Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Published by in books, philosophy on September 14th, 2005

Just finished reading “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” today. Wow. I don’t read fiction that often anymore, I am mostly a nonfiction reader– but it sure is a blast to get hooked on a great story like this one!

J.K. Rowling again spins a marvelous yarn, which thankfully ties up a lot of loose ends and makes previous stories fit together much more coherently.

I am really wondering who the initials on the inside of the locket correspond to. Exciting foreshadowing there: someone else knows about horcruxes and has already been actively destroying them! So maybe Harry does not have 4 more to destroy before facing Voldemort in Book 7.

I predict that early in book 7, Harry will meet up with the destroyer of the Slytherin locket horcrux, and learn details about which remain to be found and destroyed.

I predict that Hogwarts will NOT close, as many of the students fear at the end of Book 6, and that Harry will return to finish out his last year. I suspect that summertime spent with the Weasley family will help convince him of this.

How sad that one of my favorite characters has died…. for HP fans who have not yet read the book, I won’t spoil your surprise by revealing who that is…. but it is truly sad. Why did it happen? I suspect he made an altogether mortal mistake of misjudging character. A mistake we can all make, sadly.

Who will emerge as the next professor of the DA? Certainly Harry will need more direct instruction before facing Snape again– a showdown which is sure to come in book 7, along with the climatic finale battle between Harry and Voldemort.

I was struck by similarities between George Lucas’ last epic and this one by J.K. Rowling. “The Chosen One.” Conceptions of destiny and prophesied conflicts have a near-universal resonance with us all, I think. I must say I did like and appreciate Rowling’s free will theology / philosophy in book 6. Voldemort as well as Harry have and still have choices. Life is not fated predestination. We choose, we act, and respond, as do others.

Destiny is not simply for works of fiction, however. Each one of us is called according to a purpose. Our task is to slow down enough in our lives so that we can accurately perceive and understand that purpose, and then act in accordance with its directive. Tall order, especially in the busy culture in which we are immersed.

I think meeting the challenge of that order effectively increasingly requires saying “no” to much of the busyness in our lives, and making time to spend more time on those things which really matter.

On this day..

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