August 29, 2005
A Family Nevertheless
Harry Potter and divorce among the muggles
Constance Matthiessen Sunday, August 28, 2005
The last Harry Potter book, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," came out in the summer of 2003 -- just as my family broke in two.
The book had just been released, and we were listening to it on tape on the way back from the beach, my three children and I. It was late, and everyone was sunburned and sandy, stunned into peaceful silence. No one said a word as we hurtled down the highway, over the Golden Gate Bridge and across the city to our home.
This was a new home for us, just five minutes away from our old one. Our new house was smaller, with no parking and one bathroom instead of two. But the biggest difference, the one that none of us had yet gotten used to, was that David, my husband, was living in an apartment in another part of the city.
As we listened to the tape, my children and I were braced for bad news. We'd heard rumors that someone close to Harry dies in the book. My 9-year-old, Aidan, had even discovered who the victim was, having wheedled the name out of his cousin.
But none of us, not even Aidan, was prepared for the shock of Sirius Black's death, and it hit hard that night. We reached home soon after Bellatrix Lestrange knocked Sirius down with a wand blow to the chest, and I couldn't find a parking place near the house. The boys were fighting sleep, and getting any help with the bags was going to be a struggle. Julia, my 3- year-old, was already asleep, and would have to be carried. At that moment, I felt keenly the weight of my new single parenthood.
After a long and difficult split, David and I were in different houses at last -- yet I'd never felt so unsettled. Some days were wonderful: to be living in a house with no undertones of anger was an enormous relief.
At other times, I looked at our family and the kids seemed ragged, the grown-ups flailing, and this new life appeared lonely and sad. Huddled in the car on that chilly San Francisco night -- miles, it seemed, from home -- our little family seemed simply broken.
Couldn't J.K. Rowling have left Harry his beloved godfather, since he'd lost everyone else? Didn't she realize this year had been hard enough?
Another writer I learned to dread during that difficult period -- far more than J.K. Rowling -- was psychologist Judith Wallerstein, whose warnings about the effects of divorce on children are the stuff of every parent's nightmares.
In her many books, Wallerstein warns divorcing parents about the deep and enduring scars divorce leaves behind. Many people have challenged Wallerstein's conclusions, but her message endures, probably because it hits a parental nerve. Divorce is not a fate any parent would choose for his or her child. It is not a future I ever imagined.
A few weeks after we'd told the children we were going to separate, I asked Dylan, my 7-year-old, how he felt about it. He shrugged. "Sad. Bad. Really bad." He was quiet for a minute, then asked, "Are you and Dad going to get divorced?"
"We are going to try and work things out, but if we can't, then yes, we'll get divorced." Dylan put his head down on the table. "That is so sad," he said. He kept his head there for a while as I stroked his hair. I started to say something and he said, "Mom, I don't want to talk about it anymore right now, if that's OK."
After the separation, Dylan grew increasingly melancholy. One day he said wistfully, "If you were a bus or a car, you wouldn't have to worry about anything, because you wouldn't have a brain. Or if you were a rock."
"Do you have a lot of worries, Dylan?" I asked.
"Yes," he said simply.
"What do you worry about, honey?"
"I don't feel like telling you right now, Mom," he said. "It's too long a list."
It has been a hard couple of years for my children, and they show scars. But are they worse off than they would have been had we stayed together? I'll never know.
In anticipation of the new Harry Potter book, my children recently listened to "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" again, and this time we noticed something we hadn't before. The shock and sadness of Sirius' death obscures the book's rather happy ending. It's not a fairy tale ending: Harry Potter is never going to live happily ever after. But at the end of Vol. 5, Rowling gives Harry something precious nonetheless.
At the end of the book, he is heading home for summer vacation, and a group of his friends from the wizarding world surprise him at the railway station. Harry is to spend the summer break with the Dursleys, a family of muggles who have always treated him atrociously. Harry's friends, all witches and wizards, have gathered at the station to warn Harry's uncle, Vernon Dursley, that if he is not kind to Harry, he will have to answer to them. Uncle Vernon is intimidated, and it is clear that he will give Harry no more trouble.
Harry may have lost his godfather and his parents, but he still has a family -- just not blood relations. Harry has a different configuration of family, but it is a family nevertheless.
This is what I wish for my children: a sense of belonging in the world. Two years after our break-up, David and I have a cordial relationship. Beyond us, the children have a constellation of family and friends who care about them. It's not perfect, not the nuclear family they were born into, or the happy ending they might have asked for. But maybe it's enough.
Constance Matthiessen is a San Francisco writer. This piece was published in longer form in the anthology "Because I Said So: 33 Mothers Write About children, Sex, Men, Aging, Faith, Race and Themselves." From the editors of Mothers Who Think, Kate Moses and Camille Peri, HarperCollins, 2005.
August 27, 2005
'Goblet of Fire' Premiere Dates
Warner Brothers has announced the premiere dates for GoF will be November 6 in London and November 12 in New York City. Start the countdown!
August 25, 2005
Harry Potter news goes on the road with iTunes
Podcasting, the act of recording audio and publishing it for use with Apple's iPod and other portable media devices, has hit the Harry Potter world by storm.
MuggleNet and The Leaky Cauldron have introduced MuggleCastopens in new window and PotterCastopens in new window, respectively. Each contain weekly roundups of Harry Potter news, with interviews, analysis and summaries of the latest hot topics. Both are unofficial, and not affiliated with Warner Bros. or JK Rowling.
