exception is the lone google news link at the top to a news article about the book's impact on the market which is not really a true search hit.) Check out the top five hits below, all regarding All Hallow's Eve or Halloween.

Wonder how long that will last before the page fills up with nothing but Harry-Potter related sites?

But still it echoes what I first thought about when I heard the title - Halloween. After all, it's such a crucial date in the HP books, the most memorable being Halloween 1981 when Lily and James Potter were murdered by Lord Voldemort, the day before the story picks up in Sorcerer's Stone.

First, though we must determine if Deathly Hallows is referring to a place, a time or date - what exactly? I'm inclined toward thinking that its a place - perhaps the location of the final confrontation between Harry and Voldemort. I'd also think that if it is a place, it has some special historical significance for Harry. Could the story possibly end where it began, at Godric's Hollow? After all Hollow, Hallow - sounds similar.

And why "Deathly" rather than "Deadly"? I'm not sure if that's more common in Britain, but it seems to me "deadly" is the more commonly used term. This further leads me to think that it's a proper noun as in the name of a place.

Also since hallow means to consecrate or make holy, there's probably something sacred about this place. Perhaps even a deeper significance for all of magic, maybe the source of all magical power in the world or something crazy like that.

Ok, let me just end by making a list of a few questions that I would like resolved by the end of the series: (I tried to restrict myself to just the main burning questions. Of course, there are lot's of other interesting questions as well, but I have to wonder how much J.K.R. will leave open at the end.)

• Peter Pettigrew: How did he turn to the Dark Side? Life debt to Harry?
  
• Severus Snape: The most complex character in the series - What's his game? Which side?
• Generally more Marauders Era backstory - maybe it will help in the horcrux hunt...
  
• The Veil: I've got to believe that we're going to see it play a role again. SiriusBlackIsNotDead.com anyone? (actually surprised that no one has taken that domain name) :)
• Harry: Horcrux or Not? Will he survive?
• Shipping: Harry/Ginny, Ron/Hermione ?- had to add that in just for completeness' sake ;P

Can't wait!!

-- Arkajit

P.S. Oh, I just thought about what the old title may have been. Some time back, J.K. Rowling had said that she had come up with a new title that was a vowel and two consonants ahead of her current title. Well what if the original title was "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hall"? Then adding a vowel, 'o', and two consonants 'w', 's' gives "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"! If this is true, then the theory that this is a place seems even more plausible.