In Which I Offer Explanation, and Then Try to Make the Best of It.

So.

Some of you may know that I have been making a concerted effort to write regularly in this blog. You might also know that of late, my efforts have been focused on re-reading the Harry Potter series and then talking nonsensically about it.

Now, in case you don't know (and since only about four of you read this, and you ALL already know), I have been very ill of late. Like, almost three weeks out-of-work, unable to stand up for more than two minutes at a time ill. Blood work suggests some hell mixture of Mono, Lyme Disease and Fifth's Disease, which was then closely followed by a run-in with Thrush.

Have you ever watched Meet Me in St. Louis? It's among my fave movies. And in it, the little girl Tootie talks about how her doll has "four fatal diseases." My diseases are nowhere near fatal, but rather are somewhere in the "moderately debilitating" arena. However, I have been known to announce to Boy Scout over the past few weeks that I have four fatal diseases, and he has to be nice to me. Not that he was being mean. He was very, very nice to me during my run-in with the Plague.

THE GOOD THING ABOUT HAVING FOUR FATAL DISEASES: Well, when one can physically do nothing more than lie in bed, one tends to get things done that need to get done. Within 48 hours I had finished the Harry Potter series, and then went on to watch True Blood (season two), Parenthood (season one), Flight of the Concords (season one), Supernatural (season one and half of season two), and other various assorted episodes of Shows That I Needed to Catch Up On.

THE BAD THING ABOUT HAVING FOUR FATAL DISEASES: Concentration levels become nonexistent. On no less than three separate occasions I tried to write about finishing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (I even went back and re-re-read the last 250 pages, hoping it would re-energize me) and came up with a rather incoherent set of paragraphs about the ecstatic climax to one of the great all-time fantasy series. Yeah, I went there. And if you have a problem, you can go read elsewhere.

As much as it pains me to finish reading without reaching any grand and far-reaching analysis, at this point (three weeks later), it seems a little... done. I simply finished it so long ago that I can't muster more than passing enthusiasm to delve back into the last dark and twisty caper of one Harry Potter.

And so, painfully, I offer a couple of bullet points on the issue:
* The return to Godric's Hollow is simply haunting to me. It's odd that it never occurs to Harry to return until the end of book six/beginning of book seven. Again, he probably isn't mature enough before that to realize that it's the missing piece of the puzzle, but seeing the graves of Lily and James (and noting that the Harry Potter books were actually published *after* the end of the series on the real-life timeline... curious) kills me. Every damn time.
* Severus Snape is the hero of the Harry Potter novels. I mean, Harry is the hero of the Harry Potter novels, but I think an argument could be made that Snape is even more crucial and courageous than even Albus Dumbledore. And Harry's final recognition of that also kills me. Every damn time.
* Once again, Rowling astounds with the revelation and expansion of a few well-placed details (Dumbledore v. Grindelwald as noted in the first book, the identity of the Hog's Head barman, the location of the Black locket, the mysterious female Hogwarts ghost, etc.) proves her genius and superiority to... others.

* The death of Dobby the House Elf makes me cry more than the death of Albus Dumbledore. Fact. I might even start crying about it right now.

* The Epilogue (which my brother insists on disparaging at every possible opportunity) to me is perfect, though I would have liked to know what happened to every single surviving person in the series. Fingers crossed for the sort-of promised encyclopedia containing the names of every child born to the Weasley family after the Battle of Hogwarts.

OK. Again, apologies for... being ill. I also managed to read the new(est) Tessa Dare, and to re-read Honor's Splendour, one of my Julie Garwood forever-keepers. Maybe I'll write about those tomorrow. If you're nice.