'Goblet of Fire' international teaser OFFICIALLY released
Warner Bros. has released the international teaser trailer for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire through their official UK web siteopens in new window.
While not new in content, the super high-quality should be reason enough to re-download.
August 22, 2005
Complete international 'GoF' teaser trailer
French movie site AlloCine has posted the highest quality version to date of the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire international teaser trailer. We finally get to see it from start to finish as it was produced (there's even a hint of the Lumos theme at the very end).
August 19, 2005
Wizardry appeals to criminals
Harry Potter's lesson lost on many inmates.
My wife sent me the latest in the Harry Potter series, and for those of you who are tempted to giggle at a 58-year-old convict reading a kids'book, suspend judgment for just a minute.
My initial reaction to J.K. Rowling's books was condescension. When I learned that my younger stepson was reading a Potter book for a high school literature class, I was outraged - until my wife asked me if I had read any of the books myself. She gently suggested I try one out before criticizing the teacher's choice. I did and have been a fan since.
For the small minority of men who read for pleasure behind the walls, Harry Potter's adventures are a fascinating attraction. Few of us haven't wished for the ability to cast a spell and transport ourselves out of prison and back into the real world, and most of us have enemies we would like to see incapacitated in one form or another. The tendency to identify with Draco Malfoy, the bad kid in the books, is therefore often stronger than any perceived kinship with Harry, the nice kid who always fights for right and justice or from a sense of loyalty to his friends.
But the books contain a more subtle message that usually escapes undetected inside prison.
As criminally attractive as Malfoy might be on the surface, this latest book demonstrates that he doesn't really have what it takes to devolve into the ultimate evil of killing another human being. I won't spoil the book for those of you who haven't read it, but given the opportunity to commit murder, Malfoy can't pull the wand's trigger. This is Rowling's lesson, which applies to young and old readers alike and should resonate with the Malfoy wannabes here in prison.
Read the rest of this intriguing article here
Nimbus 2003 Compendium now available for Purchase!
The Nimbus 2003 symposium was a huge success, but now the board put their collective papers and seminars in a book that you can buy this weekend from Amazon.com! It's your chance to relive, or in my case, experience the magic!
HPEF is committed to producing high-quality events that combine a professional and academic focus with the light-hearted spirit of the Harry Potter series for scholar and fan alike. By bringing these two seemingly disparate groups together, HPEF fosters learning and exploration of the Harry Potter novels and phenomenon from the perspectives of a broad spectrum of disciplines. HPEF produced its first event, Nimbus - 2003, in July of 2003, at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin hotel. Six hundred people from 12 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Germany, Luxembourg, Malaysia, and Japan, attended two and a half days of programming, including approximately sixty-five formal presentations, a Quidditch tournament, an interactive two-day Quest, and a charity auction.
The eighty presenters spoke on topics that ranged from legal issues that impact fans, to class and gender issues in the books, examination of the books from a variety of religious perspectives, and much more. Keynote Speaker Judith Krug, Director of the American Library Association's Office of Intellectual Freedom, delivered an address on the topic of Book-Banning and the First Amendment. Other Featured Speakers included John Granger, author of The Hidden Key to Harry Potter, Roger Highfield, author of The Science of Harry Potter, and Connie Neal, author of What's a Christian to do with Harry Potter? and The Gospel According to Harry Potter. Fan presenters included Catherine Danielson (AKA Anise Leinen), Vicki Dolenga (AKA Morrigan), Susan Faust (AKA Angua), and Bonnie May (AKA Dicentra Spectabilis). Quoted from the Amazon Review.
You can read more about it here
August 13, 2005
Preview the New 'Goblet of Fire' Trailer
'Extra' Tv aired a preview yesterday evening of what appears to be the new GoF trailer due out soon. You can check out the video at ExtraTV Online or the higher resolution downloads available here at The Pensieve.
Screen Caps can be viewed courtesy of Veritaserum.
August 11, 2005
HP Pronunciation Guide Updated
Can't figure out how to pronounce Bezoar or Sectumsempra? Well then, the official Harry Potter Pronunciation Guide on Scholastic.com is the place for you. It has been updated with new characters, spells, and potions from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. This is the only site I know of where you can not only see the correct pronunciation, but hear it as well. Enjoy!
And it's 'Bee-Zoar' and 'Sec-TUM-semp-ra' in case your interested.
August 09, 2005
A More Mature Potter
According to Warner Brothers, Goblet of Fire has received a PG13 rating for "sequences of fantasy violence and frightening images." This will be the first Harry Potter movie to not be rated PG. It seems the movies are allowing themselves to mature along with the books.
August 08, 2005
WB's 'Grave' Error
Since the release of some GoF pictures a few weeks ago, Warner Brothers has been flooded with emails alerting them to some rather noticeable errors on one of the gravestones in the GoF graveyard scene.
In one photo, Harry is shown standing in front of a grave with three names written on in, including one that reads "Tom Marvolo Riddle 1915-1943". This, as we know, is Lord Voldemort's name (Marvolo taken from his grandfather on his mother's side). We also know that Voldemort was born in 1926. Therefore his father could not have been born in 1915 as he would have only been 11 when Voldemort was born.
Warner Brothers insists that all mistakes will be corrected in the final film.
August 06, 2005
GoF Release Dates
Warner Brothers had posted a list of 64 Release Dates from around the world on the official 'Goblet of Fire' web site.
