Post Potter Party

sakuratea hosted a lovely Post Potter Party yesterday at which those of us who've finished the book could discuss the book without fear of revealing spoilers. starlight121 and melf42 were also in attendance. We had too many cookies.

It's been really interesting to hear what other people have to say. I've struggled with HP since book 4 where the first death of an innocent worried me. To Rowling's credit, it wasn't exactly a blood bath until this last book, where death was treated with a kind of frivolity. A number of people have already complained about certain beloved characters whose deaths are neither shown nor mourned.

My largest complaint about the last book is the use of forbidden curses. ( Spoilers ahoy! )

There's more I could say about the book, but that was my largest axe to grind. Several people have asked about His Dark Materials now that HP is over. I think my thoughts may deserve a separate entry, but I'm careful to warn people that Pullman is not a sentimentalist. I've decided that I may push Diana Wynne Jones or Nancy Farmer instead.

Ingmar Bergman, dies at 89

I just heard the news. As if there wasn't already too much to respond to today. The existential dread he summons in his films is unique (though Kurosawa does something very like). For those of you who have never seen a Bergman film, I recommend Smiles of a Summer Night or Fanny & Alexander as places accessible places to begin.

Smiles is a unique blend of humor and dread and ultimately made me feel really happy to be alive. It's a kind of sex comedy with one of my all time favorite dueling scenes in cinema.

Fanny & Alexander is a kind of fantasia on childhood, faith, and death and has always felt like a kind of cinematic metaphor for my childhood with Brother. It is complete with a severe (step)father, a passive and powerless mother, and non-Xtians and creatives intervening to save the lives of the children.

There's a lot more that could be said about the exploratory frontiers of his film (some of those films from the 70s went a long way to expressing a kind of social disentegration and madness), but I think its something I'm going to have to reflect on later.

Oddly, I don't think I've ever watched Bergman in the company of another person.