Here's very smart Meghan Cox Gurdon on the sixth Harry Potter novel.
There is maturity of another kind in this book that sets it apart from the rest of the series thus far, and that is the depth of its moral message. This may comfort readers made uneasy by claims that the Harry Potter books are somehow satanic or by Pope Benedict XVI's recently publicized criticism of the series as potentially harmful to children's religious formation.For gone is the implied but relatively crude Manichaeism of the earlier books. The struggle between Good and Evil is enriched, this time, by explicit talk of free will, the power of love and the sanctity of the soul.
What leaps out from the intricate storyline and wonderfully fresh prose--still, after six books!--of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" is the jaw-dropping scope of J.K. Rowling's achievement even before she publishes the last in the series.
With each book she has revealed progressively more of her brilliantly clever parallel world, from the first and comparatively simple volumes for and about younger children through the darker and more detailed later books. It is only as we proceed--and ideas seemingly thrown casually into the mix ripen into great significance--that it becomes clear that it's a world she has seen in its fantastic complexity all along. We enthusiasts, we happy millions, can only marvel at her skill at sustaining innumerable narrative skeins and wrapping them ever more tightly together--in the process keeping us. . . rapt.
Book Moot identifies two major themes. One involves slapping.
Still haven't been able to start it myself; perhaps by this weekend there will be time. It's getting more difficult to avoid spoilers.
Posted by Alan at July 19, 2005 06:37 AM