Bookraft

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J.K.Rowlings is proof that writing and carrying a plot line through 6 books soon to be concluded in a seventh is no trivial task. And as proof we spend the first fifth of the most recent book hashing over why certain decisions were made in the last book. Its all disguised as a briefing as Harry Potter becomes a closer confidante of Hogwarts Headmaster Dumbledore in taking on the the Prince of Magical Malevolence, Lord Voldemorte.

And that is the problem with this book - it foreshadows the need for a "deus ex machina" rescue of bathetic proportions for Potter the Planning Plodder. Simply put - Potter Pluck should be no match for the Machiavellian machinations of the Dark Lord and his supremely better organized Death Eaters and evil cohorts. In startling contrast in Lord of the Rings, Tolkien has his heroes using every inch of collaborative persuasion coupled with ingenuity and cleverness marshalled by a frank assessment of the savvy of their adversary. It is this confluence of faltering co-operation, audacious plans, and sheer unstinting bravery that makes Tolkiens players generally and believably heroic.

In contrast, after an excellent 5th book where the students of Hogwarts were finally organizing themselves to defend against Voldemorte and his minions, this book returns to Survival By Pluck Primarily. Admittedly I sped-read through Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince in 16 hours the other day(you can see I clearly will not be getting any speed reading tickets from Muggles and Wumps, the librarians of record in our city) . Strangely I like Harry less and less as he gets older. In the early stories he was brave and plucky; but now he is now proving to be bungling and bordering on incompetent.

Harry simply is not using his assets cleverly - he started to in the last book in the informal DADA- Defense Against the Dark Arts club at Hogwarts. But this year as captain of the Quidditch team, tops in the Potions class, the target of many admirers both male (seeking to get his attention and approval if not good graces) and female (largely seeking amorous encounters of any kind), Harry has not realized the value of his natural leadership positions. He should be delegating tasks to a wider array of cohorts in an effort to make the students less vulnerable to Voldemortian attacks (and they should be scared silly) - including on his very person and closest friends.

Even worse he is not taking advantage of super planning and super sleuthing talents of Hermione nor the good will and levity of Ron Weasely. Also Harry has at his disposal a variety of plucky personalities in the form of Katie Bell, the Weasely Business Brothers, the heart of Neville LongBottom, the grit of Ginny Weasely, the smarts of the Patil sisters, and literally dozens of others. But we get no sense of his seeing these as not just acquaintances and friends but also allies who strengths are useful and who would dearly like to contribute a)to their own sense of safety and well being by working towards making Hogwarts a safer place and b)increasing their own skills and mastery of arcane magical arts for their own satisfaction and accomplishment. True there is a danger - in the process of arming up against Voldemorte, one or two can be sloppy and reveal themselves to the otherside - or worse become enamored of the powers of the Dark Lord and betray the cause.

So instead of working through with his Quidditch team and or his broadening circle of friends to make the contacts with the other students to help watch out for Professor Snape and Malfoy and the countless other tasks large and small- Harry commits the cardinal sin of management and leadership, he takes on almost all of these tasks himself. This is a failing that Lord Voldemorte has already tried to take advantage of once before - Harry having to be the front-and-center hero bearing the brunt of being the First and Foremost. Instead, Harry should be working through to identify and encourage pockets of resistance- and strategies that can delay or nullify the emergence of the Dark Lord.

As it stands, Harry really is no match for Voldemort because , in contrast, Voldemort has pulled together his Death Eaters and other malevolent minions into a potent force. And thus the final showdown which will happen in the next book will be of Potter Bungling Through or Lucking Out Once again ... hardly a satisfying conclusion to what had been 5 previously good story lines.

My guess as the Deus ex Machina mechanism - Snape is a dual agent but he is limited by the Unbroken Vow. So Voldemorte will keep Malfoy alive because that keeps Snape in check. Somebody will do a Phoenix act as Harry wanders in the wilderness. The novelty of the final bookwill be the new characters Harry meets in his wilderness trek- the same old, same old will be the Hogwarts crew of fellow students and professors who might as well be one of the animated paintings on the walls for all the author cares.

So Love and Luck redoubled shall be the Good Triumphs Trump cards - and lost in the shuffle will be the moral issues of how much in a war can you afford to reflect and slowly become morally like your enemy. Another theme which has great contemporary echoes - how fast can a society afford to innovate and progress in technology before that very progress releases processes that the society cannot control. Think of today's wicked problems - Global Warming, Nuclear Proliferation, Genetic Manipulation, etc. Lord Voldemorte's Exploration of the Dark Arts is symbolic of this - but contemporary society's innovation of the Benign Arts has always produced a Pandora's Box of Deep Problems. These themes are almost Potter-like (ie. unconsciously raised but not intelligently addressed) apparations in this series of tales. Amidst courses like Divination, Potions, and Defense Against the Dark Arts - there is not a Morality or Philosophy of Why course. The French say it best - c'est dommage... it is a pity because a strong undercurrent in the first five books just has not been plotted for in the last two.

(c)JBSurveyer 2005