Amazon Wins Beedle the Bard Bid!

In a shrewd move, Amazon.com won the Sotheby's auction for the single commercially available copy of J.K. Rowling's Tales of Beedle the Bard.




Really cool photographs (and apparently spoilers for those of you waiting to get your copy) here.

Maybe for Amazon this is a huge publicity stunt. Maybe it's donation to a good charitable cause to the tune of $4 million. Maybe it's an investment and this book will actually go up for sale on Amazon. Maybe it's to protect the copyright integrity of the volume. In any case you have to think Amazon wins in all this.

And, apparently JoRo hand inked all seven volumes that were produced: none of them are prints. So there are seven unique volumes in existence. If that's not magical I don't know what is.

Potter VII.5!

Tales of Beedle the Bard gets published! sort of; use the new poll to guess how much the 1 Available Copy will ultimately sell for.

Rowling's Dumbledore Outing Suspect?

A columnist for Time smells a rat in Jo Rowling's Outing of Albus. John Cloud is gay and isn't impressed with this post hoc affair. He thinks Rowling's admission makes Dumbledore out to be a wimp, and an unfulfilled wimp at that.

Cloud's last comment is an insightful one: he says that, ala StarTrek, characters eventually become the property of the fans, whose fan fiction takes over and builds a "full expression of diversity" in the pantheon of the created world. Eventually we can expect Harry Potter fan works where homosexuality finds robust and abundant expression.

But here's the hitch perhaps: Rowling has tipped all the homosexual attention towards the character who is noblest, brightest, and pretty radically celibate. She has outed one character, and by implication protected all the rest. What fan is brave and credible enough to write the gay romance of Albus Dumbledore?

My impression: the issue is going to fade out of public interest pretty fast.

I've been wondering if Rowling had an ulterior motive for busting Dumbledore out of the closet. She's been known to spin things and manipulate audiences to her own ends.

The Granger says that if Rita Skeeter's expose on Dumbledore didn't find a relationship to expose there can't be one plausibly created. The Granger has many helpful things to say here.

Dude, go see Potter, 4 hedons

Drop everything and go see Potter V. 4 hedons, which is as high as I go unless you rate with Kurosawa and Dreyer.

Best Potter film yet by at least 3 lengths: the juggernaut ensemble cast rules (maybe best ensemble ever?) including the kids who either have better direction than ever or have been taking a lot of acting lessons. Or both. This film is much more drama than action, slower but no less tense.

Only two omissions that I would have liked to see, no contra-text moments that I recall.

My prediction that the Dumble-mort duel would be inadequately cool was true but not so true as I feared. Effects-based gonzo was great but not over the top, martial elements not prevalent.

Best lines:
"You don't have to like him, but you do have to admit Dumbledore has style."

"You will never know love or friendship, and I pity you."

Potter Prediction

Deathly Hallows angst is setting in. Time for a prediction?

Ron won't live to see the end of the book. His appetitive soul will be his undoing, though probably for noble reasons.

Rationale: We've seen his zeal for glory consistently and it will lead to his consumption, however devoutly it might be wished. Further, I think Rowling mildly Gnostic, holding to some form of election (you is a wizard or you isn't). There is usually a congruent disregard for the fleshly, which I haven't considered an argument for, but am inclined to think will see fruition.

Caveat: Everything cool that I know about Harry Potter I learned from John Granger. His is the only Harry Potter blog I follow. Further, it's easier to speculate than to argue, so this is my strategy.

Further speculations forthcoming as insomnia warrants.

Duel angst

I'm now caught up on previous Potter pics and can see the new flick with relative freshness of cine content.

OotP should have the baddest duel ever filmed, as Dubmledore and Voldemort throw down in the Ministry of Magic climax. It should be badder than Yoda and Dooku.

I'm not confident, since wand technique seems consistently to have been choreographed by nobody, and that at the last minute.

I really hope David Yates thought years ago to find the master who has extensively studied Iaido (sp? Japanese art of the sword) and orchestral conducting. But I'm not hopeful.

Alas.

Norbert's Revenge?

Updated: I'm on to something!

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In Harry Potter I Hagrid "wins" a dragon egg which at birth he names Norbert. Norbert turns out to be unkeepable and gets sent off.

June 6 is the feast day of St. Norbert, Bishop and Confessor. Among other things Norbert opposed heresies denying the need for priests and sacraments. He was an advocate of devotion to the reserved sacrament. During the papal schism of the 12th century he was an advocate of Innocent II who eventually became recognized as the lawful bishop of Rome.

What are the chances we haven't seen the last of Norbert the dragon? Will he come swooping back in Deathly Hallows full grown and brimming with wrath at the probable death of Hagrid? Will he again restore an Innocent to power?

John Granger (as usual) has very interesting things to say about dragon blood here and here. Norbert is explicitly mentioned.

Death Eaters are campaigning for help from werewolves (and giants if I recall). Will dragons play a part for good or for awesome? We'll know in six weeks.