Contributed by:
Tabitha Dial, YourHub.com
on 7/12/2006
When shocks rock your world like
J.K. Rowling's announcement she's
killing off two major characters in her final book in the Harry Potter series, I think many people tend to do a variety of things to cope, retail therapy, comfort/junk food consumption and escapism included.
Alex and I coped with this character crisis by combining all three of the above strategies -we walked to the nearest grocery store,
my grandmother's peanut brittle recipe in hand, and bought pistachios, white corn syrup and baking soda so we had all the ingredients to make pistachio brittle.
We shelled those pistachios on our couch, watching a
Dave Chappelle special Alex had picked up from the library, and then we set to following the recipe.
We went for a dip in the apartment pool while the brittle sat on the balcony to cool.
OK, this wasn't exactly our way of dealing with the Harry Potter news. I hadn't mentioned anything about Harry Potter to Alex, who had searched the grocery store for peanut brittle when we were there Sunday. We just made the brittle for fun.
To be honest, I wanted to blog about Harry Potter and share my cool pistachio brittle photos. And I get a fun title out of it.
I do feel I need to prove that I really do care about Harry Potter. So I'll lean on my friend,
Julie, who
cares a great deal about Harry Potter. She's got a masters in Victorian Literature and she's going to start a doctorate program in the fall and here is her reaction to my e-mail about Rowling's news:
| I just don't believe it. Her books are too archetypal...you just don't kill off the hero. (Though I can understand the "I don't want any damned unauthorized sequels written after I die" mentality. Another reason I don't believe it is the style in which she typically writes. With a few chapters of exceptions, her 3rd person limited POV is always from Harry's perspective. Unless he's writing as a ghost (not her style either), how can you tie up your book when the boy through whose eyes you have been writing is in the grave?
Julie, awesome friend with lots of awesome literary credentials |
If you haven't read the sixth book in the series, you
DO NOT want to read Julie's following statement, as it'll quite possibly ruin the sixth book for you:
| I'm pretty sure Snape is in for it though. Part of the Headmaster's plan or not, you just can't kill off Dumbledore without having signed your death warrant. As much as I actually love Snape and am thoroughly pissed that she seemed to be going the he-really-is-bad route, I think it would almost be kinder to kill him off. What is he going to do after all this mess anyway?
Julie, awesome friend with lots of awesome literary credentials |
I, too, loved Snape. But not as much as Ronnie. And still better than peanut/pistachio brittle (I honestly don't really like it-- shhh). But not as much as making peanut/pistachio brittle.
And please,
share your recipesand
tell us your thoughts on Harry Potter.