Moratorium
As I write this, it’s Friday evening, only hours before July 21st. Now I know you folks over in the Western hemisphere have a slightly longer wait, by about 12 hours or so. But still: less than 24 hours before the release of the Book.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The final book. The last installment in the saga of a young wizard and his nemesis. The one in which major characters will meet their end. The one in which Lord Voldemort, at the most critical juncture of the plot, cries out:
“Luke! I am your FATHERRRRRR….”
Hang on, wrong notes. Ah, there we go…
At any rate, the Book’s release is a moot point here in the hills of Himachal Pradesh. I am no more likely to find a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in Rewalsar than I am to find a Cartier wristwatch in my next packet of Hide and Seek biscuits. But that’s okay. I am content to wait for Joy to bring her copy back from the States, when Lama Wangdor Rimpoche’s teaching tour ends. That’s still a matter of weeks. In the meantime, somehow I have to protect my poor mind from the unwitting revelations of those Harry Potter fans who will have finished the book by about 7:23 AM, and can’t wait to share their reactions.
As a child I was a voracious reader–mostly science fiction novels, murder mysteries, and the occasional graphic novel. (Phoebe Zeitgeist, anyone?) Like many people I went through an Agatha Christie phase. However, I went through mine while still in elementary school. Hercule Poirot and his little grey cells completely captivated me. One day a teacher asked my opinion of Murder on the Orient Express
“Oh, I loved it,” I chirped. “You’d never guess that ************* did it!”
If looks could kill, I would not be around to write this now. After glaring at me hard enough to burn holes in sheet metal, the teacher mastered her dismay, and gently lectured me about giving away the ending of a book to someone who hadn’t read it yet. The lesson has stuck with me to this day.
With each Harry Potter book the secrecy stakes have gotten higher. Each time it’s gotten harder for me to keep myself blissfully ignorant until the next Book reaches my hands. This time around a copy of the Book is allegedly wandering the byways of the Internets, engendering much discussion as to whether it’s the real deal or not.
Here in the far reaches of India, I read a lot of blogs to keep my sanity. Geek blogs. Food blogs. Knitting blog. Blogs about writing. Blogs about medicine. Blogs about, oh, any damn thing at all. But just today I was puttering along in someone’s nursing blog, and hit an entry where she gave away a major plot point of Book 5. Mind you, I’ve read Book 5, but that’s not the point. The spoiler was there, with no warning, and entered my frontal lobe faster than you could say “Crucio!”
So I have no choice but to declare a moratorium on my blog-reading, until I’ve read the Book for myself. A spoiler could pop up anywhere, at any time. Y’all may not be putting yourselves under the same restriction. In the interest of promoting some of these folks, I’m listing a few of my favorite blogs below for you to enjoy on my behalf. There’s a lot of thought-provoking and funny writing out there.
Joy’s blog
Penny Arcade
User Friendly
News of the Weird Daily Edition
The Yarn Harlot
The Rabbitch
The Beadlizard
The Panopticon
The Lawdog
Violent Acres
The Cranky Professor
The Certifiable Princess
Tigers and Strawberries
Crass Pollination
Day by Day
Barista Brat
Rickety Contrivances of Doing Good
The Evil Editor
The Dilbert Blog
