The Last Temptation of Harry Potter

Well, it's official. We have a date for the next (and last) Harry Potter, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Time to crank up the publicity machine and get to rereading the other six books.

I'm no kid but I love the Harry Potter books because they remind me of being a young bookworm who would get in trouble for reading with a flashlight under the covers long after I was supposed to be asleep. I just open one of Rowling's books and I'm right back there again. They are rollicking good fun and I, like all the rest of the Muggles, simultaneously cannot wait for July 21 and am dreading the last page turn when the knowledge sinks in there won't be any more.

Borders' reserve campaign is built around the question, "Snape Friend or Foe?" which is as good a question to ponder while you wait as any. Myself, since I believe Harry is a messianic figure who should die in some noble self sacrifical way (Let's be clear, I don't want Harry to die but messiahs must, it's in the job description. And if 'you know who' is really as bad as purported what else could stop him except the greatest sacrifice?) that would make Snape his Judas.

Now when I say Judas I mean it in the "Last Temptation" way of interpreting the Passion featured in Nikos Kazantzakis' book and Martin Scorcese's film where Judas is actually the greatest of the disciples. Greatest because in those tellings the most is asked of him. Jesus must be betrayed in order to give his life for mankind and the betrayal here is deeper and more anguish filled than in your traditional selling him for 30 pieces of silver retelling. In "The Last Temptation" Judas is actually more like a hero from Greek or Shakespearean tragedy where the tragic figure's personality leads them inexorably to their fated end. Judas is the most active of the disciples, questioning and testing Jesus constantly. His desire to believe is as great as his fear of being duped and the two are at war inside him. In the end he does what he does out of the greatest, albeit misguided, love. It is a far more interesting portrayal and is what made the whole thing so different and potentially controversial, at least to me. That Jesus should have had other fantasies and dreams about how things might have been was no surprise in my mind-if you believe he was both wholly human and wholly divine how could it be otherwise?

So that's my theory. I know I'm totally geeking but if you can't geek about Harry Potter what can you geek about? Not knowing any spells for getting an advance copy, I'll have to wait and see like everybody else.


Oh, and another thing-if Book 7 ends with a ghosts on a log scene like the end of the third "Star Wars" movie (original trilogy please, I never watched anything past JarJar Binks) Ms Rowling and I are going round and round.