This morning, at approximately 1:30 a.m., I finished “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” I freaking love Harry Potter, and I might just follow through with my delayed plan to be him for Halloween. So what if I’m 27?
As I wrote the other day, I’ve avoided all things Potter before I finished the book. Now, I might just skip class and catch up on the stuff I’ve been missing. OK, maybe not, but I came across a cool story from last week’s Chicago Tribune about how the media handled an information embargo of Hallows.
I was one of many who was worried that I would come across spoilers, leaving me pissed and frustrated that I knew the outcome of the book before I read it. It happened to me before I read “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” and it almost happened before I cracked open Hallows. With so much speculation about who would die and who would live and the media circus prefacing the book’s released, I was seriously concerned. So like a thestral in flight, I put on blinders and avoided Potter news like mandrakes.
The Trib’s Patrick Reardon gives kudos to the media for keeping the lid on. I do, too (though this kid seems to not care so much. Must be a Slytherin). And Reardon goes a step further, calling for a “Harry Potter check” (PotterWatch?) in the news.
He is fed up with news stories bursting with lurid details on the lives of public figures, when really, no news would suffice. Color me bored, uninterested, and less interesting when I read about Evan Vitter’s diaper fetish, a Florida statesman’s gay bathroom escapades and Anna freaking Nicole, Paris freaking Hilton, Lindsday freaking Lohan (though I’m probably her knight in shining armor), etc., etc. I’ve ranted on this before over at Spin Sucks.
Sometimes these stories are valuable. We learned that a member of Congress was a perv. We learned that close-minded evangelists were really hypocritical. But by discerning what is really news, what matters, what will inform the reader about the issues, we can help turn the tables on muckracking and other undesirable practices. Rita Skeeter would be devastated.
In terms of Harry Potter, however, journos did the public a service by giving us the pleasure of finishing the last book. Muggles, while however complicated, performed like Gryiffindors in this instance.
