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The troubling timing of Book 7

by David Haber

The official release date of the final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was announced yesterday. This date is troubling to me for several reasons. We were hoping that Book 7 could be released on July 7, which would have been 7/7/07. But the disappointment that we have apparently missed getting Book 7 on 7/7/07 is not the main reason I am troubled by the announcement of the book's release date.

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Reader Comments: (Page 7)

I too believe that the release dates are for commercial purpouses only and as many people has said, it makes much more sense watching OotP before reading DH... as for Harry's at the end it makes sense to me, in all of HP books the really big story is the return and defeat of Voldemort in the hands of Harry, and I think that when this happens Harry be left without a purpouse so it makes more sense that he s after fullfilling his objective. And I believe that we all gonna go to watch the movies after we accept whatever ending Jo has in store for us, besides, remember Star Wars? everybody went to see Episode III knowing that it wouldn't be a happy ending, right?

Posted by Adolfo Sotto from Cali - Colombia on February 11, 2007 5:33 PM

Granted, Star Wars fans probably hate Darth Vader as much as we hate Voldemort. But (and I'm seriously asking) do Star Wars fans love the character of Luke the way we Harry Potter fans love the character of Harry?

Posted by Dave Haber from Los Angeles, CA on February 11, 2007 7:36 PM

As similar as the themes of Star Wars and the Harry Potter stories are, I think they are two different experiences.
Watching a movie is more of an external experience. You see someone else's interpretation of the character before you develop your own ideas. Reading a book is so much more personal. We can all identify with Harry because of the smaller scale of his everyday experiences. When he faces a crisis we are so much more invested in his outcome.
Speaking as an avid Star Wars fan, I say, no we could not love the character of Luke as much as we obviously love the character of Harry.

Posted by Patty from Quincy,Massachusetts on February 12, 2007 05:23 AM

Patty, I agree completely about the external/internal aspect of books and movies, and I of course be upset if Harry s. However, how can you really love a character such as Harry Potter who has no real character? I am of course addiccted to the series in general, but (this is totally an opinion!) Harry himself is much too dull for my likings. I think that even if Harry does , as disappointed as we all be, myself included, how could we possibly expect Jo to give us an unsatisfactory ending?

Posted by Ginny Kissed Harry from Hogwarts on February 14, 2007 06:43 AM

I think it�s hard to compare a movie character like Luke (granted I haven�t read any of the multitude of Star Wars books out there) to a character in a novel like Harry. The novel gives him a lot more depth than the movie does Luke. That being said, Luke also has the problem of having a fellow much more likeable character in Han Solo to compete with. I�m not sure Harry has that although if the Weasley twins had a bigger role they might.

Posted by Bart from Denver, Colorado on February 14, 2007 10:17 AM

Hmmm. Bart, I agree with you on all counts except for the Han Solo part. I think Ron and Hermione, Ron espicially, are every bit as likable as Han. Possibly more because they do not have that sometimes annoying iness.

Back to the topic of the timing of release: I think there are so many factors that go into publishing a book (and I am not pretending to know much about the publishing process so correct me if I am wrong) but I think Jo must have needed two more weeks, so give her the two weeks! It seems a little ridiculous to me that those two little weeks spell out DIE HARRY DIE to some people.

I mean, if she chose to release the book a week before the movie, Harry could still , couldn't he? Anyway, this is just one person's opinion and I could be completely wrong.

Posted by Ginny Kissed Harry from Hogwarts on February 14, 2007 4:26 PM

Perhaps... the movie industry was just worried we'd all be locked in our houses curled up with a good book on opening weekend.

Posted by Anblie from Prince George, VA on February 15, 2007 1:40 PM

personally, I'm not troubled about the date in which the book is being released. This is the publisher's decision anyway, not JK's. But I have to say, I be incredibly sad, mad and disappointed with the whole Harry Potter story. It would make 7 years of a characters life and 7 books (6 of which I have read more times than I can count) completely pointless and I not go to any more of the movies or watch the ones I already have. I am already not at all happy with the stories because the have been continually dark and sad every since book 4. I really, really, really wish that JK give us at least a somewhat happy ending. Right now, I believe that Harry Voldemort and survive himself but I also think that many of his friends , which also ruin the book. (maybe not as much as Harry ing but still...)

Posted by Kate on February 15, 2007 4:34 PM

Someone (earlier in this thread) stated that the film people would have no say as to the publication date of the book. Maybe true, but not necessarily so. Check out the front pages of the previous books (or at least the recent ones) - I don't have one with me right now but I definitely recall seeing copyright assertions etc which make clear that the Harry Potter "brand" is owned not by J K Rowling but by Warner Bros. It's therefore at least plausible that Warner might indeed have some say in a matter which might well impact the value of their "property".

Whatever. The magic (sorry!) cure for all the angst evident in this and other threads is to get out more, have a life. maybe even read some none-HP-related books, generally chill out and just wait for the darned thing to be published...(but then I'm fifty-two, so the life perspective is a little different from here!)

Posted by Elder Lupus from Leicester, UK on February 18, 2007 03:46 AM

I'm fairly confident that the main reason the book is out after the film is because who would want to read the last book then go backwards and watch the film that is two books earlier. I don't know whether or not Harry s (hopefully not!) but I don't think the ending has anything to do with the movie release date.

Posted by Nicky Hawkins from Skegness, UK on February 18, 2007 7:24 PM

the date on which the book is getting released does not really matter because in the end we come to know about harry's fate whether it is on 7/7/07 or on 07/21/07.
as for as the movie is concerned i would always watch the movie even if harry s in the last book because some scenes are there in the book which deserve to be watched rather than seen and i would never miss such an oppotunity.

Posted by rachna from india, delhi on February 18, 2007 9:32 PM

I AM a little dissapointed that the release date is not 7/7/07, but I would rather get it later and have no mistakes in it, than get it earlier, and have the possibility of maybe having mistakes in the book.

Also, I don't think that JK would let evil prevail (i.e. off Harry alone) but I think that if Harry s, he's taking Voldemort with him. as he previously stated he would in... I think it was HBP.

As a side note, I am a massive HP fan (not to say no one else isn't) but regardless of what the ending of HP is, I'm sure i enjoy it enough to go back and read every single book over, and over, and over again as I have done with the others. Also, regardless of whether I am happy with the ending of DH or not, I definitely still see the movies to see how well they place The characters of HP on the big screen.

So far no movie has been better than the book it is based off of (which I figured would happen) but each movie so far has been better than the rest, and I have enjoyed watching them. At least when the HP book series is over, we still have movies to look forward to.

Lastly, I don't think that there is anything that JK Rowling could do to the ending of the last book to upset me, and hopefully other readers. As Harry saidin Half Blood Prince, he's "Dumbledore's man, through and through." I'm a HP fan, through and through.

Posted by Jeff from Ontario, Canada on February 19, 2007 05:42 AM

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